Like a guardian spirit, the Hāmākua Jodo Mission (HJM) sits on a slope above the old plantation community of Pa‘auhau, backed by the gravestones of the many generations of members who attended and contributed to the temple. With a one-time congregation of more than 600 worshipers, it is now sustained with just a handful of elderly members who endeavor to maintain the spirit and history of the Japanese in Hawai‘i.

Origins
   In 1868, the first Japanese immigrants arrived in Hawai‘i to face harsh conditions in an unfamiliar land. They were forced to labor for long hours in sugarcane fields, with no traditional social structures such as the religious practices they left behind. This led to an untenable situation.
   The next group of Japanese workers, who arrived in 1885, were under government contracts between Hawai‘i and Japan, and were promised better conditions. Instead, the harsh treatment by the field bosses continued.
   Sometime in 1894, the Imperial Consulate General of Japan, Hisashi Shimamura, paid a visit to the Hāmākua Coast. During that visit, members of the Japanese immigrant community suggested the idea of building a home temple in Hāmākua. Mr. Shimamura was so pleased with the idea that he pledged $300 to get construction underway. 
   Temple founding members Tanikichi Fujitani and Shoichi Hino were instrumental in securing the pledge from the Japanese Consulate. The rest of the $3000 construction costs were raised by Mr. Fujitani and the founding Reverend Gakuo Okabe, who visited house-to-house, collecting donations.
   “When times were tough, they only ate bananas to survive in their tireless effort to obtain donations,” said youngest active temple member Sandy Takahashi. “Reverend Okabe was known to travel around carrying an Amida Buddha statue on his back. He would tirelessly walk around with it, spreading the teachings of Buddhism and raising funds to build a home temple,” she added.
   Opened in 1896, the original temple, which was named the Hāmākua Bukkyo Kaido (Hāmākua Buddhist Temple), renamed the HJM in 1951, was located in Pa‘auhau Mauka, the geographic center of the five sugar plantations.
   The oldest Japanese sanctioned Buddhist temple in Hawai‘i and possibly the United States, the 24 by 36-foot structure stood on an acre of land, surrounded by sugarcane fields, with another acre designated for the cemetery. When the current temple was built, this original building was converted into a kitchen and dining hall, which is still in use today.

Temple Reborn
   In 1909, Reverend Ryoyu Yoshida became the fourth minister to serve at the HJM. It was under his leadership that a new temple, Konpondō (main prayer hall), was completed in 1918, under the direction of Umekichi Tanaka. Mr. Tanaka had moved back to Pa‘auhau in 1916, and had been trained by his father as a miyadaiku.
   Miyadaiku carpenters only build shrines and temples, use no nails or metal of any kind and are renowned for their elaborate wooden joints. The buildings they construct are among the world’s longest surviving wooden structures, which is certainly borne out by the 102-year-old HJM temple. 
   The Pa‘auhau plantation donated the materials, built a road to the site, and helped haul materials there; however, the construction was a community project with more than 270 people directly involved. With the efforts of several carpenters under the supervision of Mr. Tanaka, and only working weekends, the construction took two years.
   The plantation also gave permission for the removal of four koa trees from the forest, located at the back of the property. These were used to carve the two distinctive transoms guarding the altar and the altar piece itself.
   When the temple was finished, a lean-to was created for the koa logs. Eizuchi Higaki, whose youngest son George is a current temple member, was a plantation machinist. Mr. Higaki, along with Mr. Tanaka and another unknown carpenter, came to the temple every day after work for two years until the carving was finished. Each hand-carved transom depicts a fierce dragon a-swirl amidst an elaborate wave design, symbolizing a close connection to the oceanic world.

A Community Center and History Keeper
   The HJM served as a place of worship where immigrants could gather as a community and take refuge from the rigors of plantation work. Along with regular services, the temple offered Sunday school, kabuki-type plays, music, and traditional crafts such as shishu (Japanese embroidery) taught by Mrs. Yoshida (Reverend Yoshida’s wife).  
   The temple’s cemetery along with the stories of the many generations of temple members, tells the history of an island community that spans across the Pacific. One of the first graves, once the temple was built, was that of Katsu Goto, who arrived in 1885. Mr. Goto became a spokesman in a labor dispute between Japanese workers and the plantation, and in October 1889 was found lynched from a pole on main street Honoka‘a. When the temple was finished, members transferred his remains to the temple cemetery and erected a large gravestone. Revered in his hometown of Oiso, Japan, the municipal museum there has created a memorial exhibit honoring Mr. Goto. 
   The cemetery has an array of headstones ranging from carved marble, to carefully arranged boulders, to simple stones. The stones are the resting place of unknown immigrants whose families had perhaps returned to Japan. It is also the resting place for Japanese laborers whose graves were transferred from nearby Kukaiau.  

