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Kōnea o Kukui: To Restore the Light                                         Ke Ola Magazine Jan. / Feb. 2023

1/9/2023

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View of the garden from above. Pavilion on the right. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
With the passage of time, a place becomes layered with the spirits of beings and events that hold the stories and wisdom of those who have gone before. Many may not notice or recognize the spirit of the land, but on Hawai‘i Island, it is still very much alive, if one listens to what Hawaiians call mana.
   Nani Svendsen is one such person. Along with the hearts and hands of many others, she has created a beautiful refuge, called Kōnea o Kukui. “Kukui means light or enlightenment. I didn’t give it that name; it’s been in my family for seven generations,” said Nani. 
PictureNani in her element. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
Roots in the Land Holding Steady
   Nani had an ideal, land-based childhood. “I grew up on the Kohala ditch; we were the last family to live there. My parents’ job was to regulate the water. I was born in Kohala but I was raised in Waiapuka, two miles up where they used to start Fluminʻ Da Ditch. There was nobody around us, the stream ran next to the house, and we were isolated from everyone else. Off the grid. So, it was furo [Japanese bath], kerosene lamps and stove. Lived like that until I was 11,” remembered Nani.
   Nani’s ancestors came to Kohala during Kamehameha’s time. “They were from Hana, Maui and they were stewards to the heiau [temple] on the bluff at Keokea,” said Nani. Since that time, the land has gone through many phases and witnessed many family events. At times it’s been a home dwelling, while at other times a refuge.

A River Runs Through It
   Perched above Keokea, the botanical residents of Kōnea o Kukui cluster around a stream whose journey feeds into the Pacific at Keokea Beach Park. I arrived at the garden on a sunny day in May, and Nani greeted me at the top. The first view of the garden was from the perspective of a floating cloud just above a lush, orderly jungle of greens and flowers. To the left is a lo‘i (taro patch) and in the center is a small house and a pavilion.
   Nani and I talked story for a few moments and during that time, I felt the pull, an irresistible invitation. The trail to the garden slopes downhill and is lined with red and green ti, ferns, coconut palms, begonia, and hala trees. The first thing I noticed is that everything slows, like there is no time at all. A switchback led us further down. We stopped on the trail to be welcomed by a Java rice bird who sat on the branch of a ti plant—it had a lot to say that morning. When it was done talking, we were allowed passage.
   A bridge crosses the stream at the bottom of the trail and then we were in the heart of the matter. We passed a pond with lotus blossoms as we climbed up the bank on the other side. Looking downstream I saw into a community of connected beings, a chorus of welcome.
   Nani’s many years as a florist are reflected in the garden. The place spoke to her of color, contrast and balance. Where there were disconnected pools, Nani saw a channel of flowing water. 

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The stream continues its journey to the sea at Keokea Beach Park. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
PictureNani's granddaughter, Kainani, on the trail entering the garden. Photo courtesy of Nani Svendsen.
A Lotus Blossom Arises from the Darkness
   The Kohala of Nani’s childhood began to be overshadowed by outside pressures that affected both her immediate family and the community. Dismayed and determined to do something about the problem, Nani, Dennis Matsuda, and community members led a successful effort for a drug rehabilitation house for recovering men in Hawi, When the house was set up, Nani turned her focus on her own healing process.
   “I decided I wanted to build, what for me, was going to be my happy place. It was about the life or death of me. To find my peace. I knew this place [Kōnea o Kukui] had a stream running through it and I started chopping. I had no idea where I was going to take it, but I wanted to remember my beautiful life. I need to feel this, see it, smell it, be in it,” recalled Nani.
   Using a chainsaw, machete, shovels and o‘o bar, Nani began an odyssey of self-discovery. Then she got a call from Wes Markum, director of the rehabilitation house in Hawi, and he asked her about inviting the residents to come work with her. Her first response was, “No.” Hadn’t she done enough? Then her heart spoke, and she realized that, “Most of these people, they’re all islanders removed from their culture and that is one of the important facets to recovery.”
   The men came every Wednesday for a few hours. Their hearts came alive with memories. They said things like, “This reminds me of when I was with my grandma and grandpa,” and, “This is like Waipi‘o.” She asked every person about their profession and discovered skills among the men such as a rock wall builder, and landscaper, just waiting to be tapped.
   Eventually student groups were coming, and soon Nani was pitching a 20 by 20-foot tent for meetings. She shared, “My husband, Don, decided to build the pavilion. We had to haul everything down this trail. Everybody worked like a team, passing station to station, all the way down the hill. It took about four weeks,” said Nani. Working together with the volunteers changed her husband’s life—it changed hers.

Uncovering Treasure through Community Connections
   Nani has come full circle and a forgotten treasure has been brought back to life, touching her life and the lives of the many who came to Kōnea o Kukui to work and be healed. “This is a restoration project of a lifetime, hopefully not just my lifetime. It’s layered. So many layers to the existence from this place,” reflected Nani.
   When Nani began the garden odyssey, the land was covered in hau, and java plum trees. It was also populated with mosquitoes. When they started to clear it, they discovered a taro farm that hadn’t been used since the mid-1950s. “Once that stopped, the hau became the straight tall timbers that were used by the voyaging canoes,” recalled Nani.
   During this initial clearing, Nani’s daughter, Punahele was attending Kanu o ka ‘Āina school. At that time teachers and voyagers, ‘Ōnohi Chadd Paishon and Pomai Bertelmann were looking for materials to repair Makali‘i and to build Alingano Maisu for master navigator, Mau Piailug and they could see that the place had what they were looking for. “They brought the students down and they harvested and packed it up the hill. When they built the canoe, they used hau from here,” said Nani.
   As the excavation continued, “We could see the terraces, the original walls and the ‘auwai (ditch). The walls were carbon dated by archaeologist Dr. Michael Graves and he found they were dated between 1570 and 1650. From the head of the ‘auwai down to Keokea,” said Nani.
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One of many waterfalls and pools along the stream's journey to the sea. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
A Continuing Gift of Love
   “Maybe a cultural place, maybe a healing place, maybe a safe place. While I still try to put my finger on it, I get to feel like everything stops. Whatever hassle is going on, whatever trouble I have, whatever trouble somebody else has. If I slowly walk down the trail something shifts, and you walk easy with a little more light in your heart. Maybe I can do this, maybe a week, maybe I can just do this,” reflected Nani.
   It was not only the men who were healed. “I had a lot of older women coming to support. They were like the tūtū for the young men, and they worked alongside them. They gave of themselves and they too were healed,” said Nani.
   Despite the closing of the Hawi rehabilitation house in 2013, weekly meetings continue at Kōnea o Kukui, with the spirit of the land inviting returning visitors into a healing circle.
   Kōnea o Kukui is an unusual project because it doesn’t survive on grants as much as on passion. 90 percent of this is from people’s good-heartedness. “All I am doing is to try to steward this place and keep it with the right intention, to just have a safe space, a feel-good space that honors the ancestors, honors the culture, honors each other,” said Nani. “We are responsible for each other. We are all connected. I believe in energy and I believe that if you are not at your best, there is energy out there to help,” she adds.
   The spirit of the land waits patiently and when we call out it answers. “I struggle with the sustainability of the place. Along with everything that has been here there has been trust that it’s going to work,” reflects Nani. “There is an ‘andʻ—itʻs this ‘andʻ it’s nature. I can hear the birds here. I can feel the wind. There’s a connection. We forget. We get caught up so much with daily struggles, that we forget where to go to get our own healing,” reflects Nani.
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Photo by Jan Wizinowich
Check out the Svendsens' food truck at Niuli'i in Kohala. Thursdays through Sundays
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Kawaihae Canoe Club Celebrates 50 Years                               Ke Ola Magazine: Nov. / Dec. 2022

