Wa’a, Source of Ancient Wisdom, Sailing to the Future
By Jan Wizinowich
South Pacific voyaging canoes
Hoku’lea’s 1976 voyage to Tahiti inspired a renaissance of Hawaiian Culture that continues to gather strength like a tsunami sweeping the Pacific. The wa’a or canoe is at the center of that wave, a source of freedom, discovery and sustenance, forming a link to the ancient wisdom born from a knowledge of and deep connection to the natural world. The whole process of building a canoe is a unifying one that connects the forest to the ocean and requires that people pull together. Finding the right tree, following the protocol for cutting and preparing it, working together to bring it on its first journey from forest to the ocean shore, the canoe emerges. The canoe builder has ancient knowledge that allows him to enter into a dialogue with the spirit waiting within the log to take shape. The ‘ohana becomes attuned to that voice and is drawn into the anticipation of discovery, like waiting for the birth of a child.
The recent arrival of seven voyaging canoes from the South Pacific, (see: http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu), highlights this increasing reconnection with ancient knowledge and wisdom and a new solidarity between Pacific Islanders. This tremendous effort was made possible through many smaller efforts, just as the renaissance of Hawaiian Culture has come about through the efforts of many individuals joining their energies to perpetuate a path that will sustain future generations.
The recent arrival of seven voyaging canoes from the South Pacific, (see: http://pvs.kcc.hawaii.edu), highlights this increasing reconnection with ancient knowledge and wisdom and a new solidarity between Pacific Islanders. This tremendous effort was made possible through many smaller efforts, just as the renaissance of Hawaiian Culture has come about through the efforts of many individuals joining their energies to perpetuate a path that will sustain future generations.
Kimo and the HAAS canoe
One such small, but significant effort at Hawaii Academy of Arts and Sciences (HAAS) in Pahoa, has reached completion this year. Arriving at HAAS to meet Kimo Peleiholani-Blankenfeld , the canoe builder, we walk through the rain to the back of the school where the canoe rests under an open sided work area. Beyond, there is an expansive school garden, lush with food. Kimo and his wife, Mahealani arrive with big aloha smiles, offering a grounded, clear-eyed presence.
The story of this canoe began in New Zealand, the point of origination of 8 rare New Zealand or Kauri pine seedlings planted at the state arboretum in Hilo and also the point of origin of one of the seven recently arrived voyaging canoes. The source of the log for the canoe is owed to the serendipitous aloha forces always at work here. Just as characters can sometimes be in search of an author, a very special log was in search of a canoe builder. “Three years ago just before I started this they had a storm and one of the trees fell over and they said it was termite eaten…. so they had this one guy cut all the trees down and the last one they cut down was this one, didn’t have termites. And just so happened they had something for Obama, a rally in Hilo and Steve went, Hirakami he’s the head master of the school. When he went he met the guy who cut em down, that’s his good friend. So they was talking and by the time they left there he told him that they had this log sitting over there and he told him that if he wanted they were going to donate it to the school and he called me the next day and he asked me if I wanted to work the canoe. I said, "Sure!”
Kimo’s canoe building life began on O’ahu, but was soon to take him all over the Pacific and the Hawaiian Islands. Kimo and his five siblings grew up in Honolulu, “Right there on the ocean in Kulio’o. So we always surfing, paddling canoe from 9 year-old, 10 year-old.” His early experience with canoe building was with master builder, Wright Bowman. “I knew Mr. Bowman from when I was 9 or 10. He was always a canoe builder from when I was a small kid.” Then at the age of 15 Kimo met his destiny when Puaniho Tauotaha entered his life. “I learned to make canoes from my hanai father from Tahiti. From when I was 15 I started working. From then on I just chucked it all in and worked on canoes.” This began an odyssey throughout the Hawaiian Islands and Tahiti. “From then on I traveled all around the Islands with him and Tahiti building canoes...He told me he built over three or four hundred canoes.”
The story of this canoe began in New Zealand, the point of origination of 8 rare New Zealand or Kauri pine seedlings planted at the state arboretum in Hilo and also the point of origin of one of the seven recently arrived voyaging canoes. The source of the log for the canoe is owed to the serendipitous aloha forces always at work here. Just as characters can sometimes be in search of an author, a very special log was in search of a canoe builder. “Three years ago just before I started this they had a storm and one of the trees fell over and they said it was termite eaten…. so they had this one guy cut all the trees down and the last one they cut down was this one, didn’t have termites. And just so happened they had something for Obama, a rally in Hilo and Steve went, Hirakami he’s the head master of the school. When he went he met the guy who cut em down, that’s his good friend. So they was talking and by the time they left there he told him that they had this log sitting over there and he told him that if he wanted they were going to donate it to the school and he called me the next day and he asked me if I wanted to work the canoe. I said, "Sure!”
