Lifestyle magazine Flux Hawaiʻi is raising the bar for Hawaiian language use in the local media industry by devoting a section of its publication to ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi — or Hawaiian language storytelling.
The magazine hired Awaiaulu translator & University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hawaiian language professor Noah Haʻalilio Solomon to oversee the project as the first ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi editor for a local publication in decades.
Solomon has been a resource to local newsrooms for years. Most requests are for ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi translations of already complete English pieces, which — even if he didnʻt write it himself — he sees as progress for the Hawaiian language.
“A he holomua nō hoʻi kēlā, he hoʻokuluma ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi nō kēlā hana,” Solomon said. “Akā kēia hana ma lalo o Flux komo ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi ma nā māhele hana a pau. Ma laila ka lanakila.”
But Solomon said what’s different about Flux’s initiative is ōlelo Hawaiʻi permeates all aspects of production, from conception to publication. Hawaiian language is no longer an afterthought, but at the source of content creation and even editorial operations.
Read more at Hawaii Public Radio.