Longest Serving Reverend Kogan Ekuan
   Reverend Kogan Ekuan served the community from 1937–1977 and is remembered fondly. However, his years of service were interrupted by a twist of fate that highlights the ongoing connection between Hāmākua and Japan, despite world events.
   Reverend Ekuan was in Japan tending to his ailing mother when the US entered World War II. Earlier in 1941, his wife Kimie had died while giving birth to twin daughters, along with one of the twins. Reverend Ekuan’s mother-in-law, Tome Oda, came from O‘ahu to take care of her newborn granddaugther and the Ekuanʻs other two young sons. During the time Reverend Ekuan was away, Tome kept the mission open as a community center and gathering place. Upon his return in 1948, services and temple activities resumed.
   Daughter Yoshiko remembered, “When my father came back, he started a Sunday school; we went down makai for services. At the temple we had the Hana-matsuri service to celebrate the birth of Buddha. And what was really cute was my father made a play, a shibai, where the Sunday school children would be the actors and actresses.”

A Beacon of Light
   The handful of elderly members continue to keep the temple in perfect working order, preserving their history and honoring their ancestors. Along with a contingent of elderly members who do an annual work day to prepare for Obon, church president Masa Nishimori is a constant presence.
   “Trimming trees, hauling filled wheelbarrows clear across the property and back, mowing the yard, raking leaves, and doing various handyman work are just some of the things he does, so that the property is kept in good condition,” commented Sandy.
   The future of HJM is uncertain, but it continues to be a regular destination for both Japanese and mainland visitors. The remaining members hope to see it preserved for future generations as a center for learning and remembrance.
   Every Buddhist temple contains a munafuda (dedication board), which is placed somewhere high in the rafters. Like a time capsule, along with a recording of the construction details including names of the people and funders, the Hāmākua Jodo Missionʻs munafuda also contains a prayer for the future:

May there be harmony below the heavens with the sun and moon shining
brightly.
May the wind and rain be timely and disasters and calamities not arise.
May nations be bountiful, people be safe, and armies and weapons not used.
Let us revere virtue and humanity and cultivate respect and humility.

For more information:
Historypin.org: Hamakua Jodo Mission
Visit: North Hawai‘i Education and Research Center’s Heritage Center

   ​    On January 17 at the Kahilu Town Hall, the Waimea community will get a glimpse into a critical period of Hawaiian history with the presentation of Ka Lei Maile Alii (The Queen’s Women), a play written by Helen Lincoln Lee Kwai and first performed on Oahu in 2001 in celebration of Queen Liliuokalani’s birthday.
    The play was inspired by an event that took place on September 16, 1897, when well over 300 Hawaiians gathered at the Salvation Army Hall in Hilo. Mrs. Abigail Kuaihelani Campbell and Mrs. Emma Aima Nawahi, who traveled throughout the islands collecting more than 38,000 native Hawaiian signatures (97% of the native population, had come to speak about the kue (to stand in opposition) against the annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
     A San Francisco Call reporter, Miriam Michaelson, wrote an article about the event, which became the basis for Ka Lei Maile Alii, an audience participation, re-enactment of the meeting. Through the efforts of Pua Case and others, the play has been performed on Hawaii Island beginning in 2012. “I had been in the play as one of the audience speakers on Oahu. I felt that many in our community had not perhaps been given the opportunity to learn about that part of our history. Most of us at the time were not aware of the effort by our people to address annexation. So this was our way of bringing this essential part of our history to our community,” says Case.
    The petition, which was ignored, was housed in the Library of Congress National Archives until 1997 when Dr. Noenoe Silva journeyed to Washington D.C. and returned the Kue Petitions to Hawaii. The Hamakua to Kohala portion of the petition will be on display and provides a historical window for the descendants of the signatories and the community, a way to get “a truthful peek into history,” says Case. 
​The Rickard Family Legacy
    Several of the petition’s signatures bear the name Rickard, a family whose contributions to the Honokaa community will be the subject of an introductory presentation by Dr. Momi Naughton, director of the NHERC Heritage Center in Honokaa.  Naughton has created a special exhibit on the Rickard family and will have a traveling version on display.
    After coming across several references to the family, Naughton became curious about them and made some phone calls, eventually contacting great grandson, Ryon Rickard. “Right away Ryon was very excited that somebody was interested. From a very young age, he started keeping all these things,” says Naughton.
    Through letters and photographs, Naughton was able to create an exhibit rich in the details of a life well lived. Originating in Cornwall, England, Rickard and his wife Nora arrived in the islands in 1866 and after a short stay in Honolulu traveled to Waimea to join his Uncle George, the first family member to come to Hawaii. “He had a blacksmith shop at Hale Kea in Waimea that was a gathering place for expats,” says Naughton.
    Uncle George was a great friend of King Kalakaua, “and so when he (W.H. Rickard) got here he was right away in with the alii. In fact Lot Kamehameha was the godfather to his daughter who was born on the ship coming over,” says Naughton. 
    Rickard was a man of many talents and initially worked as a contractor and engineer for the old Kukuihaele Landing, completed in 1868. He then spent three years as a book keeper for the Kohala Sugar Co. In 1873 Rickard and his entire family moved to Honokaa where they became an integral part of the community. “His mother was a midwife and she literally delivered 100s of babies without the loss of a single mother or child,” says Naughton.        
      Rickard started a sugar plantation, which with the addition of partners Joe Marsden and Mr Siemsen became the Honokaa Sugar Co. “Rickard was a beloved plantation manager for the Honokaa Sugar Company and spoke fluent Hawaiian,” says Naughton.
    Rickard was also known for his hospitality to Hawaiian alii visiting the Honokaa area. “Here’s a letter written by Curtis Iaukea (secretary) thanking the Rickards for hosting Queen Kapiolani here in Honokaa,” says Naughton.
W.H. Rickard showed his loyalty and strong support of the Hawaiian monarchy with his actions. “As soon as the overthrow happened he started working in the community to block annexation,” says Naughton.
    He ultimately gave his life for the Hawaiian Kingdom. “In 1895, Rickard took part in the counterrevolution to try to put Queen Liliuokalani back on the throne. He was captured along with Robert Wilcox, Joseph Nawahi and others and imprisoned. During this time he contracted tuberculosis and after his release moved back to Honokaa where he died in 1899,” says Naughton.
    Two buildings in Honokaa are memorial to the contributions of Rickard. “The Salvation Army Hall was their last home here. When Rickard died he left his wife Nora with 16 young children to raise and she turned it into a hotel,” says Naughton.
    The Honokaa School Auditorium, built in the 1920’s, years after Rickard’s death, is dedicated to the Honorable William H. Rickard, and stands as a testament to his community service. “Each year we begin the play with a presentation that will introduce the play and another part of history. That's why we are bringing Momi and that presentation to Waimea because many of the students that go to Honokaa School have no idea who the armory is named for. I want our students to say, 'I didn't know that was named for a non-Hawaiian patriot of the queen. That’s extraordinary',” says Case. 
    While the subject of the play, the 1997 Kue is a protest, the play itself is not. “Most of us are not aware of the effort by our people to address annexation and that time period. So this is our way of bringing this essential part of our history to our community. We bring the community together to learn something together,” says Case. “We embrace the entire community and all are welcome,” she adds. 
 
