Latest / Hawaii Travel Podcast by Hawaii’s Best: Plan a Better Hawaii Vacation / The Ban and Revitalization of the Hawaiian Language

Transcript

The Ban and Revitalization of the Hawaiian Language · Hawaii Travel Podcast by Hawaii’s Best: Plan a Better Hawaii Vacation

• 0:06
  Hawaii's Best: Welcome to Hawaii's Best podcast where we help you prepare for your next trip to Hawaii. Discover the experiences, businesses and stories that make Hawaii the Aloha state. And now your host, Brian Murphy.
• 0:21
  Bryan Murphy: Welcome to Episode 53 of Hawaii's Best where we help prepare you for your next trip to Hawaii. I'm your host Brian Murphy, the owner of Hawaii's Best where we offer resources tips, local cultural insights to get the most out of your stay on the islands. You know, at the heart of every culture is its language. And that is especially true for Hawaii and today we're spoiled to be joined with one of my friends carniola solitario. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in both Hawaiian language and Hawaiian studies and a master's degree in elementary education from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Guardiola is currently a gumo olelo, Hawaii at the Kamehameha High School couple on my campus and is also a member of the Hawaiian musical group kaiho. In 2020, carniola started his social media journey and posting videos of himself teaching olelo Hawaii to his mom. And from that point, his page has taken off and has followers all around the world.
• 1:24
  Bryan Murphy: He has built a community of learners across the globe who participate in his free weekly classes posted on zoom and continues to collaborate with other businesses and organizations like native Hawaiian student services to platform the Hawaiian language in all places possible. So right now we're gonna hear more about the history of the Hawaiian language and a little bit about the history of Hawaii. No matter where we travel, we should be aware of the culture that we're traveling into. And even being aware of your own culture is super important. Right now, we're gonna go ahead and we're gonna talk story with cannula from the island of Oahu.
• 2:08
  Bryan Murphy: Thank you so much. Appreciate your time. How are you doing?
• 2:11
  Bryan Murphy: Tell us a little bit about yourself. And what's today like for you?
• 2:15
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. Aloha mai kakou. My name is Yan cannula. sola torial. I am born and raised in Cuba, Luca on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Just lucky to live in Hawaii and to call myself Hawaiian. Currently I'm a Hawaiian language teacher.
• 2:31
  Kahanuola Solatorio: I teach how la with equipment, schools, and the high school.
• 2:35
  Kahanuola Solatorio: And I'm also a musician, a white musician with my group kill hole with my classmates, Zach and Nicholas love. So I guess that's a little bit about my background. And today, I'm feeling great. And I'm excited to be a part of this podcast. So thank you.
• 2:51
  Bryan Murphy: Absolutely. I appreciate that you and your time. And I can already tell just in our brief interaction, even going back to our Instagram messaging that you have a teacher's heart. Is that something that was instilled in you growing up? Or is that something that you learn and develop over time?
• 3:08
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, I hope that's a compliment. Yeah, I think, well, he didn't really know what I wanted to be. When I was in high school. I didn't, it took me till college to figure out that I wanted to be a teacher. But I always loved learning. And I always say that I'm going to be always going to be a lifelong learner. You know, I can never learn too much. So I think that's where the, the teaching aspect came in. And then continuing on I love teaching what I know. I mean, what's the point of learning something if you can't teach it?
• 3:41
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So? Yeah, I think that's my, my teacher's heart. That's where that comes in.
• 3:46
  Bryan Murphy: Well, we were talking a little off air and mentioned that Hawaii's Best is, is focused towards travelers and visitors to the islands. And you know, we talked about, you know, where to stay, what to do, what not to do, and how to travel especially right now with Hawaii's Safe travels program and how to navigate that, really, at the heart is putting Hawaii's culture, history, and so much of that is its language.
• 4:15
  Bryan Murphy: You as a Hawaiian language teacher, now, you're like, I wasn't sure I wanted to get into teaching, but you did it and you're really great at it. And then now teaching Hawaiian language, talk a little bit about how that came up and came a part of your journey.
