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Me Ke Aloha Kumu Pua

11/26/2014

North Hawai'i News, November 25th

Pua, Liana Aveiro and Jackie Sills at Parker School May Day

Pua Garmon was an old soul and a force of nature whose source was the Hawaiian culture of her Kanaka`ole Clan roots. She perpetuated and embodied the direct legacies from her grandmother Edith Kanaka`ole, her mother Ulu Garmon and her aunties Pualani Kanaka`ole Kanahele and Nālani Kanaka`ole, working tirelessly to keep the spirit of the ancestors alive. “It's all involved with hula. It's all connected. No matter what you do, it still goes back to the hula,” said mom, Ulu Garmon. Sister Leiola Garmon-Mitchell added, “As a family, we just always had a function. We were constantly going, whether it was Edith Kanaka'ole foundation or other performances. We traveled with my cousin Kekuhi and sang. In our family, it didn't matter what you did, you would do.”
Parker School staff member, Eric Sills grew up with Pua and her siblings and also saw her in action there when she began in 2009. “She carried herself, just so regal. She had a different capacity. It's hard to explain. Her background with hula and her family and the chants and the songs and not just the sacred with her family but the outside, the shopping center hula or just making a song right then and there. She had a gift. She seemed to be an old soul that was in modern day.”
Pua lived in the Kanaka`ole “compound” in Keaukaha until she finished seventh grade, when she moved to Waimea to join her immediate family, who had moved there the year before. After graduating from Waimea Middle School, Pua joined her classmates at Honoka`a High School. Mom, Ulu soon got a call. “Nakamura, the counselor called me on it. They have this split, Waimea and Honoka'a and he was kind of worried about her. And I said, ‘Find something she can get involved in,’ and he did and they (Honoka'a, Waimea folks) have remained friends to this day, all of them. They had their reunion when she passed away. And of course they miss her and they’re screaming at her too, 'How dare you?'

Sister Leiola and the display of cards from students

Pua’s family is party central and Pua was the whirlwind at the center. “Pua was on it with everything. Cooking, setup, presentation. Everything had to have presentation. We are a family of celebration. That's who we are. We celebrate,” said Garmon-Mitchell, who inherits the kuleana. “She had instilled that in me already so that when people came, (to pay respect) I stepped right into her shoes. It lasted for days. You know that night we must have had almost 150 people at our home.” Ulu comments, “She’s the only one in the world who wears an apron,” and Garmon-Mitchell adds, “I have her apron and I will wear it proudly on Thanksgiving.”
          Along with her husband Sebastian Kalili and three sons Puna, Puhukula and Kanaele, hula was her source, but Pua gave her time to the community in many different ways. “She volunteered a lot cause that's how my mom made us. For many years she volunteered at the Honoka'a High School's alumni concert every year with Gary Washburn and the Relay for Life in Honoka'a. She was also an m.c. for the Waimea Christmas parade, a committee chair person for the Hawaii Island Festivals, a coordinator and chairperson for the Clyde Kindy Sproat Falsetto contest and part of the Paniolo Parade and ho'olaulea. Also we're part of the workshops and registration, all the internal for Moku o Keawe. She also volunteered with Liana Aveiro and Halau Wai`au and Halau Hula Ka Noe`au for the annual Hawaiian Christmas Calabash Concert. Every year they do it and it's a community thing. It's for the kids,” said Garmon-Mitchell.
          For Pua that was what it was all about; she was magic with the kids. A Hawaiian studies teacher at Waimea Elementary, she also coordinated their May Day program. Pua also worked with Parker School elementary students on Hawaiian studies and May Day and with the senior’s for their graduation hula. “When she delivers a piece, her kids get it. And not only do they get it but they take it home with them. Pua's purpose was to educate them and enrich them so that they take it home and they teach it. That's how it continues,” said Garmon-Mitchell. Parker School faculty member Jackie Sills recalls, “Pua made everything come alive when she shared the history. She didn't just recite it. It came alive in her eyes and the kids were excited to learn the chants and excited to perform them. It came alive at May Day.”
     Pua knew how to reach all of her students with firmness and aloha. “The kids just respected her. She had that fine balance of being firm but always loving. The kids never felt like they were in trouble. They just wanted to rise up to her expectations,” said Sills. No matter what kind of students she had, Pua touched their spirits. Ulu Garmon remembers, “All of these boys will give her a hard time, right up until the day. And then front row, they'll bring tears to your eyes because they are on it.”

