Big Island Talk Story by Jan Wizinowich
  • Home
  • About Author
  • Resources
  • Talk Stories
    • Hamakua
    • Honoka'a
    • Kawaihae
    • Kiho'alu
    • Kona
    • Music
    • Paniolo
    • Puna
    • Travels
    • Wa'a
    • Waimea
  • Oral History
    • Oral History with Audio
    • Oral History with Video
    • Oral Histories with Text
    • Books Authored by Jan Wizinowich

The Journey of a Raindrop:                                                Waimea Educational Hui's Annual Art Exhibit

5/10/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
"Hō`ala e nā Piko" by E. Kalani Flores.
Picture
As raindrops we begin the journey. Photo by Kapulei Flores, Kapzphotography.
  Under heavy skies and pelting rains, we gathered at the Kahilu Theater lobby gallery for the opening of the 2019 annual Waimea Educational Hui (WEH) art exhibit. The hui was formed in 2007 with representatives of all Waimea schools and cultural practitioners with the goal of unifying Waimea schools through programs that perpetuate the history and culture of our community.   
  This year’s theme is: “Ka Wai E Ola, E Ola Nō A”; Water is sacred, Water is our responsibility, Water is Life. The artwork of Waimea students, family and community members graced the walls with the story of a raindrop, that most important first element of life, each piece, like one of many raindrops, blending together to tell the story of life, ola wai.
  We gather on the threshold of the makai lobby gallery and as the rain drums out a tattoo, cultural practitioner Kalani Flores journeys ahead, chanting into the far reaches and offers a pikai, a clearing, cleansing and blessing. We gather close as Pua Case, our guide, asks us to imagine ourselves as a single drop of rain to begin our travels from the highest mountain to the deepest sea through the eyes of Waimea artists.
  “The exhibit will take us as a drop from the sky to the mountain to the hillsides, from rainfall to waterfalls to waterways of Waimea, down to the seaside, fish ponds and finally to the far reaches of the ocean,” reflected Pua.
  This great connection with water is built into the Hawaiian language in the most fundamental question: O wai kou inoa? What is your name? Or more accurately: Who is your water? Who nourishes you? But we are all nourished by Kāne and for this exhibit the question is: Aia i hea Ka Wai a Kāne? (Where is the water of Kane?)

Picture
Monuments of sacredness. Photo by Kapulei Flores, Kapzphotography.
The first answer is the start of the day with the sun’s rays striking the water from the east.
Out there with the floating Sun,
Where the cloud-forms rest on Ocean’s breast,
Uplifting their forms of Nihoa,
This side the base of Lehua.
 
We enter the spiritual realm of all those who have gone before seeking knowledge and understanding of their world. Together we ponder beginnings and the sacred monuments humans have built that connect us to the sacredness above. 
On Hawai`i Island that connection is received through Mauna a Wākea and the exhibit begins with a photo by Kapulei Flores in celebration of the constant presence of Poliahu in her mountain realm. This is followed by “Power of Mana” by Amy Gordon and “Snow on Mauna Kea” by Shelly Stimac, both community artists.
Picture
Photo by Kapulei Flores. "Poliahu is found in the snow on the mauna, as well as her other forms such as ice and water. Without the snow, ice, and water that Poliahu provides, the mauna would not be the same."
Picture
Look to the heavens. Photo by Kapulei Flores, Kapzphotography.
PictureAnghor Wat by Brayden Jadulang.
  The theme of monuments to the sacred is woven throughout. Many of the artists in this section, who have delved into Archaeoastronomy with Waimea Middle School 6th grade social studies teacher Ms Yohon, have created renderings of the monuments built to connect with and understand the great beyond.
  Moving east, we travel to Cambodia and the mysterious Anghor Wat, a massive temple to the Hindu god Vishnu and later a Buddhist place of worship. Built to represent Mt. Meru, the home of the gods, some of its towers line up with the sunrise at solstice.

PictureTop: photo of Pua's journey to Stonehenge. Below: "Pua at Stonehendge" by Tina Yohon. Photo by Kapulei Flores, Kapzphotography.
  Abu Simbel, in Nubia, upper Egypt, a desert land where the preciousness of water was understood. A monument to the Ramses II, the axis is positioned so that on 10/22 and 2/22, thought to be birth and inauguration dates for Ramses, the rays of the sun penetrate and illuminate the sculptures on the back wall.
  We travel further east and north, to Stonehenge, an ancient astronomical site in England, as well as a place of worship and healing, and the destination of a spiritual journey for Pua Case, who brought waters from Mauna a Wākea to Stonehenge as an offering and was gifted waters in return.
  North of England in the Orkney Islands stand the Ring of Brodgar. There are many unanswered questions about this monument, but it stands as testament to early worshipers.

PictureAhu Akivi by Goddess Gonsalves.
  Understanding the natural world and its many cycles was important to the survival of the ancients. Across the sea to Wyoming finds us standing on a mountain top in the middle of an astronomical calendar, called the Big Horn Medicine Wheel, a mountaintop astronomical calendar.
   Sweeping south we are at Kukulcan in Chitchen Itza, Mexico, an early observatory containing sight lines for 20 different phenomena such as eclipses, equinox and solstice.
  Also in Mexico in the area called Dzibilchaltun is the Temple of the Seven Dolls, where there is evidence of the recording of the vernal equinox, as well as Cenote Xlakah, a pool whose secrets have been a window into the past.
  South to Peru where we find the Intihuatana Stone, an ancient Incan ceremonial site for winter solstice, whose name means, “Place to tie up the sun”. (painted in acrylic by Waimea Middle School 6th graders Jusani Dickens and Mikayla Pesta.)
  And the last stop before returning home is Rapa Nui, where we find Ahu Akivi (by Goddess Gonsalves, Waimea Middle School 6th grade). These standing stones, or moai, are aligned to note the equinoxes and are believed to represent the ancestors, kings and important clan leaders of the original indigenous people.

At the next station as raindrops gather on the mountain top, we find Wai a Kāne:
Yonder on mountain peak,
On the ridges steep,
In the valleys deep,
Where the rivers sweep.
Picture"Womb of Mystery" by Kira DeGaetano Souza.
  These pieces point to the varied and sometimes hidden realms of water. The “Womb of Mystery” an acrylic painting by Kira DeGaetano Souza, is perhaps a metaphor for us climbing from the watery world and returning to it as well.
  “The Gift of Life” by son, Joaquim Souza, shows us the heart of the mauna and how it holds the waters of life for us.
  The Flores / Case `ohana created a photo essay that tells the story of their connection to Manaua, the sacred rain rock of our Waimea where the community from child to elder bestow gifts of leis to ask for rain and leis to offer in gratitude when the elements provide. Another image is of the `ohana gathered at a sacred place where sacred waters have emerged to form a pond among the rolling green landscape. 

Yonder, at sea, on the ocean,
In the driving rain, in the heavenly bow,
In the piled-up mist wraith,
in the blood-red rainfall
In the ghost-pale cloud form;
PictureThe many guises of water. Photo by Kapulei Flores, Kapzphotography.
The group of pieces that follow are ethereal images and wild rainbow colors, exploring the many faces of place. Collages celebrate water in all its many guises and sources.

Up on high is the water of Kāne,
In the heavenly blue, in the black piled cloud,
In the black cloud,
In the black mottled sacred cloud of the gods;
There is the water of Kāne.

This section contains the waterways of Waimea, an array of watercolors, acrylic, colored pencil and explores the patterns of water that surround and support us, showing an awareness of the seen and unseen water pathways, each piece a raindrop that forms a cloud of understanding.

Picture
Photo by Kapulei Flores, Kapzphotography.
 