• 4:30
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Cool. After high school. I went to command where I currently teach. I continued on to the University of Hawaii at Manoa. And first, you know, it's funny, I, my first major was to cover industry management. So I just, I mean, part of me just loves traveling. Yeah. And then, you know, so it's Tim and then I think after taking some classes, I was like, okay, maybe not you but that's how college goes.
• 4:56
  Bryan Murphy: Well, at least I learned this Dan, right. Yeah.
• 5:00
  Kahanuola Solatorio: But I still love traveling, don't get me wrong, I still love traveling.
• 5:01
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So after that I went into major in Hawaiian language and Hawaiian studies. double major.
• 5:08
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, that's where I mean, again, more of a passion for language. For some of you who may not know, at a time in our history, Hawaiian language was banned from being spoken. So my parents, my grandparents, didn't speak it. So when I told them that I wanted to major in Hawaii language studies, they're like, no way, there's no money in that. What are you gonna do with that degree? For most people, maybe that might discourage you.
• 5:34
  Kahanuola Solatorio: But for me, it kind of pushed me is like, you know what, I'm gonna do it. And I'm going to prove them wrong. I'm going to do something with my Hawaiian language degree. And I'm glad that I have avenues, not just one, but a few avenues where I can use that point, language expertise.
• 5:51
  Bryan Murphy: You mentioned a lot there and maybe for some listening, learning that the Hawaiian language was banned. It was back in 1896. Yeah, when the language was banned.
• 6:03
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So at 96, it was banned from public school education, but I'm guessing it was a part of private school education as well, because no one would be speaking. And from what I understood, during that time, many of the students if they spoke Hawaiian, they were punished. There were, you know, corporal punishment was okay, back then. But they were given the tension or the merits, I'm guessing it was called back there. You know, if that happens to you, with your mother tongue, your native language, of course, you're going to be called Maha, you're going to be sad, you're going to not have a good relationship with your language.
• 6:39
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So a lot of those couponer those ancestors chose not to speak it and attach it to their children.
• 6:43
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So yeah, I think that was the outcome of that all being outlined at that time.
• 6:50
  Bryan Murphy: I'm sure there's so much more happening during that time period. And yeah, I would love to hear a little bit what maybe led up to the ban in 1896, but also the turmoil and everything that was going on during that period of history, if you can share some of that.
• 7:09
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yes. So during that time, maybe about three years ago, at 93, January 17, the kingdom of Hawaii was illegally overthrown by the Provisional Government, which is like the smaller government group of the United States. And this is when they held Queen liliuokalani at gunpoint, at your learning palace, which, you know, can be a whole nother segment. But right, yeah, I think that really changed the whole dynamic of Avaya that time because, again, it was another sad moment in our history, where our culture, our language, our identity was being ripped away from us and being forced upon by another government. And three years later, when they banned the language being spoken, that was just another dagger to the heart of the Hawaiians. Because that is our identity as people is a language no matter where you come from, if you're from Europe, whatever language you speak, if you're from South America, that is your language.
• 8:07
  Kahanuola Solatorio: That's your identity. So it's a very troubling time during those 1893 to like, 18 to 1900 years ago.
• 9:13
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, during that period, and then leading up to this Renaissance resurgence.
• 9:19
  Unknown: Yeah,
• 9:20
  Bryan Murphy: there's quite a bit of a gap there. Yeah, definitely what was going on during that time, and then what was the catalyst to this Renaissance.
• 9:29
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So during that time, you know, some wars are going on, and Hawaii's landscape was changing, more modernized, more buildings, more American western style, living was coming to Hawaii, I don't want to say that many of the kupuna forgot the language, but they just kind of put it on the side for now, you know, they only spoke it in their house to maybe their husband or wife, they wouldn't teach their kids.
• 9:55
  Kahanuola Solatorio: It was more of a secret language where you can only talk in the comfort of your own home, not out in public. But as you bring up the renaissance of the Hawaiian language, how about you became a state in 1959 on August 21. And I think that might have been the catalyst for the Hawaiian Renaissance to come up because, you know, we're officially a state, and people were still kind of angry, still kind of heard about it. So they're like, you know what, let's go back to our roots.