Pua’s legacy lives on in the hearts of the students and colleagues whose lives she touched. “A lot of them referred to her as the sun, as sunshine. This is who she was to them, this is what she portrayed to them. Light, energy, a power source,” said Garmon-Mitchell. A big spirit, big heart, connection and light were qualities evident in dozens of cards from students:

“I drew this because every time Kumu Pua came into the class, she was like the sun that lit us up and she was ready for anything that was in her way.”

“Dear Kumu Pua, This image represents the Kumu Pua I knew and I think of. On Mauna Awakea, the lady who lives there, Poliahu, represents how Kumu was capable of so much. Ka makani, her beautiful voice, Mahina like her different shades of grey and black in her long flowing hair. The kai, her strength. The lei, my many memories of her. The pua, her watching us. Her big heart, her loving smile.”

“My design represents Kumu Pua. The reason I drew my flower so big is because I will always remember how she made a big heart and how her beauty always shined. I will always remember you in my heart Kumu Pua.”

“I drew this because the rock is tough and Kumu Pua was very strong in life. Especially when she chanted. The lei means that all of the students grace her and will always remember her.”

“Stars remind me of Kumu Pua. They last a long time and Kumu Pua will last forever in our hearts, in our minds.”

The Two “Puas”
We were the two “Puas”,
The two who every year shared the gym, scheduled our practices,
Borrowed each other’s kahilis and headed to our May Day Programs.
We were the two “Puas”,
Who said every year that one day we’d just be the Queens of our May Days,
One day we still will!
I will miss you this year sister, it won’t be the same,
But I’ll honor your memory and save you a seat and know that you’ll be,
The light shining, me ke aloha.

---Pua Case

Kumu Pua will be remembered at the upcoming KArts program at the Kahilu Theater. To those who knew her, she is still with us. A playful wind, a sudden shower. Reminders of the beauty of our lives.

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Make Strong: Hawaii Island Celebrates Independence Day Special to North Hawaii News: November 18, 2014

11/20/2014

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Kīpuka are defined as, “…a calm place in a high sea, a deep place in a shoal” and in a sense, La Ku`oko`a or Hawaiian Independence Day, which will be celebrated on November 28th at Kahilu Town Hall and its hosts, The Royal Order of Kamehameha I, share a deep place in the shoal of time reaching back into the nineteenth century when La Ku`oko`a, was declared by Kamehameha III in 1843; and The Royal Order of Kamehameha I, declared by Kamehameha V in 1865.
        La Ku`oko`a, which is always celebrated on November 28th, was created to recognize the Hawaiian Kingdom as an independent nation and a member of the European family of nations. “The Hawaiian Kingdom was formally recognized through treaty and had standing in the world of nations,” said Ski Kwiatkowski, one of the chiefs of the newly established The Royal Order of Kamehameha, Moku O Kohala. On November 28, 1843, Kamehameha III sent Timoteo Ha'alilio, William Richards and Sir George Simpson as envoys to America and Europe to obtain treaties that would recognize the Hawaiian Kingdom as a nation among the world of nations. This history and more will be shared in a power point presentation by Hawaiian scholar Kalaniakea Wilson, “a member [Royal Order of Kamehameha I] who is an educator at Kamehameha Schools in Kona and wrote his master’s thesis in Hawaiian,” said Kwiatkowski.
       After its inception, Hawaiian Independence Day was a large public festival with horseback riding, lu`au and traditional games until 1895 and continuously after that as an unofficial holiday. In the last decade, the public celebration of Hawaiian Independence Day has been re-established and Hawaii Island is about to have its second commemoration. “This is the second annual but the first time we’re actually having a real organized event. We hope to attract a wider community so we can share information and help folks understand,” said Kwiatkowski.
       The day will begin at 7 a.m at the King Kamehameha I statue in Kapa`au, the starting point of a circle island convoy that will travel to Pu`ukoholā Heiau, Ahu`ena Heiau and Pu`uhonua o Hōnaunau in Kona, Punalu`u in Ka`ū, Kamehameha statue in Hilo, Honoka`a and ending up at the Kahilu Town Hall in Waimea where the rest of the celebration with take place from 3 to 6 p.m. with refreshments and cultural demonstrations.
        The event sponsors, The Royal Order of Kamehameha I, is a Hawaiian organization of men that came about because, “Kamehameha V saw which way things were going and he knew eventually that the old customs would be lost and he wanted a Hawaiian organization to perpetuate the customs and rituals not commonly seen by the general public,” said Kwiatkowski. According to Kwiatkowski the mission of The Royal Order of Kamehameha I is to “Educate the community at large, to protect historic sites and keep a wary eye on development to make sure things are being done according to the laws of Hawaii.”
       The Moku o Kohala was formed in March 2011 and was asked by Dan Kawaiaea, superintendent of the Pu`ukoholā Heiau, to represent Kohala at the annual Ho`oku`ikahi (To Unify as One), celebration. “He felt that there should be representation at the place where Kamehameha started the unification of the islands,” said Kwiatkowski. Moku o Kohala also provides weekly cultural demonstrations January through June at Pu`ukoholā Heiau.
       Other meanings of kīpuka are an opening in the forest or a break in the clouds, opportunities to learn and see more clearly and this event is just one of the myriad kīpuka available to glean the history and spirit that make the Islands unique, irreplaceable and deserving of preservation.

