Amid the flurry of Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Language Month) celebrations, the Hawaiian Airlines Community and Cultural Relations Team remained focused on their guiding principle of “launa.” Meaning to socialize or connect, “launa” was their north star, anchoring this year’s celebration across both Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines.

Throughout February, the team organized expert workshops, language lessons, and Team Kōkua volunteer activations that engaged guests, employees and the community with the language and in intimate learning experiences.

“Meeting all these people through the Hawaiian language makes the language all that much more critical and shows the strength that education wields in bringing people together,” shared Manakō Tanaka, senior community and cultural relations manager at Hawaiian Airlines.

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Bringing ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi to Seattle and Anchorage

ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi took to the skies with a special bilingual flight between Kahului, Maui, and Seattle, Washington — a first for Hawaiian Airlines’ nonstop service to the Emerald City. On Tuesday, Feb. 18, HA30 departed Maui with 10 crewmembers and three gate agents, some of whom are learning the language and others who have earned Hawaiian Airlines’ language certification — a distinction marked by the Hawaiian flag on a name tag. In-flight and gate announcements were made in both ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and English.

Guests were also given a commemorative engagement card to use when ordering drinks and snacks, starting a conversation onboard, or sharing the language with others at home.

After the flight’s arrival, Hawaiian Airlines employees joined their Alaska Airlines teammates for an ʻōlelo class at Alaska’s SeaTac headquarters, exploring new ways to incorporate the language in daily conversations in and out of work.

A similar class was held at Anchorage Airport for Alaska Airlines employees, followed by a special cultural exchange at the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

“[Our visit to Anchorage] became an excellent chance to meet with the Indigenous people of that land, and one extra special moment for me was when [the Alaska native groups] taught us some words from their language, and then we taught them some Hawaiian language,” Tanaka shared. “Language becomes the vessel by which we build connection.”

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Connecting with Cultural Experts

Mele (song) and oli (chant) were central to Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, as local cultural experts dedicated time to meet with employees across Hawaiian and Alaska Airlines to share their wisdom and knowledge.

Keliʻi Ruth, a Native Hawaiian chanter and PhD candidate at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, shared his love of oli with employees and explained the meaning and wisdom embedded in these chants when spoken aloud.

Another workshop was held by Zachary Alakaʻi Lum, a Native Hawaiian composer, musician and founder of the nonprofit Kāhuli Leo Leʻa. Lum guided employees through an exploration of music composition, the craft of mele and ways they can more deeply engage with significant Hawaiian melodies woven with cultural and historical allusions.

Hawaiian Airlines later contributed $2,500 to Kāhuli Leo Leʻa, proudly affirming its support for the nonprofit’s efforts to preserve, share, and expand cultural knowledge through the power of mele.

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Stewarding the Next Generation

The Hawaiian Airlines Talent Acquisition team hosted eight students from Ke Kula ʻo Samuel M. Kamakau Laboratory Public Charter School (LPCS) for a special career day called Aviation ʻIke (Knowledge). The event, conducted entirely in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, introduced students in their junior and senior years to flight attendants, pilots, mechanics, cargo agents, airport operations, corporate staff and more, allowing them to connect with aviation professionals and learn about their career journeys. The goal: encourage the next generation of native speakers to consider joining aviation while establishing new opportunities for the language to thrive in professional settings.

Dr. Meahilahila Kelling, director at Ke Kula ʻo Samuel M Kamakau LPCS, shared, “Hū aʻela koʻu haʻaheo ma ia huakaʻi e ʻike i ka nui o nā kānaka i kēia manawa e kū i ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. Ua ʻike maka nā haumāna i ke kūpono e kūpaʻa i ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi ma waho aku o ke kula kaiāʻōlelo a ma nā ʻoihana like ʻole. (I was filled with pride on this trip to see how many people speak Hawaiian now. Our students were able to witness that it is prudent to continue to use Hawaiian language outside of just our community, and now in various lines of business.)”

At the annual Ola Ka ʻĪ Hawaiian Language Festivals, hosted every Saturday in February across the state, employees also engaged in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi conversations with local communities.

