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Kohala Hospitalʻs New Emergency Room: A Haven of Peace and Bliss       West Hawaii Today  May 28, 2018

6/10/2018

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   Thanks to recently completed murals by Artist Patrick Ching, Kohala Hospital’s new emergency waiting room is an oasis of beauty and calm. “I'm really into the psychology of what the people are going through when they are here. I use colors that are calming, soothing and horizontal lines,” said Ching.
    The project is a collaboration anchored by the Kohala Hospital Charitable Foundation (KHCF) and includes funding and support from Kohala Hospital and a Century 21 grant through Kohala High School. “Another aspect of our collaboration was to fund a portion that would support our students' afterschool internship with a high quality mentor such as Patrick Ching. The students spent time with Patrick shadowing / painting some of the images as directed and learning about the real life aspect of what it takes to do what he does as an artist,” said Kohala High School STEM and AP English Teacher, Fern White.
     To begin preparing for the project, Ching shared ideas with KHCF board members. “I talked with board members to see what's important to them and what kind of ideas they had and then what kind of ideas I came up with,” explained Ching.
     Ching spent many hours visiting places he intended to include. “I went around taking photographs and then I looked at them and to conjure up images with the space. Then I came up with small watercolor sketches to scale,” he said, which he shared with board members as the project unfolded. “The areas in the paintings are kind of in the directions that you see them,” he added pointing to the painting of Pololu on the North wall. 
    The paintings seem to emerge from the walls as if being soaked up from the beauty that is Kohala “Rather than a rectangle, I try to bring the colors of the room into the painting. I leave a little of my first layers of color showing along the edges and notice that they are different than the color the mural ends up being. It makes people's eyes dance and it joins all the different picture together.  I also used the wall colors like this purplish blue in the mural so that all ties it together,” said Ching.
    And keeping with a forest theme, the murals also engulf prosaic reminders of modern life. “You do your sketches but when you come to the actual wall there might be things that you don't count on. I tried to  to make that corner disappear (pointing to the Pololu painting) and I noticed this big red exit sign I didn't plan for so I added these two red birds at the end.  When you're walking out of the emergency room you get to enjoy the dance of red and greens,” said Ching.
    The whole effect is one of peace and healing. “In the three weeks since Patrick's been painting it's already made a huge difference. Our mission was to create a healing environment,” said Kohala Hospital Administrator Gino Amar.
Ching got to experience that first hand. “If I did get in their way, I'd give them a paint brush,” joked Ching. “I did get to see it have the desired effects on the people coming in. They were all under stress for different reasons. And even the guy with the high blood pressure said, 'Oh that's just what I needed',” he added.
    The emergency waiting room is the icing on the cake of a long concerted effort on the part of the KHCF, who raised funds for the addition of the new waiting room and the creation of a state of the art emergency room, that looks like it could be the sick bay for the USS Enterprise.  
    The new emergency room came to fruition through the efforts of many. For almost six years the Kohala Hospital Charitable Foundation has collaborated with Kohala Hospital and conducted many fund raisers.   
    “The really big fundraising started in 2012, when we knew this (new emergency room) was actually going to happen. We really went into gear. We did golf tournaments that were extremely successful and we had big community events at Kahua Ranch with 400 people,” said board member Betty Meinardus.
    With inimitable Kohala style, support for the project also came from grass roots sources. “You know we had people that would give $10 but now they feel that they are part of the hospital. People gave a lot of money. It was really amazing, all the people in the community were so generous. This is our community hospital and community supported emergency department,” said Meinardus with pride.  ​
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A Walk through History into the Future                                            Ke Ola Magazine  May / June 2018