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Riding the Currents of Nā Kūpuna: E Lauhoe Wa`a Session II Sails to Volcano

11/18/2014

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Session two of the E Lauhoe Wa`a educator program offered by Nā Kālai Wa`a took place in Volcano and the Keauhou forest on October 24th and 25th. Ranging from after dark crater rim offerings to Pele with Halemaumau glowing in the distance to native tree planting, this holistic program weaves together myth, chant and story with the tangible skills of voyaging, such as plotting, this session’s sailing focus. After an evening offering to Pele, we returned to KMC to be treated to the story of Pele’s migration and historical place names, names buried under layers of human activity across the millennia, but which tell the stories of origin.

Roxanne Stewart looks on as students plot a course.

On Saturday morning we gathered on the grass in front of KMC to chant the rising sun, feel the solid comfort of Mauna Loa and wonder at the flow of clouds and birds. After breakfast Roxanne Stewart, resource teacher from Ka `Umeke Kā`eo Public Charter School in Keaau, provided an introduction to Papaku Makawalu, a system of knowledge derived from the Kumulipo, (an ancient Hawaiian creation chant), that provides a way for learners to categorize and organize the natural world and encourages them to engage in keen observation. “It's not the curriculum in the binder we're used to. It's not a stagnant curriculum guide or pacing guide, it is a process,” said Stewart. The makawalu part of the term refers to the processing and analysis of information. “How do I take something I’m looking at and take it apart, deconstruct it and put it back together to understand it from a new perspective?” added Stewart.

After planting 350 native trees in the Keauhou forest preserve, we traveled further inland to a magical spot where the E Lauhoe Wa`a cohort finds anchorage in knee-deep kikuyu grass, a current of canoes. This place holds the story of Mauloa’s birth, the single hulled coastal canoe that was launched in 1993 and we have come to hear her story. As if the ancestors have gathered to listen, the wind is surging and ebbing, waves in the treetops, creating the illusion of a long ocean voyage. The story tellers are Maulili Dickson, Aunty
Deedee Bertelmann and Mike Manu, three people who experienced the field of aloha that was the miracle of Mauloa.

Clay Bertelmann

For many, many generations the spirits of the ancestors have gathered, an unseen force that, like ocean currents, move our canoes in unpredictable, intangible ways. This force remained alive and nurtured within the hearts of the kūpuna, leading contemporary Hawaiians on a journey to an unprecedented cultural renaissance. The birth of Mauloa was a pivotal point on that journey. Hawai`i Island voyagers, Clay and Shorty Bertelmann wanted to build a canoe for Hawai`i Island and after consulting with the elders, they were told to first build a canoe using only traditional materials, tools and techniques. This began an almost two year unsuccessful search for trees large enough to build Hawai`i Loa and while the project had to be abandoned, it raised awareness of the vital connection between the `āina and the ocean. The ceremony to stop the project was attended by two chiefs from Alaska, who immediately offered to donate two trees, sending Nainoa Thompson across the Pacific to select the trees for Hawai`i Loa.

