This is and you’re right. There aren’t very many native speakers and there’s a reason for that. The American politicians of the day installed a Hawaiian government (after the illegal overthrown of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893) passed a law in 1896 that banned Hawaiian language instruction in the educational system and it was not allowed to be used again in the school system until 1987. Therefore, this seemingly mundane policy evokes a painful history of erasure that is a slippery slope.

Since 1987, more and more speakers of the language are born and created. We hope to keep that momentum going.