6/10/2018

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PictureAlong the Ala Kahakai Trail near Punaluʻu. photo courtesy of Barbara A. Schaefer
   Hawaiʽi Island’s history can be found along its coastal and mauka (mountain side) to makai (ocean side) trails, a network imprinted by the hands and feet of those who came before. The coastal ala loa trail (Hawaiian trail system, literally translated as long path) formed the backbone of that network, supporting communication and commerce between ahupuaʽa (districts). “Trails were that connectivity of families, of commerce, really survival and thriving, both mauka, makai and along the shoreline. Thereʻs nothing that went on in Hawai‘i that didn’t have to do with trails,” said Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail (AKNHT) Interpretive Ranger, Nahaku Kalei.  
   Once circumnavigating the entire island, the coastal trail corridor, which is alive with historic sites, now stretches 175 miles from ‘Upolu Point in North Kohala along the coast and rounding at Ka Lae (South Point), heads northeast to Wahaʽula Heiau in Puna.
   In recognition of the importance of the coastal trail, the Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail was added to the National Historic Trails register in 2000, under the auspices of the National Parks Service (NPS). Studies were conducted, communities were consulted and by 2009 a management plan that began implementation in 2010 had been created with an ambitious 15 year goal. “The first 15 years of the plan calls for us to connect Puʽukoholā with Puʽuhonua o Honaunau and beyond to Hoʽokena,” said Aric Arikaki, AKNHT superintendent. 
History of the Trail
   Up through most of the 1800s, communication and transportation were conducted along the trail system. “Although the canoe was a principle means of travel in ancient Hawaiʽi, extensive cross-country trail networks enabled gathering of food and water and harvesting of materials for shelter, clothing, medicine, religious observances and other necessities for survival.” (Ala Kahakai National Trail Management Plan, p. 13)
   With the introduction of horses and mules for transportation, wider, straighter trails were constructed to accommodate horse-drawn carts. By the 1850s and evolving over the next 40 years, a government road was built between Kohala, Kona and Kaʽu that often diverged from the original ala loa trail, isolating people living in remote areas.
   This led to the Highways Act of 1892, signed into law through the efforts of Queen Liliʽuokalani and the Legislature of the Kingdom of Hawaiʽi. “One of the last acts of the kingdom was the highway act and it dictated that any trail that was in existence at that time was a public right of way,” said Chris Hawkins, coordinator of the Ala Kahakai Trail Association. This has become a critical legal tool, enabling the State to declare public rights-of-way.
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Volunteers head home after a trail work day between Hapuna and Mauna Kea. photo courtesy of Barbara A. Schaefer
​Re-establishing the Trails
   When complete, the Ala Kahakai Trail will be the cordage that binds the canoe together. “Itʻs a system of trails, not one single trail. When we did our consultation with the kūpuna (elders) they said donʻt forget to include the mauka to makai trails because that’s the trails we use to access the mountains and the sea to gather,” said Aric.
   The 175 mile trail includes four national parks and traverses 220 ahupuaʽa. “There are descendants whose families tie into historic events and each one is unique. Communities said they wanted the chance to manage their shoreline areas. It was all based on the ahupuaʽa,” said Aric.
   To that end, a management plan emerged from the stakeholders along the trail. “We went through a whole consultation process with the community for the management plan. It was vetted by county, state and federal agencies all the way up to Washington D.C. and it all came back positive. We were really happy that they were able to understand that this is how we want to manage the trail. It makes total sense,” explained Aric.
   The Highways Act of 1892 also makes it possible for NPS to identify and reclaim any historic routes. “Now it includes the shoreline trail and the Māmalahoa trail in Waikoloa. Ancient trails, pre-contact trails and then also historic trails. We can preserve routes, even if the trail is not there. It may have been covered by a lava flow or paved over but the route is still there and we can interpret that trail and create public access,” said Aric.
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Ramp along the 1871 trail at Puʻuhonua o Honaunau. photo courtesy of Barbara A. Schaefer
​Storied Places
   Each section of the trail has its own stories and sacred sites. Beginning at ‘Upolu Point in North Kohala you can walk through history from the birthplace of Kamehameha I to Puʽukoholā Heiau, completed in 1791 as a tribute to the unification of the islands.
   A coinciding event south along the trail was the capture of the Fair American. When Captain Thomas Metcalfe of the Fair American anchored at Kaʽūpūlehu in the winter of 1790, he had no idea that Chief Kameʽeiamoku was lying in wait to avenge the flogging he had received from Thomas’ father, Simon Metcalfe, aboard the Eleanora a few weeks earlier. After killing all but one of the crew, Kameʽeiamoku commandeered the Fair American and presented it to Kamehameha.
   The lone survivor of the attack was Isaac Davis who, along with John Young, became an instrumental military advisor for Kamehameha’s unification efforts. “There are descendants of Isaac Davis and Kameʽeiamoku who took over the Fair American and we brought them together and created a video with them. That’s a story right there along the trail,” said Aric.
   Continuing on the trail, you will be treated to a glimpse of the history of an advanced culture and its sacred sites. “One of the most powerful things that anybody can do is to step onto a trail alignment. Itʻs really not something you can talk about, but as soon as you are in it, you capture that feeling of all the people who have traveled through these same footsteps you are traveling. You get to see the landscape as they saw it, from very different perspectives,” explained Nahaku.
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Along the trail near Kalaemano. photo courtesy of Barbara A. Schaefer
Community Building
   While under the protection of various government entities, there is much more to the trail than the listing of historic sites. The communities along the trail have a vision that includes providing access for traditional practices, protection of sacred sites, education and uniting local communities in an effort to preserve Hawaiʽi’s culture.
   This is proving to be a complex endeavor as the fate of each ahupuaʽa along the trail has varied.  “Every single one of those alignments has a different agreement with the land owner. So everyone needs to be verified as to who owns that trail.  Itʻs a slow process to do it correctly,” said Nahaku.
   Another NPS focus for the trail is to build the capacity of each community by bringing ancient practices such as salt production into the present as a viable economic support. “We are at the intersection of environmental stewardship, cultural preservation, and agricultural self-reliance. Hawai‘i at one time thrived and there was no dependency on the outside. So how do we encourage and support that kind of movement to be at that intersection as well?” said Aric. 
   One way that NPS seeks to answer that question is by working with ahupuaʽa community groups to help them build and implement their own shoreline management plans through finding fiscal sponsors and helping with the creation of nonprofits. “We want to see them benefit economically as well, through a livelihood. Thatʻs why we want to build the capacity of the community so they can compete effectively in the field of ecotourism and visitor accommodations and try to develop [G1] a different kind of paradigm for visitors that come on the trail to be hosted by communities,” said Aric.
   Another kind of community-building along the trail is the integration with nonprofits such as E Mau Nā Ala Hele, the Ala Kahakai Trail Association, South Kohala Coastal Partnership, willing landowners and volunteers. “We can’t do it ourselves. This is all based on partnerships, homeowners associations, the willingness of landowners and volunteers. Honokaʽope or 49 Black Sand Beach is a good example. We received a donation from a member of the community to fix a really dangerous sections of the trail,” explained Aric.  
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Tutu kane and moʻopuna walking the Ala Kahakai Trail. photo by Pelika Andrade
​Walking the Trail
   There’s still much work to be done before the entire trail is ready with signage and other safety features. “The policy of Ala Kahakai Trail is to open and make trails public as community-based management plans are established, in place and implemented. Many sections of the trail have not been able to have that happen yet,” said Nahaku.
One section of the trail that is officially open begins at Pelekane Bay, going south to ‘Anaehoʽomalu Bay. “Weʻve connected with all the resorts, homeowners associations, and the Kohala Coast Resort Association. Weʻre working with them to provide interpretation and signage,” said Aric.
   Safety and protocol are a primary concern. Sacred sites need to be protected and travelers need to understand the particular protocols associated with them and the trail as a whole. “Weʻre working on a brochure right now that gets into safety and protocol. Eventually we want to frame this as a pilgrimage trail you come on and become spiritual. You can visit shrines and learn and take it in and come out of it a different person,” said Aric.
   Trail systems like the Ala Kahakai provide a foundational metaphor for human history and life on our planet; they connect us and move us through life. “Trails that you take in your life, a path that you choose. We can interpret the trails of the Polynesians as they moved across the Pacific and then we can even take it back further to the human diaspora out of Africa. All of our ancestors walked on trails and moved across the planet,” concluded Aric.
 
For more information:
Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail: nps.gov/alka/index.htm
Ala Kahakai Trail Association: alakahakaitrail.org/
E Mau Nā Ala Hele: emaunaalahele.org/
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Lessons from the Garden    Ke Ola Jan/Feb 2018

3/15/2018

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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. 
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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. 
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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. 
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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.