Aunty Deedee Bertelmann

But the Hawai`i Island crew could not ignore their intention to honor the task given them by the elders. “They decided to make a single hull coastal canoe. These men were linked to cow-boying and became known as the cowboy crew. You just go and do it. Even if you don’t have the resources, you just got to get it done,” shared Maulili Dickson. Again, they searched for many weekends to find the right tree, with Papa Mau guiding them. “The men were fasting all day and ate at midnight. The animals kept manifesting. Birds, a pua`a constantly at the edge of the clearing,” recalls Aunty Dee Dee, as a single hawk circles our gathering, eventually taking off towards the sun, light rays glancing off iridescent feathers, flashing a glistening rainbow.

Mau Piailug and Tava Taupu lashing stones on canoe-carving adzes with sennit. Honaunau, early 1990s.

Guided by Papa Mau Piailug, the tree was selected and they prepared for the work of cutting it. The men were cleansed and they had learned the chants. “Tiger Espere and John Keolanui were working on the tree. The tree was creaking and shivering. Finally Tiger got out his pū and began to blow. There was only a couple of inches cut out of the bark all around the tree, but as Tiger sounded the pū, the tree came gently down. It had been leaning one way, but it seemed to shift so that it came down and landed softly on the hāpu`u,” said Dickson.
Aunty Dee Dee takes up the story with, “The log was taken to Honaunau. They used sanding stones, ulu sap for glue, kukui for painting, hala for sails and coconut sennit. There were no nails, only lashing.” The entire process leading up to the launching of Mauloa was a continuous re-engagement with Hawaiian culture that fed the souls of all who were touched by it. Mike Manu remembers, “It was a good foundation and something I can’t forget. It gave me something to touch. I remember standing on a rock and chanting and now kids are chanting the same chants.”
The intentions of many people who shared a vision, breathed life into the voyaging traditions. From this miraculous endeavor came Nā Kālai Wa`a, a name that was given to the carving apprentices in 1991 by Keali`i Tau`a, which in two year’s time became the guardian canoe organization on Hawai`i Island. Now with such programs as E Lauhoe Wa`a, the effort to perpetuate the knowledge and wisdom that came on the wind, through the surge of the ocean into the hearts of many is, like a mysterious ocean current, moving our own canoes forward. Captain Chadd Onohi Paishon closed with the reflection, “We need to keep voyaging to remember. Need to be in the active process of doing. The younger generation is following in the wake of what started here with Mauloa.”

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Educators Onboard: E Lauhoe Wa`a Program Launches a New Education Voyage (Special to North Hawai'i News, 9/2)

11/7/2014

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Auē ua hiti ē, ua hiti e `o Makali`i e, echoes four year-old, Ahu`ula, from the other room as the E Lauhoe Wa`a cohort learns their first chant with Makali`i crew member, Keali`i Bertelmann. It’s Friday evening and the Kanu o ka `Āina classroom is filled with educators from Hawaii Island and O`ahu who have gathered to learn the “way of the canoe” in the first of three twenty four hour sessions to prepare cohort members for their own personal and classroom voyages, as well as aboard Makali`i. In its second year, E Lauhoe Wa`a provides educators with canoe based holistic learning experiences and the curriculum resources to build their own wa`a classroom with their students.
Before entering the classroom, members circled at the edge of the Mauna Kea plain to chant and orient themselves into island districts, later inside that orientation deepens with the question: “O wai oe?” A simple question, who is your water? But the apparent simplicity of Hawaiian language belies its complexity and with this question participants contemplate the places and the people associated with them that are a sustaining source of life, gaining a deeper mutual understanding of the environments that shape us and creating the initial bond that will grow as they journey together over the year.

