On September 4, more than one hundred people attended the Maoli Thursday panel, Ua Ao Hawaiʻi, featuring Dr. Larry Kimura. The event honored Dr. Kimura’s life’s work and his mele, Ua Ao Hawaiʻi, with its enduring call to uplift ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi in education and law. In celebration of its 20th anniversary, Ka Huli Ao has centered its work on this call—a powerful reminder that even in our most challenging moments, the path forward is illuminated by Hawaiʻi’s enduring legal foundations, grounded in loina (customs, principles, laws) and ʻike kuʻuna (ancestral knowledge).

Dr. Kimura composed the mele in 1995 during a Native Hawaiian educational conference in Hilo. After a late night spent fishing, he watched the moon—Hōkū—drift into the western sky just as the sun began to rise in the east. In that sacred in-between moment, night gave way to day, darkness yielded to light, and the old released its hold to welcome the new. This dual image of transition and illumination became a metaphor for renewal and, ultimately, a celebration of the arrival of a radiant dawn.

For Dr. Kimura, education is the beacon that sustains revitalization. A graduate of Kamehameha Schools with a Ph.D. in Hawaiian and Indigenous Language and Culture Revitalization, he has dedicated more than fifty years to teaching, most recently as a professor at Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani at the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo. His leadership during the Hawaiian Renaissance helped drive major milestones, including the 1978 Constitutional Convention, where delegates recognized ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi as an official state language after decades of suppression following the illegal overthrow and annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom. To restore ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi to daily life, he co-founded Hawaiʻi’s first Hawaiian immersion school, which has grown from an initial handful of keiki into a thriving network of Hawaiian-medium schools serving learners from keiki to kūpuna across the pae ʻāina.

In the legal field, Dr. Kimura has challenged practitioners and policymakers to weave language, values, and culture into legal frameworks so that kānāwai reflect not just rules, but the depth and spirit of a people. As he observes, a law written in black and white requires the breath of the people to give it meaning. ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi connects communities to ʻāina, wai, and the natural elements that sustain life, and the language of law must live in harmony with both the land and the people it serves.

Language does more than communicate—it shapes identity. Ua Ao Hawaiʻi embodies the urgency of empowerment through language revitalization and education, resonating with Indigenous communities worldwide facing the threat of language loss. For Kānaka Maoli, Ōlelo Hawaiʻi has long been a foundation of resistance and resilience in the face of foreign intrusion. Today, Indigenous Peoples continue to claim space for language, identity, and values in schools, law, and society. Ua Ao Hawaiʻi serves as a living reminder that education and law grounded in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi can usher in a new era. As Ka Huli Ao celebrates its 20th anniversary, Ua Ao Hawaiʻi calls us to embrace, cherish, and carry its light forward.