In the beginning of this article the author starts out with two comparisons.  She starts out comparing the knowledge that she received from two different perspectives.  The knowledge about her culture from her mother and then the knowledge from her school.  Then she says that “not merely a passageway to knowledge, language is a form of knowing by itself.”  What I think she means by this part is that the white American when they came to take over Hawaii did not take the language they still spoke English and did not inherit the language.  So she is trying to say that by them not knowing the language they do not know what Hawaii is.  Because language in it’s self is a form of knowing.  Then she learned from her mother that the Hawaiian people used to dance in great numbers for long hours; and honored the unity of their world in intricate genealogical chants.  Then in the second part of her quote where she says “a people’s way of thinking and feeling is revealed through its music.”  What she means by this is that when she learned about her people in school she learned that they could not sing.  So was what her mother told her wrong or was her mother confused?  And then she supports what she has learned from her mother by saying that the way they think and feel is revealed through their music.  So in conclusion I think that what she means by this quote is that their language and their singing is who they are and that is what makes them Hawaiian, and no American can come and take that away just by taking over Hawaii.