Keomailani Case shares canoe classroom

Guided by crew member Pua Lincoln-Maielua, participants were asked to reflect on “He Wa`a He Moku, He Moku He Wa`a” (the canoe is the island, the island is the canoe), one of the themes for this session. The many perspectives helped participants begin to see the earth, their island, their community, their classrooms and themselves as both moku and wa`a. The ancestors, for various reasons, sailed out into the unknown, putting their faith in their own kūpuna and each other. But the reality now is that opportunities to journey and explore are limited, leading Lincoln to point out that, “Your classrooms have got to become the wa`a to take your students where they need to go and whatever way you connect with ‘He Wa`a He Moku’ is how your students are going to get there.”
Nā Kālai Wa`a has provided a binder with a wealth of curriculum resources, corresponding to this sessions’ themes. But also there are some navigational tools on hand with Hope McKeen and Roxanne Steward, resource and science resource teachers, respectively at Ka`Umeke Kā`eo charter school in Hilo who share some electronic multifaceted, interactive resources that bring the canoe and the World Wide Voyage into the classroom and provide real time connections with crew members.

Aunty DeeDee Bertelmann

The cohort sets sail for Kawaihae and Hālau Kukui, Makali`i’s home and gathering place, where they were gifted with a “talk story” session by three wa`a crew: Uncle Kainoa Lee, Keali`i Maielua and Aunty Deedee Bertelmann. Uncle Kainoa remembers Hōkūle`a’s first shake-down cruises, interisland. “Buffalo Keaulana was my watch captain. Night time in the Moloka`i channel and at that time, the hulls were all open. Buffalo says, ‘Something’s wrong.’ Because the canoe was tilting on one side and when we checked the first three pukas (hull compartments) were filled with water. Nobody had checked. Talk about lessons learned.” Aunty Deedee Bertelmann, one of the matriarchs of the `ohana wa`a , shared the importance of recognizing the foundation our lives are built on by the efforts of those who came before us when she highlighted the legacy of three men who were the catalysts for the resurrection of voyaging in Hawaii. “I’m sharing this with the students in my classroom. If there was no Ben Finney, no Herb Kane, no Tommy Holmes and other people who started this whole journey of Hōkūle`a and if they didn’t come up with this crazy idea, the desire to build that canoe, where would we be today?”

Uncle Kainoa and Keali'i Maielua

But perhaps even more important are the life-changing insights gained from voyaging. Voyaging has taught Uncle Kainoa to believe in the protection of the kūpuna (elders), “Imua (forward). I’m behind you, whatever is in back of you, any pilikia (trouble), I can handle. I’ve got your back and your front.” Keali`i Maielua from Waimea/Kawaihae and the youngest panelist followed up with, “Like uncle says, his kūpuna got his back but also we have each other’s back. I don’t know if there’s any way you can teach that. You just have to show them. We have a saying on Makali`i, ‘We don’t have to turn around because we know somebody’s behind us.’ That’s just the way we function on the canoe and when we get back on land that’s the way we function. The younger crew coming up are getting that idea. They see somebody doing something, automatically they’re right there.” At which point Keali`i’s son, Ahu`ula brings him a cup of water. The knowledge that there is an intangible source of strength and wisdom, as well as a tangible one of those standing behind and beside us are powerful confidence-building messages.
The final section of the day was spent on the pragmatic endeavors of a test sail for returnees and line handling and knots for newcomers. But story is vital to every aspect of the “way of the canoe” and this is no exception. Pua Lincoln Maielua shares the legend of Kana, who is the smallest and weakest of Chiefess Hina’s twelve children. His grandmother Uli sees great potential in him and predicts that he will one day be the only one capable of rescuing his mother. Uli brings him to her upland home, where he grows into a great being with the special ability to stretch himself to a great length. And as his grandmother predicted, he ultimately uses his power to rescue his mother. A metaphor for the importance of line and knots in the voyaging tradition, the legends of Kana also illustrate that even the youngest, weakest member of the crew has the potential to do great things and that if you have the belief of just one person, you can accomplish great things.

Like story, chant is always present and line handling is no exception. Participants are getting a taste of expected skills to come and many are anxious as line coiling practice begins. Crouched and rocking back and forth, mimicking the motion on deck, the rhythm of the chant Iā Moku Kele Kahiki springs to mind to calm and guide the hand.
Chant, story, awareness, skill-building, becoming crew, these are the threads woven through E Lauhoe Wa`a and offer a lifeline for educators and students. E Lauhoe Wa`a, like the voyaging program has grown from the hearts and minds of the voyagers and it has taken off and evolved because it has dramatically changed the lives of those who have been able to experience voyaging. A successful voyage requires an understanding and appreciation of our origins, knowledge of place, self-knowledge and the constant awareness of our surroundings. Voyaging is not just a contemporary, popular concept but an enduring guide to those who are seeking to understand how to set the course of their lives, to create a future for generations to come.