• 10:22
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Let's go back to our culture.
• 10:22
  Kahanuola Solatorio: And I appreciate all those people who, at that time, they just did it for themselves and for their, their nation, their people. So there's a lot of people that I can mention, but yeah, again, that's a whole nother segment.
• 10:35
  Bryan Murphy: So that led up to these trailblazers that, yeah, put this back in the forefront.
• 10:39
  Bryan Murphy: And when that Renaissance was happening, was there tension on the other side of it? Yeah.
• 10:47
  Bryan Murphy: Okay. Yeah. But obviously, to get through that tension to maybe speak into that a little bit.
• 10:52
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So like you said, a lot of trailblazers who they were receiving a lot of backlash and a lot of tension from, you know, many sides, not only from the government of it, but from even Hawaiian people. They're like, why are you going to share our culture so openly? or Why are you going to bring this out to the forefront? One example being married of Anna Kukui, who is a Hawaiian scholar, hula practitioner, she created our Hawaiian language dictionary. So she went around all the islands gathered words from some of the kupuna, who are still speaking, that, you know, what is the word for a cloud, this certain cloud or for a mountain? So she created our dictionary. And a lot of the people were like, why are you sharing our culture? Why are you making all of this public? This is something for us. But I think she just thought about us living now. You know, right. If you didn't do that, then then I think our language would be dead. Wow, definitely.
• 11:50
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So I'm glad she fought against those oppressions. So again, a lot of people were having a resurgence of not only language, but also cultural activities like sailing our first canoe, coconut, our maiden voyage during that time, hula was making a comeback arts like lokala making, and just so many things. So it was in 1978, when Hawaiian was officially recognized as official language in Hawaii. And I think we're the only state that has something besides English as our official language. So we have English and Hawaii. I think that was another major step point, because it showed that our language at one time was not even being spoken.
• 12:30
  Kahanuola Solatorio: But now it's official language, it kind of take that away. Now we can write your checks in Hawaiian, you can do official business in Hawaiian in the court. So yeah, I think that was another major milestone in our Hawaiian language history.
• 12:44
  Kahanuola Solatorio: That's important to highlight.
• 12:47
  Bryan Murphy: That's huge. Yeah, obviously, the language being taught within schools was that kind of around the same time seven, eight is when you start to see now, back into the schools,
• 12:56
  Kahanuola Solatorio: yeah, around the 80s, maybe the mid 80s was when our first point language preschool was formed.
• 13:03
  Kahanuola Solatorio: And that's the woonona layouts, pretty much a Hawaiian language immersion preschool where their main focus is to just speak Hawaiian. That's when you have to kind of mold your kids during that time is maybe the elementary toddler age, especially with languages because if you get it at that age, if they get it at that age, and they can just remember it and continuing on throughout their years, that is already my coffee. So that was a big milestone to win our first Hawaiian language immersion program for preschool. And then also the university started creating the programs in Korean language in Hawaiian studies.
• 13:37
  Bryan Murphy: Okay, those trailblazers that you spoke of started this and put this all in motion. And now Hawaiian, being the official language of ye.
• 13:43
  Bryan Murphy: What's the current climate?
• 13:47
  Bryan Murphy: Like? Is there still a group that would rather prefer to not have that be? Or is it pretty much well accepted?
• 13:54
  Kahanuola Solatorio: I'm sure there's still some naysayers.
• 13:56
  Kahanuola Solatorio: And I could speak for some of my family members. There's still some naysayers out there. But with the use and the availability of social media and different technologies, I think it's more accepted and more normalized now. Because you can see it in Facebook. He said, on Instagram, you can, there's apps in Hawaiian, it's on Duolingo.