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Hanauna Ola: Sustaining the Generations through Voyaging      Ke Ola Magazine  Jan. / Feb. 2018

2/6/2018

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PictureWa'a crew member Keomailani Case takes a sun sight.
For centuries the spirit of the voyaging canoe lay dormant only to be reawakened with a question: Is it possible to sail a voyaging canoe to Tahiti using non-instrument navigation? Now, many years later on Hawaiʽi Island Pwo navigator Chadd Paishon asked a different question: Can this island provision one canoe for one voyage?
  “Some years ago before we started the worldwide voyage, on island already we've got our school garden. I was trying to figure out for myself, what do I say to the garden folks about the canoe? If our kūpuna were able to come here aboard their canoes and able to sustain themselves, then is it possible for us to provision one canoe for one voyage?” said Chadd
  Land and waʽa crew are striving to answer that question with a resounding “Yes!” through a three year Administration for Native Americans (ANA) grant awarded to Na Kalai Waʽa for the Hanauna Ola program, which will culminate in a sail to Papahānaumokuākea in 2019.
  Began in 2016 and now in its second year, the ʽOhana Makaliʽi is digging deep into traditions to prepare for a 2019 sail that will be fully provisioned from the soil and hands of the island and in the process re-establish the cultural practices that make up a healthy voyaging based life.
  “At Na Kalai Waʽa, what we try to do is to re-discover what that core is and try to live that legacy. And that legacy is to involve everybody. Not only human beings but animals too. The health of the ocean. It's not separate. It's pretty much everything,” said Shorty Bertelmann, Pwo Navigator and Hanauna Ola sail director.
  Along with 30 waʽa crew, the program is made up of a group of ten school gardens plus Hōʽea Moku, the Na Kalai Waʽa canoe garden in Kohala, who will endeavor to provision Makaliʽi for a one month voyage.​
PictureMakali'i ready to depart Kawaihae for a training cruise to Hana.
Waʽa Crew 
  In its first year the 30 participating waʽa crew engaged in an array of trainings that will equip them with the complex skill set they will need to be successful crew members, but primary for a voyage is to know one’s place. “It's not just a matter of going. Before you leave you have to know everything about your island, the birds, the reef. Our journey is to learn our island. When we arrive, we’re Big Islanders who came,” said Shorty.
  The crew explored wahi pana such as Kumukahi, the eastern most point of the island and a traditional embarkation point; Koʽa Heiau Holomoana, Mahukona’s navigational heiau; and Kalaemano Cultural Center at Kaupulehu  where the star compass Kukuku o Kalani, recently moved now resides.
  At a year two orientation gathering last October, crew gathered around Kukulu o Kalani. The star compass, brought to Hawaiʽi by master voyager Mau Piailug, is an essential navigational tool. “It’s the origin; the place to begin. It’s that beginning point that allows you to understand the rising and setting. That whole continuum that's going on right now. Where the sun goes down and where it’s going to come up tomorrow, where that star is going to come from. Where the wind is coming from. Feel that wind on your face and notice that subtle change and when it starts to shift,” explained Chadd.
  This is where navigational knowledge begins, but it continues on the water with crew observing and reading the story displayed in the sky and then to set and hold a course using natural elements as a guide.
  It’s fall equinox and Makaliʽi awaits her crew just inside the sea wall at Kawaihae Harbor. On this day they will be sailing north and if they find the wind and the conditions are right, will sail across the channel to Hana and back. But before leaving the dock for a sail the crew gathers and clasps hands for a blessing and to set intentions.
  Shorty questions the crew about what they notice about conditions: What is the meaning of the position of the sun? What do those clouds mean? How has the sky changed from sunrise? From last night?
  The crew will also learn about and experience all the roles on the canoe. Everyone will learn to lead and to navigate, but at the core of it all is spirit. The canoe fosters an intangible spiritual connection that goes far beyond skills and schedules. “We can do everything we need to do to voyage. Be on track and all the training and everything, but for voyaging we need to connect to the universe and that's multi-dimensional.  That's like all the training plus another dimension,” said Shorty.
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Pwo Navigator Chadd Paishon explains the star compass to canoe crew.
PictureCanoe crew orientation at Kalaemano.
Hanai Waʽa
  Hanai means to foster, sustain, connect and it’s that spirit that infuses every aspect of Hanauna Ola. “The spiritual journey is a part of us and it's never separated. When we start to talk about ceremony, 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,” said Chadd.
  At the heart of hanai waʽa voices are raised in chant, a conduit to the deep spirit that connects everything and is the manner in which voices are sent out on the wind when a canoe leaves the shores.  
  “Chanting is huge, an integral part of everything that we do. A chant might ask permission for a canoe to begin its journey, announce the arrival of a canoe to the welcoming land base, or recite the genealogy of its creation. To chant with all your heart with a complete understanding of the intention and purpose is an essential part of the kuleana of the chanter when it comes to the canoe,” explained Kumu Pua Case.  

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Keala Kahuanui works with land crew at Kalaemano.
Land Crew 
  Traditionally the skills and contributions of the entire island went into making a successful voyage. Just as the canoe crew has many dimensions to their training, the land crew, coordinated by Keala Kahuanui and Chadd, will be engaging in growing, preserving and preparing food to sustain the canoe crew on their journey, as well as creating cordage.
  Representatives from the four participating districts of Hilo, Hāmakua, Kohala and Kona meet on a regular basis to learn about and prepare foods and cordage.
  Supplying healthy, balanced food for the crew without benefit of refrigeration is the challenge being taken on by the school gardens and the first quarter of the year focused on trainings in food processing and preservation such as dehydration, pickling and canning.
  In November land crew members met in Laupahoehoe to study preservation techniques and process foods. “We made sauerkraut the first day. We made lilikoi, strawberry and mango jam.  We do four hours of reading [safe food preparation] and then we go and do the hands-on work. Next week we're doing fish, chicken and sausage making and it's all going to be preserved,” said Heather Sarsona, Kanu o ka ʽĀina garden coordinator.

PictureHanauna Ola land crew prepares sauerkraut at Laupahoehoe kitchen.
  The process of preparing for the voyage will encourage sustainability in our island community. “The preservation class. The most beautiful thing for me is that it's teaching us to not waste. To stock our own pantries at home. So that whenever we're going on a voyage everyone can contribute from their pantry and wasn't that how it was in the old days?” said Heather. 
  The other focus area for the land crew is cordage, which literally and metaphorically connects everything together. It lashes the canoe together and binds the crew to the canoe, the community and the island and is a key part of canoe protocols. The first step is to learn about hau, hala, niu and laʽi, some of the main cordage plants and prepare them for braiding.
  “All the different districts are looking at the resources within their community. If we understand that those resources are still here and take care of it and know how to use it. It's beautiful. That's what Hanau Ola is. To insure that those exact things, those experiences continue. That they don't stop,” said Chadd.  
PictureCaptain and Pwo Navigator, Shorty Bertelmann orients the crew.
But even beyond the voyage, the hope is that the roots of Hanauna Ola will establish themselves as a foundation for a sustainable, healthy life. “If we can provision Makaliʽi, 14 crew members, three meals a day, for a month then we can feed our families. If we can do that for the canoe, it's possible we can do it for our community. Whatever we do on the canoe is really a reflection back on what we can do on our moku,” said Chadd.
  The ʽOhana Waʽa has sailed many journeys and the Hanauna Ola program is the wind beneath the sails that will extend those journeys throughout the generations.
 “What I’ve learned from the canoe is that it's a community based entity. There's intention behind it. There's spirit behind it. There's family behind it. Every bit from mauka to makai is wrapped up between those two hulls. It's through Hanauna Ola, that we will sustain the generations through voyaging,” concluded Chadd. 

