Nāwahī's Work Continues to Inspire
by Melehina Groves
January 2007

In 1984, when Bruce and Jackie Mahi Erickson first happened upon a lovely painting of Hilo Bay hanging inconspicuously in a Hilo antique shop, they had no idea what they were looking at. The artist’s name was largely indiscernible, only an "ahi" was legible. Although the painting had caught their eye, they were not really collectors at all, said Jackie, and had only visited the antique shop on a whim that day...

Kū Holo Mau, Kū Holo Lā Komohana
by Melehina Groves
January 2007

Kū Holo Mau, Kū Holo Lā Komohana -- Sail on, Sail Always, Sail Forever, Sail on to the Western Sun. Sailing together now are hiapo and pōki‘i -- Hōkūle‘a and Alingano Maisu -- on a voyage that will bring Hōkūle‘a’s 30 years of sailing full circle and mark Maisu’s maiden journey as the newest deep sea voyaging canoe to traverse our Pacific waterways...

Ka Le‘ale‘a o ka Lawai‘a
by Kahanulauae Akiona
January 2007

Welina mai me ke aloha e nā pua mae ‘ole a Pauahi mai ka lā hiki a ka lā kau, mai kahi kapa a kahi kapa aku, aloha. He mau mea punahele ka‘u no ka hana ‘ana ke hiki mai ka hopena pule, e la‘a me ka he‘enalu ‘ana, ke kahaki‘i ‘ana, ke kanikapila ‘ana, a me ka lawai‘a ‘ana. He mea nui ka lawai‘a ‘ana no ka po‘e Hawai‘i...

Breaking Point at Lā‘au
by Melehina Groves
December 2006

The conflict over development of Lā‘au Point -- also known as Kalaeokalā‘au -- on Moloka‘i has quickly become a burning issue, one that has split the small community in two and recently begun to spread beyond Moloka‘i’s shores. On one side are supporters of Moloka‘i Ranch’s Community-Based Master Land Use Plan -- known as "the Plan" -- which includes its proposed development of four to five hundred acres of coastal land...

Hui o Nā Mākua Ho‘okahi o Kaua‘i
by Melehina Groves
December 2006

Marilyn Mohler, founder and executive director of Hui o Nā Mākua Ho‘okahi o Kaua‘i -- Single Parents of Kaua‘i, has been described as a "one-woman, customized, social-service agency." She’s also been described as an "angel." Affectionately known as "the Hui" by its members, Marilyn heads up a grassroots, non-profit organization...

Nā Hali‘a Aloha
by Ka Papa Mō‘aukala
October 2006

Kumu Kalehua Lima and her haumāna of Ka Papa Mō‘aukala have again compiled a priceless collection of mo‘olelo hulu kūpuna and shared them with Ka‘iwakīloumoku. Ka Papa Mō‘aukala is unique in that it is a Hawaiian History class taught entirely in Hawaiian language - the mo‘olelo shared by these haumāna preserve not only the hali‘a aloha of their own kūpuna, but the ‘ōlelo ‘ōiwi o ka pae ‘āina nei. E ho‘onanea mai...

Hau‘oli Lā Hānau e Ku‘u Ali‘i
by Melehina Groves
October 2006

Queen Lili‘uokalani was a prolific composer, even when compared with other great haku mele of her time. Lili‘uokalani spoke to her people through mele, encouraging them even through her own bleakest days of imprisonment and leaving a legacy of resistance and aloha ‘āina. On September 2, hundreds gathered to celebrate her birthday on the grounds of ‘Iolani Palace...

Rebuilding Our Past
by Melehina Groves
August 2006

When I began to consider what I will take with me after meeting and working with Billy Fields and the small, tightly-knit crew of Native Hawaiians apprenticing under him, this ‘ōlelo no‘eau seemed especially appropriate: Ua ho‘onoho niho ‘ia, ho‘oku‘u ka hana. Fields is a master in the art of traditional Hawaiian drystack masonry, or uhau humu pōhaku...