• 14:15
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So that was another thing at the time was the availability of the language. Some people didn't have access to learning it. So they just was like, oh, okay, I don't guess I don't need to learn it, since I don't have the access. But now especially I'm like, really appreciate Instagram, because that is my main form of communication, that I get lessons out and teach Hawaiian through Instagram. So yeah, there's no excuse, you know, you kind of say, Oh, it's not available, because, you know, our phones, our best friends now. So we're always gonna have something in our hand where we can have access, you know,
• 14:49
  Bryan Murphy: you mentioned Instagram, and we were both at the residence in Yeah, at the same time, we didn't get to connect during that time. But I happened to notice that, you know, you were at the residence and went on to your Instagram page, and was blown away of how much not only the amount of content but the depth of content that you are producing and putting out there and your account has grown crazily right.
• 15:17
  Bryan Murphy: And yeah, a year something like that. Yeah.
• 15:19
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So it's been a year where we've been doing Instagram, and it's me and my mom, which we affectionately call a student cousin cafe. But it's funny because it was kind of that one at a moment for her because she was the very one telling me not to go into language not to learn. And then now I'm teaching it to her. So yeah, it's very, it was very emotional when we started because you're just like, now she can speak the language that she didn't want her children to speak. And you taught her?
• 15:48
  Unknown: Yeah, that's, that's incredible.
• 15:50
  Kahanuola Solatorio: She's a good student. So she's kind of you know, if it was real school, she'd be getting She's my mother. So she's great. plus plus.
• 16:00
  Bryan Murphy: You mentioned you also you host free zoom lessons.
• 16:04
  Bryan Murphy: classroom sessions. Yeah. Yeah.
• 16:04
  Bryan Murphy: How long have you been doing that
• 16:07
  Kahanuola Solatorio: this was actually brought up because of the pandemic. So maybe around October of 2020, is when we started. And I just put out like a flyer saying, Are people interested in learning, and they got so much response. So that's why I started it. And thanks to zoom, you know, they can connect people from all over the world.
• 16:26
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So I have people joining us from Mexico, Florida, which means it's 2pm 2am when we're doing our class, like, whatever, six hours or something like that, yeah. So it's kind of crazy. But it just shows again, that people now that there's accessible ways to learn language, they're going to jump on it and take it. So I've noticed that a lot of students in my class that are from foreign countries are hula dancers. Because hula is definitely become worldwide, right? popular. So I think that's another thing that you know, another way for them to get connected to the culture not only the hula, but the language in relation to the hula. So yeah, it's a blessing.
• 17:07
  Bryan Murphy: This is maybe a personal question. You don't have to answer it.
• 17:11
  Unknown: Yeah, obviously,
• 17:12
  Bryan Murphy: you love to answer any of these questions. But you mentioned there's, there's people who log on across the world and people who are following your Instagram account. Now, you mentioned Hawaiian language is such a precious language and a sacred language to people of Hawaii.
• 17:32
  Bryan Murphy: How open or what is the posture for someone of another culture to be learning the Hawaiian language?
• 17:39
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, great question. And I am going to answer is very important. For me. I think it's very, I don't want to say it's a tricky question. But it depends on what the purpose is. You know, some people have good intentions when learning a language, just want to learn it, because they live in Hawaii. They're not Hawaiian, but they want to be connected to the culture and the people. For other people, they may be using it for personal gain from money, monetary value, but for me, I always say that if you're gonna choose to live in Hawaii, if you're a Hawaiian or not, you have a responsibility to learn the language because that is your responsibility as a person that's going to choose to live in Hawaii or even traveled to Hawaii. You know, if it's just a few words, that's something you know, some people I mean, as we're talking about tourism, some people still think that mahalo means trash, because it's on some trash can. So they're like, oh, mahalo. Must be trash, because I'm putting in the time Yeah,
• 18:36
  Bryan Murphy: I've never Okay, yeah,
• 18:38
  Kahanuola Solatorio: maybe not so much nowadays. But does anyone else worry? No, yeah, it does make sense because you think, Oh, I'm putting in a trash can. Okay, that's trash.
• 18:47
  Kahanuola Solatorio: But even if you're learning mahalo as Thank you, you know, that's great, or trash as opala, then that's something that you can learn and hopefully teach your family and friends. Well, that's a great question. And one great example that I like to use is, his name is Tolkien Obermeyer. And he is not Hawaiian. But he, he took on the responsibility to learn and, you know, just dove into the language. And he was one of my teachers. So I really appreciate him and all of his hard work.