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Paddle Together, Paddle Forever                                                        North Hawaii News March 2015

9/21/2017

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It’s a dark Monday morning and the sun is hiding behind a shrouded Mauna Kea, but the Kawaihae canoe Club is alive with purposeful activity. The kupuna group knot together in small groups awaiting their “commodore”, George Fry to assign seats and canoes. There are a few first timers who will occupy seat five in canoes with more experienced paddlers, seat one calling the stroke, seat six steering. Everyone working together, the canoes are soon in the water bobbing outside the interior break wall.
   “Paddles up” calls the steersman and “huki”. The first few strokes wake up stiff muscles and if you’re fortunate, by the time the canoe rounds the outer break wall and heads south to Maumae, your heart is filled with joy. You are lost to the rhythm of the paddles and surrender to an ancient ocean world as the sun’s rays brighten behind Mauna Kea.
    Paddling has been an integral part of island life since the first arrivals centuries before. It embodies the spirit of Hawaiian culture and what it means to be an island dweller. According to Hawaiian historian, Herb Kane, "The Wa'a shaped the Hawaiian people physically, intellectually and spiritually as much as the Hawaiians shaped the logs that became their canoes." Canoes were built, distances traveled, fish harvested with many hands working together and this is at the heart of paddling. But there was also time for fun and that is where canoe racing or hei hei waa came in. ​
PictureCoach Manny Veincent
    Kohala District sports two clubs: Kawaihae Canoe Club and the Waikoloa Canoe Club at Anaehoomalu. Kawaihae Canoe Club began in 1972 when Hawaiian Civic Club members led by Mabel Tolentino, asked Manny Veincent, current head coach to start a canoe club. “In the beginning there was nothing here but kiawe trees. Nothing but cows went out of here and yet we became the best in the state in four years,” said Veincent. Success was built with ohana. “We started with kids 12 years all the way to people in their 40's. The families were involved and that's what made it competitive and efficient,” said Veincent.
    In the mid-1990’s Steve Bess, Robbie Hines, Harry Buscher and Jim Frasier started the six a.m. “kupuna” group, paddling a six man and soon adding Charlie Campbell and Harold Craig. It has since grown and now there is often up to thirty paddlers out at first light. “A lot of aloha and it really becomes a real ohana. They call us the kupuna group just because we're old but we're not full of wisdom or anything,” said Fry, leader and paddler since 2002. But there is much wisdom to be had. “Six people paddling as one person. Part of the beautiful process of paddling,” said Fry.
    For many, paddling is their introduction to Hawaii and Hawaiian cultural values. “We moved over here five years ago and joined the club for the community and we've become enthralled with it,” said Dave Allbee, now a competitive paddler. “Paddle respectfully for fun and appreciate being alive and enjoy the elements,” said Harry Betancourt, paddler since 2012. “Paddling in the shelter of Puukohola and you know the stories. It's humbling,” he added.
    Paddling also engenders the aloha spirit of inclusiveness. “What I find interesting is that all kinds of people from all walks of life show up. We have visitors that have never paddled.  Everybody pulling together. It's just good fun,” said Mike Bates, member for over 15 years.
    KCC has added Coach Tommy Silva, homegrown KCC paddler for the adult racing division and Veincent will take over the 12 to 17 year-olds. “By the time the season starts May 16th with the regatta in Kona, we’ll have about 75. We have two vans that bring them from Waimea for practice Monday through Thursday,” said Veincent.​​    
​    Silva, one of the first club members, started paddling with Kawaihae when he was in high school. “Nobody knew how to paddle and we didn't even know what paddling was about. I paddled Kawaihae for about 17, 18 years and then I went to Kai Opua for about another 17 years. So I learned a lot from a lot of people, but if it wasn't for Manny I wouldn't be here coaching. Just bring the fun of paddling to the club and start winning regattas and races,” said Silva. 
PictureCoach Daniel Legler
    At the southern end of the district is Anaehoomalu and the Waikoloa Canoe Club, which began in 1984. It’s Saturday morning and first time paddlers are just coming out of the water. To augment their numbers, the club has been conducting a Saturday membership drive over the last four weeks. Newly appointed head coach Daniel Legler is excited about the new season. “We have about 100 racing paddlers from kids all the way up to kupuna and 60 or 70 adults that are open or competitive paddlers. My first year I'm just going to take what we have and try to improve on it.”
     The key to success is how blended the crew is and Legler has a few techniques for that. “I buy some sunglasses and spray them with paint so they cannot see. If I'm sitting in four and I'm trying to watch the guy in two and I'm missing him, but you put the blinders on and you feel the canoe,” said Legler. “I have everyone paddle on one side. Put a bucket on and the drag resistance behind the canoe where you can slow your stroke down. All those tools help blend, blend, blend. But the most important thing to me is that everyone who comes down here has fun. If you have fun, everything falls into place,” he added.
     Both clubs have websites where registration information and schedules can be found. KCC ages 12 and up: http://kawaihaecanoeclub.org/ ; Waikoloa Canoe Club ages 10 and up: http://www.waikoloacanoeclub.com/ . Anyone interested is encouraged to come and give it a try. 
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Ten Years on the Ground, 10,000 Hands Strong                           North Hawaii News   March 2015

9/20/2017

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​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.”  
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​    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.”    
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    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).
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Tom Penny: Island Talent     Special to North Hawaii News