The NHERC Heritage Center, located in Honokaa, is a wonderful way to learn about and experience the richness of Hamakua history. The new exhibit gallery contains a series of collections highlighting various multi-cultural, historical aspects of Hamakua history. It’s open to the public Monday through Friday: 9am to 4pm and Saturdays: 9am to 1pm.

Rains and wind scour Hawaii Island and Makalii rises in the east at sunset. Lono is afoot. The Makahiki season, a time for connection and rejuvenation, has arrived. In its third year, the Ka Makahiki Pule Aina Holo, a circle island prayer run, will take place from Wednesday evening, Nov. 9 through Sun. Nov. 13. On Wed. Oct 20, an orientation for the run was held at Kanu o ka Aina gym.       ​

      As often when a clear intention is sent out, the universe conspires to manifest it. “It came so quickly, I couldn't ignore. For the staff I thought of a kii and low and behold, Uncle Kanani Kaulu Kukui from Kona carved the kii,” says Mangauil. And the kapa for the Lono staff appeared from a serendipitous encounter. “I met Dalani Tanahy, a kapa maker from Maui, at the Merry Monarch and she made the kapa for the Lono staff,” says Mangauil.
    As the runners travel the Island it’s an opportunity for communities to share their best. “We encourage the communities in the evening, to come out and kanikapila and share food, stories, dance. It’s not necessarily mea (things) Hawaii, but people being able to come out and show what they worked on, be thankful for what they’ve been able to produce,” says Mangauil.
    The Makahiki run is in its third year and the first shoots have grown deeper roots and extended branches.  That first year 20 Pit River tribal members came to join the run and this year there will be 50 guests from various tribes, coming to add their prayers to the growing number of Island runners.
    “We would like to have entire communities represented. We would like to have cross country teams from different schools involved,” says Pua Case, who will be providing orientation sessions leading up to the event, including a special chant and hula. “This is about prayer and purpose and culture and that has to be in everybody's mind when they’re running, footsteps on the ground, Lono on the ground running. Prayers high,” says Case.
    Waimea runners will include the Keakealani family, represented by Ku‛ulei and her daughters Kamehana, Nahenani and Ka‛io, who will receive the Lono staff from the Kohala runners at Lanikepu (upper H.P.A. campus); Kanu o ka ‛Āina middle and high school students, coordinated by Kanoa Castro, Pomai Bertelmann and Chelsey Dickson; and Punanaleo and Alo Kehau Hawaiian emersion schools, who will also provide lunch. 
     Ka Makahiki Pule Aina Holo is a budding tradition with old roots. “Every tradition was created by a person at a time and it only became tradition because it was practiced over and over and over again and it worked. As we create traditions that work that are pono, it will become the traditions for our children's, children's children,” says Manguail. It is an opportunity, “To bring the whole Island into a consciousness of gratitude. When we run we are also giving something. We're offering ourselves, a sacrifice of our best,” he adds.