• 19:14
  Kahanuola Solatorio: That's cool.
• 19:15
  Bryan Murphy: What other words would you put out there? That Yeah, to learn to know,
• 19:20
  Kahanuola Solatorio: great question. So one good one would be ka Kai. And if you want to hold on to my repeat after me, chi chi, yeah, so ka k means beach. And maybe that's a top reason why a lot of people come to Hawaii is because the beaches so yeah, I'm going to the car guy in Kailua or lanikai, or coho or whatever. Yeah. I think just inserting words into your everyday speech. That's a way to normalize it. Even when you're traveling. Some people, they don't want to think about learning or education when they're on vacation, but just know that any culture or any place you visit is a learning opportunity. Yeah,
• 19:56
  Bryan Murphy: yeah. And it's really all about how you posture yourself going into whatever culture you're traveling into.
• 20:03
  Bryan Murphy: Exactly. And I think charleen to Hawaii is its own culture, its own land. Yeah. And some people come in with the mindset that it's like just crossing the border to any other state on the mainland, and it's not.
• 20:18
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, so a little bit different. But just like every other state, you know, every state has their own kind of history. Yeah, but a VIII's history is very rich, it's very deeper. Exactly. Like you said, some people may not even know we have a language and official language. But if you look a little bit deeper, if you take some time to research, go to the yolandi palettes go to historical sites. It's not hard.
• 20:40
  Kahanuola Solatorio: It's all it's all there for us.
• 20:40
  Kahanuola Solatorio: And even again, online. You can look there's so many online resources for people to use. So, but I you know, for Personally, I know I can do more about sharing our culture, get the word out there and that's, I guess that's my goal is just to Share it. Yeah. Yeah.
• 20:58
  Bryan Murphy: I mean, you're doing an amazing job of doing your part as a whole zooming out, where do you see the language heading as far as its reach to you to see it continuing to to grow? Yeah. As far as awareness and reach.
• 21:12
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. So people are, say, used to say that Hawaiian was dead, you know, there's no chance of it being brought back to life having a resurgence. But I mean, look at where we are. Now, I don't want to say it's dead. I don't want to say we're even trying to rebuild, it's built, the foundation is set. So now, now, what are we going to do? So what I would like to see is more ways of seeing the language normalized. On television, and the new stations, social media apps, and one of the cultures that I kind of compare or use examples is the New Zealand the Maori language today on Maori because they have a whole network dedicated to television programming, specifically into the omo mot language. So I hope one day we can get there. And I think we can, you know, I think it's going to happen, but we just need more people to just go and make content and make programs and, yeah, make ideas.
• 22:10
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So
• 22:10
  Bryan Murphy: you have to take it and run and be an advocate of it. Exactly. I
• 22:14
  Kahanuola Solatorio: don't want people to just be complacent and be like, oh, oh, it's living now. Or it's, you know, I'm fine now. Like, how are we going to make it go to the next level? Or how are we going to push our boundaries with the language and there are ways that people are doing it now, including, like, kind of doing modernized songs in Hawaiian, you know, r&b reggae rap in Hawaiian? And I hope that catches our tour, because that's going to target the younger audience. Yeah, the high school teenage
• 22:40
  Bryan Murphy: meaning we think of kimia minor. And yeah, she recently, recently has probably a year ago already a little logo by album. Yeah, you know, filled with very recognizable songs, but in Hawaiian
• 22:52
  Kahanuola Solatorio: in Hawaiian. Yeah. And that's a good example of, you know, normalizing because these tunes we already are familiar with, we already know, don't worry about a thing. So we know the tune if we can learn it in the language Now, again, normalization. So Mahalo to me.
• 23:09
  Bryan Murphy: Absolutely. Yeah.
• 23:09
  Bryan Murphy: This is we got you right now. I love to get some of your thoughts. Obviously, Hawaii has reopened to travel, transpacific travel. And I think even now, our Japanese friends are able to travel. Yeah, granted, going through the Safe travels program, state of why we have this time right now, that is, I think, very precious and maybe a time we may never have and hopefully you don't have a moment like this, again, with no pandemic and reopening and all that. But this term, travel Pono travel responsibly. I wanted to get your heart how you would define that and how you would encourage people as they're planning their trip, you know, spring break is coming up, and summer's coming up and the whole thing and people are excited to travel again, which is which is great. Yeah, but let's talk a little bit about what travel pano means. And if you can help define that.
