The archive
Stories from our people
Each of these conversations was recorded by a student with the storyteller's permission. Stories marked community or restricted are not shown here.
Kauaʻi
We were told the language was gone
Lehua Kaʻaihue on entering an immersion classroom as a child and later teaching in the same room.
Lehua Kaʻaihue
Education · Culture
Oʻahu
A shop is a promise to your neighbors
Herbert Sakai recalls opening a machine shop in Kalihi in 1961, and the unwritten rules of doing business in the neighborhood.
Herbert Sakai
Business · Military Service
Molokaʻi
House calls on a road that floods
Amelia Kahananui on rural nursing, trust, and why she never once asked a family for paperwork at the door.
Amelia Kahananui
Healthcare · Community
Hawaiʻi Island
The water tells you when to plant
Kamaka Nakoa describes learning to read water flow from his grandfather, and what changed in Waipiʻo after the 1946 tsunami.
Kamaka Nakoa
Agriculture · Culture