Deep in the ground, in the gushing spring,
In the ducts of Kāne and Loa,
A well of spring water, to quaff,
A water of magic power – The water of life!
Life! O give us this life!
Images of the sustaining power of water, flowing from the mauna, the pu`u to feed and replenish the land. Fishponds thrive and life is given to the land. It is there before us, under us and around us.
Picture
Photo by Kapulei Flores, Kapzphotography.
Traveling to the eastside gallery picks up from where we left off from the fishponds and seaside to the breaking waves. The chant Hohola Ke Kapa announces that a voyage will be taking place for Makaliʻi led out to sea with food and rope prepared by area schools for the voyage of Makaliʻi to Mokumanana in early June.
Picture
Photo by Kapulei Flores, Kapzphotography.
The waʻa carrying the tiny drops of rain, now the fresh water on board, is the ancient ocean connection as witnessed by art pieces such as a diorama depicting “umu”, a pile of rocks used to trap manini. Models of great voyaging canoes and kites, the first sails used by humans, fly aloft. Graphite pencil drawings of canoe plants by 'Auli'i Case, photography and digital art, experiments with watery visions cover the walls. And the cycle is complete and the voyage begins. He inoa nō Kana.
Picture
"Reflection in Time" by O. Sarsona.
0 Comments

WMS seventh graders learn to take care of the land                      West Hawai'i Today August 27, 2018

8/28/2018

0 Comments

 
PictureWMS students explore Keanuiomano Stream during an outplanting of native dryland forest species. (COURTESY PHOTO/MAHINA PATTERSON)
“Malama Ahupuaa,” the title of the latest Waimea Middle School oral history book, funded by Ike Hawaii and Hawaii Community Foundation, recently became available on Amazon. The book is the result of an oral history project conducted by Leesa Robertsonʻs Waimea Middle School seventh graders during the 2017 / 2018 school year.
The oral history project was a component of an integrated curriculum approach to learning created by the seventh grade team for the 2017-18 school year, where all content areas were engaged in and intersected around the theme of “Malama Ahupuaa”.
   “We took the three sections of our Lalamilo ahupuaa, or land divisions – makai (coastal), kula (mid-section) and mauka (mountain) – and focused our lessons and activities around life in those areas,” explained seventh grade science teacher Jade Bowman.
   Students explored the different areas of the ahupuaa, collected data which was integrated into the math curriculum, studied the flora and fauna, and did service projects.
   “We started with makai and learned about Kawaihae and Pelekane Bay. Students learned the history and the moolelo of the area and the connection between voyaging and the ahupuaa, and how what we do on land ultimately affects the ocean,” said Bowman.
   There is much knowledge and wisdom in stories and, “Students learned the stories of the sections of the ahupuaa and wrote their own renditions of the myths. They learned the cultural significance of the plants and animals,” she added. 

PictureInterviewee Pua Case shares some life stories with Shane Beeder and Ariana Shimioka
   In Robertson’s class, a year-long oral history project explored malama ahupuaa through the eyes and voices of 11 community members. Working in teams, the students spent the first half of the year gaining the skills they would need by interviewing a peer and then a family member. Students collected biographical data, researched and created a timeline and a question outline, and practiced interview protocol.  
   The interviewees ranged in age from 29 to 86 and came from a variety of backgrounds and experiences that gave students a glimpse into individual perspectives of how they malama – or cared for – the ahupuaa and how they connected to the land and to each other.  
   A sentiment expressed in some way by all of the interviewees was that to malama something, you need to really know it, observe it and experience it. Manny Veincent and Mahina Patterson, the oldest and youngest interviewees, respectively, shared that sentiment.
   While working for Hawaii Fish and Game in the Pohakuloa area of Mauna Kea, Veincent spent time camping in the wilderness to monitor and capture geese for breeding.
   “That areas between the Mauna Loa and Hualalai mountains was where those geese were. In the dark you could hear them crying. After a while, your senses become like an animal. You knew where the birds were,” he said.
Before becoming an environmental education specialist for The Kohala Center, Patterson did conservation work in the same area. Growing up exploring the land around her neighborhood, her early experiences set her on a path to malama ahupuaa.
   “My fondest memories are going into the pasture that borders the wet side neighborhoods. So every chance that I got I would go and explore in the pastures and the streams back there,” “But I looked it up as I got older and found out that the name of that stream is Lalakea and that it's one of the streams that feeds Hiilawe (a many storied waterfall in Waipio),” she said.

PictureINterviewee Ma'ulili Dickson shares some canoe stories with Rovi Afaga and Lindsay Tagudan.
   Malama ahupuaa also means to take care of the culture, the people and perpetuate practices and protocols that will travel into the future as wisdom to guide those that come after.
  
Micah Komohoalii – kumu hula, cultural practitioner, another of the interviewees – shares his deep knowledge of the Waimea district through chants and hula in his halau and through community classes.
   “
My halau specializes in dances of our own backyard, of our ahupuaa. The only thing we learn in the halau are the chants of Waimea, chants of Waimea's rain, its fog, its winds, its place here and the heiau, the alii that were here,” he explained.
  
The re-emergence of the canoe culture has been a guiding light for malama ahupuaa. Two of the interviewees, Maulili Dickson and Chadd Paishon, are mainstays of Hawaii Island’s canoe program whose guiding motto, coined by canoe pioneer Clay Bertelmann, raises awareness of the connection between the health of the canoe and the health of the island: He waa he moku, he moku he waa, meaning the canoe is the island, the island is the canoe.
  
As the canoe’s quartermaster, Dickson grew up in the ocean and providing food for his family, which eventually grew to include the ohana waa (canoe family). He is currently is working with the Haunana Ola program, whose goal is to provision Hawaii Island’s voyaging canoe, Makalii, with food grown on the island for a 30-day journey to Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.
  
Paishon, who is a captain and Pwo navigator with Ohana Waa Makalii, is also working with the land crew of Haunana Ola and works to bring canoe culture into classrooms.
  
“For us, sustaining ourselves on the canoe, it really comes down to everyone that's on the deck of the canoe understanding what they need to do and taking care of each other. If we can do those things on the deck of the canoe, then we should be able to do those same things when we're home here,” he said.
  
Like the canoe, the island has finite resources and so many of the interviewees expressed malama ahupuaa in terms of only taking what you need and sharing the abundance. Born and raised in Waimea, Lloyd Case grew up with that awareness.
  
“Donʻt take more than you need. Leave something for others. We only take what we need from the ocean and the mountain because we practice the Hawaiian style,” he said.
​  
Mahalo to Hawaii Community Foundation who funded costs to transcribe the interviews and to Ike Hawaii for providing publishing costs. To read more stories of malama ahupuaa, the book will be available at Thelma Parker Library and is currently available on amazon.com.

0 Comments

Lessons from the Garden    Ke Ola Jan/Feb 2018

3/15/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Garden teacher Jared Chapman leads students in the Parker School food forest. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
  In 2007 the Hawaiʽi Island School Garden Network (HISGN) was created through the Kohala Center as a way to promote garden education and food sustainability practices. As the network grew, educators began to realize the potential for curricular connections and in 2016 the HISGN received funding to develop a curriculum map, which was created by a consortium of K-8 school garden educators.  
  “We went through by grade level to see what the learning outcomes were and the garden activities that go with them and then we looked at classroom extensions. We came up with four themes or lenses: sense of place; living plants, living soils; nourishment; and nature's design,” said Amanda Rieux, Malaʽai Culinary Garden Director and consortium leader.
  Now 60 strong, the gardens have become intrinsic to school curriculum, providing unique lessons from the processes that are the foundations for life. Also, with a grounding in Hawaiian cultural practices, school gardens have also created a path back to the source for students, educators and community members on Hawaiʽi Island.
  In Kohala district, school gardens range from a series of wood framed raised beds such as Kanu o ka ʽĀina, to a full garden space such as Malaʽai Culinary Garden and Kohala Elementary to Parker School’s food forest. 
Picture
Kanu o ka Aina students working in a garden bed. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
Kanu o ka ʽĀina
 
  The school garden at Kanu is really a series of gardens that are connected to each of the grade level classrooms. School garden coordinator, Heather Sarsona meets me in front of the school and we walk down to the makai end of the building. “This is our preschool garden and outdoor learning space. Anna Peach is our garden person for the preschool. Right now we’re planting buckwheat and beans to amend the soil,” said Heather. 
  We move on to the next garden area. When Makaliʽi sails to Papahānaumokuākea in two years, they will be carrying supplies grown in the Kanu garden. “This is a developing tea garden area. We have mamake, lemon verbana, African hibisucus, lemon mamake, lavender, lemon grass, olena. The teas are one of the things we're going to contribute to the voyage,” said Heather. “Each hui is going to try to look at what they grow best and learn how process it.”
  The garden boxes contain a range of plants such as kalo, lettuce, tomatoes, herbs, squash, corn and pumpkins. “We grow a lot of pumpkins and that's another thing we're going to contribute to the voyage,” said Heather.
  All the classrooms open to the garden space and there is a sense of continuous flow between indoor and outdoor learning environments, complete with a gathering place for stories and a konane board. 