• 23:59
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, so I guess we'll just start with the word porno porno just means to be just to be righteous to be in a right state of mind. And, you know, you hear that term a lot here in Hawaii, because it's their state model, or locale paying a proposal. I think when it comes in regards to travel, I think it's just very, you know, people think maybe even me, I have this thought to when I go on vacation, I'm on vacation, I made all this money for vacation, I don't need to worry about a sign that says I kind of entered into this place because I'm on vacation, you know what, but I think now is even more of a precious time for us to take care of our resources, take care of our cultural sites. And especially for tourists. When you come to Hawaii, make sure you do some research on where you can go where you cannot go and don't look at those kapu signs couple meaning forbidden don't take that for granted because some of these cases that people are entering and trespassing into are literally couple and you know, if you enter it, you may hurt the whole ecosystem, the landscape there.
• 25:01
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So take that into consideration when you plan your travels, contact people you know, contact the organizations that you want to go visit and say hey, you know, how can we or what are other some sites that you recommend? Because that's a good way to get some recommendations from the locals especially but yeah, don't just look at it as a vacation look at it as an educational opportunity look at it as a responsibility when you come travel to Hawaii especially. But enjoy enjoy yourself. Yeah, soak it all in because being in Hawaii is is a special feeling. You know what you weren't you touch on the ground. You kind of feel that a lot of spirit you know, you're the load off your back. It's kind of like did a little because I don't know if it's the air that blow Yeah. Yeah, enjoy yourself but again, be cognizant of the things going on around you and your environment. And even the people, you know, I don't want to see this happens.
• 25:58
  Kahanuola Solatorio: But a lot of people may take advantage of the aloha spirit here in Hawaii. So maybe show that same aloha to a person, you know, as, as you notice, you know, we're very like, Hey, how you doing? I want to help you, we literally you the shirt off of our backs to people, but sometimes it may be taken advantage of. So yeah, just show that same aloha when you come to Hawaii, not only to the locals, but to other tourists, to your family members to the land, especially to the water. Yeah, another episode too. Yeah, totally.
• 26:34
  Unknown: For sure,
• 26:34
  Bryan Murphy: yeah. I totally agree that humbly asking questions humbly, yeah. And not assuming can go a long way, no matter where you whatever environment you go into.
• 26:45
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. And questions, you know, it doesn't hurt to ask, you may get a response you're not expecting.
• 26:51
  Kahanuola Solatorio: But again, it's a learning opportunity. So
• 26:53
  Bryan Murphy: but also to, to speak into that stain on trails.
• 26:57
  Bryan Murphy: Obviously, with all the recent flooding, you know, you just want to be mindful of the trail heads, what trails are open, what trails are not. And there's reasons for that, because Hawaii can be a very dangerous place.
• 27:12
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Definitely.
• 27:13
  Bryan Murphy: Especially the surf is different the way that water moves and breaks, it can be very unexpected. So just being mindful of that is important.
• 27:21
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. And I think there's enough warning signs and news for people to be cognizant of where they are in their space. But, you know, sometimes again, we're like in a vacation mindset. Oh, I can, I can wave, you know, and then you have no fears. And then yeah, you're stuck in a current?
• 27:41
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah. 100% growing up in Southern California, and frequently, beaches, like Huntington Beach, or even Newport has a pretty gnarly, short break sometimes. But yeah, it's nothing compared to some of the beaches in Hawaii. So yeah,
• 27:57
  Kahanuola Solatorio: I always see some stuff on the news.
• 27:59
  Kahanuola Solatorio: There's like, oh, someone's got an occurred. And, you know, if we just think travel, one, all right, take precautions, then we'll, we'll avoid those situations. Yeah.