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Talk Story, Take Notes: An Oral History of Waimea Farmers and Farming

11/7/2014

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The history of farming in Waimea resides in the stories of our farmers and this year Ms. Robertson’s eighth grade honors English class added to that history with their oral history project: Farmers and Farming in Waimea, making a connection between classroom curriculum and the real world. The project was kicked off with a visit from Dr. Warren Nishimoto from the Center for Oral History at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Dr. Nishimoto compressed a semester long course into an all-day version of how to do oral history, captivating students with some of the stories he’s accumulated from hundreds of oral histories. The resulting interviews, conducted in the Mala’ai Culinary Garden, provide a glimpse into the lives of nine individuals whose stories are what makes Waimea the unique place it is. Although some of the interviewees come from far flung places such as Guatemala and Japan and others trace their ancestry in the islands, they are connected by their love and gratitude for the land.
The Great Mahele of 1848, which allowed private ownership of land began a huge shift in island agriculture. With private ownership of land came sugar cane plantations. The plantations’ need for extensive labor led to the influx of Asian farm workers, with the first Chinese contract laborers arriving in 1852. This insatiable need for labor also brought the first Japanese workers to Hawaii in 1868. The first group was comprised mostly of farmers from Hiroshima, Yamaguchi, Kumamoto and Fukuoka prefectures, where the drop in the price of rice made for difficult conditions. Rural farmers in Japan were suffering by the time Mineo Honda was born in 1942. In 1956 he came to Honoka’a from Kumamoto Prefecture and remembers, “The government controlled the farmers. All the rice goes to the soldiers. That’s the reason we didn’t have anything like food. Those days when I born was very poor. Country was in war. So was poor, poor and some don't have kaukau, you know food.”

While contract laborers came planning to earn enough money to return to their home country, only a minority actually did so. On the Big Island, after serving out their contracts, many Japanese and other contract workers became farmers on the Hamakua coast and in Waimea. Aunty Dorothy Nishie, whose husband grew up on the Laupahoehoe Sugar plantation remembers, “My husband’s family had property in Laupahoehoe and they did farming. Weekends we’d go home and help them with the farm. They were planting chop suey potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans and things like that. And then he would carry on his shoulders and walk the community and a lot of them did that for survival.”
Ranching was the dominate livelihood in Waimea, but ranch employees and their families raised food to eat and trade. Aunty Dorothy Nishie, who grew up on Parker Ranch’s Waiki’i station where her father worked, recalls the gardens there, “My mother and all the ladies, they planted their gardens. They planted vegetables and they planted flowers. And my mom and several of my cousins were lei makers. So that’s how we got extra money.” There was also a regular connection with Waipio Valley agriculture, “It was a big bag of poi that was done in Waipio and brought up by the mules on the saddle through the mountains…”

Before World War II farming was a way to survive. Tsukasa Yamamoto remembered, “Our business, farming business was hard, you know. You don’t want to buy cabbage when you raise your own. So the same thing with everything. It’s just for survival. We raised our vegetable, you know. Potatoes, cabbage, lettuce. We can sell some, but it’s mostly for survival.” But with the onset of World War II, military troops doubled the population of the sleepy little town of Waimea and placed demands on the farmers. “Small farmers they go to work and they get the time, spare time, they raise their vegetables. And they raise celery and all kind of vegetable for the marines. So the marines used to buy plenty…They want five thousand pounds of celery, five thousand pounds of cabbage, five thousand pounds of lettuce, five thousand pounds of all those things, you know.” (Tsukasa Yamamoto)

In the early 1950’s the opening of Hawaiian Homelands in Kuhio Village and Pu’ukapu Homestead enlarged the Waimea farming community. The Berdon ‘Ohana, taro farmers in Waipio, moved to Pu’ukapu Homestead to farm. Aunty Tootsie recalls, “Back in the day my dad farmed ninety acres along with the Nakamotos. The Nakamotos taught my dad, because Reiso (Nakamoto) was much older than my dad. He mentored my father in farming, you know. And then together we had a co-op. And we would ship out a lot of veggies.” When the Lalamilo Farm Lots opened up in the sixties, Bobby Nakamoto’s father was able to buy a farm lot. Bobby remembers those early days, “It was just raw land and there was a lot of rocks there so you had to clean up and put in a whole infrastructure.”

