Congratulations to ʻŌlelo producer Dr. Eva Washburn-Repollo of Chaminade University, who recently won a $100,000 grant to fund a summer program meant to increase Hawaiʻi’s capacity in Filipino culture-based education in K-12 classrooms.
Dr. Washburn-Repollo is an Associate Professor in the Communication Department at Chaminade University. Her ʻŌlelo journey began in 2013 with a multi-faceted series entitled “Ko Makou, Ko Makou Kula (Our Home, Our School) Hawaiian Learning and Culture at Chaminade.” Funded by The Council of Independent Colleges/Walmart Success Awards, Eva was tasked to create documentaries designed to enrich the curriculum of Chaminade University through an understanding of Pacific Island cultures. The project expanded to include documentaries for students and parents of Samoa and Micronesia.
Additionally, she wrote and produced ATONG GITUKOD: We Built It, a powerful story showcasing the donation of 40 homes in Bohol and Leyte through the Congress of Visayan Organizations and the Hawaiʻi Community.
Today, Dr. Washburn-Repollo is hard at work producing her ʻŌlelo series Sugilanon: Stories from Different Places.
SUGILANON is a Visayan word from the Philippines that means “story”. Inside the word is the word SUGILON – to tell, to report, to whisper, to let someone know. Those who tell these stories are tasked with a sacred trust: that others should be told about what happened, or else. They are like secrets that are ready to be told.
Through ʻŌlelo, Dr. Washburn-Repollo has adopted a flexible storytelling style, allowing her to
understand the value of collaborating with other artists. She states, “Just knowing that there is a place for the community to share their projects with open arms, with a sense of freedom, gave me a way to have my work viewed by the public especially in a medium where financial support is guaranteed to help artists achieve more.”
Sugilanon: Stories from Different Places airs every 2nd Saturday at 6:00 PM and Thursdays at 4:30 PM on on ʻŌlelo 53. You can also watch it on ʻŌlelo’s on demand service OleloNet as well as on ʻŌlelo’s mobile app.
For more information about Dr. Washburn-Repollo’s grant, CLICK HERE.