Statement on Harmful Content in Historical Collection

If you encounter any harmful or offensive language or content in on the Hawaii National Guard History website or in our digitized collection, please contact us at [email protected]. Please also contact us if you have any questions or suggestions about this statement, it is a work in progress, and we welcome feedback.

We are taking the following steps to address offensive language and content in our Historical collection:

  1. Flagging historical materials that contain offensive or harmful language or images. Some materials in collections may contain offensive language or imagery. In the interests of historical integrity, we are not removing these images or words, but we will provide a note about these contents in the description. We do this so that Individuals may decide for themselves if they wish to view an item.
  2. Retaining harmful language in collection descriptions when it is has historic value. Sometimes we retain offensive or harmful terms in descriptions for historical accuracy or to document the issues and social context of a specific time and the attitudes and opinions of the people who created the material. Some situations where this might occur are:
    • An individual identifying themselves by a term that is no longer favored by people within that group
    • Title or language from a published book, article, film, or song.
    • We will sometimes retain language from original historical documents in collection descriptions when it provides additional value.
  3. Favoring terms used by the communities and individuals in our collections and using people-first language. When creating new descriptions and updating old ones, we strive to use terms that communities and individuals used to describe themselves. If that is unclear, we will use people-first language (describing a trait as something a person has rather than who they are, for example, “a person with diabetes” instead of “a diabetic”).

If you have any questions about this statement or about language used elsewhere in our online materials, please contact us at [email protected].

Some of the actions, values and opinions reflected in the Hawaii National Guard’s past do not reflect our current opinions and values. We cannot change the past. Today’s Hawaii National Guard is purposeful and accountable for our actions, culturally sensitive, and respectful to all.