"That's the Nature of the Job...?"
by Melehina Groves
August 2006

A few months back, a friend and I were misquoted in an article which "covered" the 2006 Merrie Monarch Festival. It was, in my opinion, quite possibly the worst article our names could have appeared in, and many wrote in to the paper criticizing the journalist’s off-the-wall account of the competition. Admittedly, it was a small incident, but I began to consider what it was about this journalist’s work that had disturbed me personally.

Kaili Chun - Nāu Ka Wae
by Kīhei de Silva
July 2006

For me, it is a decidedly Hawaiian space. A universe, maybe. Or a sacred inner landscape, or a womb, or a mele ‘ai pōhaku.  I have been here many times before. It is as familiar as my mother’s voice telling me the story of Pōhaku Nānā Lā -- a stone that, like Kaili’s, anchors the mat corners and net fringes of our identity. 

International Festival of Canoes
by Melehina Groves
July 2006

The International Festival of Canoes has been held every year in Lāhainā, Maui, since 1999. Bringing together a diverse group of master carvers and their apprentices from across the Pacific to celebrate their canoe traditions, the festival’s focal point is each crew’s completion of an entire wa‘a within a two-week period. A friend and I visited Lāhainā near the close of the festival...

‘Āina Ulu ‘O Honokāne
by Neil Hannahs
June, 2006

The land legacy inherited from Pauahi and Charles Reed Bishop links Kamehameha Schools to a chiefly lineage and the special relationship these individuals had to 59 ahupua‘a and ‘ili on five islands. These lands represent places of significance to the Kamehameha ‘ohana. The privilege of their conveyance into the Trust must be associated with a kuleana to honor and mālama our ancestral connections to these significant places. At the Māhele, these lands were selected by the ali‘i for the spiritual and economic wealth they could bestow to their descendants and the Hawaiian people. 

Ho‘i Hou i ke ‘Ehu
by Kiara Puakenamu Leong
June, 2006

Aloha mai kākou e nā kumu, nā haumāna, nā ‘ohana, a me nā hoa makamaka mai ka lā hiki a ka lā kau! ‘O kēia ka lā iwakāluakūmāwalu o Mei, makahiki ‘elua kaukani me ‘eono. He lā ko‘iko‘i loa kēia lā i nā ola o nā haumāna o kēia papa. Ma hope o ka pau ‘ana o kēia ahiahi, ‘o mākou nō nā haumāna puka hou o ke kula ‘o Kamehameha. No kekahi mau haumāna, i Kamehameha lākou i hele aku ai no ka nui o ko lākou mau makahiki kula. A no nā haumāna ‘ē a‘e, ‘o kēia makahiki ko lākou makahiki mua ma kēia kula. Akā na‘e...

He Pua Laha ‘Ole
by Leila Tseu me Pua Ahi Rosehill, Kau’i Patmont,‘Ilima Sumida, a me Mele Hamasaki
March, 2006

Leila Tseu is a fifth grader at the Hawaiian Language immersion school at Pū‘ōhala Elementary in Kāne‘ohe.  She and eleven of her hula sisters traveled to Hawai‘i Moku o Keawe in March 2006, stayed at a Volcano Village cottage, and spent three days learning and practicing all kinds of neat stuff: asking, thanking, respecting, plant-gathering, lei-making, chanting, dancing, singing. The girls returned to O‘ahu with rain-soaked journals of their visit; their teachers dried out, deciphered, edited, and assembled some of this writing into the following account.

