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About
About
Our Name
ʻUluʻulu is a Hawaiian word meaning collections, assembly, or gathering. Our archive is not just a collection of moving image items, but also an assembly of voices, communities, and stories; a gathering place for people to share Hawaiʻi’s culture, traditions and collective memory. Our name honors the memory of Henry Giugni, the first Native Hawaiian to hold the office of the United States Senate Sergeant-At-Arms.
Mission
‘Ulu‘ulu aims to perpetuate and share the rich moving image heritage of Hawai‘i through the preservation of film and videotape related to the history and culture of Native Hawaiians and the people of Hawai‘i.
Guiding Principles
We are the caretakers of the materials in our collections and are dedicated to their safety and preservation to ensure their availability for future generations.
We believe in the sharing of information and making our collections and digital resources accessible to all for research and learning.
We respect the rights and privacy of researchers; of the creators of collection materials; and of the individuals whose images and voices are represented in our holdings.
We are committed to the appropriate cultural use of materials with Native Hawaiian content.
We strive to serve patrons, researchers, our co-workers and the public with courtesy, respect and professionalism.
We achieve our mission through
Cataloging
We use content management software specifically designed for audiovisual materials to create a searchable database of collection items and all associated metadata.
Preservation
We clean and stabilize the physical collection items for safe long-term storage in a climate-controlled environment. We digitize videotapes and films to create digital preservation files that are stored and administered on remote servers.
Access
We provide access to our catalog and to digital video files for research purposes via our Website and in our offices at the University of Hawaiʻi - West Oʻahu James & Abigail Campbell Library.
History
Beginnings
Hawaiʻi’s librarians, archivists, and some early filmmakers always understood the importance of saving Hawaiʻi’s moving image history for future generations.
In 1989 KHET-PBS Hawaiʻi hired a local archivist named Ruth Tamura to undertake a legacy project cataloging Hawaiʻi’s existing films. She found an urgent need, but no funding, facilities, or even the technical know-how to save our film history.
In 2000, filmmaker Esther Figueroa, Ph.D., created the Legacy Foundation dedicated to the preservation of Pacific media and the perpetuation of Pacific cultures and knowledge. Again, without funding the effort came to a halt.
In 2006, to address the urgent crisis of preserving our collective memory of culture and community on celluloid and videotape, Senator Daniel K. Inouye secured a Congressionally-directed grant through the U.S. Department of Education to create the first moving image archive in Hawaiʻi. Named for his longtime friend, aide, and the first Native Hawaiian to hold the office of the United States Senate Sergeant-At-Arms, this archive honors not just Henry Giugni (pronounced Ju-nee) but the memory of kūpuna who have passed and left behind a rich reminder of who we are and where we come from.
Pilot Project (2008-2012)
‘Ulu‘ulu was developed as a project of the Academy for Creative Media System at the University of Hawai‘i and is the first realization of the collaborative foundation of ACM’s system-wide program. The Pilot Project resulted in a 100-page Report on the state of moving image preservation in Hawaiʻi, an implementation plan for establishing an archival facility, a collaborative effort between the Archives and local institutions, filmmakers and educators to create a representative digital collection of Hawaiian film and video, and laid the foundations for a long-term and fully operational Archive through the establishment of a permanent physical location on the UH West Oʻahu campus, and our designation as the official state archive for moving images.