Context
While so far on this blog we have talked a lot about the approach we have taken to our work, we’d like to take the chance here to review one of the results. To test our methodology and process, we are in the process of creating 100 bilingual authority records (prioritizing ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi) and applying them to 200 resources related to Hawaiʻi.
Defining any term is a complex task, and our records do not aim to be comprehensive of all related ʻike. While creating the authority records for ʻāina we have focused on giving an introduction to the depth of information about each ʻāina, and creating a structure to establish relationships between different ʻāina and other terms within our vocabulary. With that in mind, I’d like to talk a little bit about our authority record for Maunakea.
Names and relationships
The first thing you might notice, is that the majority of the fields are labeled in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. Creating the language for these fields was a complex task, which we will address in a future blog post. Here, we’ll look at what is included in the record. We have a variety of names for the place (Inoa), the category of place it is (Hiʻona ʻāina) and the places contained in this ʻāina (Nā Hiʻona ʻĀina o loko o kēia wahi) and places this ʻāina (Nā Hiʻona ʻĀīna nona kēia wahi) is contained by. These fields allow us to understand the relationship between these places, group different types of places, and place them in a continuum from smallest to largest. In the future having these relationships within the records should allow for moving between these terms, so users could, for example, find the more appropriate term for a specific location, or could look to a more expansive term to find a wider variety of resources.
Description and sources
This field describes a particular ʻāina in paragraph form. On this project we have concentrated on the ʻōlelo Hawaiʻ field, Ka Hōʻuluʻulu Manaʻo, and focused on using widely known published resources for the English language Description field. Nā Kūmole identifies the sources of the information above. For us, citation was an important way to acknowledge the wide scholarship already present in the field of Hawaiian knowledge, to be transparent about our choices, and to dispell the concept of the “authority” of these records coming from some nebulous institution or system, which can be the case when no source is given.
Instruction
Ka ʻŌlelo Kuhikuhi and Instructions are the instruction fields. This part of the record provides instruction on how to use the term correctly. For the ʻāina terms this is a space to clear up any confusion about naming or locations, and to ensure that those using the system do so with proper context. Though it may also be useful to researchers looking for information on a topic, its primary goal is to provide necessary information to those who are going to be applying the term to any kind of material.
Linking terms
The last two fields, ʻOhana and Hana, provide related terms that are not ʻāina themselves. These fields will allow us, for instance, to link places to their related akua, or to note that a cultural practice takes place in a particular ʻāina. As the number of terms in our vocabulary increases, there will be the opportunity to express more of these kinds of relationships.
Ongoing considerations
While we are proud of the work we have done so far in creating these records, they should in no way be considered definitive resources on Hawaiian knowledge or epistemology. We are working towards creating a more representative and equitable system of accessing materials in libraries and archives based on Hawaiian epistemology. Our decisions on what and how much to include in our records is based on this goal. We hope that the scope and specificity of our terms and records will continue to develop in order to provide better access to materials related to Hawaiʻi.