11/15/2022

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The 1983 Men's Master's crew paddling Waipunalei: Harrison Pagan, John Lightner, Ipo Kaulapali, JK Speilman, Ted Vangelder, Oscar Ahuana. Waipunalei was named after the area where the koa log was taken. Photo courtesy of Kūpuna paddler George Fry
   It’s early morning at Kawaihae and outrigger canoes dot the horizon carrying the kūpuna paddlers. Soon the men’s master crew will be gliding into the boat ramp after an early morning run heading north. A Matson barge approaches the harbor, a cubist two story structure. Many things have changed in this little corner of the island, but as always, Uncle Manny Veincent, Kawaihae Canoe Club (KCC) president and head coach, is a presence at the club—doing repairs, checking inventory and making sure   everything is pono (right). 
   November 2022 is the 50th anniversary of KCC, and while not the oldest club on the island, it is a cultural treasure within historic Kawaihae Village. With its fresh water spring, rich reef and calm anchorage, Kawaihae was a center of activity in old Hawai‘i. It is the place where Kamehameha gained final dominance over Moku o Keawe and where he resided while making plans to unite the islands. 
   Evidence of the ‘make strong’ spirit of King Kamehameha resides in Kawaihae, channeled through Manny Veincent and the many men and women who stroked KCC to state championships, conquered ʽAlenuihāhā and Kaʽiwi Channels and paddled the Kuhio Day Long Distance Race on Kaua‘i.
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KCC women's crew winning Kuhio Day Long Distance Race off of Wailua, Kauai, 1990: Ululani Patterson ODell, Helani Kimitete, Kahealani Veincent, Jan Paalua, Noel Jolie, Kanoe Yi. Photo courtesy of Kūpuna paddler George Fry
Origins
   Manny grew up in Keaukaha, Hilo, where life was simple and of the land. His canoe adventure started when he was 13 and a neighbor took him along with a gang of boys paddling, fishing and camping in an old-style koa canoe.
  In 1972 Manny was fire chief, stationed in Waimea (where the Firehouse Gallery is now) when Elaine Flores, Mabel Tolentino and members of the Hawaiian Civic Club approached him to help form a canoe club in Kawaihae.
   KCC was formed in 1972, when canoe paddling was experiencing a resurgence. The Moku ʽO Hawaiʽi Canoe Racing Association (MOHCRA) was created in 1973, and in addition to Kawaihae, there were seven other active clubs.
   “When the club first started, folks at Kawaihae didn’t know anything about paddling. The club was just that white hill over there and we had a big keawe tree and a shed next to the road,” remembers Eunice Veincent, who is still paddling at 86. But there was no shortage of members, who came from Kohala, Waimea, Honokaʽa and even Paʽauilo, more than 200 strong.
   That first year Kawaihae surprised everyone when they won the first race of the season, which took place in home waters. They went on to win the state championship that year and the next three years. It was all due to hard work. “We had only one practice in the afternoon. We’d start at 4:00 with the kids, and then the adults. We didn’t finish practice until 8:30,” said Eunice.
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1983 Crew Pete Erickson, Nate Hendricks, Jerry Bess, Keoni Lindsey, Tom Hurley, kneeling Scotty Grinsteiner.
It’s All About the Keiki
   Now young paddlers have van transportation, but back in the day Manny and Eunice would stop and pick up kids on their way down to practice every day. Manny also coached Pop Warner football and in his own inimitable style recruited paddlers for the off-season.
   “When I was a little kid we used to play Pop Warner football for Manny. At the end of the season, he gave us all this paper and said, ‘Don’t worry about it. Just take it home.’ So, we took it home and got the signatures and what it was, he was signing us up with canoe paddling,” remembers Jerry Bess, a top surfer who started at the age of 10 and paddled with KCC for 12 years.
    Historically canoes were considered providers for their island community. In current times, the canoe feeds the community in ways that go beyond food.
   “For us young guys, Manny really showed us how to work as a team. Accountability, training hard, helping out each other. Commitment, club orientation, getting there on time, helping out with the canoe. He worked us so hard. It was us 16s all the way up to the 18s, we were undefeated. It was because of Manny’s coaching,” said Jerry. 
   More than winning races, KCC has provided a cultural link that’s been a lifeline for youngsters and the community as a whole. This was the spirit of the club fostered by the willingness of Coach Manny and his wife, Eunice, to give their all for the paddlers.
   “We would stay down there on Saturdays and we'd take canoes out on Sunday and Eunice would feed all of us. That's how we all learned to steer as kids. Today, you look at the top steersmen, they grew up with us. They're from Kawaihae,” remembers Grant Kaʽaua, who now coaches paddling at Keaʽau High School and whose daughter, Pakelakahiki is a top steersperson and got her start at KCC.
   Manny’s other love is ranching and Nienie Ranch, his 300-acre ʽĀhualoa mauka cattle operation has provided off-season fitness training for many of the paddlers, as well as giving them confidence.
   “Some of my fondest memories are KCC ‘cross-training’, which involved going to Manny's ranch and tackling 1000-pound bulls—without the help of horses. And then castrating them and branding them,” said Grant.
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The 1982 Women's Long Distance crew 1982 paddling Waipunalei: Kahealani Veincent (daughter of Manny and Eunice), Sheila Roy, Rose Kala`au, Jean Paalua, Mikala Coakley, Carlo La`au Silva. Photo courtesy of Kūpuna paddler George Fry
The Wahine
   Beyond regatta wins, the KCC women ‘made strong’ at the Kauaʽi Kuhio Day Long Distance Race in 1989 and 1990. Crew member Ululani Patterson Odell remembers, “We could hear the waves breaking on shore from where we were staying. Once there, we could see the waves and they were a heart stopper. We paddled out to the wave, went up and back down with a slam. But once we got going, everything clicked. You had to be ready for this race mentally and physically. Manny prepared us for both.” 
   In 2004, 2007 and 2010 a team of 18 Kawaihae women paddled across the ʽAlenuihāhā Channel for the first time in over a century. The planning and training leading up to the first crossing took two to three years and demanded complete commitment. Not just a sport, but a spiritual connection.
   “There’s something so powerful. The old Hawaiians call it spirit or mana. It goes deeper than the physical. You do it and a brilliant light opens up and you gain all this knowledge,” remembers Manny.
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Blessing of Waihou, the current KCC koa canoe. The initial shaping was done by Manny and a crew of volunteers and was finished off by master canoe builder Tay Perry on O`ahu. Photo courtesy of Kūpuna paddler, George Fry
The Koa Canoes of KCC 
   Everything Manny does originates from a well-lived life grounded in Hawaiian culture. Beyond coaching, he is a master canoe builder and has led the way in every stage from harvesting the logs to design and building.
   In 1975 Moku ʽO Hawaiʽi Canoe Association (MOHCRA) mandated that all clubs use koa canoes for racing by 1980. In 1977 two logs, gifts from Richard Smart, were harvested from Parker Ranch land, Laupāhoehoe mauka. They were transported to KCC where Manny was joined by Harry Fergerstrom, Frank Puhi, Kahu William Akau and others to birth Kai Hawanawana (Whispering Sea), the club’s first koa canoe. She was followed in 1982 by Waipunalei.
   Another koa canoe, Leimomi, was added early in 1982, donated by the DeGuair family and named in honor of John DeGuair Jr’s widow, Grace. Sadly, in November 1982, Hurricane Iwa swept in, destroying the shed and both Leimomi and Waipunalei.
   The club’s current canoe Waihou, was constructed from a log donated by F. Newell Bohnett then owner of Puʽu Waʽawaʽa Ranch and named after the area where it originated on the shoulder of Hualālai. Begun at the club, Waihou was sent to Sand Island to be finished by master canoe builder, Tay Perry and ultimately christened around 2015.
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Kai Opua blessing. Built in the late 1800s, Kai Opua was loaned to KCC by Woody Childs. In 2010 KCC paddled Kai Opua to a state championship. Photo courtesy of Kūpuna paddler, George Fry
Picture No longer competing, at 90, Manny continues to coach. Photo courtesy of Kūpuna paddler, George Fry
Kūpuna
   About 20 years ago, a group of paddlers made up of Steve Bess, George Fry, Roger Harris, Harry Buscher, Charlie Campbell, Michael Bates, Phyllis Fox and others, decided to slow things down a little. They began paddling three days a week. “We wanted to just have fun. Paddle to the Mauna Kea [Hotel] and talk story,” remembers George Fry.
   Now the group has mushroomed into two groups of three or four canoes that go out at different times and has proved to be a great introduction to Hawaiian culture. The kūpuna group has also developed into a fundraising source for the club, making it possible for the keiki to participate off-island and to add canoes and other equipment to the club.
 
Legacy
   Over the years Manny and thousands of club members have kept the culture alive. Not just through paddling, but by creating an oasis of abundance and a place to come together, old style, like the annual hoʽolauleʽa.
   “I joined the club in 1998 and learned a lot along the way from Manny about building canoes, rigging canoes, fixing canoes and medicinal Hawaiian plants. We have five acres and most of it was overgrown with dead keawe and weeds. I asked Manny if it would be ok if we clean it and plant native Hawaiian plants. So, I took it on as a project but Manny took on the leadership,” recalls Bob Momson.
   KCC’s lasting legacy is all the people that have received life-changing help along the way. There are numerous stories, told and untold, about the positive effects of Manny and KCC. “I cannot thank Manny enough. He’s a pivotal person in so many of our lives. I just love him for the character he is. I appreciate so much his hard-nose ways, and his huge heart. He’s taught us so much; how to take care of everything,” concludes Grant.
 
For more information: kawaihaecanoeclub.com


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Journey From the Land of Hibiscus to Hawaii Island                            Ke Ola Magazine  July/August 1922

8/15/2022

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PictureA few of 400 plus rubbings of Korean gravestones collected and transcribed by Seri. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
  Although not native to Korea, the hibiscus has long been its national symbol. Probably originating in India, the hibiscus is easily transplanted, making its way north through China and is endowed with the quality of adaptability. Adopted as an emblem of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) and as the national symbol of the Republic of Korea (1948), it has long been a symbol for the endurance and prosperity of the Korean people.
   Perhaps the attributions of the hibiscus were carried in the hearts of the Korean immigrants, who arrived in Hawai`i, a native home of the hibiscus. Between 1903 and 1905 when the first official Korean immigrants arrived in Hawai`i, their homeland was in flux, a pawn in global political events and heading towards Japanese occupation in 1910. They approached their new situation with hard work and the hopes of the restoration of the Land of Hibiscus.
  Koreans make up one of the smallest immigrant groups on Hawai`i Island, and much of their lives and accomplishments live in shadow. But U.H. Hilo English professor, Seri Luangphinith, author of The Paths We Cross: The Lives and Legacies of Koreans on the Big Island, is setting out to change that. What started out as a catalogue for a 2017 Korean art exhibition, became a book that captures an array of the history, culture and experiences of Koreans on Hawai`i Island.   
  The project emerged out of a request from U.H. Hilo students to add Korean studies to the humanities curriculum. Seri began to study Korean with Korean Language teacher, Hanna Kim who introduced her to the unique work of Korean artists; two of those artists, Hae Kyung Seo and Byoung Yong Lee, were featured in a 2017 Korean art exhibit at the East Hawai`i Cultural Center. 
  Hae Kyung Seo began developing her unique style of calligraphy from the age of seven. Through many years of exploring various forms, her art is now a combination of calligraphy, poetry and ink-wash paintings to depict Korean history, among the first in Hawai`i.* 
  After earning a degree of fine arts from Hongik University in Seoul, Byoung Yong Lee left to study at the Pratt Institute in New York City. In 1994 he moved to Hawai’i Island where he engaged in community activism, notably the restoration of the Korean immigrant graves at `Alae cemetery. Byoung Yong Lee’s more contemporary expressionistic artwork provided a contrast with the more traditional art of Hae Kyung Seo, but also created a synergy of cultural roots.*


PictureMainstreet Hilo circa 1918. After leaving the plantations, Korean immigrants were able to create businesses that served the Hilo community. Photo courtesy of Lyman Museum
Lives Well Lived
  When Seri began interviewing people the project grew exponentially. “Every interview yielded two or three more people to contact,” said Seri.  As well as the interviews, Seri scoured scholarly articles, books, local community publications, newspaper clippings, oral histories and the archives of Lyman Museum, the Plantation Museum, and the main Hawai`i State Archives, unearthing the rich tapestry of Korean lives.
    Probably the most well-known Korean immigrant was Syngman Rhee, prominent Korean national and eventual first president of the Republic of Korea. During his time in Hawai`i, he worked tirelessly to improve the lives of Korean immigrants through education and enterprise, while helping to organize the Korean independence movement in Hawai`i. Rhee created the Korean Christian Institute, a coeducational boarding school on O`ahu, which provided opportunities for the children of plantation workers to improve their lives through education.     
  On Hawai`i Island, Rhee helped to start Donjihoe Investment Company and Dongji Chon (Comrade Village) just south of Ola`a where they harvested lumber, made charcoal and farmed. “The charcoal factory was just one of several unassuming businesses run by Korean nationalists in the 1920s,” said Seri.
  In the late 1940s with funds from the closure and sale of Korean Christian Institute and funds from the Dongji Investment Company, Inha Technical College in Incheon was opened. Highly rated, it continues to provide education for Koreans and Korean Americans, specializing in engineering and physical sciences.
  The original seven thousand plus Koreans in Hawai’i began a legacy of hard work and innovation. Soon Koreans began leaving the plantations to begin businesses in Hilo. There was a Korean drug store on Front Street owned by Park Bong Soong; a shoe store owned by Parls Nails Hun on Volcano Street; and a hotel owned by Choy Hung Choon on Front and Richardson. *
  Husbands of many picture brides tended to be older and so the women often outlived the men and became the back bone of the community. Over the course of her life, Harry Kim’s mother, Ya Mul Kim undertook a poultry business, lauhala weaving venture and started the beloved Kea`au Kimchee Factory. *
  Working in the ginger fields until 2003, Yeon Boon Kang and her husband Shin Mook Kang went on to start businesses of their own. Yeon started H and K Lunch Shop and Shin created an organic piggery based on waste management techniques developed in Korea.*
  Two Koreans who excelled in the medical field were Moon Soo Park and Hoon Park (no relation). Overcoming many obstacles, Moon Soo Park earned a medical degree as a pathologist and went on to found Clinical Laboratories of Hawai`i. Hoon Park was a pediatrician, who just before he retired while on medical missions in Southeast Asia, encountered the natural farming techniques of Master Han Kyu Cho and hosted several workshops, enabling Hawai’i Island farmers to develop sustainable agriculture.*
  Another well-known Korean son is Judge Ronald Ibarra whose Korean mother, Young Hi Lee was born on Kehena Ranch where her father worked planting corn.  The family moved to a coffee farm in Captain Cook, where Ibarra grew up. After much hard work and two law degrees, he became the first administrative judge of Korean descent to be appointed on Hawai`i Island.*