PictureGarden leader Holly works with Waimea Middle School students in the Mala'ai Culinary Garden. Photo courtesy of Holly Sargent - Green
Malaʽai Culinary Garden
 
  Bordered by Waimea Middle School’s new science building and playground, Malaʽai Culinary Garden is ideally located in the heart of old Waimea. Besides Garden Director Amanda, the garden has an Executive Director Alethea Lai and one full time Garden Leader, Holly Sargent Green, who sees every student a minimum of every two weeks.
  The garden provides a holistic learning environment that connects with the kind of learning that takes place in the classroom. “We have a really long term, solid partnership with our science teachers. The garden is a lens that connects students to the living world, which connects them to all living worlds,” explains Amanda.
  Students participate in all aspects of garden life while at the same time gaining a deep understanding of the underlying biological processes at work. Starting in kindergarten, students are observing, collecting data and developing a keen sense of place.
  A favorite saying of Pwo Navigator Chadd Paishon is, “Know your island and you will never be lost”, and beyond the science, the garden experience helps students develop a personal compass that will guide them throughout their life’s journeys. 
  “As they are growing they have a relationship with this place. There’s a personal, private relationship that grounds them. Their actions, their work over time is really important. That sense of place and feeling like they are real contributors. That's where it becomes very powerful,” said Amanda. 


Picture
Garden teacher June working with Kohala Elementary students to plant carrots. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
Kohala Elementary School Garden
 
  To find your way to the Kohala Elementary School garden you follow a path along an array of terraced classrooms and then suddenly off to the left you see a koa lined, downward, zigzagging path to an Eden-like valley.
  A group of second graders pauses at the top to chant and ask permission to enter, leaving any disturbances outside. “A while ago I created a trouble tree. However you're feeling affects the plants, so you shouldn't walk into the garden feeling angry or sad. We toss all that to the trouble tree,” said Kayla Sinotte, Kohala Elementary school garden coordinator.
  Each class has their own garden bed with varying themes such as seeds and life cycles, nutrition, compost, soil and native Hawaiian plants. “The older classes have themes such as Mediterranean, body building and they choose plants according to their use and companion planting. Then they harvest whatever they grow and make something,” said Kayla. “The connection to the land. I think it's really important for kids to know where they’re from and where their food comes from,” she added.
  This year’s full time Food Corp teacher June Guo, gathers students at a table to examine the carrot seeds they will be planting today. “What happens when seeds get water and sunlight?” June asks. “They break and you give them more water and they sprout,” answers one of the students.
  June goes on to explain why they will be planting the seeds directly into the ground, rather than starting them in pots and then it’s off to their particular raised bed to plant. “We incorporate science into the lessons but we also give them the opportunity to get their hands dirty. There's a living curriculum that's inspired by all these garden resources we have. What is happening in our garden? What's happening at our school? What cultural activities are going on?”
  Garden lessons also stretch out to other parts of the students’ lives. “Parents have come up to me and made comments like: ‘I don't know what you do in the garden but now my kid is helping me in mine. And he asked me for kale. What did you do to get him to like kale?’” said Kayla. 

Picture
Parker Middle School students enter the food forest to harvest mamake. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
Parker School Garden
 
  The Parker School garden is located on the north side of Waikola Stream, running through the center of town. Today’s session for middle school science students begins in the classroom where garden teacher Jared Chapman is having students write and reflect on six principles promoted through work in the garden: hoʽo kuanoʽo (complex thinker); hana noeʽau (quality producer); malama kaia ulu (community contributor); kupono hana ike (effective user of technology); kuleana i hola (self-directed learner); kaka olelo (effective communicator).
  On the way to the garden, students stop to form a line facing Mauna Kea and chant Malana Mai Kāʽu. We enter the garden, a veritable food forest with paths that meander through a treasure trove of native plants. “This area in general used to be ancient farms. If you walk the stream you can see where the old ʽauwai was built. This whole area was agriculture and now we're bringing it back,” said Jared.
  Observing and nurturing potted plants is the first order of the day. “Look, it’s like a rain coat,” said one student observing a bead of water dancing on a kalo leaf. Students then disappear into the forest, harvesting mamake and weeding around trees.
  Students are constantly grappling with the complexities of life and the garden is rich with informative metaphors. “When you're doing a school garden you have that unique opportunity to focus on diversity.  Once they're working, they're seeing things around them and the lessons come, regardless of what I tell them,” said Jared. 
  Parker School science and Hawaiian studies teacher, Susan Rickards incorporates the garden in a range of classes she teaches at Parker School. “That's the whole thing is making it tangible and what's more tangible than the garden? It ties into all of the classes, especially the Hawaiian studies class. As far as the historical curriculum, we go to the garden and point out, which of these if any, existed pre-human or pre-mammal even, pre-invasive species, pre-canoe,” said Susan. “Then we learn about a particular species, planting it and seeing how it grows. And then we tie that in with the culture and traditions,” she added.
 
Community Connections
 
  Kohala school gardens have developed strong mutual relationships with their communities. “We couldn’t run our program without our community volunteers. We have four community members that come and work in the garden with our classes. It allows us to have small group sizes and it gives us the opportunity to go deep into subject matter,” said Holly.
  The Kohala Elementary School Garden has made a connection with local businesses. “We sell our mint and basil and parsley and dill to Sushi Rock and kale and eggplant to the Kohala Coffee Mill,” said Kayla.  “We also sell our taro leaves to CSE café, right across the street. The kids bring their families in and order the laulau plate and they can say, ‘I grew that’,” she added. 
  And like the Hōkūleʽa, Kohala gardens have the potential to make global connections. “We just had a group come from Amsterdam. They came to the garden and did a work day and met with the Ike Hawaiʽi students. It was great,” said Holly.
Gardens are a living metaphor that promote health and peace and the Kohala school gardens are a shining example of the waʽa spirit that permeates our island:                                       “He moku, he waʽa. He waʽa he moku” -----Clay Bertelmann.

0 Comments

Ten Years on the Ground, 10,000 Hands Strong                           North Hawaii News   March 2015

9/20/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
​It takes a garden to grow a community and that is what has happened at the Mala’ai Culinary Garden  over the last ten years. The seed for the garden was germinated ten years ago when Amanda Rieux arrived in Waimea from the Edible School Yard in Berkeley, to be the garden director for the as yet non-existent garden.
   “When we first started I felt like the tailor in the Emperor’s New Clothes. I would tell people, it's going to be great and they were like, uh huh.” But the actual seed for the garden was the work of Waimea Naturopath, Michelle Suber who wanted to contribute to the health of the community she had come to love.
    “She came to the Edible School Yard and spent two weeks with us. She spent time in the garden, in the kitchen classroom, with the executive director, principal and the teachers. She was trying to replicate it,” said Rieux. Two years later and a chance email to Suber and Amanda found herself planted in an as yet imaginary garden.
 “You have to know where you are before you know where you’re going,” said Holly Sergeant-Green, Mala’ai garden teacher and much like the first Polynesians who arrived in the islands, close observation of the land and natural systems was the first order of the day. “You first try to look at it and you watch how the weather patterns are and what the rain fall is and all those things and you see what's already there. Almost immediately I started doing some work with Pua Case and that whole sense of what this place means,” added Rieux.
    They listened and the land spoke to them. “We had a blessing pretty early on with Dean Kalka. We had probably a hundred people and we had no idea where we were going to be centered in this little piece of land but [as it happens], we were all standing around what was to become the central crop area,” said Rieux.
    Garden classes were conducted on straw bales at first that were handy shelters from the relentless trade winds. “I was just out standing in the field, literally in a wind tunnel. You could sit behind the bale and get out of the wind and you could still hear me talk. At first we just talked about it because we didn't have any tools and we didn't have any water and we didn't have a tool shed and we just kind of imagined what it could look like. It was just kids in a field,” said Rieux.
    Initially funded by Slow Foods, the garden seemed to take on a life of its own, reaching out to the community. “Nan Pi`ianaia was really welcoming. She introduced me to Alice and Ichiro Yamaguchi. They have that beautiful garden across from where Lex Brodie used to be and they brought over our first eight kalo huli,” said Rieux.  And just as the kalo once planted becomes the parent to successive generations, the garden ohana evolved. “Community involvement and that whole idea of life bringing life. The more established the garden gets the more people come and they bring whatever their skills and their talents and their interests are,” said Rieux.  
    But the real magic came with the students. “I remember Miss Takamoto's sixth graders with picks just starting off this whole new area and in a year it looked like a completely different place to them and they were so proud of it.” Beginning with open invitations to any classes who wanted to participate, by 2010, the fifth anniversary, there was full participation by science, health, P.E. and tech classes and the garden had gone from a field to a rich haven of learning and health. Speaking at the celebration, then principal John Colson reflected, “If you look out here and you think it's beautiful, it is really beautiful. But that beauty is a reflection of all of you students and the work that you've done.”  