9/18/2017

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​    The Hawaiian Islands are an ideal shooting location for movies of all kinds and when Hollywood comes to call, they find multi-talented residents such as Tom Penny of Waimea to lend their skills.  
    In 1979 a “strange artistic yearning” brought Penny to Waimea from O`ahu where he had morphed from a U.H. Manoa art student in 1971 to a journeyman carpenter. “When I walked into the back door of the Kahilu Theatre for the first time, I thought well wow, this is it. Music, acting, painting, carpentry. The possibilities were pretty endless.”
    All through the 80’s, when Richard Smart graced the Kahilu stage, Penny worked on all aspects of theater productions. “The first one I did with Richard was The Man Who Came to Dinner. It was really great to see him doing what he loved,” said Penny.
    In the ‘90’s Penny wanted to focus on acting and studied Meisner technique with Jim Jarret. During this time he was cast in Waterworld, (filmed at Kawaihae) where he had just one line. But more importantly, it gave him the chance to watch film production in all its facets, eventually finding his way to set work. Since then Penny has worked as set dresser, prop builder, and as a grip on many movies large and small.  
    “The first blockbuster that I worked on as crew was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  I was a set dresser and we shot at the Shipman Estate,” said Penny. Set dressing is both meticulous and creative work. To maintain scene to scene consistency, a file of closely guarded continuity photos are kept. However, there was one photo Penny would have like to keep. “Harrison Ford was sitting in an amphibious vehicle and Spielburg was leaning in talking and I was standing behind them talking to the head set dresser,” said Penny. 
    One of Penny’s jobs on Jurassic World was prop and set construction, which doesn’t have the flash and glamour we associate with movies. “I worked in Honolulu for three months to create all the props for a particular scene and that part of the movie took less than a minute,” said Penny.
    Grip, one of Penny’s other jobs, means manipulating light sources, whether natural or artificial to show subjects to the best affect. He was key grip for Descendents and grip for Predators, shot partially in Waipio Valley. “Lanakila (Mangauil) gave the blessing (at Waipio) and he was very specific about respect for the land and that we could expect the unexpected,” said Penny. They were soon to discover the meaning of those words. “We were loading sand bags into the back of the mule (utility vehicle) and I had the wheels chalked with sand bags and it just rolled right over them and headed down the hill toward the cliff, but there was just enough of a flat run and it stopped before it went over, and I couldn't help but think about Lanakila's words,” he added.  
    Penny was in the right place at the right time with a willingness to follow his heart, work hard and learn his craft from the ground up, and is an example of what the island spirit makes possible.
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Kohanaiki: Connecting the Past to the Future   Ke Ola  Sept / Oct

9/14/2017

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PictureAerial view of Kohanaiki. Photo courtesy of Kohanaiki Shores LLC
Tutu Papa moves quietly in the dark of his Kohanaiki mauka hale in final preparations for a makai gathering journey, gathering the supplies he will need for the day: woven fish traps, gourds to carry the salt and fish he gathers and a lunch of dried fish and poi.    
  He heads down the lava strewn trail lit by the first rays to peak over Hualalai. Almost to the shore, he stops at a pond to collect opae ula, small shrimp that he will use for bait. Continuing on he recognizes Makua, who is already setting his traps. Kalani stops to observe the north and south currents facing off, a restlessly undecided ocean and moves south to set his traps. 
​  Historically, Kohanaiki makai was a gathering place for shoreline fishing, salt collection and gathering opae ula from anchialine ponds by ahupuaʽa residents. Reggie Lee, park cultural advisor, lineal descendent and son of recently passed master weaver, Elizabeth Lee remembers, “My mom's story is they used to come down here and fish. We were shoreline fisherman. They used to dry and salt the fish. They'd go up on a donkey. My grandfather used to trade all the way up to Kalaoa. We even dyed our own net using the bark of the kukui tree. We wanted it dark brown or red to camouflage it.”
   Formerly known as Pine Trees, the popular surfing area came under threat in the late 1980’s with the proposal of a large resort development. The community activated with the goal to keep the area open and accessible. “First we formed a grassroots surfer's group, the Friends of Kohanaiki. We didn't know all the buttons to push to fight something that big. We were working on keeping the beach open,” said original Kohanaiki ʽOhana member and North Kona County Councilwoman, Karen Eoff.
  Then one day Karen and husband Gary Eoff met Angel Pilago. “We met Angel and his wife Nita at the beach. Angel knew about the work of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC) and he was a visionary and a strategist. As president of the Kohanaiki ʽOhana, he and his wife Nita navigated us through the legal battles,” said Karen.
  Based on two Supreme Court decisions, the impact of any development on the gathering and usage rights of Native Hawaiians, as well as the environment must be taken into consideration. Following these decisions in 2000, Hawaiʽi State adopted Act 50, which required a cultural impact statement as well as an environmental one.   
   Professional legal support in combination with an activated community eventually won the day. Rebecca Villegas who was born and raised in Kona and grew up at Kohanaiki was one of many voices raised. “When I was 14 years old I gave a speech to the panel requesting that efforts be made to protect Kohanaiki. Growing up at Kohanaiki, it has been a place where I've celebrated my own birthdays and my family’s birthdays. I raised my daughter there. It's a grounding place, not only for myself but for the whole community,” said Rebecca.