       It’s a sunny Saturday morning and Rick Sakata, one of the owners of Hawai`i Lowline Cattle Company greets me at the gate of a verdant Hāmākua pasture of upward rolling hills dotted with tall ohia. A colorful herd of cows grazes happily while calves frolic. Sakata whistling, we make our way into the pasture. With the original bull Conquistador at the lead, we soon find ourselves surrounded by curious bright-eyed creatures that settle down comfortably as if waiting to be told a story.  
       This is the main herd of the Hawai`i Lowline Cattle Company (HLCC) a small, unique Hāmākua ranching operation that produces high quality, 100% grass fed beef. Owners Rick (marketing) and Haleakala (accounting) Sakata and Dwayne (herd manager) and Tammie (herd records) Cypriano wanted to support food security and self-sufficiency on Hawai`i Island and to create a business that is in alignment with their lifestyle and belief systems. “We wanted to keep the cattle here in Hawaii`i and be sustainable. We're as natural as you can get and that's what we wanted. These cattle are born and raised in this pasture,” said Sakata.
       The herd began in 2008 when HLCC flew in one Lowline bull and five half-blood cows. In September of that year, one of those cows, already impregnated when she arrived, gave birth to the first of their Hawai`i born herd. Their second pureblood bull was flown in from Iowa and their third bull, first to be born in Hawaii came in 2013; the herd has also been augmented by Red Angus cows from Hawai`i Island.
       One of the short wide Lowline bulls trundles over to us and acts more like a friendly puppy than a bull. The two couples decided on the Lowline cattle breed, developed in Australia because it is compact (the bulls are about four feet at shoulder height), is particularly adapted to grazing and produces tender, flavorful meat.

     The Lowline traits make it possible to raise and sell the beef in Hawai`i. While other breeds need to be sent to feedlots and finished off with grains to get the marbling, the HLCC herd feeds exclusively on kikuyu and pangola grasses and a leguminous clover called trefoil. This makes it possible to raise the cattle with a rotation system between three paddocks on 205 acres. “We’re the only certified grass fed ranch in Hawai`i,” said Sakata. Also, because of their size, two Lowline cattle can graze on about the same amount of pasture as one regular cow and produce more meat. 
       “Happy cattle makes good meat,” said Sakata and this approach has determined how HLCC does business. Along with American Grassfed Association (AGA) certification, HLCC operation is also Animal Welfare Approved by the Animal Welfare Association (AWA). This means there are yearly audits to insure that every aspect of the treatment of the animals creates the minimum of stress and promotes a state of general good health.
        The calves are weaned slowly and stay with the herd for a minimum of six months and natural conditions are allowed to prevail. “These animals get no medications and the bull stays in the pasture with the cows at all times,” said Sakata.  When the cattle need to be moved, it’s done with whistles and hand signals, which is what Sakata used to call the herd over to us.

Why 100% grass-fed?

        There is now much evidence that consuming sustainably produced meats provides higher levels of omega-3s and other vital nutrients as well as benefitting the environment. However, buyer beware, as the grass-fed label has different definitions depending on who’s using it.
       According to the AWA many grass-fed labels allow for cattle to be confined to feedlots for some percentage of their lives. This means that while cattle can spend the majority of their life in the pasture, it is contrasted with as much as a third of their lives being spent in barren confinement, possibly having a negative impact on the animal’s health and the quality of the meat. Also according to the AWA, the USDA’s voluntary grass-fed standards only stipulate that animals have access to the outdoors, which  can render the grass-fed label meaningless.  
       Foraging animals also have a positive impact on the environment. Properly rotated herds actually stimulate the growth of grass and prevent degradation of the environment through carbon sequestration, a process where, “As cattle and other ruminants graze pasture they stimulate the growth of grass, which absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere through its leaves and stores it in a mass of roots under the ground in a far more stable form of carbon.” (http://animalwelfareapproved.org)

The proof is in the flavor
       HLCC beef is sold directly to the restaurant as a whole cow, which is slaughtered at the Hawai`i Beef Producers operation in Paauilo, also AWA approved. The purchaser, usually a chef, can then determine how the carcass is processed. This makes for less waste since all of the animal is used.
      HLCC beef is quickly gaining a reputation for providing delectable, tender meat at the center of gourmet meals. Having to use the entire carcass has also inspired creative new dishes. “Two of the chefs on O`ahu, Ed Kenney, Town Restaurant and Andrew Le, The Pig and the Lady, who use our beef were nominated for the James Beard Award,” said Sakata.
       If you have dinner at Merriman’s in Waimea, you will probably have the opportunity to try one of a variety of HLCC beef dishes.  But if you’re in the mood for a gyro, you can get one stuffed with shaved slices of HLCC beef at Dano’s Doner in Waimea or if you want to cook in, try George’s meat market in Hilo. Any way you slice it, HLCC is doing it Hawaiian style, sustainably producing nutritional food that stays in the islands to feed our bodies, our environment and our spirits.

 

The gathering for the opening took place in a newly finished pavilion on the NHERC campus.  The musicians from the Honokaʽa seniors civic club, a lei akulikuli in their signature purple shirts, were sweetening the air with melodies of old Hawaii as people arrived. Helpful staff dotted the crowd, bursts of red on black in their new NHERC  polo shirts. 

