Every multicultural society has a language of power--the language spoken by members of the dominant group or groups--as well as languages that lack power because they are spoken by members of the subordinate group or groups. The ascension of one language over another has long been a source of controversy in Hawai'i, as it has in many parts of the world. In this essay, the author reviews what she has come to understand about Hawai'i Creole (HC) and its relationship to learning to read. The essay is organized around four topics: (1) language, literacy, and power in Hawai'i; (2) HC and literacy learning; (3) resistance to learning literacy in school; and (4) sustained school change to improve the literacy learning of students who speak HC as their primary language.