​  The legal battle over, in 2001 Harry Kim brought all the stake holders to the table and after two years of meetings, a good faith agreement was forged. The zoning changed from resort to open space along the shoreline, with the developer donating 100 acres to the County of Hawaiʽi for the creation of Kohanaiki Beach Park.
​  Since that time the corporate entity, now Kohanaiki Shores, has honored the agreement, creating a public park along the shoreline with camping, bathrooms and showers. They have also complied with the highest standards of environmental protection, creating an Audubon award winning sanctuary for such endangered birds as the Hawaiian stilt and the sooty tern.  
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Keiki Surf for the Earth participants with their signs. Photo courtesy of Karen Eoff
PictureLineal descendant Reggie Lee harvesting ipu gourds in the canoe garden. Photo by Jan Wizinowich
​Not Your Ordinary Beach Park
  Although many changes have taken place since Kohanaiki mauka residents traveled to the shore for sustenance, today Kohanaiki is carrying on in the spirit of community resource, the perpetuation of Hawaiian cultural practices and sustainability.
  Turn off the traffic-choked highway and one is immediately plunged into an eye-of-storm calmness. A narrow road lined with great heaves of lava, winds towards the sea. The road narrows and curves left running parallel to the shoreline and a series of campsites tucked under the numerous tree heliotrope. A little further on a large collection of young surfers ride the southern summer swells while parents are watchful on the shore. 
  Colorful hand-painted signs with reminders to take care of the beach, drive slowly and live with aloha, line the entry drive, complements of Keiki Surf for the Earth, a contest for youth 14 and under, now in its 22nd year.
  It’s not just about surfing though. “Kids have access to a space that is safe and healthy where they can learn and grow and have an understanding of their kuleana. They clean up marine debris, take care of the reef ecosystem and learn how to conserve water and reduce one use plastics,” said Rebecca.
  The road ends and a foot path continues past the halau, Ka Hale Waʽa, today having its thatching repaired. An ahu and lele stands south of the halau and forms the entrance to a 17’ diameter star compass, designed by Gary and Kalepa Baybayan and used to teach way finding.   
  Drawn to the star compass’s connection to canoe culture, Kumu Keala Ching brings kūpuna to the park. “I brought kūpuna down to learn about the dial itself, the movement, the celestial stars summer solstice and winter solstice and to bring information to our people by learning about the area,” said Kumu.
  Beyond the star compass is the canoe garden backed by some of the 200 anchialine ponds that dot the area. Carved out of a space once choked with fountain grass and naupaka the canoe garden contains large patches of ipu gourds, sweet potatoes and kalo.
  Besides providing sustenance and materials for the creation of traditional implements, the garden is a living laboratory of sustainability that teaches learners by allowing them to plunge their hands into the soil and life’s mysteries hidden there.
PictureLanakila Learning Center students preparing 'ie'ie. Photo courtesy of Karen Eoff
​ A Learning Laboratory
  Kohanaiki Beach Park provides an ideal setting for students to engage in authentic cultural and environmental learning. Neighboring Innovations Public Charter School has a bi-annual hands-on science program at the park. “We incorporate a lot of ethno-mathematics into our curriculum. Cordage and cordage making are one of the corner stones of our science curriculum,” said Meg Dehning, Innovations middle school teacher.
  The students experience a combination of hands-on engagement to learn about environmental science, cultural practices and give back with service work. “They had an opportunity to learn about the culture / ecological heritage of that particular section of the coastline. The students got to do lauhala weaving with Aunty Elizabeth Lee, learn to strip hau and took part in the ceremony for the star compass that was presided over by Kalepa Baybayan,” said Meg. 
  Service learning allows students the chance to give back at the same time they were receiving. “They really liked the hands on work, especially when it came to learning to weave from Aunty Elizabeth or clearing the pond or helping dig the garden. It gave them the opportunity to learn in an authentic way. These are things that you just can't teach in the classroom,” said Meg. 
   Another regular group at the park is Lanakila Learning Center, an alternative high school program in Hilo. Their environmental science curriculum involves what Director Wendy Hamane calls full circle learning. Students teamed up with Gary to propagate, harvest, process and use iʽeiʽe, a vine that grows on ohiʽa trees and is traditionally used for weaving and cordage.
  “Realizing how much work went into gathering the leaves, cleaning and stripping and the whole thing. They understand the hard work that goes into it and they really appreciate the manaʽo that's passed down by cultural practitioners because they've been on the receiving end of it. A whole different level of appreciation,” said Wendy.
​   Next year’s program will focus on fiber art and cordage. “We hope to help them with their cordage garden. Gary’s going to teach the kids how to make cordage out of hau and coconut husk and hopefully the kids can help weave the hau to make the entry rope for the front of the halau and to learn to lash the double-hulled canoe that they're in the process of building. They have to come up with two miles of cordage,” said Wendy.
 