Mineo Honda found his way back to the land through a circuitous route. He was attending B.Y.U. in the late sixties when he met and married Nancy Kaauwai and immediately became eligible for the draft. “Came back from Vietnam. Soldier right? Went to the New York School of Technology (in Honolulu) and worked almost seven years as a designer dress man and to me, something lacking.” Eventually his uncle in Honoka’a found him farmland in Waimea. He and Nancy moved to Waimea and Mineo spent a training year working for Kawamoto Farm before starting his own farm. “And that’s how it happened, became a farmer. Like a dream.”

Alton Hooper, now a resident of Waimea, was born and raised in Honalo where he and his family raised coffee. He roamed his forest neighborhood and has never lost his close connection with the land. While not strictly a farmer, all his occupations have contributed to land stewardship island wide, but he has a special love for Waimea. “Waimea was God’s country. You know it was. And Waimea always with the uhiwai that rolled in in the afternoons. Grass was up to your chest. That’s what it was known for.”

For Bill and Marie McDonald and their daughter Roen, farming was about art. Bill and Marie moved from Oʽahu in 1973 and began growing flowers, later to be joined by daughter Roen and her husband, Ken Hufford, who now grow organic vegetables. But farming is more than food for Roen who combines her love of art and plants. “I don't need to go to the store and buy paint or paper or canvas or clay, you know, that's mined in some other country, to make something that's beautiful. Or useful. I can simply grow it and make something. So that's where the kapa comes in or the lei making comes in or the flower arranging comes in because all those things I grow.” Aunty Cynthia Spencer, current president of the Homestead Farmer's Market, also moved from Oʽahu and began farming in 1987. “After we moved here and my sister-in-law had a big yard, we just kind of cut out a portion and started farming. There was fourteen of us in the house and to help defer the cost of the grocery bill, we started farming”, and that was just the beginning of many years of farming.

Flavio Miche, the most recent arrival to the farming community, began farming in Waimea with the loan of an acre of land from a Guatemalan compatriot. He came from a Mayan farming family and grew up during the civil war in Guatemala but has never lost his deep connection with the land. “I always worked on the farm since I was five years old. My grandmother had a big field and we used to grow carrots, beans, corn, cabbage and also peaches. Every single day you have to wake up and go to the farm and kneel on the ground to pray and say thank-you for this day, for everything.”

In the last twenty years, marketing has returned to the local community with the creation of the Waimea Homesteaders’ Farmer’s Market in 1992, followed by the Parker Farmer’s Market and the midweek Pukalani Stables market. Roen Hufford, whose vegetable booth was an early mainstay of the Waimea Homesteaders’ Farmer’s market remembers, “They had an extension agent assigned to the Hawaiian Homelands farmers and he kept hearing the same thing, ‘We don’t have anywhere to sell our stuff.’ So that’s how the idea of the farmer’s market got started.” In 1992 five families began the Waimea Homesteaders’ Farmer’s Market, “And out of those five families, three of them grew flowers and those flowers were proteas.” Realizing that they had to diversify, the market slowly grew in size and now covers the whole Kuhio Hale field and includes just about anything you might want to buy, including breakfast at Nakamoto’s. Our community of farmers are like blossoms on a timeless lei, unique, yet unified in their love for the land, they feed our Waimea community and nourish our spirits. Hard working folks who offer the fruits of their labors because as Alton Hooper puts it, “You see I come from the land. I am of the land. We are all of the land.”

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Me Ke Aloha Kumu Pua

Make Strong: Hawaii Island Celebrates Independence Day Special to North Hawaii News: November 18, 2014

Riding the Currents of Nā Kūpuna: E Lauhoe Wa`a Session II Sails to Volcano

Educators Onboard: E Lauhoe Wa`a Program Launches a New Education Voyage (Special to North Hawai'i News, 9/2)

Talk Story, Take Notes: An Oral History of Waimea Farmers and Farming

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