PLC produces supplemental culturally-appropriate curriculum designed to assist local schools and families in meet the diverse learning needs of all children. PLC’s earliest Native Hawaiian Education grant funded products, Ka Wana Series and No Nā Mamo, were completed in collaboration with cultural specialist Malcolm Nāea Chun. These publications provide both students and their communities with authentic cultural knowledge and a strong sense of cultural grounding. Hāpai Nā Leo is a literary companion to the Ka Wana series. During the grant period, over 58,000 copies of the publications were disseminated at no cost to schools, libraries, and other local and national institutions. The following PLC products can now be purchased from CRDG and bookstores throughout the state.
The Ka Wana series consists of twelve short volumes covering a range of subjects including ethics and philosophy, leadership, education, health, management, protocol, and religious beliefs. Each volume is illustrated with historical documents accompanied by detailed cultural descriptions or with photographs of contemporary cultural practices.
Author Malcolm Nāea Chun uses traditional and historical examples to show behavior, thoughts, and values, then analyzes events in both traditional and contemporary contexts. All descriptions are cited so the reader can explore them in their original context. Chun asks readers to think about whether we are following those traditions today, or whether we have changed them or are making them up. The implications of his findings will cause some to reexamine and rediscover a true sense of Native Hawaiian values and virtues.
As a researcher and scholar, Chun has worked throughout his life with Native Hawaiian agencies and organizations, and has accumulated years of cultural experiences, both in Hawai‘i and while living among other Polynesians and Pacific Islanders. The Ka Wana series is a lifetime achievement, a masterful work that pieces together fragments of historical and cultural information to form a clearer picture than we have ever had before.
The Ka Wana series includes the following titles:
- Pono, The Way of Living
- Aloha, Traditions f Love and Affection
- Welina, Traditional and Contemporary Ways of Welcome and Hospitality
- A‘o, Educational Traditions
- Ola, Traditional Concepts of Health and Healing
- Ho‘oponopono, Traditional Ways of Healing to Make Things Right Again
- Ho‘omana, Understanding the Sacred and Spiritual
- Alaka‘i, Traditional Leadership
- Kākā‘ōlelo, Traditions of Oratory and Speechmaking
- Ho‘onohonoho, Traditional Ways of Cultural Management
- Kapu, Gender Roles
- Hewa, The Wrong Way of Living
In 2011, CRDG co-published, with the University of Hawai‘i Press, No Nā Mamo, Traditional and Contemporary Hawaiian Beliefs and Practices, an updated and enlarged compilation of books in the acclaimed Ka Wana series, published from 2005 through 2010. The new volume is revised and updated, with each topic as a chapter. It also includes a 32-page color section showing images of early Hawaiian culture with commentary and analysis, a new afterword, and an editor’s preface and appendix that offer insights into the process of publishing indigenous material.
Hāpai Nā Leo is a literary companion to the Ka Wana series that responds to Chun’s work with a wide range of voices and perspectives far-ranging in style, form, and generation. From the powerful opening words of the Kumulipo to the propulsive rhymes of contemporary slam poetry, Hāpai nā Leo celebrates a diverse range of voices that explore, carry, and regenerate Hawaiian culture.
Additionally, based on a selection of PLC’s most popular elementary school print materials, PLC has developed several mobile apps that add to its rich history of ground breaking publications. The first of its interactive mobile tablet applications, Pihana ABCs, was published in 2013 and was featured on KITV News. Here are some of PLC’s interactive digital products available to the general public for free download:
The Pihana ABCs app is an interactive alphabet primer and coloring book available on iTunes at http://goo.gl/6gKGJE or Google Play at http://goo.gl/e4mwhr.
Supporting Your Beginning Reader Handbook introduces parents to evidence-based early reading strategies to employ at home. The electronic flipbook has short video clips that demonstrate proven strategies in action. The item can be downloaded at http://plc.crdg.hawaii.edu/sybrh/.
The Pihana Letter Combinations adaptive learning mobile application is a product of PLC’s Pihana Hou project, a partnership between the Curriculum Research & Development Group, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the Hawaiian Education Program, Hawaiʻi Department of Education. This consortium co-created this mobile tablet app as part of a suite of instructional support tools designed to improve children’s early literacy skills. The app is free for public download on iTunes and Google Play. Just search for Pihana Letter Combinations.