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Lanakila Learning Center Students. Photo courtesy of Karen Eoff
​A Win-Win Model for the Future
  The Kohanaiki Beach Park provides a sense of place and connectedness to the past and the future. And it’s an example of what can be done when people bring their best intentions to the table. “The park is a model for a better community where the shore remains with for and by the community, and managed by a consortium of county, community and developer representatives. The vision is that the model be perpetuated elsewhere. The coastline must be available for everyone,” said Rebecca.
 
For more information contact:
Camping permits: https://hawaiicounty.ehawaii.gov/camping/all,details,57824.html
Contact writer: janwiz@gmail.com
 
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Gary Eoff: One Artist's Voyage      Ke Ola Magazine Sept / Oct

9/14/2017

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    Like the cordage he weaves, Gary Eoff’s art stretches back through time to honor and connect with the ancestors. Previously from California, Gary and his wife Karen came to Hawaiʽi in 1980 to surf and visit Karen’s sister but found much more.  “We fell in love with Hawaiʽi, went home and packed up,” said Gary.                                    
​   With a passion for art, traditional crafts and a thirst for learning, Gary has created an array of authentic Hawaiian artifacts that capture the highly advanced cultural practices of ancient Hawaiʽi. “Learning about the past and creating artifacts from traditional materials, you go through the whole process as if you're living in the past,” said Gary.
​   Before coming to Hawaiʽi, Gary was mostly a three dimensional artist. “Right from college I just started being a craftsman. I did sculptures, welding and metal sculpture and then jewelry. I carved a lot of shell and bone,” said Gary.
​   So it’s not surprising that Gary’s first endeavor in Hawaiʽi involved making fishing lures, a utilitarian three dimensional art form. Gary creates the inserts that use the colors and shapes of prey to entice big game fish to strike.  The lures, which he still makes, are a collaboration with Marlin Parker, son of lure inventor dad George. “I didn't know about fishing but I knew about crafting. Marlin, being a great fisherman knows what makes a great lure. The action of the lure is as important as anything,” said Gary.
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​Teachers
  A convergence of Gary’s curiosity, encounters provided by a budding cultural renaissance and his connection to the Kohanaiki Beach area led him on an odyssey of exploration of Hawaiian crafts.
  When the student is ready the teacher will appear and that’s what happened when Gary met Angel at Kohanaiki Beach. In the late ‘80’s when Kohanaiki came under threat of development, the Kohanaiki ʽOhana was born. “Angel Pilago was my first teacher and mentor and our Kohanaiki ʽOhana leader. He’s a cordage master and his expertise is lashing among other things. He taught me to make fishing equipment, tools, gourds and drums. Items that were used culturally at the beach,” said Gary.
  Angel, his wife, Nita, Gary and wife Karen began doing workshops centered on Hawaiian traditional and cultural practices. “We wanted to have the items to demonstrate the use of resources. Our presentations focused on how to gather materials, make the items and take care of them. I love the aesthetics and sensibilities of Hawaiian utilitarian objects,” said Gary.
  Gary continued to throw his net wide to discover other traditional crafts such as gourds. They have decorative patterns and are lashed with cordage. “Tying the gourds is super challenging. There's only a knot at the beginning and the end, they're all slip knots and there's many different ways to do them,” said Gary. But before he could learn to tie them, he had to grow gourds and get the shapes right and study the pāwehe (tattoo designs) on the gourds.
  Gary found his way to his next teacher when he attended a talk by expert weaver and cordage maker Willy McGlouthlin at the King Kamehmeha Hotel in 1992. “I had heard his name at a cultural festival. He was just making mahiole (Hawaiian helmet) He invited me to Puna and I studied with him for 20 years,” said Gary.  
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​You can’t learn about Hawaiian cordage without knowing about olonā. It’s the king of all cordage plants, endemic to Hawaiʽi and the strongest natural fiber in the world.
“The Hawaiians planted it everywhere. It was used extensively in their material culture because of its strength and durability. It was tended constantly. If you grew one acre you were friends of the overseer, if you grew two acres you were friends with the chief and if you grew three acres you were friends with the King,” said Gary.
  From Willy, Gary learned the full circle of cordage making and uses. “Willy had the touch and I learned the touch. Find it, mālama it, process it, use it. Willy’s main message was to protect the resource and to gather it in a sustainable way. You don't harvest unless you give back and I didn't get any plants until I made them flourish in the forest,” said Gary.
  Cordage making connected him to another of his teachers, Dr. Isabella Abbott. “She gave a talk and I went with my olonā sling. She knew what it was and invited me to come to Bishop Museum. I spent one whole day down in the basement with the feathered capes. She would have them get out everything that was made with olonā. I could touch it, feel it, look at it,” said Gary.
​   Gary's interest in printing designs on Hawaiian kappa led him to master printer, Hiroki Morinoue in Holualoa. "I learned various styles of printing --- monoprint, western printing using a printing press and eastern style printing using a baren."
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Cultural Implements and Voyaging Arts
  Through the mounting of way-finding and cultural exhibits, Gary has shared his passion for the knowledge and skills of the early Hawaiians. This comes through in the meticulously researched artifacts he creates and makes available to anyone. “I think it's so important that people can handle the actual objects,” said Gary.
  Entering the Eoff’s small living room is like entering a miniature museum that illustrates Gary’s creative craftsmanship over the last 37 years. Every corner and wall space is covered with the evidence of a life spent studying and honing his crafts. A post is draped with gourds, recessed shelves serve as displays of various weapons and implements and mahiole march atop a bookshelf.
  Gary reaches into the refrigerator and removes a bag that contains a partially completed mahiole, the most complex of weaving crafts. On average it takes about 350 hours to weave. Using iʽeiʽe fiber, the mahiole is woven over a carved wood head form. Its fine weaving and snug fit provided protection for chiefs going into battle. 
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The star compass is at the heart of the exhibit. “My main focus is on the voyaging canoe and the celestial star compass used for deep ocean navigation by early Polynesians,” said Gary.
​   In collaboration with local artists Dave Reisland (marquetry) and Cliff Johns (wood turner), the star compass was transformed into several three dimensional wood inlay pieces, one of which won first place at the Hawaiian Woodworkers Guild Show in 2016.
   Gary also created a 17 foot diameter star compass employed as part of the educational program at Kohanaiki Beach Park.
   A recent collaboration stems from Gary’s curiosity about the ancient skill of bird catching, and pairs a woven bird cage with a painting by local artist, Dominic Tidmarsh.
   To capture oʽo and iʽiwi, whose feathers were used to make ʽahu ʽula, the capes that adorned royalty, bird catchers tethered a bird inside a woven cage with food. A pole coated with a sticky substance was placed next to the cage, capturing the bird.  
​   “It will be a diorama with the bird cage and a pole in front of Dominic’s painting showing a little broken piece of olonā that the bird was tied to and the bird flying off over Puʽuoʽo because it's an oʽo bird,” said Gary.
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​World Wide Voyage: Hawaiʽi Shares Its Culture with the World
  When the Hōkūleʽa sailed up the Potomac River to the Smithsonian, it carried a traveling exhibit of traditional crafts created by Gary. This evolved into the Worldwide Voyage: Hawaii Shares its Culture with the World, an exhibit inspired by the three year voyage, initially mounted at the Volcano Art Center and currently at Isaac’s Art Center until Sept. 30.
  The exhibit evolved through a request from the Hōkūleʽa ʽOhana Waʽa. “They decided they were going to tour the East coast extensively, so they decided they wanted an exhibit. I got together with Ed Kaneko, master lauhala weaver, Cliff did bowls and Dave helped with the wood,” said Gary.
  The collection traveled on the Hōkūleʽa, up the East Coast and a larger exhibit was put on display at the Smithsonian during a festival to celebrate Hōkūleʽa’s journey. “I thought of telling the story of the World Wide Voyage. The items are all on display with photos of the voyage from Oiwi T.V. There’s some art by Dave, Cliff and I that's contemporary and inspired by the voyage,” said Gary.
​Aʽo: To Teach is to Learn, To Learn is to Teach
  For many years, Gary just concentrated on learning the art, but through his teachers he came to realize that’s only part of the process. When you have discovered and developed skills, it’s time to pass them on, which Gary does through exhibits and continuous workshops at Kohanaiki Beach Park.  
  Coming up at the Volcano Art Center Gary will be providing a series of rotating exhibits focused on specific aspects of traditional arts. “Every time I speak with him it's like a whirlwind of information. He has so much to share that we've committed to doing these rotating cultural exhibits,” said Emily Weiss, Volcano Art Center Director.
  The key to our future lies in the past and through his journey with Hawaiian cultural crafts, Gary has come to understand how the wisdom, traditional practices and skills of the ancestors can protect the land and ocean resources going forward.
 
To see more of Gary’s work go to: www.http//garyeoff.com 
​Photos by Jack Wolford
Contact writer: janwiz@gmail.com
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Kohala Watershed: Bringing Life Back to the Land                             Ke Ola Magazine   June / July