One of the very special aspects of living on this island is that the aloha that permeates everything will create an openness, which allows some amazing connections to happen and that is what happened in this case.  The photos for the exhibit were, “In boxes, scattered around the house,” of John and Ann Bowen. How they got to the Heritage center is Kaye Lundburg’s story.  While looking for photos for another event, Kaye came across some of John and Ann’s photos at the Laupahoehoe Train Museum.  While her efforts to obtain copies of the photos were thwarted, Kaye did something that in this technological age would never occur to many of us, she looked them up in the telephone book.  “As I heard his story, I thought ‘Oh my god, this is pay dirt for NHERC.’” Kaye invited John and Ann to meet with Momi Naughton, curator for the Heritage Center.  “I want you to meet Momi, I want you to see NHERC, I want you to see all about the archives and what we’ve got here.”  So began the collaboration that resulted in “Plantation Life on Hawaiʽi Island”. 

From the roots of the plantation life, arise many who know how to work hard and who contribute to sustaining wholesome, culturally viable communities.  State Rep Mark Nakashima’s story is one that began in a cane field. “As a youngster I grew up in the middle of a cane field.  My parents, my grandparents actually were independent cane growers. And so I spent weekends, summers picking Guinea grass, carrying knapsack, you know all the things that went along with being cane growers. And I think it was sad for all of us when we saw the last harvest, the last cane truck going down the road. I think what came out of all of that was the culture and heritage that we all share. The community that has grown out of those former cane fields, just above this area was all cane fields, where the hospital stands today.  It’s been an experience as the community has continued to grow and survive in this area; it’s because of the people that have populated this place that has made it very special. What NHERC brings to us is the opportunity to celebrate that community and today’s exhibit sounds very promising. I’m very excited to go over and take a look at it. I think it helps us to remember the roots that we come from and hopefully it will be the foundation of where we continue to grow.”

Next at the podium was Momi Naughton. It was the vision of Momi, Heritage Center curator, who drawing from in-depth scholarship and vast experience, received the photographic gifts from the Bowens and made the creation of the  “Plantation Life on Hawaiʽi Island” exhibit a reality. She shared some of their story with us.  “John and Ann Bowen came to Hawaiʽi in 1965 when John got a job as an agriculturalist with C. Brewer and company.  Ann, probably being tired of being at home, decided that she was going to get a degree in anthropology from what was then called Hilo College. And many of you know Dr. Bill Bock and that’s who she worked with and he inspired her a great deal. What the Bowens could see right there in the 60’s going into the 70’s was that with the rapid phase out of the sugar industry, the plantation life style was shifting. So they set about documenting plantation life by photographing and audio recording the everyday people who built the industry.  In the mid 1970’s the Bowens received a grant from the Hawaiʽi Bicentenial Commission to produce a slide / tape presentation. In the 1970’s as Kaye mentioned there were numerous articles that appeared in the Hawaiʽi Tribune Harold using the Bowen’s photographs, but then all those photographs went underground.  

“As Kaye pointed out, the Laupahoehoe Train Museum has copies of these photographs on display, however, this is the first time since the 1970’s that these photos have been publically shown in an exhibit format and with some photos this is going to be the first time you will ever see them because they were just negatives when they came to us.  I cannot thank Gail Chanley enough because she was dealing with 35 year-old negatives that she scanned and photo-shopped and printed.  She was inspired by this wild color scheme, which you’re going to see that absolutely works. Both she and Monique Edwards.  Monique helped with the mounting, prep and installation as well. I was able to say to them, ‘Now here’s the basic theory’ and they just took off with it and I just stepped aside. I also want to acknowledge James Silva here for photo-mounting and painting.  I would also like to thank Michael McPhee.  Michael is a student at Honoka’a and he comes every Wednesday, rain or shine and helps us out with whatever needs to be done. 

The added depth of the exhibit comes from the many quotes that invite the reader into a world and a life, long past, but still very much a part of the nature of the plantation communities. “I chose these quotes from oral histories because I think they really, really speak to how it felt growing up small kid time on the plantation, as well as how people felt when the plantation closed.  There’s some very poignant photographic images and some very poignant quotes.  Coming into the exhibit there’s a quote I selected, which was written in a book called Sugar Town by Scotch Kurisu.”

Up and down the Hilo coast people are looking ahead, trying to figure out what comes next after sugar. But this is also a time for looking back at where we’ve been and how far we’ve come.  Sure we raised productive sugar cane, but we also raised children and grandchildren of fine stock and good character. New generations who have built on their plantation heritage, more than anything else they are the real legacy of the sugar towns. 

People have come and gone from these islands for centuries and of the people who stay, some really see the uniqueness of the culture.  John and Ann Bowen are two such people and what developed out of their special brand of aloha, was a collection of photos that are giving back to the community through the appreciation and preservation of the history and culture of this island. John Bowen:  “I’d like to thank you first of all for coming today.  This is a bit overwhelming to find so many people interested in these old photographs. When I first came to Hawaiʽi and got to work at C.Brewer, I got to visit the Brewer plantations state wide, every couple of weeks for 2 years.  And one thing that struck me, being from the metropolitan area of Baltimore Marilyn, was the plantation lifestyle.  I realized just how unique it really was. We met so many fantastic people in the plantation camps.  We found ourselves being invited to very personal events. First birthday lūʽau, funerals, weddings, ethnic celebrations of all different sorts.  For us relatively recently arrived individuals, at that time we’d been here for 10 years, this was just a fantastic experience and it’s one that neither of us will ever forget.” 