Team Kōkua volunteers hosted arts and crafts activities, including translation worksheets and keiki (children) coloring pages highlighting Hawaiian language names for parts of the Airbus A330 and equipment commonly seen on the ramp. Attendees also had the opportunity to win 15,000 HawaiianMiles in a raffle that encouraged the use of Hawaiʻi’s native language.

Want to share the 2025 Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi coloring sheets with your keiki? Click the images below to download and print!

Mahina ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian Language Month), celebrated throughout February, is the hallmark of linguistic and cultural celebrations across the islands. For many, including our employees, it's a time to celebrate the strides made in their language-learning journeys — a path some have walked as parents of students attending Hawaiian language immersion schools.

Rise Tapati, a Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant and mother of two keiki (children), was born and raised on Oʻahu, and did not grow up speaking ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. She began her studies in high school and worked her way up to the highest college course offered by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa at the time. However, for many years afterward, she stopped speaking the language.

“Unfortunately, I had no one to speak with, and for many years I went without conversation. You know what they say: if you don't use it, you lose it,” Tapati explained.

 

Fast-forward to today and Tapati, who considers herself a “conversational speaker,” has sharpened her language skills by speaking ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi at work and at home with her keiki — including her son, the first in her immediate family to attend a Hawaiian language immersion school.

While her son was at school, Tapati turned her everyday life into a classroom, sticking Post-It notes with the Hawaiian names of items throughout the house and pushing the family to use a new word whenever possible.

“If it could be labeled, it was! Simple substitutions of English words with Hawaiian words were encouraged, and slowly but surely, Hawaiian became common in our daily conversations,” she said. “Now, as my son gets older, he comes home from school and teaches us new words. Without him attending a Hawaiian language immersion school, we would never be able to do this.”

 

In keeping ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi alive and thriving, Tapati shared the importance of being vulnerable and using it whenever possible – including with youth and her Hawaiian Airlines colleagues.

“Sharing the language with our guests and my coworkers feels just as important as holding conversations with other Hawaiian speakers. I’m often asked how to properly say place names or how to say certain phrases in Hawaiian, and it feels good to be able to confidently answer and teach someone something new! It’s an honor for me to share the native tongue of our land with others,” Tapati said.

Jerome Koehler, an IT platform engineer at Hawaiian Airlines, has also deepened his use of Hawaiʻi’s native tongue by speaking with his young daughter — another immersion school student — and reading her Hawaiian storybooks before bed.

Since Koehler moved to Hawaiʻi from Texas in 2002, he hasn’t stopped carrying the wisdom of a friend. “Before I moved here, one of my good friends, originally from American Samoa, gave me some great advice: ‘Wherever you go, learn and respect the language and the culture of the people.’” Koehler shared. “This was my initial guiding beacon when I first came to Hawaiʻi and it continues to drive me whenever I visit new places.”

He has gone above and beyond to integrate ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi into his experience in Hawaiʻi. Through his daughter’s school, he and his wife have regularly connected with other speakers throughout the islands and forged lifelong bonds. He also attends events and language workshops hosted by Hawaiian Airlines’ Community and Cultural Relations Team, volunteers in the community, tries to use the language at work whenever possible and supports his daughter and wife’s hālau hula (hula school).

“As I become more proficient, I try to include more Hawaiian words in my emails. It helps others learn too when they have to go to a resource like wehewehe.org to look up the meaning of certain words I used,” he explained. “All in all, I hope that others see me — someone who is non-native and attempting to learn the language — and get excited and more involved.”

 

Hawaiian Airlines is proud to perpetuate ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi through its support of Hawaiian language immersion schools throughout the state. Earlier this month, West Maui’s Pūnana Leo o Lahaina, a Hawaiian language immersion preschool impacted by the Lahaina wildfires, received a $50,000 donation from the Hawaiian Airlines Foundation to support rebuilding efforts, ensuring the continuation of its mission to perpetuate Hawaiian culture and language among the island’s youngest learners.

In 2023, the carrier also contributed over $12,000 to nonprofit Awaiaulu to fund a significant book donation to 34 Hawaiian language immersion schools throughout Hawaiʻi.

 

For the first time, Hawaiian Airlines employees joined Alaska Airlines in the San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade, where thousands gathered to watch the festivities.