PictureMemorial created by Korean artist, Byoung Yong Lee, marking the Korean section of 'Alae Cemetary, Hilo. Photo courtesy of Seri Luangphinith
Look to the Ancestors
  Amidst oral history interviews, Seri began digging through old newspapers and public records of Koreans in the Lyman Museum archives. “Then, on a hunch I started looking at Korean cemeteries because I knew that Japanese and Chinese immigrants recorded hometowns and families on their graves and sure enough the Koreans also did the same thing.”
 The `Alae cemetery slopes down to the highway just before Hilo town. In the center is the perfect canopy of an African shower tree. Just behind the tree is a large obelisk engraved with the Hawaiian version of Arirang, a Korean national song. The obelisk created by Korean artist, Byoung Yong Lee,  commemorates the lives of the Koreans who came to the island before him and marks the Korean section of the graveyard.
  The grave markers of this and other island cemeteries, many abandoned, provided Seri with clues that contributed to the picture of the lives of the Korean immigrants. The grave stones list parents, spouses, siblings and children, hanai relationships and close friendships, as well as village of origin, social standing and political stance. Additional insights were gained by searching out the origins of the use of a particular style of Chinese characters as well as Giwon, a traditional method of recording time derived from the legend of Dangun.

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Holualoa Cemetery gravestone of Gary Chong's grandfather's grave. Photo courtesy of Seri Luangphinith
The photo of the gravestone of the Chueng family sparked an unexpected connection with a descendant of a Korean immigrant family. On New Years Eve 2021, Seri got a surprise email from Gary Chong who had found his grandfather’s grave stone in the book. Seri had learned of the graveyard located in an abandoned coffee field in Holualoa through the Reverend Gyo Mun Kim of the Korean Methodist Church in Kona, whose book first documented some of the graves.
Stories Continuing to Unfold
  A chapter of the The Paths We Cross: The Lives and Legacies of Koreans on the Big Island relates the journey Seri and her soon to be husband took to Korea to search out the ancestral graves and villages recorded on grave stones of the Hawai`i Island cemeteries. This is a story that is just beginning to unfold.
  Since the 2017 publication of the book, Seri has continued to research for the next volume, which she hopes to have published in 2025. A cornerstone of much of Seri’s investigation has been following the stories told by the gravestones of Korean immigrants, found in several grave sites around the island and this and other emerging information is evolving into the next volume of Hawai`i’s Korean story.
  “Researching graves in particular gave us a glimpse into the past to a time when Korea was still a unified peninsula known as Joseon, when Jeju Island was once still part of Jeolla Province and when Seoul was called Gyeongseong—these became a starting point in our later quest to track down and photograph more than two dozen hometowns of the first generations of immigrants as recorded on their headstones,” said Seri.
  Daughter of Japanese and Chinese immigrants, for Seri, these projects are a heart quest. “That’s why the stories of Koreans resounded with me—they remind me of what my father’s countrymen suffered. I empathize with Korean history and have learned what occupation and war can do to a people and culture. When a country unravels like that the traumas are lingering. There are stories I will never be able to tell, what people had to do to survive.”
 

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Grave sites of Korean immigrants in Holualoa Cemetary. Photo courtesy of Seri Luangphinith
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Seri on a search for the lineage of Hawai'i's Korean immigrants. Photo courtesy of Seri Luangphinith
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Waipi'o Valley A Cultural Kipuku                                                Ke Ola Magazine March / April 2022

3/7/2022

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Kūlia immersed in one of many lo'i at Napo'opo'o. Photo courtesy of Kūlia Tolentino Potter.
   It’s December 22, 2021 and Kūlia Kauhi Tolentino Potter greets volunteers from Sam Houston State University (SHSU) at the Waipi‘o Valley lookout. It’s pouring rain and a work day is looking doubtful, but they are full of spirit, having completed a week-long exploration of the island as part of a university geography class conducted by SHSU professors Ava Fujimoto Strait and John Strait.
   Kūlia prepares to chant—a request for the rain to clear, allowing the work to be done; she asks the students to join their hearts with hers. As she chants, clouds begin to shift and the whole atmosphere changes. When she is finished, the rain has stopped. Whether coincidence or not, it’s clear that Kūlia’s entire being is in touch with the elder souls of Waipi‘o Valley.
PictureJesse Potter, Kulia's husband and president of the board of directors of Pohaha I Ka Lani with their youngest daughter, Kamanawa, at Napo'opo'o Village with Hi'ilawe in the background. Photo courtesy of Kulia
Waipi‘o: Deep Roots
   In his book, Voyage: The Discovery of Hawai‘i, Herb Kawainui Kanē imagines the first humans to approach the island in search of a new home. “And then the valley opened before us—a wide valley many times larger than our home in the south. Several waterfalls coursed down its northern walls, and as the valley opened to view, two majestic falls of identical size could be seen cascading side by side down a dark chasm in the high southern cliffs.” 
   With its abundant lo‘i (taro patches) and seven heiau (temples), including Paka‘alana, once the most powerful spiritual site in all the islands, the valley is a kīpuka (a calm, deep, timeless place) containing reminders to all those that enter of the ancient origins of Hawaiian culture.
   Kila is a name that has been passed down through Kūlia’s family and is a beloved ali‘i of Waipi‘o Valley, the youngest son of Mo‘ikena the ali‘i nui of Kaua‘i. After Mo‘ikenaʻs death, Kila became the high chief of Kaua‘i. On the journey to take his father’s bones back to Tahiti, he was left in Waipi‘o Valley by his two jealous brothers. He lived as a commoner until his true identity as the high chief of Kaua‘i was revealed, and then became konohiki (land manager). During his time as a commoner, he gleaned much about farming. He passed that knowledge on to the valleyʻs farmers, who  were able to  grow an abundance of food.  
   This abundance has carried through the centuries. Historically, Waipi‘o Valley has been the “bread basket” for other communities experiencing famine and drought and Kūlia carries on that tradition with food boxes delivered to the community Waipi‘o has also endured the destruction wrought by attacking chiefs, tsunamis, floods and the ravages of misguided schemes. The valley is  in need of help and native daughter and lineal descendent, Kūlia has made caring for the valley her kuleana (responsibility).

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Kūlia shares native stories and wisdom with Drew Kapp's HCC and UH Hilo students. Photo courtesy of Drew Kapp
Waipi‘o is Kūlia’s kuleana, inherited from her father and going back countless generations. A native of Honoka‘a, Kūlia spent many “small kid” hours roaming the valley with her father and grandfather. No longer in possession of land in Waipi‘o, on the weekends Kūlia’s family helped work the lo‘i of others. When most kids were playing ball, Kūlia was slogging through the mud, pulling weeds and planting or harvesting kalo (taro). Most keiki would balk, but her love for Waipi‘o took root and grew in her heart.
   Kūlia was a student of Ku Kahakalau, who, with her husband Nalei, created the Hawaiian Academy, a school within a school at Honoka‘a High School to teach Hawaiian studies. In 1997 the couple helped open Kanu o ka ‘Āina, a Hawaiian culturally based charter school in Waimea.
   When Kūlia left for college, she carried the valley with her. During her time at University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, she engaged in Hawaiian studies, education and anthropology. While there, all she could think about was coming home.
   She got her chance when she started teaching in Keaukaha, and began taking students into Waipi‘o Valley. Like her teacher, Aunty Ku, she noticed that students who were struggling in the classroom suddenly came alive, easily absorbing the lessons of the valley, as if the knowledge and wisdom had lain dormant within them, waiting for the right conditions to emerge. When they returned to the classroom there was a new sense of purpose and confidence that set many of them on a path to success.
   In 2001, Kūlia formed Pōhāhā I Ka Lani, a nonprofit that now hosts two or three workshops and volunteer groups a week, educating people about Hawaiian cultural practices, as they work to mālama (care for) the valley. Pōhāhā I Ka Lani’s initial kuleana was the stewardship of six acres, and now also includes five parcels below Hi‘ilawe at Napo‘opo‘o Village, Koa‘ekea (lookout), and most recently, the rim lands which include parcels in Lalakea, Mahiki, Kilohana, Waikaileo, and Puakalehua mā. 
PictureSam Huston State University students working the lo'i. Photo courtesy of Ava Fujimoto Strait
Many Hands, Many Hearts
   Volunteering in the valley is a work of aloha that demands an open-hearted willingness. The first challenge is actually getting into the valley. The first people to enter the valley most likely came by water, which had its own challenges. The journey there is a short, steep hike, and before the construction of a road, could be perilous.
Hiram Bingham describes his 1847 trip into Waipi‘o:
   “With one hand clinging to little shrubs and strong grass, and with the other thrusting a sharpened staff into the earth to avoid sliding fatally down the steep, I attempted it. Friendly natives of the valley ascended part way to meet and assist me.”
   Walking on a widened paved road, the SHSU students need no assistance to enter the valley. They are enveloped in moist fragrant air as the valley floor and its drifting mists beckon them down into an emerald vortex. At the end of the day, they will retrace their steps, this time trudging upslope—body tired, but heart elated.
   Over the years, the valley has drawn many volunteers from all over the globe, as well as Hawai‘i. All have sensed the mana (spirit) that is Waipi‘o, and left the valley  changed . “Theyʻre in awe. Just to be standing in an ancient taro field. In the mud, mosquitoes. But theyʻre giving back. It’s a humbling experience. Sustainability has a deeper meaning. It changes how they move through the world after that,” relates Ava, also a descendant of Hāmākua.

PictureHCC and UH Hilo students cutting ginger in the valley. Photo courtesy of Drew Kapp.
Nestled at the foot of Hi‘ilawe falls, Napo‘opo‘o Village was originally one of the largest settlements in the valley. Because of its isolation, it’s impossible to bring in machinery, or to haul materials out. Through volunteer help, green waste has been composted, rock walls have been rebuilt, and lo‘i reestablished.  
   “Different school groups helped us open up the lo‘i. We didnʻt sell taro. We donated to school events and now we give to families,” said Kūlia. A distant echo from the past when there were poi factories in the valley that supplied Hāmākua, Pa‘auilo, Waimea and Waiki‘i with poi, hauled up in mule trains.
   Napo‘opo‘o has also been planted with a community garden that contains natives and endemics used for both la‘au lapa‘au and cultural practices such as hula. “We had no money so we used whatever we had. It was all overgrown so we made a community garden. It has everything people need for food and cultural practices. Every kind of flower for hula, and banana, breadfruit, sugarcane, 15 milo trees, kukui and hala,” shares Kūlia.