Kimo’s canoe building life began on O’ahu, but was soon to take him all over the Pacific and the Hawaiian Islands. Kimo and his five siblings grew up in Honolulu, “Right there on the ocean in Kulio’o. So we always surfing, paddling canoe from 9 year-old, 10 year-old.” His early experience with canoe building was with master builder, Wright Bowman. “I knew Mr. Bowman from when I was 9 or 10. He was always a canoe builder from when I was a small kid.” Then at the age of 15 Kimo met his destiny when Puaniho Tauotaha entered his life. “I learned to make canoes from my hanai father from Tahiti. From when I was 15 I started working. From then on I just chucked it all in and worked on canoes.” This began an odyssey throughout the Hawaiian Islands and Tahiti. “From then on I traveled all around the Islands with him and Tahiti building canoes...He told me he built over three or four hundred canoes.”
In the case of the HAAS canoe the log came to Kimo, but the building process usually begins in the forest. “When looking in the forest for a canoe log, “My father told me, ‘When you pick the canoe [log] in the forest and we’re standing up where the sun hits every day from the morning. In reality this side is like the hardest side already because it’s being baked everyday, everyday. He would make an X on the tree so when it fell down you would know exactly which side we going to use.” After the log is found and cut,“… we would work em up in the valley or wherever we found them in the mountains. Carve em pretty much for a couple of days and then drag em out with the family, then trailer them home and work on em inside the canoe shed.”
Ancient knowledge handed down through the generations was closely guarded. Kimo was the only person outside the ‘ohana to which Tauotaha passed on canoe building knowledge. “He didn’t teach anybody outside of his family besides me for building canoes. Lot of times we would be working and people would come around to see how he was doing stuff, he’d stop working and we’d just sit there and talk story until they left. Then we go back to work.”
Ancient knowledge handed down through the generations was closely guarded. Kimo was the only person outside the ‘ohana to which Tauotaha passed on canoe building knowledge. “He didn’t teach anybody outside of his family besides me for building canoes. Lot of times we would be working and people would come around to see how he was doing stuff, he’d stop working and we’d just sit there and talk story until they left. Then we go back to work.”
Puaniho, Tahitian waʽa building master
In the Hawaiian Islands, Kimo and Puaniho built racing canoes for various island clubs. “Mostly we did all racing canoes in Hawaii. Kauai, Lanai, up on the Big Island, we did for Kaupua, Hui Nalu in Honolulu. We did canoes up for Kalapana. Then we went to Maui. So pretty much all the islands we touched and went around.”
The project on Maui proved to be a bit more challenging. “The one in Maui was an old canoe John Lake built in the 30’s. By the time we went over there in the 80’s it was in disrepair. Had only like the bottom part of the canoe. Everything else was all rotten and we went and built it back up from scratch. It only looked like one feed trough when we started. From there we finished it just like this to the end and they’re racing it today for Maui for the Hawaiian Canoe Club.” The challenge was patching together the sides and the bottom. “All glues, just glue. We got one patching machine. I swear one side had about 200 patches. But when we finished was all good. The manu (the piece that covers the front and back of the canoe) for the canoe, the front and back manu comes from Kalapana, from the log we used to build the canoe for Kalapana. We brought em over there and we put em on. Was nice.”
Mahealani Peleiholani
Kimo moved to Kalapana about 30 years ago when he was twenty and married into the Peleiholani family, whose residence in Kalapana traces back to the early 1800’s when Chief Peleiholani moved the ‘ohana from O’ahu. Kimo and Mahealani have seven children, six girls and one boy and they are all involved with the canoe. “Everyone from baby all the way up work on the canoe.”
Because the log was already in place, Kimo’s first task was to examine it to decide which side would be the bottom. After the bottom of the canoe is identified, a sort of sculpting process begins. “The first thing we did was the top. We cut off the top. And then we drew the lines for the sides. Then as soon as we got the lines for the side that was the second thing to come off. Once we got the sides off we tip it on the side and we did the bottom to get the shape we wanted. We shaped the bottom with hand planers, electric planers.”
Because the log was already in place, Kimo’s first task was to examine it to decide which side would be the bottom. After the bottom of the canoe is identified, a sort of sculpting process begins. “The first thing we did was the top. We cut off the top. And then we drew the lines for the sides. Then as soon as we got the lines for the side that was the second thing to come off. Once we got the sides off we tip it on the side and we did the bottom to get the shape we wanted. We shaped the bottom with hand planers, electric planers.”
