Hawaii's Legacy of Literacy

I found the following TEDxManoa talk by Puakea Nogelmeier quite fascinating. At the time when James Cook landed in Hawai‘i in 1778, Hawai‘i did not have an alphabet/script. Yet, by 1840 Hawai‘i boasts a literacy rate of almost 100%. At the same time, deceases brought in by “the discoverers” decimated the Hawaiian population heavily during the 19th century. Considering that, it is amazing what Hawaiians achieved as a society.