Picture
​    Not only does the garden produce up to three tons of food a year, but the students have created their own learning laboratory where they can engage in authentic learning experiences. “I coordinate with the science teachers with what the students are learning in the e science program, so every [garden] lesson is relevant to what they are learning in class,” said Sergeant-Green, garden teacher and resident science maven. This connection will become even stronger in two years when construction of the new STEM building will be completed. It will be situated adjacent to the garden and its doors will open out into a tangible world of wonder.  
    For students, there are also some big confidence building life lessons. “One of the things that the kids thought was valuable working out here was team work. You figure out how to work together and you see that you can do more work when you're working together. That's so important that they're recognizing it,” said Alethea Lai, executive director since 2010. With their participation in such events as the Super Kitchen, students also come to understand that they are valuable contributing members of the community. “The most important thing that we can do is to empower our kids to feel like leaders in the community and to recognize that they have a role, they have knowledge, they have skills, and that they're valuable,”said Rieux. “But a big mark of success is that the kids like it. They want to be here. We have very few discipline issues.”    

Picture
    In the beginning Rieux was the sole staff member, supported by board members: Jan Dean, Sandy Barr, Vivienne Aronowitz, Roen Hufford, Ben Disco, Patti Cook and Holly Sargent-Green.  Sergeant-Green, previously a marine biologist, and initially a parent volunteer, became a contracted staff member in 2008. With this year’s Food Corp volunteer Seri Niiimi-Burch, there are now three and a half staff members and it’s estimated that the garden has served about 2500 students over the last ten years.
    Although there have been pretty lean times over the years, the belief in the work of the garden has  sustained it. “What has been really gratifying and really hard at the same time is just growing trust and belief with this work with the land and the kids and the trust that we will do it with the greatest respect and care for the kids and the culture and the land,” said Rieux. The lessons of the garden also send shoots out that encircle the wider community.  “The students on the land cultivate a deeper sense of land stewardship, healthy eating, life-long learning, cultural relevance and joy. Their families hear it and as people are drawn here, there's all this learning that waves back in,” added Rieux.
    Financial support is another kind of wave that flows into the garden. In 2007 Mala`ai got non-profit status and began fund raising with their annual Art and Sol event, coming up on April 12.  The garden has provided the opportunity for the broader community to contribute to the effort, creating a sense of solidarity.
    “The people who support us monetarily are not for the most part the parents of the kids who go to this school. And that's amazing. It makes us a stronger community all together,” said Lai.
    Mala’ai has also become a model garden for the broader educational community and with the support of the Kohala Center and such educators as Nancy Redfeather and Koh Ming Wei the Hawaii Island School Garden Network and the Ku Aina Pa program were created.
    “Early on the Rocky Mountain Institute did a feasibility study on how to make Hawaii Island sustainable. One thing they thought there should be a focus on is education around gardening and food. So we met and wanted to know what would be the best way to move this forward and the School Garden Network came from that and out of that came Ku Aina Pa, which is making sure that we're supporting teachers and that the level of teaching in gardens is excellent. If we're really going to create the change that we're talking to our students about, then it has to be on a wider level than just here,” explained Rieux.  
    The most recent Super Kitchen event was a collaboration between Na Kalai Waa and Malaai, inspired by Chadd Paishon’s query, “Is it possible in this day and age for this island to provision one canoe?” This is a vital question for the sustainability of our entire island that Malaai Garden and many burgeoning efforts are striving to answer. “We talked to the students, we talked to the teachers, we talked to community members and we talked to farmers. People felt that the issues of food security and self-sufficiency were just as critical if not more,”said Lai.
    After ten years, it’s clear that Malaai is here to stay. It takes a garden to sustain a community but it also takes a community to sustain a garden and again this community has shown what happens when e lauhoe waa (we all paddle together).
​

Picture
0 Comments

Lives dedicated to teaching: Waimea Middle School’s Barbara Haight and Leesa Robertson                                                              Special to West Hawaii Today   2/21/17

3/29/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
WMS teacher Barbara Haight helps her students prepare for a test on Friday. LANDRY FULLER/SPECIAL TO WEST HAWAII TODAY
    Waimea Middle School is at the heart of the Waimea Community and at its heart is a team of teachers dedicated to recognizing and meeting the educational needs of their students. Two long term team members, language arts teachers Barbara Haight and Leesa Robertson have been with the school for almost 20 years.
     Haight grew up in Hilo and after getting a bachelor’s degree in communications from U.H. Manoa, started her working career in public relations with a Honolulu firm. When she met and married her husband Ian, she moved to Hawaii Island and continued doing public relations work for Ocean Promotions.
     When Haight started having children she began to think about teaching. “I went back to U.H. Hilo for Secondary English and commuted to Hilo with baby Spencer. I did my student teaching at Waiakea High School,” said Haight.
    But when she began at Waimea School it was a bit of trial by fire. She was placed where the biggest need was: special education. “I got a call from Waimea School. It was still one school then. I started teaching special education for grades three and four. I was certified for secondary English and started off in SPED,” said Haight.
    After three years in special education, “A sixth grade position opened up and I've been in sixth grade ever since. It took a while to really get used to this age group. I was really using everything I knew,” said Haight.  
     There have been many challenges over the years, which take resourcefulness and flexibility. “We have five sections plus homeroom. Every week I see 80 students. Some years, like two years ago, we had more than a 100 students. And we have to keep track of all that and be consistent with grading. I try to manage it so every student has a chance to be successful in some category or aspect. A lot of thought goes into that,” said Haight. 
     When Haight looks at a student, she sees the whole person and looks for ways to foster the well-being necessary for learning. “I took a couple of courses in mindfulness training and I’ve been using it with my students. Mindful listening, mindful breathing, mindful eating. To be aware of your thinking and then make a decision about what to do instead of just reacting to everything. The kids are benefitting from it and the class is so calm. I love it,” said Haight.
     To create the conditions for growth in her students, Haight creates those conditions for herself. “Really dealing with the toughest kids and figuring out how to reach them is about figuring out how I need to change and help them to realize that we all have to change sometimes,” said Haight.
 
​   
With all the challenges of teaching, Haight wouldn’t consider doing anything else. “I love my team. I love teaching. I love my community. It's just all the components keeping me here,” said Haight. “I really like this age group. Every year, you think you've seen it all, but every year kids do something you would have never thought of,” she added.
Picture
Leesa Robertson listens to students Malia Camero and Diego Caballero as they review each other’s writing assignments. LANDRY FULLER/SPECIAL TO WEST HAWAII TODAY
​Reading and writing have always been at the center of Leesa Robertson’s life. Robertson grew up in Honolulu where she attended Kalani High School. “We were reading the Scarlet Letter and I had a teacher, Mr Butterfield, he believed in me and he helped me really connect with literature on a deeper level. He made me feel good about myself,” said Robertson. This began her journey to the classroom.
    After graduation Robertson earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary English from U.C. Santa Barbara. She returned home and for a time worked in her mom’s real estate business but there was something missing. “I wanted to do something meaningful. I had a teacher that helped me and that's where it started with me, with a teacher. I wanted to help kids experience what I experienced and I wanted to share that with the community. I wanted to share that with public school kids,” said Robertson.
     Robertson spent the next two years obtaining a secondary English teaching credential from U.H. Manoa, met her husband Jay and moved to Hawaii Island. Her first teaching assignment was the ultimate test. “You have to take whatever they give you or they'll put your name at the bottom of the list and they gave me Hookena. Two hours away and I'd just moved here. The kids were laying on the desks, they had boom boxes and that was English class. It was tough. It was a rite of passage,” said Robertson.
    Using a reading / writing workshop model based on Nancy Atwell’s work, Robertson enticed her students to become readers and writers. “I had them read books they were interested in, write on topics they were interested in. Most of them came from Milolii, such a rich culture. I encouraged them to write about their family, their traditions,” said Robertson.
    The next fall, 1997, Robertson was offered a job teaching eighth grade English at Waimea Elementary and Middle School. In the last 20 years she has found a way to balance between her ideals and the daily realities of classroom life.  
    “You learn in school about how kids learn and what kids need and the reality is maybe you have a 150 kids and you have class sizes of 28. When I first started I was spending a lot of time on the weekends just reading and giving kids feedback on their writing. Now I've come to a place where I can still do it but I balance it out with my responsibilities for the mandates and skills that they need,” said Robertson.
    Through all the challenges and changes, Robertson remains a dedicated educator. “I come here every day because I want them to see the power they have as readers and writers and use that to help enrich their lives,” said Robertson.
    But just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a dedicated team to educate a child. “Most of us have been here a long time and we've all been together through many changes and we all help each other navigate through,” concluded Robertson.
0 Comments

