NahuaʻsUntitledVignette#2

Alanguage I have a relationship with that's not English is the Hawaiian language. I live in Hawaii so I should learn what the language is. I feel like I have a deep relationship with this language because of where my dad grew up and where I'm from. My dad grew up on the island of Hawaii where a lot of people used to speak Hawaiian. Where he grew up is where King Kamehameha was born. So a lot of times when I'm in the car with him he tells me stories of what the king would do.As I grew up on Oahu more signs of language started to appear as I got older. I started to learn in school what an oli is. Which is a chant that Hawaiians sing to ask for entry into a sacred place. I started to take a Hawaiian language class, which really helped me get to know the language better.This Hawaiian class taught why this place is named after a certain person. It taught me how the islands came to be and who ruled over all the land before the islands were taken over, it taught me how I got taken over. It told me the history of the rulers and what mana was, mana is the spiritual power one has over someone and the people with lots of mana have a lot of power and connection to the culture. In the beginning when I first started Hawaiian class I was not very good. I couldn't write a word of Hawaiian. But as the years went on it got easier. I started to see the patterns and know the answer to the questions because my dad told me the same story when I was younger. I just connected the dots.

My name is Nahuaoleloakealiʻi. I am named after my uncle Nahua. I didn't really know what my name meant when I was young. But my dad is the one who told me all about the names in our family and who is named what. He told me how special my name was and what it meant. What my name really meant. So when people ask me what my name means, I can tell them because I learned it and because I feel connected to this culture. I also feel connected because I am 25% Hawaiian and that is a lot nowadays.As I learned the words from my dad and as I learned the words in school I can feel the connection to this language grow into something that's more than a language. I can feel the connection when I say Hawaiian words a lot of the time now when I say