PictureSam Huston State University students volunteering at Koa'ekea (lookout). Photo courtesy of Ava Fujimoto Strait.
This is mirrored up at Koa‘ekea, the lookout, where lush native gardens thrive. This was made possible when the County of Hawai‘i purchased the property through the Public Open Spaces and Natural Resources (PONC) program and awarded the stewardship to Pōhāhā I Ka Lani.
   “It had been a dump site. There were 13 abandoned vehicles, 50 loads of trash, and an abandoned lunch truck with a banyan tree growing from it. We cleared it all out and planted natives. The community came out and helped. Uncle Toko came with his torch and helped us with the lunch truck. People brought weed whackers, plants they grew and helped us to cook,” recalls Kūlia.

PictureJesse and Uncle Walter Wong talk rock wall story. Photo courtesy of Kūlia Tolentio Potter.
Building a rock wall to protect the rim lands is another recent project involving many hands, guided by kahuna pohaku, (rock wall expert) Uncle Walter Wong, and many volunteers who have given their time and effort to Waipi‘o.
   Today a Growth International Volunteer Excursion (GIVE) group is assembled at the entrance to one of the rim land sections. Their introductions are wide-ranging across the continental US and they have come together for the first time, with a common purpose: to give back.
   One of the volunteers asks: “Is there anything around here that can be used as medicine?” Kūlia identifies honohono, which is a plant that can be used to seal wounds in the absence of a first aid kit. After a short lesson about the uses of the ti plant, the volunteers get to work clearing weeds and grass from around large boulders, what Kūlia identifies as “protectors”, on either side of the entry.
   As difficult and demanding as the work can be, Kūlia continues to live up to her name as one who strives with strength and wisdom to share the gifts of Waipi‘o Valley that have touched the lives of so many.
 
For more information: pohahaikalani.com

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Ikaika no Kohala: A Community Connects through Story and Art                Ke Ola Magazine Jan / Feb 2022

1/14/2022

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This panel depicts three of the many sacred sites or heiau, with Kohala Mountain, an important water source, in the background. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
  When the historic Kohala Village HUB (KVH) building was lost to fire in March 2019, a heart center of the community vanished. Then a year later covid hit, disrupting  community connections. These dual tragedies inspired folks at KVH to find a way to help the community re-energize and strengthen connections. 
  “The mural was born out of a wish to find ways to reaffirm our connectedness as a community even while the needs of addressing covid have isolated us,” shared KVH founder, Bennett Dorrance. 
  This latest endeavor is just one of many in Kohala’s history of unified strength in the face of adversity.
  With the idea of art and story as a heart connection, resident artist for KVH, Raven Diaz and outreach director Joel Tan decided on a mural project that would enclose the slab where the KVH main building once stood, becoming a meeting place surrounded by Kohala stories rendered in art.
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Opihi is a rich source of food from the sea. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
PictureCommunity mural artist Kanoa Castro and his two daughters, Kekapa and Kawelo working on the pueo panel. Photo courtesy of Raven Diaz
Preparing the Ground
  Starting in May 2020, Joel and Raven began to lay the ground work. They invited Kanu o ka `Āina principal and community artist, Kanoa Castro to join the team and spent two months interviewing kūpuna and other community members to gather stories and ideas to be featured in the mural. “We wanted to highlight who and what Kohala is during times of challenge, how we respond and what's important,” explained Raven.
  Notices inviting ideas were also posted all around the community that led to three Zoom sessions and many phone conversations. “We kept it real broad like: What is important for us to know about Kohala? If people were born and raised here we asked about history and traditions; if they had moved here, we asked about their experiences.” explained Joel.
  These conversations, “Sparked ideas behind the mural and we turned those ideas, stories, thoughts into visual images,” explained Kanoa.
  Meanwhile the KVH maintenance crew built the walls around the slab and painted them with yellow primer, creating a canvas ready for Raven and Kanoa to pencil in the stories and by mid-June the panels were ready to come to life.
  The next step was to lay down a base coat or background. A call out to the community yielded a diverse group of painters for seven painting days throughout the rest of June until the end of July. “It was a mixed crowd. Elders, local artists and a lot of keiki,” said Raven.
  At the entrance to the plaza are two sheets, one with the QR code for the self-guided tour, available any time. The other is a long list of names of the many contributors to the project.

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The `iwa, whose name means thief in Hawaiian, is known for its extraordinary ability to steal fish from the beaks of other birds in mid-flight. Photo by Peter Wizinowich
Picture"It's such a powerful process when you paint and think about something then it shows up in your life." Photo courtesy of Raven Diaz
The Vision Emerges
  The mural, which encloses the square, is a mixture of the Kohala community’s cultural, historical and ecological mana`o.  
  The first panel is a pastoral scene that highlights the essence of Kohala. Rolling green pastures and pu`u; and grazing horses, highlighting Kohala ranching; all flooded by sunrays kissing the land and backed by ocean waters. A kupuna is sharing traditional knowledge with a keiki while sitting under the koaia tree, also known as the “Communitree”, where people can add their names to the leaves. 
  Two stories relating to sustainability and facing challenges are pictured in the mural. The stories of I`ole the rat are quintessentially Kohala lore and many of the participants in the talk story sessions mentioned them. The panel shows a graphic of the story of how I`ole the rat saved the people from starvation and features the net filled with all the harvest hung in the heavens by Chief Makali`i.  I`ole is scrambling up a rainbow to gnaw through the ropes securing the net, releasing the food to all the people.
  The food shortages caused by the pandemic are just the latest in the challenges faced by Kohala folks and the spirit of generosity and sharing what you have captures the spirit of the community. The next panel on the wall is of our canoe Makali`i. A traditional responsibility of the canoe and her navigators is to provide food for the people, but Makali`i also represents a community pulling together with generosity.
  Another traditional Kohala story shared was Punia, which is illustrated on the makai side wall. The story is told in a series of images that creates a bridge between past and future.  In the story, Punia’s father is eaten by a shark when he is diving for lobsters. With his father gone, Punia takes on the role of food provider and finds a way to outsmart the sharks, and emerges victorious.
  The story wall of Punia bridges from historic legend to contemporary times and inspires the images that follow. Punia and his mother receive a flag in commemoration of a fallen soldier who, just as Punia’s father, was taken before his time.

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Punia and his mother receive a flag in commemoration of a fallen soldier who, just as Punia’s father, was taken before his time. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
The next two panels symbolize the legacy of tradition emerging in the present and features the Kohala High School basketball team, who were victorious at the state regional champions last January, flanked by Punia and his father. 
  In the final panel, by receiving the lei kukui, a symbol of lasting strength, Punia follows his legacy and goes on to become a medical doctor who, with a caduceus in one hand and soil in the other, champions social justice and respect for the `āina. 
  Featured on the wall parallel to Punia is a representation of the deep spiritual roots that underlay the community. At the center of the display are three pahu drums, eliciting the rhythmic sounds of ancient hula, at the heart of Hawai`i’s cultural practices.
  This is bordered by a panel depicting three of the many sacred sites or heiau, with Kohala Mountain, an important water source, in the background. The Mo`okini heiau, which is near King Kamehameha’s birthplace, was rebuilt in the 13th century through the efforts of 18,000 stone passing men, stretching from Pololū. Mo`okini was Kamehameha’s spiritual home until he was advised to build a heiau in preparation for his enormous task of unifying the islands. Again, a massive effort ensued with thousands positioned in a work line and resulted in Pu`ukoholā heiau. The third site pictured, Ko`o Heiau Holomoana, a navigational heiau located just south of Mahukona, is an historic training ground for young navigators and a place of ceremony.   
  Kohala’s history is immersed in the legacies of King Kamehameha, who exemplified strength and resourcefulness. The panel bordering the pa`u on the other side is a representation of the `aha`ula or royal cape worn by Kamehameha, made up of the yellow `o`o feathers contrasted with the red feathers of the apapane.
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Participants in the talk story sessions mentioned encounters with pueo that signified a warning or the marking of an important event. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
Feed the People
  The east wall speaks to the ecology of Kohala and features the many plants that have fed Kohala for generations. Many of the Kūpuna spoke of gathering food from the ocean and the cliffs of Kohala. The first panel pictures opihi and at the bottom of the cliffs, tucked away in caves are menpachi, a favorite of Kohala fisherman, pictured at the far end of the east wall.
  Another panel features Kalo an essential food plant brought to Hawai`i by the first Polynesians. There are many different kinds of kalo and Kohala has its own special variety called bakatade, which is Japanese for hard-headed.
  Also featured is breadfruit, an abundant food provider; and an awa grove, created by Eric Dodson, Kohala artist and medicinal plant grower. Awa is a canoe plant that has many uses and has been an important part of Kohala’s la`au lapa`au, as well as being a ceremonial drink prior to big endeavors such as ocean voyages.
 
Language of Lei
  Lei are woven throughout the mural, just as they are woven throughout Hawai`i life. 'Ohi'a lehua, ancient symbol of the strength of Pele graces the heiau panel. In the panel representing Kamehameha, it changes to a unique Kohala plumeria lei, inspired by Aunty Maile Napoleon, formed with pedals bent back to create a rounded shape.
  The lei plumeria transforms into a lei hala in the next panel, representing the completion of a phase and the starting of a new one, and for talk story participants a reminder of a special grove of hala in Niuli`i, the location of an historic sugar cane camp.
 