Rain Gardens Protecting Waterways                                                Special to West Hawaii Today  2/10/17

3/29/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Students from The Kohala Center’s Ke Kumu Aina after-school program help their instructor, Mahina Patterson, plant the new rain garden behind Waimea Center. The project was orchestrated by Lisa Ferentinos with the University of Hawaii Sea Grant Program (far right). (LANDRY FULLER/SPECIAL TO WEST HAWAII TODAY)
    When it rains, our gardens get much needed nourishment, but runoff from impervious surfaces sends  pollutants such as heavy metals and oil into our waterways and eventually into the ocean. Rain gardens are a way to prevent this happening and Wai’ula’ula Stream, which begins in the Kohalas and runs through the center of Waimea to the ocean has been gifted one.
    On Wed. Feb. 1, extension agent, Lisa Ferentinos from the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program (UHSGCP), student volunteers from the Kohala Center’s after school program, Ke Kumu Aina and Julia Rose from The Nature Conservancy and the South Kohala Coastal Partnership installed a rain garden in the northeast corner of the Waimea Shopping Center’s back lot.
    The garden is a shell shaped slope and is made up of a selection of native Hawaiian plants such as ilima, mamaki, uhi uhi, mau hau hele, ti and ohia to name a fewki. “The idea is the plants in the lowest part of the garden are adapted to being wetter. The ones in the upper part are adapted to being draught tolerant and the ones in the middle can handle a little bit of wet and a little bit of dry,” said Ferentinos.
    The run-off will be directed to the garden through a sub-surface pipe. “The idea is the water comes in off the parking lot into this low area. There's a pipe that will help distribute the water. You use the plants to bio-mediate any of the pollutants. The plants will take up the water and anything that's in the water and any water that goes into the stream will be filtered,” explained Ferentinos.
    The rain garden project for Hawaii Island began back in 2014 through a conservation partnership. “The South Kohala Coastal Partnership (SKCP), of which UHSGCP is a member, helped find funding to do an assessment of Waiulaula Stream for the worse erosion hot spots. That was completed in 2014,” said Ferentinos.
    Once five hot spots were identified, “They (SKCP) got funding from the Department of Health Polluted Run- off Control Program to address some of the worse erosion hot spots along Wai’ula’ula Stream,” said Ferentinos.
    Although there are many rain gardens that have been developed on Oahu, Ferentinos has adapted the design of the Waimea garden to fit the conditions. “This one might be the first on the Big Island. There's quite a few on Oahu, but they're at sea level and it's a different situation, different soil, different plants,” said Ferentinos.
    The rain garden is one of many strategies to address run-off along the Wai’ula’ula Stream corridor. The first effort was to plant a strip of kikuyu, for its low maintenance, and native hibiscus along the bank of the stream, directly behind, the center’s courtyard. 
    The next hot spot will be at the Ulu La’au Nature Park, where, Kohala Center’s Ke Kumu Aina program is centered. The group meets on Wednesdays from 1:30 to 5:00 to explore and learn about Hawaii Island’s native plants.
    Ke Kumu Aina Program Coordinator, Mahina Patterson and her students, who helped plant the rain garden, will be on hand to help. “We will install erosion control matting and coconut fiber logs and vegetation to slow down the erosion of the banks. We already have a trial area to make sure that the concept we were considering was workable and we're in the process of ordering the materials and getting the labor contracted to do that site, which we expect to happen in another couple of months,” said Ferentinos.
    The skilled, enthusiastic hands of Ku’ulei Kumai-Ho from Waimea Middle School; Shaelynne Monell-Lagaret from Kanu o ka Aina and Julian Fried from HPA soon have the garden planted and blessed with positive intensions. But the care for the garden doesn’t stop there.
    “In Hawaii there's no such thing as no maintenance. That's a huge challenge with all environmental projects here. We're trying to get school groups to adopt areas that we're doing our projects in. We're trying to get teachers at Parker School and Waimea Middle School engaged. The idea is that each school or class can take on some part that matches up with their educational goals,” said Ferentinos.
    The rain garden is both a little bit experiment and a way to educate the community about how they can help prevent run-off. “Once the plants are established we're going to have a workshop and invite the community to come and learn about rain gardens. We're trying some techniques and plants that haven't been tried before, so once we get an idea of how well it's working then we'd like to invite the public to come and learn about it,” said Ferentinos.
    The effort to prevent run-off is a whole community affair and requires individual awareness of causes and how they can be fixed. “We’re hoping to encourage folks to install rain gardens at their homes to deal with any run off from their impervious surfaces like driveways or roof tops and encourage other folks in the community to consider using rain gardens to have the excess infiltrate rather than run off into the stream,” concluded Ferentions. 
    On Oahu, the Hui o Koolaupoko has been working on several projects to prevent run-off and has created a rain garden manual that can be accessed at: http://www.huihawaii.org/uploads/1/6/6/3/16632890/raingardenmanual-web-res-smaller.pdf
The assessment of Waiulaula Stream can be accessed at:
http://www.southkohalacoastalpartnership.com/uploads/2/5/7/1/25718612/southkohalasca_final_sept2014.pdf
0 Comments

Makali'i: Voyaging into the Future                                                 North Hawaii News  2/3/17

2/6/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
Canoe Kupuna Patti Soloman and crew member Lehua Ah Sam on deck at a volunteer day. Photo: Landry Fuller
    Makalii, the Hawaii Island voyaging canoe originally launched in 1995, will soon be under sail after a major dry docking that began in October 2013.    Last fall, Ohana Makalii — also known as Na Kalai Waa — received an Administration for Native Americans grant. In November they started the Hanauna Ola (Sustaining the Generations through Voyaging) program, and last Saturday crew training began. The funds will also support provisioning efforts at island school gardens. The culmination of the three-year program will be a voyage to two of the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, Nihoa and Mokumanamana (Necker). Team members will begin training in the water by this summer.
    The program allows Pwo Navigator Shorty Bertelmann, who sailed with Papa Mau on the first Hokulea voyage, to transmit his knowledge to the existing crew members and help them advance and get to leadership levels,” said Keala Kahuanui, program coordinator.

Picture
Pwo Navigator Shorty Bertelmann (left) watches as Na Kalai Waa employee and apprentice Lei’ohu Santos-Colburn explains to crew member Kala Mossman how to apply varnish to the canoe’s palekai. Photo: Landry Fuller
PictureChadd Paishon and Pomai Bertelmann
    The second pwo navigator, Chadd Paishon, is working with the land crews made up of participating school staff who will support every aspect of the voyage. “Chadd’s kuleana is to activate our community. Our Ohana Makalii feels deeply about our communities being intricately involved in our efforts, whether voyages or activities on land,” Kahuanui said, who is assisting Paishon.
    The land crew will learn about three different practices. The first is Ai Pono (eat healthy). “A few years ago at the Ku Aina Pa (garden educators program), Chadd noted that our ancestors were able to traverse this ocean and asked, ‘Can we provision one canoe on one voyage?’” Kahuanui said.
    This question set Malaai Garden’s Director Amanda Rieux and Waimea Middle School students on a quest to feed the canoe crew by creating healthy, storable foods produced from the garden. To prepare for the voyage to the Northwest Hawaiian Islands, the land crews will need to provision the canoe for a 30-day voyage with a 14 voyaging crew.
    “This is a huge effort to have the time and resources to intentionally provision our canoes better,” Kahuanui said. “If we provision the canoe for 30 days that’ll be a good test, good data collection. From Hawaii we can go any direction and reach land in 30 days.” But the hope is the voyage will continue on land after the canoe has returned.
​    “We are working together in the name of a voyage, but also in the name of the continuous voyage of being a little island in the middle of the ocean. We are creating the processes and protocols on how to preserve foods so that when we have an influx of weather and we have these emergency kits, perhaps we’re not running to the store. There’s a lot of work to do,” she said.