Although the spark of the idea came from the experiences and talents of John and Ann, as often is the case here, there were many people with aloha who encouraged and helped the Bowens along the way. “Initially we wrote a letter to Yoshita Takamine at the ILWU and proposed the idea to him. And very shortly after mailing the letter we got a phone call, ‘Please come meet with me’.  He overwhelmingly supported the idea and he was the initial person who opened a lot of doors for us that otherwise we wouldn’t be able to open….Very quickly after that we met Joe Garcia and he was just a fantastic person, who helped us immensely.  We got to meet his dad on Maui because he belonged to the statewide project.” Joe Garcia’s son, Bill a Big Island rancher and musician was an honored guest.

In a world looking towards survival based on sustainability practices, it will be necessary to do more with less and to create interdependent communities and the plantation lifestyle was an exemplar of this.  The next speaker, Valerie Poindexter, grew up on the plantation; her experiences and memories contribute to an outlook that bodes well for the future.  “When I saw the pictures in the Tribune Herald, one of them was of our home and that brought so many memories back. What did I get out of growing up in a plantation camp? When we were growing up and we were little children, we didn’t see anything special because the whole island was plantation camp so there was nothing different.  There were no big subdivisions; that to us was unheard of. All the politicians today are talking about sustainability and they just got to come back and look at the plantation lifestyle.” 

That lifestyle was both simple and completely connected to the ʽaina. “… when we grew up, we had a huge garden in the backyard and I think every family had a garden.  We grew corn, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, peanuts. When we were going to watch a movie, we didn’t have any popcorn to pop; it was go in the backyard, pull the peanuts, go wash the peanuts in the water, come back and then sit in front of the t.v. and then we’ll eat boiled peanuts.”

This was not an impoverished lifestyle, but one that was rich with natural resources and a close community of people. “Life was very simple back then. When we grew up we were poor and yet we didn’t know we were poor because we were happy. Back then in the camps as children, what did we have to play with? We had guava sticks and your imagination just had to run wild so you could have a lot of fun.  The guys would make sling shots out of the guava sticks and the girls, you know I had a wand, I was the fairy princess; I would turn the pear tree into my boyfriend. We were a huge community.  It’s really amazing this multi-cultural society that was created.  Someone came from the mainland a couple of days ago and he said, ‘When you land on the island, you just feel this ahhhhh’.  And that’s how we are and I think living in that lifestyle in that multicultural society how we live together in communities is the true aloha spirit.”

This exhibit is also a testament to the aloha spirit that is still alive because the kupuna, the elders have passed on the wisdom that comes with hard work and loving kindness. “We survived because we had each other. You’ve heard that African proverb, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ and that should have been our proverb, because that’s actually what it took.  I look at Farrah sitting here and all the accomplishments and her grandpa sitting here. It brings about a lot of history and a lot of who we are.  Sometimes the children in school, they have no clue who they are.  I look at all the kupuna’s sitting here and I want to cry because it’s because of what you gave us that we are who we are today and that’s the true aloha spirit.  I have a lot of gratitude for what you have done for us.” 

Farrah Gomes, director of NHERC and plantation child, emphasized the need to discover and preserve the stories of this land of Hamakua in her closing remarks. “Like Valerie, I too am a lifelong resident of this area. I grew up on the Hamakua sugar plantation. Like so many others in this community, I have so many memories and stories to share and it feels really good to know that we actually have the Heritage Center right here in our community to help us to be able to preserve these memories. While the plantation era is now gone, that doesn’t have to be the case for all of the memories that exist from that time period. The exhibit that we are about to open, is just the start of what we hope to bring and give back to the community. The value of what we have to share will depend on what the community will be comfortable sharing with us….don’t hesitate to share a story or a picture or even an entire collection with us.”

By Jan Wizinowich

To Wendell and Netta Branco, aloha and ‘aina always go together.  Raised in a plantation lifestyle, they have never lost their connection and appreciation for the land and its bounty.  Longears Coffee, their current endeavor, grew out of that connection with a little added serendipity and perseverance.  

The very best serendipity in their lives was meeting each other in Waimea.  Netta’s independent streak landed her in Waimea from Lahaina.  “There was so much family in Lahaina and I wanted to spread my wings.  I worked in a supermarket, Black’s supermarket. You know where Ace Hardware is? Right by Ace Hardware.  Well that’s where I worked as a cashier and Wendell worked right next door at the service station.”

You’ve heard of catalytic converters?  Well Netta’s radiator was a catalytic match maker. “Every time I’d go somewhere, I had to go to the service station and fill up the radiator and that’s where I met Wendell.  I said, ‘Would you like to go to lunch?’ He left the service station for us to have lunch for 3 hours. That’s where our love life started.” Wendell adds, “And we’ve been having lunch ever since.” That was the beginning of a long journey filled with aloha. But before that Wendell and Netta had very different beginnings.    