Feathered Spirits
  The mural also includes a large image of pueo, a quiet guardian and aumakua for many families. Participants in the talk story sessions mentioned encounters with pueo that signified a warning or the marking of an important event.
  Centered on the east wall is a large image of the `iwa or frigate bird. The `iwa, whose name means thief in Hawaiian, is known for its extraordinary ability to steal fish from the beaks of other birds in mid-flight. The name Ka`iwakīloumoku was given to Kamehameha to commemorate the “stitching together” of the Hawaiian islands, and connotes someone with great expertise and daring.
  The essence of Kohala is hard work, pulling together, resourcefulness and a spiritual connection to the natural world, and the mural project has provided an opportunity to build anew from the ashes. “It's such a powerful process when you paint and think about something then it shows up in your life,” concluded Raven.
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A kupuna is sharing traditional knowledge with a keiki while sitting under the koaia tree, also known as the “Communitree”, where people can add their names to the leaves. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
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St. James' Circle: A Hub of Resilience                                      Ke Ola Magazine Mei - Iune 2021

5/12/2021

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PictureHeadmaster James Taylor on the front porch of the original chapel, built in 1912, surrounded by vibrant poinsettias. photo courtesy of Jane Taylor
It’s Thursday morning and St. James Circle in Waimea is a humming hive of activity. The church kitchen is abuzz with volunteers cheerfully chopping ingredients, then cooking and filling pans with the evening’s weekly community meal. Another group of volunteers readies the St. James Thrift Store for business. Soon a yoga class will be assembling at Waimea Yoga and Waimea Country School students will be dashing across the grass for their daily physical education class and little ones will be gathering at Small World Preschool.
The Circle in the Making
   St. James Circle evolved from a small group of dedicated worshipers who met in various homes, to a circle of buildings forming a synergy of positivity. With the arrival of Reverend Frank Merrill in 1911, plans for the new church, dubbed St. James the Great, quickly got underway with the order of a church building from American Portable House Company of Seattle. 
   With the building on the way, a search for a place to put it began. That’s where Mabel Beckley, great-granddaughter of John Palmer Parker, came in. She approached Parker Ranch manager AW Carter, who granted them a 50 x 100 foot plot in the area of the old Waimea Courthouse.
   In December 1912 church members celebrated their first Christmas Eve service and provided the first community Christmas celebration: “On Christmas Eve, members of St. James’, Mrs. Henry Beckley, her sister Miss Maud Woods, and Miss Nora Keawe, began a tradition at the town hall, part of which is still continued in Waimea today; they provided a Christmas tree and a Santa Claus to distribute gifts for the children of the town.”*
   In 1930 the Sharritt and Arioli families donated the three acres of rough pastureland bounded by Waikoloa Stream that was to become St. James Circle and, “The chapel was braced, lifted onto a stone sledge, and pulled by two Percheron horses to the new site.”*

PictureSt. James graveyard was established in the early 1930s. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
The next addition was a graveyard, where Samuel Parker Jr., son of Samuel Parker and Panana Napela, was interred in 1934, followed four years later by original church member, Carolyn Sharratt. Eventually the graveyard was bounded by low rock walls and bordered with ‘ōhia and jacaranda trees.    Sometime in the 1930s two or three small houses were connected together and placed in the northwest corner of the property and eventually became the vicar’s residence, which is the current church office. The rest of the buildings of St. James Circle originated from World War II and the educational needs of the community.

PictureOnce serving as the Vicarage, the building now serves as the church office. photo by Jan Wizinowich
When the 2nd Division Marines arrived in Waimea from one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, they were in dire need of a hospital and took over Waimea School and Waimea Hotel, leaving students to attend classes at various alternative locations and homes.
   Waimea needed a school and in 1943 the Seabees got busy constructing the canec buildings that are still standing today. Canec was a building material made from bagasse, a fibrous material that is the byproduct of sugarcane processing. From 1943– 1945, with the exception of the commandant’s house (southwest corner), Waimea School students attended classes in those buildings.

PictureThe original canec buildings, renovated and updated, serve to provide the community with schools and a yoga center. photo by Jan Wizinowich
The Hawai‘i Episcopal Academy and the Roots of Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy
   When the war ended, the buildings were left empty and the circle was eerily quiet, but not for long; a seed had been planted and when Bishop Kennedy observed the empty buildings, he saw them as a way to meet a community need and began to make plans for a school. By the fall of 1949, working with local businessmen, Bishop Kennedy and St. James Church, they opened the Hawai‘i Episcopal Academy (HEA).
   Interviewed for this story, Dave Coon (teacher 1950-1951; mission vicar 1954-1957), recalls arriving in the summer of 1950. He was immediately put to work in what later became the James Spencer building (northeast corner). “When I arrived in the summer of 1950 the Reverend Paul Savanack was the interim headmaster. We looked at the building and walked inside and it was totally bare. Empty. And he said here’s a lot of lumber over here, make a library,” remembers Dave.  
   The buildings now housed students, teachers and classrooms. Moving around the circle starting from the James Spencer building, you come to the building that now holds the Thrift Store. “There were three of us teachers at the road end of it. The rest of the building was a dormitory and at the end was a room for another teacher,” said Dave. 
   Then moving south, “The Waimea Country School building was a dormitory for girls and a teacher, who more or less ran the building. The Small World Preschool building was the kitchen and dining room and the whole Waimea Yoga building was classrooms,” said Dave.

PictureLynn Taylor with daughter Jane, flanked by two unidentified children, looking north toward the current church building. photo courtesy of Jane Taylor
James Taylor arrived in 1954 to begin a 20-year career as headmaster. The original chapel was still standing just west of the current church building and served as the headmaster’s office. But the American Portable House Company of Seattle hadn’t figured on the ka makani winds and sometime in the early 1960s the chapel had to be disassembled and removed.
   The upper campus of Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy opened in 1961 and once again St. James Circle was reconfigured. The elementary classes began by Lynn Taylor in 1958 now expanded to fill the space and along with elementary school classes, the circle continued to provide housing for faculty.
   By now, the twenty-year-old canec buildings were beginning to show their age. Howard Hall and his wife, Pat, arrived in 1964 to begin a 40-year teaching career at HPA and lived in the north end of the Waimea Country School building. “The canec walls were so waterlogged that by the end of the year, the tacks holding Pat’s artwork rusted through,” remembers Howard.

PictureSt. James' Episcopal Church built in 1950, a gift from Parker Ranch's Richard Smart. photo by Jan Wizinowich
Parker Ranch Connections
   Richard Smart had always had a special relationship with St. James’. Mrs. Mabel Beckley and her sister, Maud Woods, two of the original members, were his cousins. Also Fr. Merrill had married Richard’s parents in 1912, baptized Richard in 1913, and buried Richard’s mother in 1914.
   In 1950, Richard decided to present the church with a new building and by mid-October 1950, ground was broken by James Kurakawa and his cadre of ranch carpenters (which included church member Dempsey Harada) for a one-story, 100 by 24-foot redwood building, “to take care of the social as well as the spiritual needs of the Mission.”*
   While the new church was being constructed, Dave Coon loaded HEA students, o‘o bars and other implements onto a flatbed truck and headed up Saddle Road to Humu‘ula to collect pahoehoe, which was used for the front walkways and the bell tower facing, “installed by a crew directed by faithful vestry member James Spencer.”* The first service in the new church took place in March 1951 with cross-sections of the community, in the spirit of inclusion.

PictureOnce a dorm and faculty housing, this building now houses the thrift store that helps to support St. James community outreach. photo by Jan Wizinowich
St. James Circle Growing Community Connections
   In the spirit of aloha, the congregation of St. James Church has opened their hearts beyond the sanctuary doors and view the buildings and resources of St. James Circle as something to be shared. The church has become a meeting place for support groups, Boy Scouts and veterans and until the pandemic, a place for Sunday afternoon worship conducted by the Marshallese ‘ohana.
   “Outreach is key to who we are today and the seeds that were planted years ago have taken root and are blossoming now,” said Reverend David Stout, in his tenth year as St. James Rector.
   The Thursday community meal, a joyous affair, began in 2016. “The parish ‘ohana wanted a feeding ministry. They wanted to try it and see who came. Sue Dela Cruz and Tim Bostock took it on and it turned into a party every Thursday in the pavilion with live music. People came and shared a meal. A festive event that fed both body and soul,” said Reverend David. 
   With the pandemic, the meal program has both expanded and contracted. More than 600 meals are now distributed in a drive-through on Thursdays from 4:30 to 6:00. “People in the drive-through are asking when we can gather again. The meal is really the greatest event I’ve ever promoted,” said Tim, who is a professional event promoter.
   The gathering place, Savanack Pavilion (western edge), donated in 1973 by Julia and Tommy Rodenhurst, started out as a place for the annual fundraising plant sale. It now serves as a support kitchen for the community meal, mostly prepared in the church building, but there are plans to, “wrap the whole operation into one with a fully commercial kitchen and share it with a number of people,” said Tim.
   St. James Circle has been given the title “Hub of Resilience” by granting organization, Vibrant Hawai‘i. Through their support, St. James sponsors 175 meals a week, prepared by Ippy’s Restaurant and delivered to kūpuna in the community.
   “The property we’ve inherited is a great blessing. We are stewards of it in our time, to continue to be a place of worship, education and community connections,” concluded Reverend David.
   Mahalo nui for contributing to this story: Everette Knowles, Jo Pilz, Dave Coon, Jane Taylor, Tim Bostock, Reverend David Stout, Sue Dela Cruz and Howard and Pat Hall.
 
For more information: stjameshawaii.org

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Hawaiian Naming Traditions: A Cultural Legacy                      Ke Ola Magazine Sept. / Oct. 2020

4/29/2021

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PictureWena is the red glow of sunrise or the rosy glow in a cloud associated with Pele. Photo by Barbara Schaefer
According to Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani College of Hawaiian Language professor Dr. Larry Kimura, Hawaiian language was and still is a “treasure house embedded with the whole way of seeing the world. It adds to the whole richness of being on earth and approaching different concepts in different ways.” This is at the heart of Hawaiian naming practices. When a Hawaiian name is bestowed, a connection is made, a story told, history preserved, someone honored, a hope expressed.

Colors, Clouds, Rain—Names for All Reasons
   There are many different terms that describe colors. For example, Wena is the red glow of sunrise or the rosy glow in a cloud that can be associated with Pele. Hā‘ena is a red-hot burning, such as rage or anger and is also the name of a place in Kea‘au on Hawai‘i Island that is known as the playground of Hi‘iaka, favored sister of Pele.
   “Hawaiian language has more precise names for colors and nuances of color names. I see a yellow ti leaf but the word we use for that yellow is pala, not melemele. It is ripe or aged. It captures the peopleʻs perspective. How they see things around them,” explained Dr. Kimura.
   The basic word for cloud is ao, but there are dozens of terms for various clouds. Ao pua‘a describes a grouping of various sized cumulus clouds, resembling a pua‘a (mother pig) with her piglets gathered around her. Malu is Hawaiian for shelter and a ho‘omalumalu describes a sheltering cloud.
   Rains are a unique experience depending on one’s location. In Waimea there is a rain called uhi‘wai. Uhi can mean a covering, a veil or film, so uhi‘wai refers to a light misty rain that comes in the afternoon and feeds the crops. In Hilo the misty rain is kani‘lehua, because it quenches the thirst of the lehua blossoms.
PictureTutu Mary Kawena Pukui, Hawaiian scholar and co-author of the definitive Hawaiian dictionary. Photo courtesy of Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.
Naming People
   In Hawaiian language tradition, words have power; a name was a person’s most precious possession, a force unto itself. Or in the words of Mary Kawena Pukui, “A name became a living entity...identified a person and could influence health, happiness and even life span.”
   Hawaiian names also offer a glimpse into a person’s life. “As Hawaiian speakers, when we hear a name in Hawaiian, its meaning or significance is often apparent. The language carries meaning and the listener is impacted by the meaning and significance of a name,” explained Dr. Kimura.
   There are three types of names which refer to the relationship between humans and the spiritual world: Inoa pō, inoa hō‘ailona, and inoa ‘ūlāleo. Inoa pō is a name that comes in the night through a dream to a family member and given to a baby. Pō means night but in a larger sense, it means source, the time before the beginning, a connection with the ancestral world. 
   An inoa hō‘ailona, or sign name, was found when “a family member might have a vision, or see a mystic sign in the clouds, the flight of birds, or other phenomenon that clearly indicated.” An Inoa ‘ūlāleo, or voice name, might be found when someone hears “a mystical voice speaking a name directly or in an oblique message,” a voice on the wind.
   A name from one of these three origins must be given or risk sickness and death. Mary Kawena Pukui’s own birth illustrates this. After she was born, an aunt was given an inoa pō, but she did not bestow the name. Kawena became ill and during a ho‘oponopono the aunt revealed the inoa pō. The original name was ‘oki (cut, severed) and the inoa pō was given, restoring her to health.

