On Indigenous Peoples' Day, OHMA is thrilled to announce the Honoring Scholars of Indigenous Oral History Grant. This $2000 grant, supported by an anonymous donation from an OHMA alum, will be awarded annually to a native or non-native OHMA student working with or in support of Indigenous communities. The grant will support the student's cost of living while studying at Columbia.
We are grateful for this opportunity to support and highlight the work of OHMA students who are dedicated to the critical project of learning from and with Indigenous communities and narrators, helping us all to understand the living practice of oral history within an Indigenous context.
Please Join us in Congratulating our First Grantee!
Kim-Hee Wong graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa with a double major in English and Ethnic Studies. Guided by the ʻōlelo noʻeau, Hawaiian proverb, “I ʻōlelo nō ke ola, i ka ʻōlelo nō ka make” (in language there is life, in language there is death), Kim-Hee seeks to preserve the language – voices – of the past and present for future generations. As the recipient of the 2018-2019 Future Voices Fellowship and the first awardee of the Honoring Scholars of Indigenous Oral History Award, her research focuses on Mana Wāhine, Native Hawaiian feminists, in the twenty-first century. Her goal is to serve as a hoʻopaʻa ʻōlelo, oral historian, and work with Indigenous Pacific Island communities to document their histories, traditions and culture. Kim-Hee is excited to share the moʻolelo, stories, of her people and it is her hope that by doing so the aloha spirit will carry on.