Born in Honoka’a in 1942 at Okada Hospital (now serving as a medical clinic), Wendell grew up in Honoka’a.  World War II interceded and swept his father, David Ishisaki, away to an internment camp on the mainland, before he was born. “Taken away form home.  You gone.  Bam.  He was one of them, he got hauled off.”  Wendell’s life journey took him as far off as Alaska and full circle back to Hamakua and Waimea where he eventually met and married Netta. 

Netta was born in 1942 on O’ahu and lived in Palolo Valley until her family moved to Maui. “My father used to drive the rapid transit truck or bus on O’ahu.  Also he was Samoan, from Pango Pango and he had a Samoan Band. When the war broke out it was very hard standing in line with two children, so my grandfather gave them tickets and they came to Maui.  We lived in Lahaina, Maui for all those years.” Netta led an idyllic life surrounded by family, with the ocean just steps away.  “The most fun we would have would be labor day.  We’d go out.  David Sharp he had a big barge.  That was what all of us kids loved. We’d go in small skiffs to the barge. And they would bring all the picnic tables, all the coolers and we’d have all kinds of fun and we would dive and jump from the barge.  The ocean is greenish blue;  it was out Mapili side, way out there.  Everybody would bring food and tons of watermelons and us kids would just look forward to it.”   

Wanting a life connected with the ‘aina they found and purchased land in Ahualoa.  After selling their house, with an agreement to live in it until a house was built in Ahualoa and having that agreement fall through, Wendell and Netta moved to their land a little sooner than they expected. Wendell said, “Pack up your things.  I’ve bought myself enough lumber to build a garage.  We’ll live in that garage until we build it ourselves. You got 12 hours up and 12 hours down.  That’s about how the day goes.  And we were, all of us in that one room.  I’d say that room was 30 by 30. It was like, you know living in the yellow submarine.” But not for long. “Every time we scraped up some money, we’d build a room.  Now we have three bedrooms and a big house.” 
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They moved to Ahualoa with three boys ages 3,5 and 7.   No electricity, no running water but no matter, they were living aloha ‘aina.  At this time, Wendell was working as the first paid fireman in Waimea. “It was just me and that old Studebaker fire truck.”  This meant that he would go off for two days at a time.  “They were babies.  Everything, everything we own into one big shed. Toilet on the outside.  No electricity.  No running water. Take a bath.  Japanese furo.  Until this day we still have the furo.  Kerosene lanterns, wood stove.  Then I was working at the firehouse.  So I’d be gone every other day.  This poor girl is up here in the middle of nowhere.  No electricity.  No water that reached the house.  The water stopped outside the house.  So the least I can do for this girl is get her a phone. The least I can do.  She needs to get a phone,” Wendell reminisced.   

At that time the old Mamalahoa highway was a dirt track and the only way to reach their land was by using a 4 wheel drive.  “The second vehicle was not 4 wheel drive.  Big old clunky Chevrolet Impala. One of those, it looked like a big old tank.  So she’d take the littlest guy, which was the baby.  She’d take him with her down shopping.  I’d stay up here carving this place out of the woods with the other 2 little guys and she’d do her shopping for the day and for the next day.  Cause the next day I’d go to work.  So she could go down, but she’d never come back up.  So she go shopping, she’d come.  We had the signal.  She honked the horn, whatever the signal was.   I’d go down with the chain and bring her home,” said Wendell.  “We loved it. We loved it. We loved it,” interjected Netta.
  
This strategy came in handy for phone installation. “There was no road.  There was ginger patch, brambles.  There was nothing here. So anyway I called the telephone company and they sent a man out.  He couldn’t get up the road with his van, so I asked him, ‘If I can get you up here, can you put the phone in?’  And he said yeah, he could do that.  So I hooked the tow cable onto his van and up he came. There’s not too many things we couldn’t do.” 

Their family values have to do with work and nobody got a free pass.  Their lifestyle made it easy to pass on those values. “I used to have a string of cows that I milked for about 12 years. Me and Wendell and my sons, that’s how we trained them to start working.  So I would milk in the morning and in the evening.  And Wendell, when we had electricity, would put a refrigerator out to barter with people, neighbors.  Whatever they want, if they want to take a gallon of milk, they leave something, eggs or whatever.  And I had a little jar there and if they didn’t have anything they’d put cold cash. Whatever it was worth to them.  So that’s how we’d do.  That’s how we trained our children to work and they hated it because early in the morning,” Netta shared. “Before they go to school they got to get those cows in that wet grass,” said Wendell.   “I would train the cows how to come in the morning. I would shake the ti leaf and as soon as they hear that they would start running down and it was easy,” continues Netta.  And very soon, their sons caught on how to do it.  Watch and learn.  

Wendell’s job at the fire station lead to the solution of the mystery of his missing ‘ohana.  “My wife and I had a family. It was in the back of my mind.  I wanted to know the scoop. My family tree.  One half of the tree didn’t even have one twig.” Once again serendipity came into play.  “Waimea had a volunteer fire station at the time.  It was Parker Ranch cowboys.  Then I got upgraded and they sent another fireman up there.  He came from Honolulu.  And one day over a bowl of saimin, I found out that he was my cousin.  I says, ‘Yeah, you know I got some kind of Japanese heritage.  I can’t prove anything.  All I know is that my father’s name was David Ishisaki.’  And he looked at me and he said, ‘David Ishisaki is my mother’s brother.’ And we got to talking and he says,  ‘You know what I’m going to Hilo tomorrow and talk to David’s mom,’ which would be his grandmother, ‘And find out just what’s happening here.’  I said, ‘But my dad’s dead.’ And he said, ‘Oh no.  Your dad’s alive and he’s living in Lanikila housing in Hilo.’ And all these years.  It goes beyond the fluke.”