Picture
Makalii crew members and volunteers continue workdays during a major dry docking of the canoe that began in October 2013. Photo Landry Fuller
PictureKeala Kahuanui
    The Hanai Waa practice entails “learning about our ceremonies, protocols, oli and mele … creating new ones for this voyage but also maintaining the foundations,” Kahuanui explained. Embarking on an ocean voyage is to acknowledge and experience a higher power, which is where Hanai Waa (embrace, care for) comes into play.
    “Sometimes we get caught up in the physical side, training, planting, and we forget there’s another side: the spirit. It’s making sure that everyone understands that as much as it’s a physical journey, the spiritual journey is also a part of us and for us. It’s one and the same. It’s never separated,” Paishon said. “When we start to talk about ceremony and protocol, it’s the same with everything we do. When we’re putting our plants in the ground it’s the intention you plant with, the spirit you plant with. That’s really what hanai is — that connection.”
    The third practice is Pilina Kaula, meaning closely connected strands. Cordage was crucial to the voyaging canoe and was a prized gift. Olona, which is being grown at Ho’ea (the canoe garden in Kohala), provided durable strength far superior to any available European cordage, and literally held the voyaging canoes together.
    “They’ll learn to propagate the plants and make cordage from them that will be used in our ceremonies upon arrival and departure. Pilina Kaula is the physical side of Hanai Waa, creating connections. Pilina, (closeness) to the cordage, to the moku (island), our waa and the islands that we’re going to,” Kahuanui said.
     As part of the grant, students from 11 partner schools on Hawaii Island will be trained in the near future after their teachers complete training that started recently. In North Hawaii, participants will come from Kanu o Ka Aina, Alo Kehau o ka Aina Mauna, Punana Leo o Waimea, Kohala Elementary and Middle School and Laupahoehoe Public Charter School.
    “Our schools are really excited. The movement of the waa creates that excitement and the desire to participate. For those who are not voyagers, this allows them to engage and provide their resources and expertise. Everybody has a piece of the puzzle,” she said.
​    The land crew will have the chance to experience “Makalii magic” and get to experience authentic learning. “Makalii is very good at creating relationships and this will set that precedence. The schools are encouraged to come to the canoe and build a relationship. The hull space is where their food will get stored. To see that, they will realize that what they’re doing is affecting more than them and their classmates. It’s helping to perpetuate and sustain our traditions,” Kahuanui said.
    While there is a foundation of knowledge and experience to draw from, for the canoe to continue to voyage it requires everyone to find and share their strengths and work together. “The beauty of the training is that we’re not supposed to have all of these already set. It’s a process and we’re going to learn from each other. We’re going to build upon our strengths and that’s the beauty of voyaging. You’re going to depend on each other’s strengths and challenges to reach our destination,” she said.
​    Hanauna Ola is the next phase in a long journey to recapture the practices that made it possible for the ancestors to thrive. “We are so fortunate to live in this day and time. All the other layers have been built up and now we have this layer we can work on and start to lay out the foundation for the next generation of voyagers as a template of what we have done. What Chadd and Shorty are doing is sharing their knowledge with the next generations of canoe crew and laying down a path for future generations to follow,” Kahuanui concluded.

0 Comments

Boys Navigating to Manhood: Boys to Men in Waimea / Special to North Hawaii News / April 2016

10/6/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureDa Boys with mentors Steve Evans and Ciro Podany. Photo: George Fuller
     The final bell rings on Friday and the Waimea Middle School’s Boys to Men (BTM) meeting room soon fills up with adolescent exuberance. Now in their fourth year, BTM Hawaii came about when Hawaii Island men’s group participants set a mission to provide others with the mentoring they missed in their own adolescent lives. “We decided much like the founders of BTM, that we don't want others to have to wait until they're in their 40's to start to learn about themselves and develop some emotional maturity,” says lead mentor, Steve Evans.
     The Boys to Men Mentoring Network was founded in 1996 by Herb Sigurdson, Joe Sigurdsan and Craig McClain, who assembled a team of like-minded men to design a community involvement program with effective mentoring practices.  While expanding to an international network, in 2009 BTM began a site based program in the public schools, which is the model for the Waimea Middle School (WMS) program.  
    Originating with the Waimea Middle School (WMS) program, BTM has grown to eight programs on Hawai'i Island, with plans to open a program at Honokaa High School next year and expand to Maui.
    The BTM group is voluntary and comprised of students taking part in the WMS’ ‘Connecting for Success’ program. “We tell them about Boys to Men, what it's all about and we ask them if they'd like to be a part of it,” says Lori Ching, WMS liaison.
    Ching is the conduit between the boys’ school experiences and the BTM mentors. “A normal starting of the day is we come in and meet Lori first and she can tell us what's going on with the boys. If they're having a good week or a bad week, so we know ahead of time,” says Evans.

PicturePhoto: George Fuller
    Mentors Steve Evans, Sam Wilbur, Ric Rocker and Ciro Podany circle up with the boys at the weekly meeting, which begins with a “check-in”. This is followed by the reading of three questions to be pondered; this week’s questions are about acceptance and tolerance.  “We have three of the boys ask the questions and then we do what we call a walk and talk. We go out in groups, one mentor and three or four of the boys and we come back and say what came up for us,” says Evans.
    The BTM group is a venue for making connections and self-discovery rather than a place to receive advice. “If something comes up we talk about how it showed up in our lives when we were their age and what we did and how that turned out for us,” says Evans. “The group mentoring has the advantage that the boys are interacting with each other and finding out, as I do when I sit with a group of men that, ‘Oh, he's going through the same thing I am.’ I don't feel as alone and the boys may not feel quite as alone  because somebody else is experiencing the same thing,” says Evans.​

PictureCircling up to share. Photo: George Fuller
    The group is also a safe zone for students to reflect on and change old behavior patterns.  “A really cool one that happened last year when some of the boys were having problems with a new teacher. ‘She's yelling at us, sending us to the office.’ The boys were getting up without permission, going to the restroom, throwing paper away in the middle of class and they didn't realize that all those things were adding up to going to the office,” says mentor, Sam Wilburn.
    The mentors challenged the boys, for the next two weeks to change their behavior and put the seventh graders in charge of keeping them accountable. “At the end of two weeks they couldn't believe how she changed. ‘She’s so much nicer to us. She's not sending us to the office,’ and they realized that by changing themselves, they had changed her,” says Wilburn.  
    Mentors help students see how their behavior, such as bullying, ripples out to affect others. Returning for the second year of BTM, one student announced that he had stop bullying. “We have an open circle and we asked the kids how bullying had affected them. He realized how pushing, shoving and degrading the other kids was affecting them,” says Wilburn.
    The mentors also help the boys to explore unexpected effects of their behavior. “They bullied a kid and he got up to here (fed up) and it came out sideways. A football came across and hit him, not on purpose, and he went over and punched the kid. He'd had enough. So we explained to the kids, look you may be bullying and you think it comes back at you and it doesn't, sometimes it goes after an innocent person,” says Wilburn.

PictureAdventure weekend.
    At the ‘adventure weekend’, an integral part of the BTM program, the boys have a chance to take stock and make lasting connections. “They're away from the distractions of everyday life and given the opportunity to look at themselves and see what they want for themselves in their lives, what might be standing in their way and come up with solutions for how to move past those obstacles in life,” says Evans. “There's a lot of connection and trust built on that weekend. They get to test their boundaries and when mistakes are made, they're learning opportunities. Nobody is made to feel that they are wrong or that they're shamed,” he adds.
    “Both the men's group and BTM is about getting in touch with ourselves and stepping into being leaders in our own lives. So that's what we want. To empower boys to take charge of their own lives,” says Evans.  The success of the program was evident at this year’s Connect for Success award ceremony.  “It's really heart-warming to see all the awards that the kids get. To see each and every boy in our group get an award,” he adds.
    Thanks to the willingness of many volunteer mentors, the Boys to Men program is helping to build a stronger island canoe one boy at time.
​

0 Comments

    Archives

    October 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    April 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012