Welina mai kākou e o‘u mau hoa i kūpa‘a aku i ka ‘ōlelo ‘ōiwi o ka ‘āina, iā ‘oukou mai Hawai‘i nui a Keawe a Kaua‘i o Manokalanipō, mai ka wailele aweawe o Hi‘ilawe a ka haka lewa i ke kai o Nu‘alolo. Aloha nui kākou. Ua ulu maila nō ka hoi i ka lohe ‘ana i kekahi hoapili no ka ua Tuahine, ‘o ia nō ‘o Professor Mike Barns. He kanaka maoli ‘o ia no Aotearoa -- he mamo ia na Manaia, ‘o Tuwharetoa kona iwi. Ma kekahi ha‘i ‘ōlelo i mālama ‘ia ma ka lā ‘ekolu o Mei i hō‘ike aku ai ua kanaka nei ‘a‘ole o kana mai kona maiau i ka hana kūkulu hale.

Located in the Koko Marina Shopping Center, Moku Ola is a Hawaiian owned and operated business that offers a variety of services including several types of lomilomi, body scrubs, and unique products, many of which incorporate traditional uses of lā‘au lapa‘au (medicinal plants). "The concept of what Moku Ola stood for in ancient Hawai‘i was perfect for what we were looking to establish here," explained Keola Kawai‘ula‘iliahi Chan, kanaka lomi and L.M.T. of Moku Ola, a center for Hawaiian healing.

Ku‘u ēwe, ku‘u piko, ku‘u iwi, ku‘u koko. My umbilical cord, my navel, my bones, my blood. While it is a very simple statement, this ‘ōlelo no‘eau powerfully and eloquently illustrates the connection between the physical and the spiritual in the Native Hawaiian worldview.  This saying refers to a very close relative, but it also shows us that our ēwe, our piko, our iwi, and our koko bind us to our kūpuna -- they are physical reminders of our relationships and the responsibility we have been given to honor them.

Lau kapalili, Lau kapalala -- Tremble leaf, Broad leaf. These names were given to the leaves of the first kalo plant, Hāloanakalaukapalili. Wahi a kahiko, Hāloanakalaukapalili was the firstborn child of Wākea, the sky father, and his daughter Ho‘ohōkūkalani. He was a keiki ‘alu‘alu (stillborn), however, and his little body was buried in the ground at one end of the house. Says David Malo, "After a little while, from the child’s body, shot up a taro plant, the leaf of which was named lau-kapa-lili, quivering leaf; but the stem was given the name Hāloa. After that, another child was born to them whom they called Hāloa, from the stalk of the taro." According to this tradition, the Hawaiian people are nā mamo a Hāloa, Hāloa’s descendents.

In the late 1960s, Mary Kawena Pukui recorded a series of "little Hawaiian verses for children." Her collection included mele for learning the alphabet and the multiplication tables, for playing hide and seek, for remembering the names of the districts of Ka‘ū, for teasing sullen playmates, and for making string figures. Her purpose, she explained, was preservation. She hoped that Hawaiian children would learn these mele and experience some of the things she enjoyed when she was a child.

We’ve known for some time that Mary Kawena Pukui and Eddie Kamae composed this mele in celebration of a visit they made to Kawena’s homeland in Ka‘ū, Hawai‘i.  Eddie has explained as much -- and not much more -- for most of the thirty-five years that he has been singing this song. We’ve suspected, also for quite a while, that their composition has a much deeper meaning and purpose than its bouncy "Holoholo Ka‘a" persona would have us believe. Our own travels with Kupuna Elizabeth Kauahipaula and ‘Anakala Edward Ka‘anana have demonstrated time and again that our elders don’t look with favor on random excursions and gadabout behavior.

"Ho‘ohaehae" belongs to that rare category of song that has the power to evoke my most cherished childhood memories -- in my mind, the faint buzz of an AM radio station will forever be associated with what real Hawaiian music sounds like. I can slide "Ho‘ohaehae" into a CD player today and be transported 20 years back in time to find myself suddenly driving up the Pali with my father, windows down, listening to KCCN 1420 AM, I can hear him singing along to a version of "Ho‘ohaehae," my young ears impressed when he mimicked the high notes. Who was that teasing voice calling out to, "...oh you sweet thing?"