PictureKa'iu Kimura, director of the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center holds one of the charts with name suggestions. Photo courtesy of 'Imiloa Astronomy Center.
Inoa Ho`omanao: History Preserved
   Naming preserved shared history. Inoa ho‘omana`o are names that provide brief historical reminders of past events. “Let a grandmother call out to a child, ‘Come here, Keli‘ipaahana’ (“the industrious chiefess”) and everyone within hearing remembered Po‘oloku, the beloved chiefess who kept her people busy and prosperous, and even personally dug holes for planting bananas.” 
   Often a person or place has more than one name such as our own Hawai‘i Island, commonly known as the Big Island but also called Moku o Keawe. Why is that? The answer provides some island history. The name is derived from a 17th century chief, Keawe‘īkekahiali‘iokamoku, great-grandfather of Kamehameha I, whose reign over the island was peaceful and prosperous.
Inoa Kūamuamu: Reviling Names
   Some children were thought to need protection from harmful spirits and were given such names as Makapiapa (sticky eyes) or Kūkae (excrement). The hope was that the spirit would be disgusted and stay away from the child. After a few years, the reviled name was ‘oki (cut) and the child was given a new name.
   Inoa Kūamuamu were also a kind of negative commemorative name. This kind of naming was used when someone who lived close by had hurt or insulted the family. The family then gave the baby a name that would be a constant reminder of the offense.
Lineage, Prophesy and Tribute
   Names were also selected to show family descent, as in the case of ‘Umi-a-Līloa. “Līloa, 50th king in succession after Wākea, the traditional founder of the Hawaiian people named his son ‘Umi-a-Līloa, meaning ‘Umi, descendant of Līloa’.” 
   Family lines and migrations are also revealed in names, as well as tribute to the accomplishments of the bearer. “Defeated enemies gave Kamehameha I the name Pai‘ea (hard-shelled crab) as a tribute to their conqueror’s impenetrable courage and endurance.”

PictureStudents began the workshop with a symbolic ti leaf lei, connecting them to ancestral sources of knowledge. Photo courtesy of 'Imiloa Astronomy Center.
Hawaiian Naming in the 21st Century
   Over the years, Hawaiian language retained fewer speakers with the influx of outside influences and a new social milieu. Naming traditions, which provide insight into the Hawaiian world view, changed as well.
   “Our language captures many aspects of traditional culture that we donʻt practice anymore,” said Dr. Kimura. “If youʻre raised in todayʻs world, itʻs hard to be comfortable about reviling names or commemorative names that may have peculiar meaning. The most common way people think about that kind of name is that itʻs negative or odd. They avoid it,” he added.  
   A serendipitous series of encounters and events created an opportunity to delve into Hawaiian naming practices and brought the Hawaiian language onto the world stage.   Initial plans were already underway to explore the possibility of giving Hawaiian names to astronomical objects discovered from Mauna Kea or Haleakalā. Then, in the fall of 2017 an interstellar asteroid entered our solar system.
   Dr. Kimura was asked by his niece, Ka‘iu Kimura, director of ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, to name this unique new object. Aided by modern day technology, the process he went through mirrored traditional Hawaiian naming practices based in close observation and reflection.
   “It appeared to be like something thatʻs coming in to check us out. Some kind of a spacecraft from some outer planet, like a spy. Fairly quickly the name came to my mind: ‘Oumuamua, an advance guard, coming to check us out,” said Dr. Kimura.
   A series of informal meetings between Dr. Kimura and Doug Simons, director of the Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope, Alan Tokunaga, retired astronomer, and John Defries, a Hawaiian businessman who sparked the idea of using Hawaiian names for new astronomical discoveries, began in January 2018.
   This gave birth to A Hua He Inoa (calling forth a name), a program through the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center. In October 2018 a weekend workshop was held to engage young Hawaiian speakers from the islands of Hawai‘i and Maui in Hawaiian naming traditions. 

PictureStudents display the final names for the two asteroids. Photo courtesy of 'Imiloa Astronomy Center.
Using the Kumulipo, Hawai‘i’s traditional creation chant which is a masterpiece of evolutionary documentation, and other sources, they delved into the thought processes of the ancestors to initiate a reconnection and “call forth names” in honor of two designated discoveries made possible by Hawai‘i astronomy. They also peered into the world of astronomy, visiting ‘Imiloa Astronomical Center and the University of Hawai‘i Observatory on Mauna Kea, observing the behaviors of the asteroids.
  By the end of the weekend they had agreed on names for the two asteroids: 2016 HO3 was named  Kamo`oalewa, Kamo`o meaning a fragment or offspring that will now alewa, orbit on its own; and 2015 BZ509, was named Ka`epaoka`āwela, which is an asteroid near the orbit of Ka`āwela (Jupiter), but is `epa or mischievously moving in the opposite direction. 
   “This was a new opportunity. These Hawaiian speaking students never thought theyʻd be asked, let alone dreamt that they could use their Hawaiian language and cultural knowledge to name these kinds of objects,” reflected Dr. Kimura.

PictureThe first image of a black hole, named Pōwehi by Dr. Kimura. Photo source: Hawai'i Tribune Herald.
Since the initial A Hua He Inoa workshop, other astronomical discoveries have been given Hawaiian names, including most recently Pōwehi, (embellished dark source of unending creation), the first image of a black hole to ever be captured. 
   “We are reviving new generations of Hawaiian speakers, which requires the establishment also of our Hawaiian cultural identity by being involved in renewing this naming process so that someday it can become normal as before. One little way of reconnecting,” concluded Dr. Kimura.
 
Referenced work:
Nana I Ke Kumu: Look to the Source V. 1 Pgs 94-98
Hawaiian Dictionary. Mary Kawena Pukui / Samuel H. Elbert
papahanaumokuakea.gov/education/cultural_hawaiian_names_wind.html 
kumukahi.org

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Hā‘ena is a red-hot burning, such as rage or anger and is also the name of a place in Kea‘au on Hawai‘i Island that is known as the playground of Hi‘iaka, favored sister of Pele. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
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Canoe Connections Across the Pacific: The Kauai Community College’s Maritime Voyaging Program

