A New Face to Welcome at ʻUluʻulu!

This spring semester, we are welcoming our newest Hawaiian Legacy Foundation E Hoʻomau Intern, ʻĀnelaonalani!  Below, she has provided some thoughtful answers to our introductory interview questions we ask of each of our new interns. Read on to learn ʻĀnelaonalaniʻs take on her first weeks with us at ʻUluʻulu!

“With love, respect, and the willingness to work.” This is how my Papa and Grandma raised their 11 children in Lualualei Valley in Waiʻanae, Oʻahu. A deep sense of aloha for the place that provides for me, respect for what came before to make it possible, and the willingness to put in the work. This perspective guides how I show up in my studies, work, and community. I am a proud transfer student from Leeward CC  and graduated with my BA in Ethnic Studies from UH Mānoa in 2024 . Currently, I am pursuing a Master’s degree in Public Health with a specialization in Native Hawaiian and Indigenous Health. Through my graduate studies, I am interested in developing the language and frameworks to advocate for cultural preservation as essential for Native Hawaiian health and well-being, as well as a protective factor against misinformation, identity loss, and isolation.

It is beyond my wildest dreams that I cut my intellectual tooth here in my ancestral homelands, and that now, I get to continue to utilize the skills Iʻve gained to improve my community through cultural and historic preservation. 

What brought you here to ‘Ulu‘ulu? What are some of the things you’re hoping to learn during your internship with us?

Aloha aku, aloha mai. When love is given away, love is received. I see preservation work as an opportunity to share my aloha for the work done before us, and to mālama ka ʻīke kūpuna so that it may continue to guide our community in making decisions that improve quality of life for generations ahead. 

Earning this internship at ʻUluʻulu was nothing short of kūpuna guidance. I have previously gained my first experiences in preservation work through the Center for Oral History at UH Manoa and most recently, as an archivist with the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana for the Dr. Noa Emmett Auwae Aluli Legacy Collection Digitizing Project. 

Studying in the land of my ancestors added accountability to my pursuits and led me to seek experiences that transform my thinking so I can improve quality of life for my ʻohana, ka lāhui, and humanity.

What projects are you working on at ‘Ulu‘ulu?

Production materials for various documentaries by Hawaiian Legacy Foundation, including the history of the Sons of Hawaiʻi, and developing my skills in cataloguing and quality control processing. 

Is there anything about the items you are working with that is surprising or unexpected? 

The exposure to so much mele, ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, and nohona Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian lifeways) has honestly brought out many feelings related to cultural trauma.  Watching the children sing, learning new songs from this work is moving me to tears. I never imagined I would be able to learn about my culture in this way. I never imagined I could learn so much. The more I learn about our culture, the more I see just how beautiful and wonderful our people are. 

It hurts that I don’t know my language. It hurts that I never grew up with these songs and that the sounds and words and meanings are unfamiliar to me. And it hurts trying to learn it backwards, knowing that I am missing so much cultural context- from my own culture. It hurts and I have been so angry, so often offended and upset and feeling cheated. Why I gotta work so hard just for understand my mother tongue? How come my family never grow up listening to this kine? 

This preservation work challenges me to take my anger and my upset and my shame and channel it into an ongoing legacy, to turn all that kaumaha into aloha by caring for and attentively listening to every treasure I get to witness. So I am listening and watching these clips and I let myself cry, even when I don’t know why. I watch the keiki dance and I cry. I watch the kūpuna sing and smile at each other and I cry. Watching our culture live on, long before I was alive and doing the work to make sure it lives on all the days of my life and long after I am gone, it really does something inside of you. Preservation work can be incredibly healing. 

So, yeah. I get cultural trauma. And I also get cultural resilience. I also get generational strength. This kine stuffs, the preserved mea of our kūpuna, this the medicine that’s helping me to heal from cultural trauma. 

Now that  you’ve been at the archive for a little while now, have you found a favorite aspect?

Working at ʻUluʻulu archive and with the Hawaiian Legacy Foundation: Eddie & Myrna Kamae collection specifically, I am introduced to so many interesting things that I never knew before or realized I had interest in. Especially in this season of my own life, when I am surviving and trying to balance life, work, and grad school, my days are made even sweeter with the opportunities to explore Hawaiʻi history through Hawaiian music. It is an incredible experience to view the behind-the-scenes production material and to glimpse the creative process of storytelling that Uncle Eddie and Aunty Myrna, and all their production staff contributed. Above all, my favorite aspect is meeting, informally and across time and space, all of these incredible Hawaiian musicians and performers. Including Pekelo Cosma, Dennis Kamakahi, Clyde Sproat, Lydia “Mama” Hale various Hawaiian musicians, the musical compositions of Ka Moʻī, and iconic performers/performances across the paeʻāina.

Do you have any advice for future ‘Ulu’ulu interns or fellows?

Go all in. Guts out. Let this internship/or fellowship completely change you.  Find connections in places you never even imagined. Try singing the songs you learn, or going to the places they go. 

Since we are a moving image archive we like to talk about what we’re watching. Is there anything you’re watching right now, or have watched recently, that you recommend? Or perhaps a favorite film to recommend? 

Working with the production materials of the documentaries produced by Eddie and Myrna Kamae has reminded me of my love for documentary filmmaking. It is also challenging me to consider it as an activated archive of our cultural history.  

I would like to recommend other producers and documentaries available, including PBS’s Independent Lens. My specific documentary recommendation from them is “Free for All: The Public Library.” On Youtube, “Pacific Islanders in Communications,” provides free content produced in the Pacific Islands, about the Pacific Islands.  Also on Youtube, PBS Hawaiʻi posts videos on a variety of topics about Hawaiʻi, some of their series including “PBS Hawaiʻi CLASSICS,” “ʻONO! Hawaiʻi’s Food Culture,” interviews with community leaders in Hawaiʻi through “Insights on PBS Hawaiʻi,” full length documentaries in their series titled, “PBS Hawaiʻi Presents,” as well as historical “Nā Mele,” performances from iconic musicians of Hawaiʻi. Some of my personal favorites from PBS Hawaiʻi are the interviews from “Long Story Short with Leslie Wilcox,” “In Hawaiian Hands; The story of Reggae in Hawaiʻi. 

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Thank you to the Hawaiian Legacy Foundation for their ongoing support of ʻUluʻulu and our mission. We are honored to continue in our caretaking of this amazing collection. To see more of the Hawaiian Legacy Foundation’s materials please see their collection in our Recollect Content Management  System here: Hawaiian Legacy Foundation Collection