    Categories

    All
    Adaptive Reuse
    Administration For Native Americans
    Adoption
    Aha Punanaleo
    Ahu Akivi
    Ahualoa
    Ahupuaʻa
    Aina Based Education
    ʽĀinakea
    Ainamalu
    Ai Pono
    Ala Kahakai Trail
    Ala Kahakai Trail Association
    Alapa'inui
    Alethea Lai
    Alo Kehau O Ka Aina Mauna
    Amanda Rieux
    Amaury Saint-Gilles
    Anaehoomalu
    Anaehoʻomalu Bay
    Andy Anderson
    Angel Pilago
    Anghor Wat
    Animation
    Anna Akaka
    Anna's Pond
    Annexation
    Aric Arakaki
    Armstrong Yamamoto
    Art And Sol
    Artists
    Artists Cooperative
    Audrey S. Furukawa Scholarship
    Audrey Veloria
    Aumakua
    Auntie Genoa Keawe
    Aunty Agnes Aniu
    Aunty Betty Webster
    Aunty Lani Akau
    Auwai
    Baby Steps
    Barbara Haight
    Barbara Nobriga
    Barbara Robertson
    Barrie Rose
    Barry Rose
    Battery Storage
    Before The Flood
    Bertelmann
    Betty Jenkins
    Betty Meinardus
    Big Horn Medicine Wheel
    Big Island Giving Tree
    Bill Sproat
    Birth Stones
    BISAC
    Bishop Museum
    Blue Planet Energy Lab
    Blue Planet Research
    Bobbi Caputo
    Bonaire
    Boys To Men
    Bryan Watai
    Bryce Groark
    Bullying
    Canada France Hawaii Telescope
    Canoe
    Canoe Garden
    Caribbean
    Catalina Cain
    Catherine Morgan
    Cathy Lowder
    Cathy Morgan
    Cattle
    Chadd Paishon
    Charlie Campbell
    Chelsey Dickson
    Cherry Blossom
    Chiefess Hoopiliahue
    Children's Advocacy Center
    Chris Hawkins
    Christina Richardson
    Ciro Podany
    C. Kalā Asing
    Clarence Mills
    Clay Bertelmann
    Clem Lam
    Cliff Johns
    Cody Dwight
    Cody Pueo Pata
    Collage
    Commission Of Water Resource
    Connect For Success
    Conservation
    Cordage
    Counseling
    Craig McClain
    Croatia
    Dalani Tanahy
    Daniel Legler
    Danny Akaka
    Dave Allbee
    Dave Reisland
    David Gomes
    Department Of Hawaiian Homelands
    Descendents
    DHHL
    DHS
    Diane Kaneali'i
    Dickson
    DLNR
    Dolly Loo
    Dorrance Foundation
    Dot Uchima
    Dr. Isabella Abbott
    Dr. Michael Graves
    Dr. Noenoe Silva
    Drug Treatment
    Dr. Wasan
    Dry Forest
    Dry Forest Conservation
    Dryland Forest
    Dryland Forest Hui 'Ohana
    Earl's Garage
    Earl Veloria
    Edith Kawai
    Edwin Lindsey
    `Ehuehu I Ka Pono
    Eileen Lum
    Electrolyzer
    Elijah Rabang
    Elizabeth Lee
    Elizabeth Lindsey Kimura
    Elizabeth Woodhouse
    Elliot Parsons
    Elmer Lim
    Emalani Case
    Emily Weiss
    Energy
    English
    Environmental
    Environmental Education
    Environmental Monitoring And Control Center
    Estria Foundation
    Estria Miyashiro
    Europe
    E. Woods Low
    Fair American
    Fairwind
    Feather Lei
    Fern White
    Fig's
    Figueroa
    Firehouse Gallery
    Floria Shepard
    Food Forest
    Four Seasons Resort
    Franz Solmssen
    Fred Cachola
    Friends Of The Future
    Fuel Cells
    Gary Eoff
    George Fry
    George Hook
    Ginny Bivaletz
    Gino Amar
    Gourds
    Green Technology
    Gungbei
    Gwen Sanchez
    Gwen Yamamoto
    Haia Auweloa
    Hale Kea
    Hale Wa'a
    Hamakua
    Hamakua Coffee
    Hanai Waa
    Hanauna Ola
    Harbin China
    Harold Craig
    Harry Buscher
    Harry Kim
    Hawaiian Ancestors
    Hawaiian Civic Club
    Hawaiian Cultural Practices
    Hawaiian Stilt
    Hawaiian Studies
    Hawaii Community Foundation
    Hawai'i Handweaver's Hui
    Hawai'i Island School Garden Network
    Hawai‘i Ponoʽī
    Hawai'i Public Seed Initiative
    Hawaii Sailing Canoe Association
    Hawaii State Art Museum
    Hawai'i State Mental Hospital
    Hawai'i Theater
    Hawi
    Hawi Christmas Lu'au
    Heather Sarsona
    HEEA
    Hee'ia
    He'eia Stream
    Helen Cassidy
    Helen Lincoln Lee Kwai
    Henk Rogers
    Herb Sigurdson
    High Chiefess Wao
    Highways Act Of 1892
    Hilo
    Hiroki Morinoue
    Hisao Kimura
    History
    Hohonu Journal
    Hokukano Ranch
    Hokulea
    Hokule'a
    Hokuloa Church
    Hoku'ula
    Holistic Learning
    Holistic Teaching
    Holly Green
    Holly Sargent-Green
    Homeless
    Honokaa
    Honokaa High School
    HPA
    Hualalai Cultural Center
    Hula
    Hulihe'e Palace
    Hydrogen Fuel
    Ieie Fiber
    Ike Hawaii
    Ili'ahi
    Indiana Jones
    Indigenous
    Innovations Charter School
    Integrated Curriculum
    Ipo Kahele
    Isaac Davis
    IUCN
    Jack London
    Jade Bowman
    James Fay Kaaluea Kahalelaumamane
    Jane Chao
    Janice Gail
    Japan
    Jared Chapman
    Jay West
    Jean Boone
    Jen Lawson
    Jenny Cheesbro
    Jim Frasier
    Jim Jarret
    Joe Sigurdsan
    Joe Souza
    Johanna Tilbury
    John Hoover
    Jordon Hollister
    Julian Fried
    Jun Balanga
    Kahalu'u Bay Education Center
    Kahekili
    Kahiki
    Kahilu Theater
    Kahilu Theatre
    Kaho'olawe
    Kahua Ranch
    Kai Kuleana
    Kailapa
    Ka'iulani Murphy
    Kalaemano
    Kalahuipua'a
    Kalani Flores
    Kalani Schutte
    Kalaoa
    Ka Lei Maile Alii
    Kalepa Baybayan
    Kaloko-Honokōhau
    Kaluna Henrietta Ha'alo'u Kainapau
    Ka Makahiki Pule Aina Holo
    Kamana Beamer
    Kamana'opono Crabbe
    Kamehameha Park
    Kamehameha Schools
    Kamehameha Statue
    Kamehameha V
    Kamiki
    Kanaka'ole
    Kanak'ole
    Kanani Kaulu Kukui
    Kane
    Kane'ohe
    Kanile'a 'Ukulele
    Kanoa Castro
    Kano O Ka Aina
    Kanu O Ka Aina
    Kanu O Ka Aina Academy
    Kapa'au
    Kapakai
    Kapulei Flores
    Kapzphotography
    Karen Eoff
    Karin Hazelhoff
    Kar Tow
    Katie Benioni
    Kauai
    Kaʽūpūlehu
    Kawaihae
    Kawaihae Canoe Club
    Kawaihae I
    KCA
    Keakealani
    Keala Kahuanui
    Kealakaʽi Knoche
    Kealakekua
    Kealakekua Bay
    Keali'i Maielua
    Keanuiomano Stream
    Kehena Ditch
    Keiki Surf For The Earth
    Kekelaokalani
    Kekuhi Kanaka'ole Kanahele
    Keku'iapoiwa
    Ke Kumu Aina
    Kenneth Barthel
    Keoki Freeland
    Keoki Manu
    Keomailani Case
    Keoni Kuoha
    Keoua
    Kiho'alu
    Kiholo
    Kilauea Plantation
    Kilo
    King Kamehameha
    Koa Forest
    Koaia Corridor
    Koaia Tree Sanctuary
    Kohakohau
    Kohala
    Kohala Center
    Kohala Coast
    Kohala Elementary
    Kohala High School
    Kohala Hospital
    Kohala Hospital Charitable Foundation
    Kohala Middle School
    Kohala Mountain
    Kohala School
    Kohala Sugar
    Kohala Sugar Co.
    Kohala Village HUB
    Kohala Watershed
    Kohanaiki
    Kohanaiki Ohana
    Koh Ming Wei
    Kona
    Krisin Souza