There is a protocol for the order in which the work is done. “We do the outside first then we do the inside. Because we got to finish the outside first cause if you take the inside, could make it too thin. You got to get the whole shape done on the outside, then once you finish the whole shape you go in and jam the inside.” This is done using a chain saw; several grooves are cut along the log and then an adze is used to finish carving it out. Getting the inside shaped right takes experience and is done, “Pretty much by feel…… So mostly, when we working on the inside, when we finished, usually we come down to one inch, maybe ¾ inch. Pretty much from tapping on the bottom of the hull you can see dust or whatever jumping on the inside. I knew this thing would be light so I left if thick. Leaving it thick makes the boat more strong. I swear maybe two guys can lift it.”
After the shaping, the manu are constructed and fitted on the canoe. Then the iako (the arms that reach out from the side) and the ama (the piece that is held by the iako) is attached. “The ama and the iako are made out of hao. Even in Tahiti the ama is made out of hao.” At various stages there is much sanding and finishing to be done, for which Kimo was assisted by HAAS students. “The group that was helping me was working the fish ponds in Kapoho and they working the fish ponds in Keokaha. The days they weren’t traveling back and forth they were coming and helping me work on the canoe.”
Kimo wanted the canoe to be one solid piece so he had to work with the dimensions of the log. It’s “not actually a racing canoe. It was short yeah. Usually for a racing canoe it’s 45 feet long. This one is 32 feet [so] I only made it for 5 man.” That way the paddlers have room and will avoid hitting each other and there will be room for an extra paddle. “Number 5 has room for seating and then they can put an extra steering paddle in back. Cause usually if the paddle breaks the steersman has an extra paddle in back or either that or he gonna take the one in front of him. Somebody got to steer. If they’re racing or doing long distance they got extra paddles one on each of the iako.”
Kimo wanted the canoe to be one solid piece so he had to work with the dimensions of the log. It’s “not actually a racing canoe. It was short yeah. Usually for a racing canoe it’s 45 feet long. This one is 32 feet [so] I only made it for 5 man.” That way the paddlers have room and will avoid hitting each other and there will be room for an extra paddle. “Number 5 has room for seating and then they can put an extra steering paddle in back. Cause usually if the paddle breaks the steersman has an extra paddle in back or either that or he gonna take the one in front of him. Somebody got to steer. If they’re racing or doing long distance they got extra paddles one on each of the iako.”
However it is possible to lengthen a canoe by setting another piece in the center, which is perhaps becoming more necessary with the dwindling supply of canoe logs of sufficient length. “One of the canoes we did [in Honolulu] we had to add on another 9 feet. We took it to Mr. Bowman. He was the master canoe builder in Hawaii. We learned from him plenty. We went to him and took the template from one of the canoes we built in Honolulu. We took it up to his house and he figured out all the designs, all the cuts. He cut it out for us one night and we went in the morning and glued it all together. Next we went back, took the whole piece to the canoe we was working on. We set it right next to the canoe and it was exactly the same shape. The canoe is now at “...the Hui Nalu Canoe Club, that’s one of the fastest boats they got over there.”
The name for the HAAS canoe, Hana Ka Naia (working dolphin), seemed to be a whisper from the canoe itself and the magic surrounding its creation. “You just talk to the tutus and talk to the spirits. I just asked my tutus and that name came to me. I went to talk to Steve and I said, ‘Hey Steve, when I finished the manu, I’m going to put the iwa birds on the back and on the front manu I’m going to put a couple dolphins.’ Every time you’re on the ocean in boats, dolphins are always in front and if you look in the sky you always got the iwa above.”
The vital tradition of the canoe is being kept alive and growing throughout the Pacific, through the efforts of people like Kimo who give of themselves to the keiki, the ‘aina and the Akua, whose presence preserves and protects the culture that connects all the islands of the Pacific. “I’ve been doing other things for awhile but first was the canoes. I want to get back to the canoe. I want to try and make a project and go to the schools and teach all the kids how to build them. If they want to learn our culture, that’s our culture, was based on the canoe. How we came to Hawaii was the canoe. For our whole culture the canoe was the first.”
The name for the HAAS canoe, Hana Ka Naia (working dolphin), seemed to be a whisper from the canoe itself and the magic surrounding its creation. “You just talk to the tutus and talk to the spirits. I just asked my tutus and that name came to me. I went to talk to Steve and I said, ‘Hey Steve, when I finished the manu, I’m going to put the iwa birds on the back and on the front manu I’m going to put a couple dolphins.’ Every time you’re on the ocean in boats, dolphins are always in front and if you look in the sky you always got the iwa above.”
The vital tradition of the canoe is being kept alive and growing throughout the Pacific, through the efforts of people like Kimo who give of themselves to the keiki, the ‘aina and the Akua, whose presence preserves and protects the culture that connects all the islands of the Pacific. “I’ve been doing other things for awhile but first was the canoes. I want to get back to the canoe. I want to try and make a project and go to the schools and teach all the kids how to build them. If they want to learn our culture, that’s our culture, was based on the canoe. How we came to Hawaii was the canoe. For our whole culture the canoe was the first.”
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