Our project name, Kahoʻiwai, literally translates to the returning waters. Wai (water) is a life-sustaining resource and its value is noted in the ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi word for wealth – waiwai. Where there is water, there is abundance. Like the movements to restore Hawaiʻi’s waterways back to their natural paths, Kahoʻiwai aims to remove obstacles and allow the waiwai and ea of Hawaiian knowledge to flow to the lāhui Hawaiʻi. Kahoʻiwai will focus on the following kahawai or streams:

Kahawai 1: Hawaiian Knowledge Organization System

Co-create a Hawaiian Knowledge Organization System (HKOS) that supports Hawaiian language-controlled vocabulary and develops processes and partnerships to ensure the sustainable maintenance of the HKOS. Building upon previous work of Ka Wai Hāpai, Kahoʻiwai will advance the co-creation of the HKOS and develop software to host the HKOS. Together with our Collaboration Partners and Working Group, we will expand the number of domains and terms as we move towards implementation.

Kahawai 2: Nūpepa Index

Co-create a Hawaiian language newspaper index to improve the discoverability of community-indexed information in Hawaiian language newspapers and pilot the application of HKOS to a sampling of records. The Nūpepa Index will combine community partner indexes (around 38,000 indexed entries) into a freely available open-source database and allow for future community-created indexes to be contributed.

Kahawai 3: Improve description in OCLC

Improve descriptions of Hawaiian Collection materials by reviewing 7,500 OCLC records of humanities materials and enhancing them with summary notes and table of contents, and pilot the application of HKOS to a sampling of records.

Kahawai 4: Reparative description in the archives

Increase the visibility of Hawaiian archival materials by processing, reprocessing, and redescribing collections with reparative descriptions and piloting the application of the HKOS to a sampling of UHM Library archival collections related to Native Hawaiian communities.