Alakaʻi = traditional leadership /
Traditional leadership
Malcolm Nāea Chun.
- viii, 38 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
- Ka wana series ; book 7 .
- Chun, Malcolm Nāea. Wana series ; bk. 7. .
Produced as part of Pihana Nā Mamo, the Native Hawaiian Special Education Project.
Includes bibliographical references.
From the Foreword: For more than fifteen years, Pihana Na Mamo, a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education through the Native Hawaiian Education Act, has been actively involved with Hawai'i Department of Education schools in improving educational results for Hawaiian children and youth. We have witnessed the powerful role that our rich Hawaiian culture and heritage, and in particular the revival of interest in Native Hawaiian culture and the desire to practice Hawaiian customs appropriately, play in motivating our students to learn and excel. The first step to ensure such an outcome is to gain a deeper understanding of the historical and cultural basis for the many Hawaiian customs and traditions. To this end, Malcolm Naea Chun, a cultural specialist with the Curriculum Research & Development Group (CRDG) of the University of Hawai'i, has researched and compiled valuable information on several Hawaiian cultural traditions and practices. In Alaka'i, Chun addresses the topic of leadership, asking what traditional leadership styles and practices looked like in old Hawai'i, and how those might serve us today. In an earlier publication entitled 'Ano Lani, he wrote about the role of Hawai'i's monarchy and asked the rhetorical question about Hawaiian leadership, "Who is the next Kamehameha?" In Alaka'i, he deepens that inquiry by exploring the roots of Hawaiian leadership through traditional sources and the eye-witness accounts of foreigners as they observed Hawaiian leaders in action. His years of service at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs have given Chun a unique vantage point to see how traditional means of Hawaiian leadership have evolved and how they operated in the modern era. This book is part of the Ka Wana Series, a set of publications developed through Pihana Na Mamo and designed to assist parents, teachers, students, and staff in their study and modern-day application of Hawaiian customs and traditions.