    Ku
    Ku Aina Pa
    Kue Petition
    Kūhiō
    Kuhio Village
    Kukuihaele Landing
    Kukuku O Kalani
    Kulolo
    Kumukahi
    Kumu Kuwalu Anakalea
    Ku'ulei Keakealani
    Ku'ulei Kumai-Ho
    Lanakila Learning Center
    Lanakila Mangauil
    Lani Aliʽi
    Lanikepu
    Lanimaomao
    Laulau
    Laupahoehoe Public Charter School
    Lawaia Manu
    Leandra Rouse
    Leesa Robertson
    Lehua Ah Sam
    Leila Kimura Staniec
    Lei'ohu Santos-Colburn
    Leiola Mitchell
    Leo Mills
    Leonetta Mills
    Lester Kimura
    Lili'uokalani
    Lim Family
    Lindsey House
    Linus Chao
    Lio Lapaʻau
    Lisa Ferentinos
    Lisa Hadway
    Lithium Ion Phosphate Batteries
    Liz Moiha
    Lo'i
    Lokahi Giving Tree
    Lokahi Treatment Centers
    Long Ears Coffee
    Lono
    Lono Staff
    Lorenzo Lyons
    Louisson Brothers
    Luakini
    Luana Zablan
    Mabel Tolentino
    Mahiki
    Mahiloe
    Mahina Patterson
    Makahiki
    Makahiki Moku O Keawe
    Makahiki Run
    Makaiole
    Makalii
    Makali'i
    Makali'i Bertelmann
    Makuakaumana
    Makuakuamana
    Mala'ai
    Mala'ai Culinary Garden
    Malaai Garden
    Malama Ahupuaa
    Malama Honua
    Mallchok
    Maly
    Māmalahoa
    Manny Veincent
    Mao`hau Hele
    Marcia Ray
    Margaret Hoy
    Margaret Waldron
    Mariechan Jackson
    Marie McDonald
    Marseille
    Mary Ann Lim
    Mary Kaala Fay
    Mary Sky
    Mary Sky Schoolcraft
    Matt Hamabata
    Ma'ulili
    Ma'ulili Dickson
    Mauloa
    Mauna A Wakea
    Mauna Kea
    Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project
    Mauna Lani
    Maunaua
    Mau Piailug
    Mealani Lum
    Meg Dehning
    Meisner Technique
    Mele Murals
    Melora Purell
    Mentoring
    Micah Komoaliʻi
    Michelle Suber
    Mid Pacific
    Mieko Fujimoto
    Miloli'i
    Mindfulness Training
    Miriam Michaelson
    Mission Blue
    Mokumanamana
    Mokuola
    Molly Sperry
    Moloka'i
    Momi Naughton
    Mo'okini Heiau
    Mormon Church
    Murals
    Music
    Nae'ole
    Nahaku Kalei
    Naha Stone
    Na Kalai Waa
    Na Kalai Wa'a
    Namaste
    Nancy Botticelli
    Nancy Carr Smith
    Nancy Redfeather
    Nan Ga
    Nani Svendsen
    Nan Pi'ianaia
    Na 'Ohana Holo Moana
    Na Opio
    Na Pali Coast
    National Parks Service
    Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation
    Nature Conservancy
    Navigation
    New Zealand
    NHERC Heritage Center
    Nita Pilago
    Niuli'i
    Noe Noe Wong-Wilson
    Nonprofits
    Nora Rickards
    North Hawai'i
    North Kohala
    North Kohala Community Resource Center
    Off Grid
    OHA
    Ohana
    Ohana Makalii
    'Ohana Wa'a
    Ohio State
    Oiwi T.V.
    Ola Ka 'Aina
    Olana
    Oliver Lum
    Opae Ula
    Opai
    Oral History
    Pacific Island Culture
    Pacific Studies
    Paddling
    Paishon
    Pakulea Gulch
    Palau
    Palila
    Palmyra Atoll
    Pana'ewa Zoo
    Paniolo
    Papahana Kualoa
    Papahanaumokuakea
    Paradise Postal
    Parker School
    Pat Hall
    Patrick Ching
    Patti Soloman
    Pelekane
    Pelekane Bay
    Pelika Andrade
    Pete Hackstedde
    Photovoltaic
    Pilina Kaula
    Pine Trees
    Pit River
    Plein Air Art
    Polani Kahakalau
    Pololu
    Polynesians
    Pomai Bertelmann
    Ponoholo Ranch
    Pono Von Holt
    Predators
    Prince Kuhio Kalanianiole
    Printing
    Provisioning
    PTSD
    Pua Case
    Pua Kanaka'ole Kanahele
    Puako
    Puako: An Affectionate History
    Puako Community Association
    Puako Historical Society
    Puako Sugar Mill
    Pualani Kanahele
    Pualani Lincoln Maielua
    Pua Lincoln
    Public Art
    Pukui
    Puna
    Punahou
    Punana Leo O Waimea
    Purell
    Puʻuhonua O Honaunau
    Pu'u Hulihuli
    Pu'ukohola Heiau
    Pu'u Pili
    Puʽuwaʽawaʽa
    Puʽuwaʽawaʽa Forest Bird Sanctuary
    Pu'u Wa'awa'a Ranch
    Pu'uwa'awa'a Ranch
    Qingdao China
    Queen Emma Land Co.
    Quilt
    Rain Gardens
    Rangoon
    Rebecca Most
    Rebecca Villegas
    Reef Teach
    Reforest Hawaii
    Reggie Lee
    Renewable Energy
    Requiem
    Resilient Hawaiian Community Initiati
    Rhonda Bell
    Richard Elliott
    Richard Smart
    Ric Rocker
    Robbie Hines
    Royal Order Of Kamehameha I
    Run Off
    Ryon Rickard
    Sacred Waters
    Sailing Canoes
    Samuel Gruber
    Sam Wilbur
    Sandlewood
    San Francisco Call
    Sarah Kobayashi
    School Gardens
    Scot Plunkett
    Scott Kanda
    Sea Of Hope
    Shaelynne Monell-Lagaret
    Shorty Bertelmann
    Silk Painting
    Sir Pua Ishibashi
    Ski Kwiatkowski
    Solar
    Soloman
    Soloman Kapeliela
    Sony
    Sooty Tern
    South Kohala Coastal Partnership
    Star Compass
    STEM
    Stephanie Lindsey
    Steve Bess
    Steve Evans
    Stonehenge
    Storks
    Student Art
    Susan Alexy
    Susan Maddox
    Susan Rickards
    Sustainable
    Sustain Generations
    Sweet Potato Cafe
    Sylvia-earl
    Taiwan
    Tatoo
    Tesla
    The-nature-conservancy
    The-pod
    The-queens-women
    Thomas-metcalf
    Thomas Westin Lindsey
    Tiger-esperi
    Tina Yohon
    Tommy-remengesau
    Tommy-silva
    Tom-penny
    Travel
    Travels
    Trish Ryan
    Tropical-conservation-and-biology
    Tsugi-kaimana
    Tutus-house
    Tyler-paikulicampbell
    Uh-hilo
    Uhiuhi
    Uh-manoa
    Uh-west-oahu
    Ulu-garmon
    Ulu-laau-nature-park
    Ulupalakua Ranch
    Uncle Mac Poepoe
    University-of-hawaii-sea-grant-college-program
    Verna-chartrand
    Victoria-university
    Vincent-paul-ponthieux
    Virginia-fortner
    Volcano-art-center
    Voyaging
    Waa
    Waa7c86374d5e
    Waiaka
    Waianae-mountains
    Waikoloa
    Waikoloa-canoe-club
    Waikoloa-dry-forest-initiative
    Waikoloa-stream
    Wailoa Center
    Waimea
    Waimea Arts Council
    Waimea-christmas
    Waimea Civic Center
    Waimea Educational Hui
    Waimea-hawaiian-civic-club
    Waimea Middle School
    Waimea-ocean-film-festival
    Waimea-school
    Waipi699o
    Waipio
    Waipio-valley-community-circle
    Waiulaula-stream
    Wao
    Wao Akua
    Wao Kanaka
    Wao Nahele
    Warren Noll
    Water
    Watercolor
    Watercolors
    Waterworld
    Wdfi
    Weaving
    Wendi Roehrig
    Wendy-hamane
    Whales
    Wh-rickard
    Wilds-brawner
    Wiliwili
    William Miller Seymour Lindsey
    Willy-mcglouthlin
    Women699s-work
    Women-artists
    World War II
    World-wide-voyage
    Ymca
    Yutaka Kimura
    Ywca


    RSS Feed

Copyright 2018. All rights reserved. Jan Wizinowich.
  Oral History  |  Talk Stories  |  About  |  Home