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Hawaiian Culture

Hawaiian culture stories from Molokai

How to Say E Komo Mai

Thursday, October 11th, 2012

How to Say E Komo Mai

 

 

While it is pau hana time for most teachers, Kumu Manuwai Peters and a few of his students are at Ho`olehua Airport getting ready for a busy afternoon. Holding an ukulele in one hand, Peters straightens a student’s kukui lei, all the while reminding the four student-volunteers to be professional, smile and engage visitors coming off the plane. By the time the next plane touches down, Peters and his band of students are already at the arrival gate, instruments, lei and smiles ready. As soon as the door opens, the group breaks into a traditional Hawaiian mele, or song, welcoming visitors and residents to Molokai.…

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Molokai Hoe 2012

Thursday, October 11th, 2012

Molokai Hoe 2012

Just before 100 canoes started launching from Hale O Lono Harbor Sunday morning, Wa`akapaemua team captain and steersman Bozo Dudoit hugged each of his teammates, one by one. While neighboring teams had loud chants and practiced slogans, the men’s open team from Wa`akapaemua Canoe Club gathered their hands in the middle and shouted just one word –Molokai. They picked up their six-man outrigger canoe and departed for the 41-mile legendary Molokai Hoe course to Oahu.

“We’ve trained mentally and physically,” said Dudoit a day before the race. “But I’ve never paddled 40 miles directly into the wind, so it’ll be an interesting experience.”…

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Topside Kupuna “Rock” Kalaupapa

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012

Topside Kupuna “Rock” Kalaupapa

Community Contributed

By Cookie Robins-Kaopuiki

After six months of planning, reality set in as more than a dozen topside kupuna anxiously arrived at Kalaupapa as an August activity. For some it was a first visit, while for others it was a wet-eyed trip down memory lane or the joy of visiting of finding long-lost family.

Visitors’ quarters were set up for the two-night, three-day adventure and the welcoming committee and big-hearted sponsors Zianna Kaulia, Harry Arce, Kirk Dela Cruz and Luana Kaaihue truly outdid themselves in accommodating and honoring the kupuna with traditional Hawaiian values.

For kupuna, the peninsula tour and history with National Park Service staff Leanna Dixon brought educational enlightenment followed by a silent prayer for all the beloved people who endured to the end and have left their footsteps in the land.…

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Art at Aka`ula

Sunday, September 30th, 2012

Art at Aka`ula

As the sun set slowly over the hills of Kalae on Friday, students, teachers, families and friends gathered to enjoy Aka`ula School’s “Celebrating the Arts” exhibit. The annual exhibit, which first started in 2006, features the works of Aka`ula students and some family members who donate their art to raise funds for the school.

“It really is about getting [the students’] artwork out into the community,” said Dara Lukonen, one of the school’s founding teachers. “New students have been very surprised and awed when they see their work displayed –sometimes it is as simple as putting a mat on it and lighting.”…

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A Step Towards Sovereignty

Sunday, September 30th, 2012

For years, there have been talks about bringing back the sovereign nation of Hawaii, for Hawaii to become socially, economically and politically independent of the United States. Kana`iolowalu, a project of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission within the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), may be the first step towards Hawaiian self-governance, according to John Waihe`e, Roll Commission chairman and former state governor.

“There are so many different ideas when it comes to sovereignty, often times it seems disjoining,” said Waihe`e. “Unification is the foundation of our nation.”

The purpose of the Roll Commission is to register Native Hawaiians with the goal of organizing a sovereign entity.…

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Learn about Native Hawaiian Roll Call on Molokai Tomorrow

Friday, September 28th, 2012

Kana`iolowalu News Release

Tomorrow, Saturday, Sept. 29, two events will be held on Molokai to educate residents about Kana`iolowalu, a project of the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission. It is a year-long campaign to reunify Native Hawaiians in the self-recognition of our unrelinquished sovereignty. The campaign has two steps: first, a petition declaring and affirming the unrelinquished and inherent sovereignty of the indigenous people of Hawaii that can be signed by anyone, Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike. Second, those who are Native Hawaiians and who are 18 years of age or older as of Sept. 1, 2013 will be eligible to register for participation in the organization of a governing entity – also known as a “base roll”.…

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Night of Aloha

Wednesday, September 12th, 2012

Night of Aloha

Kaluapapa’s annual Night of Aloha is an evening of festivities fit for royalty. Patient residents Boogie and Ivy Kahilihiwa were king and queen of the ceremonies (pictured during their dance), joined by a full court in honor of Hawaiian tradition. The event, held last Wednesday, for the first time in the newly-renovated Paschoal Hall, also featured a full pa`ina feast and a host of entertainment.…

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`Aha Wahine Conference

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

`Aha Wahine Conference

Community Contributed

By Lailani Kahn

`Aha Wahine Kuhinapapa, a two-day women’s conference held at Leeward Community College, is designed to “inspire, in quire, invest and invigorate each other with `ike, aloha and kuleana”. This year’s conference was held from Aug. 17 to 18, where 14 Molokai participants included kupuna, students, mothers, daughters, health professionals and community members. With the success of the ‘Aha Kane, the intent of this conference was to reconnect women to their Hawaiian heritage.

“Native Hawaiian women have been gathering in smaller groups around their particular practices, but [it is important] to have one on a grander scale that dealt with larger issues that all of us as native Hawaiian women deal with –social, economic, health, educational and so forth,” said Mehanaokala Hind, co-coordinator of this year’s conference.…

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Protecting Public Lands

Sunday, September 2nd, 2012

Residents testify against the PLDC at public hearing

“It is dangerous to put public lands in private hands,” said Molokai resident Kauhane Adams. Yet it seems that this is exactly what legislature created the Public Land Development Corporation (PLDC) to do when they passed senate bill Act 55 in 2011 that established the corporation.

The PLDC’s intent to “generate additional revenues for the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) by developing under-utilized or unused public land,” according to a written statement circulated by the PLDC.

Homesteader Adolph Helm claimed that the PLDC would allow “fast-track boondoggle projects that benefit the private developer and the pockets of the well-connected [while] stripping Native Hawaiian beneficiaries of trust lands.”…

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Editorial: Mo`omomi Needs All of Us

Friday, August 31st, 2012

By Todd Yamashita, Molokai Dispatch Publisher

I can remember the days when my family got the key to visit Mo`omomi. Driving down the bumpy, dusty road watching the ocean shimmer in the distance, my anticipation would grow as we neared the shoreline. Although I was just a kid, I remember feeling really lucky. It was a privilege to be there and I was grateful.

Since then, Mo`omomi has seen many changes – the latest being the reintroduction of a gate which has made many upset. Gates can be controversial because they are meant to keep people out. But if you look deeper, past the gate, this is really an issue of conservation.…

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