8/28/2017

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PictureCrew member, Kukui Keliihoomalu in the forest.
  Kohala Mountain is a cloaked monarch crowned with a 50,000 acre cloud forest that feeds the streams of Kohala district and its people. The trade winds bring warm wet air into the cool mountains and create a constant source of moisture that in pre-western contact time fed the extensive Kohala field system.    
  Today, Kohala Mountain still provides approximately 6% (154 million gallons per day) of the sustainable yield of water for Hawaiʽi Island. The watershed is a primary source of drinking and irrigation water for North and South Kohala and parts of Hāmākua, but with an enlarged, restored watershed the potential is much greater.
  Recognizing this, in 2003 DLNR, which had been working with seven other watershed projects around the state, brought the Kohala Mountain land owners and managers together. “There was a push from the DLNR to try to look at watershed forest issues on a bigger picture level as a whole. Lisa Hadway who was working within the DLNR started the momentum. They called a meeting and we found that our goals were in alignment,” said Pono Von Holt, Ponoholo Ranch owner. 
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Kohala Watershed seen from Kawaihae.
The land owners and managers that include: Kahuā, Parker and Ponoholo ranches, Hawaiʽi State (DLNR), Kamehameha Schools, Department of Hawaiian Homelands, Queen Emma Land Co., Laupāhoehoe Nui LLC and Surety Kohala signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), and the Kohala Watershed Partnership was born.
  The eighth watershed partnership to be formed statewide, the KWP consists of approximately 68,000 acres of forest and grasslands on the windward and leeward slopes of Kohala Mountain, the island’s oldest volcano.
  The partners agreed that the organization would have a very limited to non-existent bureaucracy, but realizing they needed a paid staff member, they worked with a non-profit fiscal agent to hire Melora Purell as their first program coordinator.
   “I sat down with each of the partners when I started the job, and the key thing I wanted to understand was why they signed on to this. I was quite blown away how it was driven by land owners and managers wanting to do what was right, what was pono for the land, the ecosystem, the forest, the watershed,” said Melora.
​  One of the first tasks of the KWP prior to hiring staff was to create a management plan. “The management plan was already in place when I was hired, and was really clear about what needed to be done, why it needed to be done and how it needed to be done. I had this plan in front of me and I just needed to get to work,” said Melora.
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Laying fence.
The Kohala Center with its current KWP Coordinator, Cody Dwight, seeks out funding and manages the “boots on the ground” work. “That's their forte being an organization that pools together these different programs and facilitates funding as well as the operation side so we can pool our goals and our time and effort,” said Pono.
First Steps
  Starting at the top, the idea was to extend the forest reserve zone down the mountain by eliminating feral ungulates and installing fencing to create “exclosures” in conservation parlance. “Take the forest away from the cattle and move them down the mountain. We're going to increase the size of the watershed by several thousand acres into our ranch country and that will give us a buffer for invasives,” said Pono.  
  Getting the feral cattle, probably descendants from Vancouver’s time, out of the forest was no easy task. Individual efforts by the ranches in the past had not been successful, but under KWP, the three ranches, Ponoholo, Kahuā and Parker, were able to remove feral cattle from the forest. “We learned that just by the fact that we put the three ranches together in a concerted effort, we were successful in taking back a large piece of ground,” said Pono.
  Fencing is the sustainable component of ungulate control. “The first fence up was on Ponoholo Ranch, about 100 acres. Right below, Parker ranch extended from that along the inside of the Honokane Valley ridge and right in to the edge of Pololū,” said Pono. “By the time we get done we'll have 3000 acres that we've taken back and in 50 years or so, it will be reforested,” he added. 
​
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Koaia corridor, Kohala Mountain
Pelekane Bay Watershed:
  The Pelekane Bay Watershed in Kawaihae is a graphic example of the importance of a botanically healthy watershed. The Koaiʽa Corridor, which is in the upper Pelekane Bay Watershed, runs mauka from DLNR’s  Koaiʽa Tree Sanctuary on Kohala Mountain Road and is a two mile riparian corridor of about 300 acres nestled between Waiakamali and Luahine streams. Down slope in the lower Pelekane Bay Watershed, the two streams eventually merge into Makeahua stream that in turn empties into Pelekane Bay.
  The watershed needs a layered diversity of plants to capture and absorb the rains otherwise sediment-filled water flows down the mountainside and into the ocean. Standing on the Koaiʽa Tree Sanctuary fence-line, the contrast is stunning. Inside the sanctuary are groves of koaiʽa, large healthy ohia and lower canopy natives. Outside the fence is a windswept grassland.
  Once a canopied forest, the lower Pelekane Bay Watershed is almost completely devoid of vegetation and is severely eroded. “This mountain all used to look like the Koaiʽa Tree Sanctuary,” said Cody. The consequences of the denuded watershed can easily be seen in Pelekane Bay. Once a biologically diverse estuary, Pelekane Bay has been inundated with sediment washed down the drastically eroded mountainside.
  “To protect the coral reef we have to stabilize this mountain from eroding. Get some vegetation to grow in critical erosion areas,” said Cody. The main obstacle to this is a large uncontrolled herd of feral goats that live in the watershed. “The goats live in gulches and they eat the grass from the top and then they go back down into the gulches,” said Cody. 
  A temporary measure to control erosion while working towards revegetation is the installation of check dams, which are constructed as wire and cloth-wrapped rock walls in key drainages, and are capable of holding up to 10 tons of sediment. In August 2015 a large brush fire followed a week later by a brief, intense storm event put those check dams to the test. “It was like a perfect storm event. Those sediment check dams we had in place all filled up,” said Cody. 
​   Changes in water quality are being monitored by cooperating conservation partners, The Nature Conservancy and NOAA. “The water quality has improved. Changes in Pelekane Bay. Changes on the landscape. These areas are looking a lot better,” said Cody.
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Pono von Holt on his Ponoholo Ranch
PictureField crew captain, Haia Aweloa walking the Pelekane watershed section.
Creating Conditions for Growth
  The ultimate goal is to have a re-vegetated watershed, but to do this it is necessary to remove invasive plants and create positive conditions for the native plants that previously populated the watershed. Propagating and out-planting, along with fencing, invasive plant control and anything else that needs to get done, is the job of the four person KWP field crew.
  Crew leader Haia Auweloa, Kukui Keliʽihoʽomalu, Jordon Wills and new volunteer crew member Makaliʽi Bertelmann and I drive up Kohala Mountain Road and enter the lower Pelekane Bay Watershed. The crew spreads out to survey the area and find several aʽaliʽi with mature seeds, which are collected and taken to the State Tree Nursery where plants are propagated for future out-planting. “In the Koaiʽa Corridor we have about 60,000 plants already and below we have about 20,000 plants,” said Haia.
​  When they’re ready to be planted the seedlings will go through a couple of stages of acclimation. At the nursery they’re set outside in a semi-sheltered area and watering is continued. The next step is to take them up to the watershed for planting, where they are sheltered by tall grass and will continue to receive water through a temporary irrigation system fed from water tanks and when established, the plants will stop receiving irrigation.
The Watershed is our Kumu
  The Kohala Watershed has become an outdoor classroom and laboratory for Kohala’s children. Kohala Center’s Mahina Patterson coordinates place-based, hands-on science classes in the watershed. “Because the Kohala Watershed Partnership is housed at the Kohala Center, we have this resource to share with the community,” said Mahina.
  Being in the watershed allows learners to explore independently and make observations. “I ask students: ‘What do you see inside the fenced unit versus the outside landscape?’  We read the story that the land has to tell us,” said Mahina.
  Students also get an opportunity to think and act like scientists. “Another great lesson is biodiversity. What are the species here and what are we seeing?  They get to experience doing real science using scientific tools, such as a transect,” said Mahina.
  The watershed also gives students the opportunity to experience restoration work and to grapple with its challenges. “I was on Puʽu Pili with a group of Kohala Middle School students, learning about pig trapping and ginger control. It was an opportunity to show them why fences are important. Let's together look at the effects of the pigs on the forest, do ungulate surveys. Real science,” said Mahina.
  The watershed also educates the heart and fosters gratitude. “It’s just so beautiful and so different that even kids that had a bad attitude when they got into the van, when they get there, everything shifts,” said Mahina.
​  The KWP is a shining example of what can be accomplished through the sharing of a vision and the willingness to lend our hands and hearts to reclaim our source of life.
 
Picture
Students investigating the watershed.
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