3/16/2021

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    The voyaging canoes are a reawakening of the old songlines, knowing without words, heard in the stillness between breaths, the shout and pulse of the wind as it creates an atlas of clouds and dances the water’s surface hinting at the primal powers shifting below. Songlines, which are, “…the equivalent of maps of experience… combine mythology with family and clan history,” are drawing listeners from all Pacific cultures to embark on the journey that follows from the heart, to engage with the wisdom of the ancestors. Hōkūleʽa was a contemporary starting point but her voyages have, in retracing the paths of the ancestors, awakened the songlines for others. “Every day there is at least one canoe on the water in the Pacific,” observes 'Onohi Chadd Paishon, Pwo navigator and canoe captain.
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Dennis Chun and maritime students lashing down the training canoe. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
    It’s April 2012 and there are a group of maritime students from Japan with their Kauaʽi Community College teachers Dennis Chun and Kyoko Ikeda, getting hands on sailing experience with the Makali`i crew, using smaller training canoes contributed by Hualalai Bertlemann. I’m sitting with Pomai Bertelmann and Kyoko Ikeda as Dennis and the students lash down the waʽa for the day. Located just north of Pelekane Bay, the small dock in front of the YMCA sailing program compound, next to Hale Kukui, Makali'i headquarters. When they’re finished it’s all in the water, including Dennis, who soon joins us.
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Maritime students lash down the training canoe. Dennis and 'Onohi center foreground. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
    The 2007 Hōkūleʽa voyage to Japan was the songline that connected Japan with the island of Kauaʽi and a traditional voyaging course at Kauaʽi Community College (KCC). But the voyaging connection with Japan goes back further to Tiger Espere.  Pomai Bertelmann explains, “Tiger started out on Hōkūleʽa and moved to Waimea and helped with the building of Makaliʽi. He was the one who founded Nā Kalei Waʽa, but after a while, 1998, Tiger moved to Japan.  He lived in Japan for a while and in moving to Japan he actually was taken care of by the community of Shichirigahama and Kamakura. And while he was there he was writing for one of the magazines there and really being inspired by the people; he was really inspired at that time to build a vessel. Tiger passed away 4 or 5 years ago. It was right before the voyage in 2007.”
    One special connection was made between Tiger and Tora Mosai, a professor at one of the universities. Dennis explains: “They actually hit it off, connected. He teaches, well he used to teach at a university where some of the students that are here attended. He did extensive research on maritime conditions around the world. He was so inspired by Hōkūleʽa. Even before Hōkūleʽa he did research on Polynesian Voyages. Some of his research was in Japan, the early era of the discovery of Japan, ancient names and mythologies and what he’s finding is a lot of connections in Polynesia with Japan in those early years. What he was finding is that there seems to be more contact and more communication, more interchange than modern people believe. We think insular, little spheres, but you know there’s the larger sphere of the whole ocean…they (Tiger and Mosai) inspired the rest of the community about building a vessel.”
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Tiger Espere at the helm of Hōkūleʽa as she arrives in Kamakura, Japan. http://archive.hokulea.com/holokai/2007/japan_6_yokohama.html
    The inter-institutional arrangement of Japanese Maritime Colleges and Kauaʽi Community College, came about through some serendipitous connections between Dennis, Kyoko and Tomoki Oku.  Dennis had gotten to know Kyoko through preparations for the 2007 voyage. “When they were planning the sail to Japan she was part of a team of East-West Center grad students, who were charged with developing the educational program for the voyage from Hawai'i, to Satawal on to Okinawa with Alingano Maisu. Kyoko had professional training as a translator. She ended up at the East-West Center; that’s how she got involved with Hōkūleʽa.  Kyoko was asked, because she was part of the team that developed the ed materials and because she was from Japan, to help translate.” 
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Program founders, Dennis Chun and Kyoko Ikeda at Kawaihae. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
    Dennis came aboard Hōkūleʽa in Japan on the 2007 voyage, where he also met up with Tomoki Oku and Kazu Nishimura, the pilots the Japanese government provided as a guide to the unfamiliar waters.  Tomo, who was on faculty at one of the maritime colleges, was completely astounded by Hōkūleʽa.
    “So he came on, it was a job you know, the government was paying him.  But then he got on Hōkū and he was like wow, non- instrument. He knew instruments upside down backwards, celestial navigation upside down backwards, but without instruments and then the whole cultural side of it, the background, the basis, the foundation of maritime traditions, it was like wow, heavy yeah.  Both of them, Kazu as well as Tomo were just awed by the whole thing, really got involved and it became more than just a job. ‘We’re going to take care of you in Japan and we want to learn from you guys too.’”
    At the heart of voyaging is old knowledge that lives in the unconscious mind and allows navigators to connect with the tangible world through intangible means. Tomo got a glimmer of  this while on a training sail to Kauaʽi from Oʽahu.
    “So he came on and mid-channel we was talking story, it started raining, pouring, no can see the stars and he goes, ‘How can you tell where you going?’ I told him, you got to feel the waves. In the middle of the rain, he kind of threw it out, ‘Hey, what if I bring students? Would you guys be open to do something with maritime students?’  You know, local style, yeah sure come. These guys when they say something, they serious, they going to find a way to do it.”
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Hōkūleʽa arriving at Yokohama, Japan. http://archive.hokulea.com/holokai/2007/japan_6_yokohama.html
    With the realization that Dennis taught college students, Tomo started thinking about an institution to institution arrangement. When they returned to Oʽahu, Tomo flew back to Japan on a separate flight from Dennis who was headed to Kamakura, Japan. “I call ahead and ask Kyoko if she can translate for me when I go to Kamakura to do this talk over there.  She’s at the airport waiting for me, Tomo comes in and Tomo’s black cause he was sailing with us, we were all dark. She sees the back of Tomo wearing a Hōkūleʽa shirt and, ‘Oh, that must be Dennis’, so she goes, gets closer and then, ‘Oh, that’s not Dennis. How come he’s got a Hōkūleʽa shirt and he’s carrying a dry bag and the flight just came from Hawaiʽi?’ So she was talking to Tomo and he was saying yeah, I was just sailing to Kauaʽi on Hōkūleʽa.  And she says, ‘You know this guy Dennis?’ And he says, ‘Yeah, he was my captain, he’s on the next flight.’ I get off the plane and the two of them’s over there and we kind of re-unite.”
    Dennis was scheduled to give a lecture, “Kamakura was trying to build this canoe; they asked me to come to talk about what are the challenges to building a canoe from a grass roots standpoint.  Cause we’re (Kauaʽi) building our canoe and it’s 10 years in the making.  I can tell you all the challenges, a long process, so I talk about that. What is the focus? You got to have a good reason. What’s your foundations? You got to have committed people, some financial income, it’s always a struggle.”
    Tomo quickly decided to seize this opportunity, “He lives in Toyama, on the whole other side of the island. So he rushes home, drives back to Kamakura and he sits in, listens to the lecture and he stays over night with us and we end up talking story, the three of us (Tomo, Kyoko, Dennis) until 3:00 in the morning and in that time, the three of us develop this concept, this idea, even a curriculum you might say on integrating Polynesian wayfinding into Japanese maritime curriculum on navigation and decide to move forward and try to develop an international agreement.  I flew back to my college after that, he goes back, Kyoko’s like the go-between.  Kyoko’s kind of like the glue in a sense; she’s the one keeping us grounded. She knows from the English as a second language standpoint, what are some of the pitfalls, what are some of the ways to get these kids to open up, get them to work to increase their own language abilities.”
    In record time, this dynamic triumvirate had a formal agreement. “Within 9 months we had an international agreement signed, we have exchanges, we have the president coming over, meeting us, seeing our campus. Real formal people, they coming in a suit and tie and I’m in jeans and a t-shirt.  You know I got to wear an aloha shirt, I got to wear shoes, you know, I don’t have nice pants.  But it’s cool and they invite us to go there to see their place and that’s within 9 months. 
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Hōkūleʽa is greeted by Kamakura surfers. http://archive.hokulea.com/holokai/2007/japan_6_yokohama.html
    In March, we got this program and then the students come over. Then the second year all of a sudden, we’re bringing in all the other 4 maritime colleges.  I go back to Japan again, cause I got to go visit all these maritime colleges, promote the program, explain to them.  The first year (2009) I tell Pomai and Nohe can these guys come, we no more canoe but I like to take them out. I want a cultural experience for them, but really down home.  It’s growing, it’s still growing and it’s only 3 years, but very positive on all sides.”
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Japanese maritime students and program staff. https://www.forkauaionline.com/japanese-cadets-aboard-nippon-maru-visit-kauai/
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Shine On: The Peace Poles of Hawai'i Island                                Ke Ola Magazine / Ianuali - Pepeluali

1/12/2021

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PictureThe Rotary Club of Kona Sunrise installed a peace pole at the Innovations Charter School. Photo courtesy of Rotary Club of Kona Sunrise.
Dark times call for light. This is the spirit behind the Peace Pole Project, a movement that is planting beacons for peace across the planet. Since its founding, the Peace Poles Project has spread worldwide with the first poles outside of Japan planted beginning in 1983. More than 200,000 peace poles have been planted in over 200 countries, many in sites of historic and ongoing strife. With the support of The Peace Pole Project promoted by The World Peace Prayer Society, as well as other groups such as Rotary Clubs, the movement continues to grow.
Seeking Peace
   The planting of peace poles emerged from the spiritual journey of Japanese philosopher and author, Masahisa Goi. His spiritual path emerged from the dark hours of post-World War II; he realized in the course of his healing work, that people needed help healing their emotional side as well as the physical. To that end, he sought a simple practice that could be done by anyone. 
   After completing a course of rigorous spiritual training, Masahisa Goi founded Byakko Shinko Kai, an international grassroots organization that transcends cultural, religious, and political boundaries with the vision of promoting world peace through the prayer: “May Peace Prevail Upon Earth,” the first Peace Pole with that message, was planted in 1955 in Hiroshima.

PictureHilo Rotary Club members hosted an Open World delegation from Russia and together they planted a peace pole in Kuhio Kalaniana'ole Park. Photo courtesy of Charlene Iboshi.
Putting Hawai‘i Island Peace Poles on the Map
   On Hawai‘i Island, a committee made up of five East Hawai‘i Rotary Clubs is shining a light on peace through several projects including peace poles. The vision of the Rotary Clubs’ Peace Committee “is not just avoiding conflict, but lifting the community and creating the opportunity for everyone to move forward,” said committee coordinator and Rotary Club of South Hilo member, Charlene Obashi.
   Five years ago, the committee, which is made up of members from Rotary Clubs of Hilo, South Hilo, Hilo Bay, Pāhoa, and Volcano, began their initial efforts with addressing homelessness. The first step was to give voice to the needs of the homeless in East Hawai‘i. This led to several projects such as working with Hope Services and other organizations to provide food, paint shelters, and plant food trees. “The idea of peace poles bubbled up out of our Peace Committee,” said Charlene. 
   Their peace work added an international element when, in the fall of 2019, an Open World (OW) delegation visited Hawai‘i from Russia as part of the Peace Committee’s “Let’s Work it Out” series. Along with visiting energy research labs and sharing knowledge, the OW delegation and Rotary Club members planted a peace pole at Kuhio Kalaniana‘ole Park in Keaukaha.
   Since beginning their program, the Peace Committee discovered many peace poles already planted on the island, some in need of refurbishment, and all in need of location and placement on a map, which became an ongoing committee project. 
   No journey away from home is complete for Bob Juettner, committee member and member of Rotary Club of Hilo Bay, unless he can verify another peace pole or two. Bob has faithfully been placing peace poles on the map with GPS coordinates that the committee hopes to use to create an app. When we spoke, Bob was off to West Hawai‘i on the trail of two new poles installed there; he also shared that a new peace pole was in the works for Kohala.
    “We have a dream that people will take a trip around the island and visit the peace poles and make a journey, internally as well as externally,” explained Tim Hansen, special programs director at the Hilo Prosecutor’s Office and Rotary Club of Hilo Bay member.

PictureAs part of the STARS program developed by the Hilo Prosecutor's Office, a peace garden and peace pole was installed. Photo courtesy of Tim Hansen.
Peace Poles around the Island
   Positive ideas, like sparks, can light fires. In 2018, when Al Jubitz, co-founder of the Rotarian Action Group for Peace, came to Hawai‘i Island to share some of the work being done nationally, he sparked island Rotarians into action.
   Since that time, West Hawai‘i Rotary Club members have planted peace poles at several locations including Innovations Charter School. “The kids are a good way to start,” said Nestorio Domingo, Rotary Club of Kona Sunrise member and past president. In addition, the club has also planted peace poles at the Old Kona Airport Park, the West Hawai‘i Civic Center, and Pālamanui Community College
   Probably one of the oldest peace poles on the island resides at Paleaku Peace Garden. A group from Japan brought a peace pole to the island, seeking a home here. Their journey brought them to the Paleaku Peace Garden in Captain Cook where it was planted overlooking the Kona coast, amongst the many other symbols of peace from a myriad of cultures and faiths.
   Peace poles have been planted for many different reasons as a symbol of awareness, a meditational focus for healing, to honor a loved one, or commemorate an event. In Pāhoa, now in the process of recovery from the 2018 volcanic eruptions, a peace pole, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Pāhoa Sunset, was planted at the newly opened Puna Kai Shopping Center and displays the message “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in eight languages. 
   “The peace pole stands as a reminder to think peace,” said Deborah Nichols, Rotary Club of Pāhoa Sunset president. “The Rotary Club picked Puna Kai Shopping Center because it represents a new beginning for our little town,” she added.
   If you have occasion to visit the Prosecutor’s Office in Hilo, in the midst of daily human drama, you will find STARS Peace Garden planted with a peace pole, a memorial to the victims of homicide and their families.
   “When we established the garden in Hilo, we knew we wanted a peace pole. We wanted peace to prevail in our community and also in our hearts. The presence of the peace pole in the garden helps people who visit to center and focus. It’s not only to remember our loved ones who were killed, but it’s also for the community and the person who did that harm. It’s an individual journey, a community journey and a world journey,” reflected Tim.
   The peace pole at Tutu’s House in Waimea was planted in September 1995, the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Sophie Oki, then the director, invited Tyrone Rheinhart, who was in Hawai‘i with a delegation of 47 Japanese visitors, to plant a peace pole.
  The pole was replanted when Tutu’s House moved to their current location and the recipients of Medtronicʻs “Live On. Give On.” award (sponsored by Earl Bakken) created a garden around it. The following year when the award recipients came, the cap was taken off the top of the Peace Pole and they wrote messages of peace to be sealed inside.