Wendell solved a mystery and got to connect with a whole family he never knew he had. “We go to Hilo.  Never saw the man for 32 years.  He was bedridden.  My auntie, which I now met.  She would go into Hilo and prepare a bath.  She falls and injures her shoulder and she can’t perform this duty for her brother.  So we go in.  I never met the man.  We become friends and I’m helping him with his bath.  But I believe the camp, the concentration camp or whatever it was, messed up his mind bad. He lives 6 months and he died.”

Wendell’s next endeavor after the fire station, was to raise mules.  “I grew up around animals.  Cattle, horses, pigs everything.  So I always like to go into faraway places like the mountains, the valleys.  I always liked to go into Waipio, Waimano and beyond.  So I told myself, you know what, I’ve always heard about mules.  How great mules were and how nasty mules were and I figured, I’m going to figure this out for myself, if any of this is true.”  After researching locally he found that the only mules available were elderly retired plantation mules. Undaunted,  he started looking on the mainland and once again,   Wendell’s resourcefulness paid off  when he located and purchased his prize jack named Ozark and one mule.  “Those days they had stock flights, airplanes that came into Hilo. So my first mule and my big old donkey Ozark, my favorite guy, came from Missouri. And he came from Oakland California to Hilo Hawaii on a 747 jet.  Flew right in.  So that’s how my mule breeding program began.”  As always, Wendell and Netta chose the path not taken and forged on to make another of their endeavors work.  “All of my cowboy friends they’re all horse people and when I started into this mule venture, they figured I’d really lost it.”  

But registered mules were in demand.  “I would buy old retired Parker Ranch horses, cowboy horses.  Because they were registered horses. Basically quarter horses. And then Ozark, that’s the name of my jack. His entire handle is a: Catalonian  Mammoth Registered Goldstar Dappled Red Roan jackass. And he was the only Goldstar registered jackass ever in Hawaii. And the registered mares, I would breed mules off them.”  

Wendell’s mules made it possible for him to go to places on the island where few people travel.  “I always like to go into faraway places like the mountains, the valleys.  I always liked to go into Waipio, Waimano and beyond,”  and his mules never let him or Netta down, who reminisces, “We’d go riding.  I’d go down this gulch and he’d say, ‘Yes’ and I’d say, ‘No way. I’m getting off.’ And he said, ‘No. Just hand on, sit back and he’ll go.’ Next time I opened my eyes and we’re up already. Didn’t feel anything, you know.” 

One of their biggest adventures though was helping Kindy Sproat build a house 2 valleys in from Pololu.  Kindy wanted to build another cabin to replace the one he was born in that had been taken by a tsunami.  So Wendell got his contractor friend, Jack involved, who promised that if the materials were there, he could build a house in one weekend.  Wendell brought in his mules and transported airdropped materials into the valley and good as Jack’s word, by the end of the weekend the cabin was built.  That began many happy journeys to Honokanaiki for the Branco family. “So we went in there and built a couple shelves.  We built one bed. Box bed with the mattresses on em. Fixed the toilet house.  Then we’d spend the weekend. We all loved it.”  

When their jack Ozark died ten years ago,Wendell and Netta looked around and noticed Arabica coffee plants, “…from Hamakua’s coffee glory days fended for themselves on our ranch.”  So after picking 300 pounds of cherries they found out that no one wanted to buy beans from the Hamakua area.  So once again, Wendell and Netta struck out to learn something new and decided to process and roast and sell their own coffee beans.  Quite by accident because they couldn’t sell their coffee beans, they learned about aging coffee, which produces a much smoother, more flavorful coffee.  

Not having enough coffee cherries on their land, they looked around for other farmers in the area that had coffee trees, which is when they met old time farmers who shared something about the history of coffee in the Hamakua district.  Brought in by a couple of traveling missionaries, Arabica coffee has been growing in Hamakua since the early 1800’s and according to Wendell, “To this day, the coffee that exists in these valleys is the same Aribica coffee.”  With the sugar plantations came Western ideas, one of them being coffee.  “There were people who lived up in the hills, homesteaders.  Most of them Japanese.  They started taking the coffee plants and planting them up on their homesteads….the people we buying coffee from now, that’s how their farms began.”

Now with the coffee company a going concern, their farm is a center of activity.  Netta’s elderly mother, a living treasure with her own quilting story to tell, lives with them and their sons stay in close contact.  While doing this interview one of their sons arrived to bring them some dragon fruit and looks of love and admiration.  Not too different from the looks they have for each other.  After 40 years of marriage and 3 kids they are obviously still in love. Their looks are full of spark, understanding and kindness. Netta and Wendell have created a vortex of Aloha.