By Noelani Kong-Johnson
More than 40 years ago, our kūpuna and community leaders fought to bring ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi back to life. They dreamed that our language would once again be spoken in homes, schools, and on playgrounds. Today, that dream is alive in our keiki who grow up speaking Hawaiian and English side by side.
But while Hawaiian is strong in our communities, there is one place it has not yet fully reached: the world of neuroscience. Around the globe, researchers study how bilingualism shapes the brain. They measure how language learning changes memory, attention, and even how our minds age. The problem is that almost all this research focuses on big languages like English, French, or Chinese.
So far, Hawaiian voices have largely been left out of that story. Each language interacts with the brain in unique ways. Without Hawaiian, we are missing a critical part of the story of what it means to be bilingual, and we lose an opportunity to see how Hawaiian strengthens our minds as well as our identities.
That’s what my work hopes to change. I grew up at Pūnana Leo o Kawaiahaʻo, went on to Punahou and Princeton University, and now I’m a Ph.D. student at UH Mānoa. My research looks at what happens in the brain when people grow up bilingual in Hawaiian and English.
With a team from linguistics, psychology, and the medical school, I’m using MRI technology to see what happens in the brain when Hawaiian-English bilinguals play simple language games. Our goal is not only to learn about the science of bilingualism, but also to put Hawaiian into the same global conversation that already includes other languages.
Why does this matter? Because speaking Hawaiian is not the same as speaking another language. When Hawaiian is included in neuroscience research, it affirms that ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi is more than just a cultural treasure. It carries our history, our worldview, our lāhui. By putting Hawaiian in the center of this research, we are saying clearly: Hawaiian belongs in every conversation — cultural, political, and scientific.
But this work depends on community participation. We are looking for adults (ages 18-45) who started speaking Hawaiian before the age of six, and keiki (ages 5-10) who are growing up speaking Hawaiian. Participants are compensated for their time, and keiki receive a small toy. More importantly, every person who joins helps make sure Hawaiian is seen, heard, and valued in a global space where it has long been missing.
Our kūpuna revived ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi so it could thrive again in our mouths and hearts. Now we have the chance to show how it also lives in our minds. This research is for our lāhui, and the only way we can do it is together!
Noelani Kong-Johnson is a Ph.D. candidate at UH Mānoa. If you’re interested in participating in her research study, please contact her at cnmkj2@hawaii.edu.
ʻO kāu komo ʻana mai, he mea hauʻoli nō ia no mākou!
Inā hoihoi ʻoe i ke komo mai, e leka uila mai iā: Noelani Kong-Johnson ma cnmkj2@hawaii.edu