• 28:09
  Bryan Murphy: So a lot of people who travel are wanting to really, I think experience the place that they're traveling to, like, yeah, yeah, you can get a good drink, you can stay at a great resort. And you can do all the things like that's kind of like a given. Yeah, but I think a good majority of people are wanting to travel and really experience and and learn the culture and learn about the place that they're traveling to.
• 28:32
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, if someone is traveling to Hawaii for the very first time, what would you say to that person traveling for the very first time to Hawaii, how to truly experience Hawaii.
• 28:44
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So you know, what is beautiful? There's a lot of positives, the beaches, beautiful, the hotels are beautiful, but just know that there's not only a whole island to explore, there's five other islands that you can explore.
• 29:00
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, don't just think that you pay all this money just to stay at the resort, which I get, you know, some of these things are pricey like this rental car for a day and go drive out to the North Shore or go drive to Bishop Museum and experience those cultural things. You don't need to go to the beach every day. You can do a cultural excursion one day, you can go see some sights on debt. So yeah, don't just sit on your my toes at the pool. There's, there's way more. I mean, she might as well here here. Yeah, might as well soak it all in. It goes for all the islands as well. One of my favorites is Hawaii Island, Big Island, because there's so much things you can do. Like I think it was January last year, I went to Keystone Moana care. I went to the beach. And then I went to go see the lava flow in Puna or the you know, the new library. So it was like three different climates, different environments all in one day is is the creepiest thing because where else can you do that? You know, when it's a snow beat? Yeah, it gives you a chicken skin to say yeah, you know, as Allahu towny I'm like, I thought that too. I was like, oh, violence the best because we have a waterpark or we have the best restaurants but the other islands they got it going on
• 30:16
  Bryan Murphy: a while is pretty cool.
• 30:18
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah.
• 30:20
  Bryan Murphy: Okay, probably the most important question. Where do you eat maybe your your top like, two spots to make sure you hit up?
• 30:28
  Kahanuola Solatorio: I thought you were gonna say five.
• 30:30
  Bryan Murphy: I got five.
• 30:34
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Okay, okay.
• 30:34
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Number one is headliners, which is Hawaiian food, traditional Hawaiian food. Try the puoi It's delicious. Try the grease stuff.
• 30:41
  Kahanuola Solatorio: It's delicious. So we have that one for sure. Another one is really her bakery, which has some delicious, you know, local food but their pastries are my favorite on the pies. That's number two. Number three. I've tried to hit all the different things over here you know what we'll just go into we're gonna go into Okay, yeah, we'll go through those and if I think of others that'll be on the next episode.
• 31:09
  Bryan Murphy: Yeah, we got to make sure you subscribe so you can get the last three yeah for sure. Yeah.
• 31:14
  Kahanuola Solatorio: So cool Well yeah, I think anywhere Yeah. Where you eat even on McDonald's is different so I don't want to but
• 31:23
  Bryan Murphy: yes Manik muffin Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
• 31:26
  Kahanuola Solatorio: And Simon at a McDonald's and copier pies.
• 31:30
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah. Yeah.
• 31:33
  Bryan Murphy: Love it. Oh, this is great. I truly appreciate you what you're doing. Thank you and your time truly so thank you so much for for coming on Hawaii's Best today?
• 31:43
  Kahanuola Solatorio: Yeah, my no co only My pleasure. Mahalo Nui loa, yo, co op. Thank you so much. Aloha,
• 31:49
  Bryan Murphy: Aloha. I just want to thank carniola for his time, and for offering so much wisdom to this conversation. I'm excited for what the future could be with Hawaii's Best and coming along and just providing more cultural insights to what Hawaii is all about its culture, its people. And at the heart of that is its language. So thank you so much for tuning in.
• 32:15
  Bryan Murphy: today. I'm gonna link all of the things that Kenny will have mentioned in the show notes, his social media accounts where you can follow him, so I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for tuning in. And until next time, be well below.
• 32:30
  Hawaii's Best: Thanks for listening to Hawaii's Best podcast. To stay up to date on future episodes. Be sure to subscribe. For more information to help you plan your next trip to Hawaii visit Hawaii's Best travel calm