Reading the core texts of Hawaiian and Church history in the Pacific has helped BYU–Hawaii’s Archivist Brooks Haderlie go through a “cultural refocus” and increased his love for the community and the culture.
After four and a half years of working in the Joseph F. Smith Library and more than 20 years of experience working as an archivist, Haderlie will be retiring in September.
“I made it my goal to understand people who live here today, their ancestors and how they have come here.”
Haderlie and his wife, Laurie Haderlie, have traveled to all six of the accessible islands to visit special Church and Hawaiian historical sites and gained a better understanding of the Hawaiian people. He said he is grateful his wife is enthusiastic about Church history in the Pacific since she has gone to all the locations with him.
They enjoy seeing where people worshiped God while also seeing their sense of ohana and focus on family, he said. “[My wife and I] are serious about preserving the culture and the history of the place.”
He said they have been to Pulehu to visit the oldest Church chapel in Hawaii; Kalaupapa and the leper colony; Lanai, the original gathering place for saints in the Pacific; and the Ka’ahumanu Church on Maui.
According to Haderlie, the Ka’ahumanu Church is where George Q. Cannon, the co-translator of the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian, attended a service in a church building in front of Jonathan Napela’s house where Reverend Conde railed against the “Mormons.” After the service, Elder Cannon had a discussion with the Reverend about the falsehoods he was preaching. This discussion eventually led to Napela’s conversion. Napela helped Elder Cannon translate the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian.
Haderlie said he is a hands-on learner, so learning about these sites and having the opportunity to visit them allowed him to gain more understanding of the history and culture and to help preserve them.
Marynelle Chew, head of Access & Collections Services in the Joseph F. Smith Library, said ever since Haderlie arrived at BYUH, he enthusiastically embraced all Hawaii had to offer and wanted to learn everything he could about Hawaii.
Haderlie said, “From day one, people were open and welcoming. My wife and I started looking for places to learn about, … and we would go as often as we could and post our experience[s] on Facebook. What was interesting was our neighbors would ask us where we’re going [every] weekend, which has … [helped us] assimilate faster into the community.”
Coming to Laie
Before working at BYUH, Haderlie said he worked at the BYU in Provo and BYU–Idaho campuses, in Germany and in Ohio.
He said he found out about the position in Laie at an annual librarian and archivist convention. Initially, he and his wife joked about applying for the position, he said. However, later he was interviewed and offered the job.
He said when he was offered his job at BYUH, he received a spiritual impression to go to the temple and pray about the decision. “[My wife and I] received the strongest spiritual confirmation in our entire lives that this was what we were supposed to do.”
Haderlie said, “What an exciting thing to think that Heavenly Father knows us and knows where we need to be. All our experiences have helped me see why we needed to be here. It’s not just one aspect, but the bigger picture.”
When he arrived on campus, he said there was work to do. He recalled talking about a prominent European figure in history, but the person he was talking to didn’t know who he was. “That’s when it hit me with full force that I am in a different environment, and I needed to switch from having a European-centric mindset to having a Polynesian and Pacific mindset.”
After this experience, he said he spent every night reading books about Hawaiian history and culture, in conjunction with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint’s history in the Pacific.
He said reading will only take people so far in understanding the culture. True understanding comes from living amongst the people to learn who they are, their stories, testimonies and faith, he explained.
Digitizing the Archives
During his time on campus, Haderlie created a class for non-science majors on information literacy and helped create a database where people can see all the artifacts in the Archives along with oral histories, he shared. He said he has been working with others in the library on making all the things in the Archives universally accessible.
Haderlie observed, “Archivists have changed from being protectors to publishers, and we want to make things accessible to people.”
Eric Marlowe, an associate professor in the Faculty of Religious Education, said Haderlie creating a database for the archives to be accessible increases the ability for people to view and use the archives. Marlowe said this will have an impact for years.
Marlowe expressed his appreciation of Haderlie’s contributions as well as his ability to find information. He stated, “The campus community and interested historians are all better off for what Brooks has done to enhance our library archives, and his personal and ‘extra mile’ willingness to help will be missed.”
Haderlie said the Lord works in mysterious ways and, over the years, he has been able to help with the research for three books that have been written about the history of the Church and the temple.
Mark James, a retired BYUH professor in the Faculty of Education & Social Work, and a friend of Haderlie, said, “I have relied on his expertise and resources many times, particularly during the 2019 centennial celebrations for the Laie Hawaii Temple.”
For the 100-year anniversary of the Laie Hawaii Temple in 2019, Marlowe and Clinton Christensen, from the Church’s History Department, wrote two books about the temple and worked with Haderlie to gather information and photos.
Additionally, Haderlie said because of his research on Laie and the Language Training Mission that was on campus, he has been able to uncover information about the early years of the school and missionaries who were here at that time.
According to the Church’s official website, Laie served as a Language Training Mission in the 1970s, where missionaries would be sent at the beginning of their mission to learn a new language. In Laie, Japanese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Samoan, Tongan, Korean and Tahitian were taught.
Retirement
With retirement approaching, he said he is excited to return to Idaho and spend time with his children and grandchildren. Even though they don’t have any set plans yet, Haderlie said as they settle into retirement, he is looking forward to possibly going on a mission or two with his wife and traveling more.