Candace Galla

Dr. Candace Galla

Associate Professor

Biography

Aloha kāua! He Kanaka Hawaiʻi au. ʻO Hawaiʻi kuʻu one hānau. Raised in a sugar plantation town, Pāhala in Kaʻū, I was exposed to a diversity of languages and cultures from a young age – some of which had influence on Hawaiian Creole English (also referred to as Hawaiian Pidgin). Although ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian) was not spoken in my home, I engaged in Hawaiian cultural practices – specifically hula. Through hula I began to learn ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, which is the foundation of hula and without it cannot exist. I continued to learn Hawaiian language and culture formally at Kamehameha Schools Kapālama. Upon graduation, I attended the University of Arizona on the original homelands of the Tohono O’odham and Pascua Yaqui nations where I received a B.A. in Linguistics, an M.A. in Native American Linguistics and a Ph.D. in Language, Reading and Culture. While I resided in Tucson, I was the Program Coordinator of the American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI) – the program that reignited my passion back into language renewal and inspired my research on Indigenous language revitalization and technology. I returned to Hawaiʻi and taught in Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani College of Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaiʻi Hilo where I taught linguistics and Indigenous language education courses. As an Associate Professor in the department of Language and Literacy Education (Faculty of Education) and the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies (Faculty of Arts) at the University of British Columbia, I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and teach on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking Musqueam people.

Research

My scholarship emphasizes 1) Hawaiian language and Indigenous languages at the intersection of education, revitalization, digital technology, well-being, traditional and cultural practices, and policy and planning, and 2) decolonizing and Indigenizing the academy to create pathways for Indigenous thinkers and scholars, and scholarship. 

Select Research Projects:

• (Re)Constructing Native Hawaiian Identities, Histories, and Contemporary Realities in the Pacific Northwest: Maintaining Kanaka and Local Indigenous Ancestral Relations
• Relational Lexicography: New Approaches to Community-Informed Dictionary Work
• Digital Technology Use for First Nations Language Education and Revitalization in British Columbia

Media

Select Media:

• Garcha, N. (2021, April 13). Navigating name diversity: why getting it right matters. Global News, Canada
• Sterrit, A. (2021, March 25). Woman’s request to register business in her Indigenous language denied by B.C. government. CBC News, Canada
• Zhao, S. (2019, August 14). UBC faculty members join Mauna Kea protesters in calling for the removal of telescope project from Indigenous land. The Ubyssey, Canada
• Deerchild, R. (2018, November 30). Indigenous language: finding new ways to connect with culture. CBC Radio Unreserved, Canada
• Clarkson, B. (2018, October 13). First film in Haida Language makes waves at film festival. Global News, Canada
• Sterritt, A. (2018, October 3). B.C. should give its 34 Indigenous languages official status, advocates say. CBC News, Canada
• Amos, H. (2012, July 4). Hula Power. UBC Reports, Canada

Projects

Materials Development for Indigenous Language Learning
Students participated in a community-led project in partnership with a B.C. First Nation community. Indigenous language materials were created with contributions from Elders, language teachers, language speakers/learners, and youth, based on two themes: baskets and food.

Indigenous Language Fluency/Proficiency Degree
The Indigenous Language Fluency/Proficiency Degree Framework is the culmination of several years of work to first articulate a need and approach to developing a degree, and then a consensus on how nested certificates, diplomas, and degrees could be linked across the Province. The objective is to provide the best possible eco-system for Indigenous communities to work with allies to protect and restore their linguistic heritage.

Courses

LLED 527: Materials Development for Indigenous Language Learning and Teaching

LLED 565: Indigenous Language and Culture Education

LLED 565: Living Our Indigenous Languages Through Performative Arts

EDUC 440: Aboriginal Education in Canada

ETEC 521: Indigeneity, Technology, and Education

EDST 545: Indigenous Inquiry and Research

FNEL 180: Introduction to Endangered Language Documentation and Revitalization

FNEL 380: Technologies for Endangered Language Documentation and Revitalization

FNEL 480A: Endangered Language Documentation and Revitalization

FNEL 481: Heritage Resources in Endangered First Nations Language Revitalization

Community Work

• April 13, 2013 – Living Our Indigenous Languages in a Multimedia Technology Enhanced World
• February 21, 2012 – Living Our Indigenous Languages: Bringing Together Local, Community, and Academic Resources

Selected Publications

Galla, C.K. & Holmes, Amanda. (2020).

Indigenous Thinkers: Decolonizing and Transforming the Academy through Indigenous Relationality. In Cote-Meek, S. & Moeke-Pickering, T. (Eds.), Decolonizing and Indigenzing Education in Canada (pp. 51-71). Toronto: Canadian Scholars

Galla, C.K. & Wilson, W.H. (2019).

Early and emergent literacy practices as a foundation to Hawaiian language medium education. In Sherris, A. & Peyton, J.K. (Eds.), Teaching Writing to Children in Indigenous Languages: Instructional practices from global contexts (pp. 25-43). NY/London: Routledge

Galla, CK. & Goodwill, A. (2017).

Talking story with vital voices: Making knowledge with Indigenous language. Journal of Indigenous Wellbeing, 2(3), 67-75. https://journalindigenouswellbeing.com/media/2017/12/88.89.Talking-story-with-vital-voices-Making-knowledge-with-indigenous-language.pdf

Galla, C.K. (2017).

Materials development for Indigenous language revitalization: Pedagogy, praxis and possibilities, In McKinley, E. & Smith, L.T. (Eds.), Handbook of Indigenous Education (pp. 1-19). Singapore: Springer. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-10-1839-8_12-1

Wyman, L., Galla, C.K., & Jimenez-Quispe, L. (2016).

Indigenous youth language resources, educational sovereignty, and praxis: Connecting a new body of language planning research to the work of Richard Ruiz. In N. Hornberger (Ed.), Honoring Richard Ruiz and his work on language planning and bilingual education (pp. 395–429). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Galla, C.K. (2016).

Indigenous language revitalization, promotion, and education: Function of digital technology. Computer Assisted Language Learning, doi: 10.1080/09588221.2016.1166137

Galla, C.K., Galla, L., Keawe, D., Kimura, L. (2015).

Perpetuating hula: Globalization and the traditional art. Pacific Arts, 14(1–2), 129–140.

Selected Presentations