PictureRotary Club members from Volcano and Hilo gathered to install a peace pole at the Volcano Art Center in Volcano Village. Photo courtesy of Charlene Iboshi.
Volcano Art Center: Community Hub
  Paul Field, president of Rotary Club of Volcano was contacted by Charlene about planting a peace pole. “The Volcano Art Center is the hub of the community so we decided to install it there. Mike Nelson and the art center jumped right in. We had a little ceremony with 10 people. We have a plaque under the pole that explains it,” said Paul.
   During the ceremony, artist Julie Williams shared her story. “Last year when I went to Hiroshima and saw the peace pole there, I thought it would be so great to have one at the Volcano Art Center [VAC] and then Paul told me that the Rotary Club would like to donate one,” explained Julie.
  But the VAC isn’t going to stop there. “This pole has inspired another project at the art center called the Positive Post Project. We are reaching out to six artists and other service clubs to do smaller posts that will have artwork and a positive statement and will be planted along the edge of the forest,” she added.  

PictureMembers of the Hilo Rotary clubs and the Russian delegation installing a peace pole in Kalaniana'ole Park, adjacent to Lili'uokalani Gardens. Photo courtesy of Charlene Iboshi.
Lili‘uokalani Garden: A Community Treasure
   Another peace pole was discovered in Rakuen, an area behind Suisan that is part of Lili‘uokalani Gardens. Landscape architect Kazuo Nakamura developed a waterfall that flowed into a pond that could be viewed from the Nihon Cultural Center, now the Hilo Bay Café.
   “At some point between the Nihon Cultural Center and Hilo Bay Café, the peace pole was installed. But the pathway and the pond and the grounds surrounding it have become overgrown and the pole text has been painted over. There's an effort to restore that area around the peace pole as well as the peace pole itself. It’s a real community treasure. You just put the word out that something needs to be done and people show up. The Rotary Clubs came out like gangbusters,” said K.T. Canon-Eger, founder and president of Friends of Lili‘uokalani Garden.
   The aloha spirit of Hawai‘i Island has rich resources for peace and so it’s no surprise at the number of peace poles here. Peace begins in the heart of the individual and is about making connections and creating communities that foster beauty and become beacons of peace amidst the chaos of our modern world.

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Hawaiian Naming Traditions: A Cultural Legacy                           Ke Ola Magazine Sept / Oct 2020

9/15/2020

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PictureHā`ena is the tern for a red-hot burning anger and is also the name of one of the playgrounds of Hi`iaka, Pele's favored sister. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
  According to Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani College of Hawaiian Language professor Dr. Larry Kimura, Hawaiian language was and still is a “treasure house embedded with the whole way of seeing the world. It adds to the whole richness of being on earth and approaching different concepts in different ways.” This is at the heart of Hawaiian naming practices. When a Hawaiian name is bestowed, a connection is made, a story told, history preserved, someone honored, a hope expressed.
Colors, Clouds, Rain—Names for All Reasons
   There are many different terms that describe colors. For example, Wena is the red glow of sunrise or the rosy glow in a cloud that can be associated with Pele. Hā‘ena is a red-hot burning, such as rage or anger and is also the name of a place in Kea‘au on Hawai‘i Island that is known as the playground of Hi‘iaka, favored sister of Pele.
   “Hawaiian language has more precise names for colors and nuances of color names. I see a yellow ti leaf but the word we use for that yellow is pala, not melemele. It is ripe or aged. It captures the peopleʻs perspective. How they see things around them,” explained Dr. Kimura.
   The basic word for cloud is ao, but there are dozens of terms for various clouds. Ao pua‘a describes a grouping of various sized cumulus clouds, resembling a pua‘a (mother pig) with her piglets gathered around her. Malu is Hawaiian for shelter and a ho‘omalumalu describes a sheltering cloud.
   Rains are a unique experience depending on one’s location. In Waimea there is a rain called uhi‘wai. Uhi can mean a covering, a veil or film, so uhi‘wai refers to a light misty rain that comes in the afternoon and feeds the crops. In Hilo the misty rain is kani‘lehua, because it quenches the thirst of the lehua blossoms.

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Wena, the name for the rosy glow of the clouds at sunrise. photo by Barbara Schaefer
PictureHawaiian language and cultural scholar, Mary Kawena Pukui. photo courtesy of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum
Naming People
   In Hawaiian language tradition, words have power; a name was a person’s most precious possession, a force unto itself. Or in the words of Mary Kawena Pukui, “A name became a living entity...identified a person and could influence health, happiness and even life span.”
   Hawaiian names also offer a glimpse into a person’s life. “As Hawaiian speakers, when we hear a name in Hawaiian, its meaning or significance is often apparent. The language carries meaning and the listener is impacted by the meaning and significance of a name,” explained Dr. Kimura.
   There are three types of names which refer to the relationship between humans and the spiritual world: Inoa pō, inoa hō‘ailona, and inoa ‘ūlāleo. Inoa pō is a name that comes in the night through a dream to a family member and given to a baby. Pō means night but in a larger sense, it means source, the time before the beginning, a connection with the ancestral world. 
   An inoa hō‘ailona, or sign name, was found when “a family member might have a vision, or see a mystic sign in the clouds, the flight of birds, or other phenomenon that clearly indicated.” An Inoa ‘ūlāleo, or voice name, might be found when someone hears “a mystical voice speaking a name directly or in an oblique message,” a voice on the wind.
   A name from one of these three origins must be given or risk sickness and death. Mary Kawena Pukui’s own birth illustrates this. After she was born, an aunt was given an inoa pō, but she did not bestow the name. Kawena became ill and during a ho‘oponopono the aunt revealed the inoa pō. The original name was ‘oki (cut, severed) and the inoa pō was given, restoring her to health.

PictureDr. Ka'iu Kimura, Director of the 'Imiloa Astronomy Center holds one of the charts with name suggestions. photo courtesy of 'Imiloa Astronomy Center
Inoa Ho`omanao: History Preserved
   Naming preserved shared history. Inoa ho‘omana`o are names that provide brief historical reminders of past events. “Let a grandmother call out to a child, ‘Come here, Keli‘ipaahana’ (“the industrious chiefess”) and everyone within hearing remembered Po‘oloku, the beloved chiefess who kept her people busy and prosperous, and even personally dug holes for planting bananas.” 
   Often a person or place has more than one name such as our own Hawai‘i Island, commonly known as the Big Island but also called Moku o Keawe. Why is that? The answer provides some island history. The name is derived from a 17th century chief, Keawe‘īkekahiali‘iokamoku, great-grandfather of Kamehameha I, whose reign over the island was peaceful and prosperous.
Inoa Kūamuamu: Reviling Names
   Some children were thought to need protection from harmful spirits and were given such names as Makapiapa (sticky eyes) or Kūkae (excrement). The hope was that the spirit would be disgusted and stay away from the child. After a few years, the reviled name was ‘oki (cut) and the child was given a new name.
   Inoa Kūamuamu were also a kind of negative commemorative name. This kind of naming was used when someone who lived close by had hurt or insulted the family. The family then gave the baby a name that would be a constant reminder of the offense.
Lineage, Prophesy and Tribute
   Names were also selected to show family descent, as in the case of ‘Umi-a-Līloa. “Līloa, 50th king in succession after Wākea, the traditional founder of the Hawaiian people named his son ‘Umi-a-Līloa, meaning ‘Umi, descendant of Līloa’.” 
   Family lines and migrations are also revealed in names, as well as tribute to the accomplishments of the bearer. “Defeated enemies gave Kamehameha I the name Pai‘ea (hard-shelled crab) as a tribute to their conqueror’s impenetrable courage and endurance.”

PictureHawaiian language students began the workshop with a symbolic ti leaf lei connecting them to ancestral sources of knowledge. photo courtesy of 'Imiloa Astronomy Center
Hawaiian Naming in the 21st Century
   Over the years, Hawaiian language retained fewer speakers with the influx of outside influences and a new social milieu. Naming traditions, which provide insight into the Hawaiian world view, changed as well.
   “Our language captures many aspects of traditional culture that we donʻt practice anymore,” said Dr. Kimura. “If youʻre raised in todayʻs world, itʻs hard to be comfortable about reviling names or commemorative names that may have peculiar meaning. The most common way people think about that kind of name is that itʻs negative or odd. They avoid it,” he added.  
   A serendipitous series of encounters and events created an opportunity to delve into Hawaiian naming practices and brought the Hawaiian language onto the world stage.     Initial plans were already underway to explore the possibility of giving Hawaiian names to astronomical objects discovered from Mauna Kea or Haleakalā. Then, in the fall of 2017 an interstellar asteroid entered our solar system.
   Dr. Kimura was asked by his niece, Ka‘iu Kimura, director of ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, to name this unique new object. Aided by modern day technology, the process he went through mirrored traditional Hawaiian naming practices based in close observation and reflection.
   “It appeared to be like something thatʻs coming in to check us out. Some kind of a spacecraft from some outer planet, like a spy. Fairly quickly the name came to my mind: ‘Oumuamua, an advance guard, coming to check us out,” said Dr. Kimura.
   A series of informal meetings between Dr. Kimura and Doug Simons, director of the Canada-France-Hawai‘i Telescope, Alan Tokunaga, retired astronomer, and John Defries, a Hawaiian businessman who sparked the idea of using Hawaiian names for new astronomical discoveries, began in January 2018.
   This gave birth to A Hua He Inoa (calling forth a name), a program through the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center. In October 2018 a weekend workshop was held to engage young Hawaiian speakers from the islands of Hawai‘i and Maui in Hawaiian naming traditions.   

PictureHawaiian Language students display the final names for the two asteroids. photo courtesy of 'Imiloa Astronomy Center
sing the Kumulipo, Hawai‘i’s traditional creation chant which is a masterpiece of evolutionary documentation, and other sources, they delved into the thought processes of the ancestors to initiate a reconnection and “call forth names” in honor of two designated discoveries made possible by Hawai‘i astronomy. They also peered into the world of astronomy, visiting ‘Imiloa Astronomical Center and the University of Hawai‘i Observatory on Mauna Kea, observing the behaviors of the asteroids.
  By the end of the weekend they had agreed on names for the two asteroids: 2016 HO3 was named  Kamo`oalewa, Kamo`o meaning a fragment or offspring that will now alewa, orbit on its own; and 2015 BZ509, was named Ka`epaoka`āwela, which is an asteroid near the orbit of Ka`āwela (Jupiter), but is `epa or mischievously moving in the opposite direction. 
   “This was a new opportunity. These Hawaiian speaking students never thought theyʻd be asked, let alone dreamt that they could use their Hawaiian language and cultural knowledge to name these kinds of objects,” reflected Dr. Kimura.
Since the initial A Hua He Inoa workshop, other astronomical discoveries have been given Hawaiian names, including most recently Pōwehi, (embellished dark source of unending creation), the first image of a black hole to ever be captured. 
   “We are reviving new generations of Hawaiian speakers, which requires the establishment also of our Hawaiian cultural identity by being involved in renewing this naming process so that someday it can become normal as before. One little way of reconnecting,” concluded Dr. Kimura.
 
Referenced work:
Nana I Ke Kumu: Look to the Source V. 1 Pgs 94-98
Hawaiian Dictionary. Mary Kawena Pukui / Samuel H. Elbert
papahanaumokuakea.gov/education/cultural_hawaiian_names_wind.html 
kumukahi.org
For more information:
larrykim@hawaii.edu

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