Each year, schools around the island celebrate May Day, known as Lei Day in Hawaii. Students at each school are selected for the royal court to represent every island, and perform songs and dances for family and friends. Here are some photos from May Day at Molokai Middle, Kualapu`u, Molokai High, Kaunakakai, Kilohana and Maunaloa schools.…
Each weekend, community members and organizations host gatherings at the pavilion of Kiowea Park, causing a strain on the building built half a century ago. Kalama`ula homesteaders are trying to ease that strain by building a second, larger pavilion with updated facilities in the park, which is located in the Kapuaiwa Coconut Grove area.
County councilmember Stacy Crivello presented the plan for the new pavilion to the Molokai Planning Commission for comments May 8. As a Kalama`ula homesteader, she is acting as a project coordinator for the new facility.
“It’s been well used, and it’s continually overused at this state,” she said about the existing pavilion, which was built in the 1960s and renovated in the 1990s.…
Kana`iolowalu News Release
The Native Hawaiian Roll Commission, chaired by former Governor John Waihe`e III, attended the 10th anniversary celebration of Ka `Ohana O Kalaupapa at Kalaupapa on April 27 where Kalaupapa residents were given the opportunity to sign the Kana`iolowalu petition along with the descendants of Kalaupapa and friends who came together for the event.
“We felt it was important for Chair Waihe`e and the Native Hawaiian Roll Commission to visit Kalaupapa for support of the Kana`iolowalu petition just like Ahahui Aloha `Aina came to Kalaupapa in 1897 to give our people the chance to sign the Ku`e petition against annexation,” said Clarence “Boogie” Kahilihiwa, a resident of Kalaupapa for more than 50 years and President of Ka `Ohana O Kalaupapa.…
For the past 22 years, Ka Hula Piko has brought the Molokai community and ohana together, along with visitors from around the world, to celebrate Hawaii’s cultural traditions and identity through hula.
“It’s a gathering of ohana — that’s what it’s all about,” said Molokai kupuna Julia Hoe. “[Hula] is who you are and where you come from. You’re dancing your genealogy.”
Halau and Hawaiian music groups from around the state and as far as Japan shared their talents and traditions with hundreds of attendees at Saturday’s ho`olaulea event, held for the first time this year at Lanikeha in Ho`olehua.
“Remember, hula was here before Zumba,” Hoe laughed.…
Community Contributed
By Kainoa Pali
This year’s National History Day involved over 8000 students ranging from grades 4 through 12, from Oahu, Hawaii, Molokai, Kauai, and Maui. Throughout the year, these students work tirelessly to develop research essays, interpretive exhibits, performances, documentaries, and websites that ties into the annual theme: “Turning Points in History: People, Ideas, Events.” A few Molokai High students and their teachers attended a state competition on April 20 at the Windward Community College in Kaneohe, Oahu, and two received top honors.
The Hawaii Council of Humanities (HCH) wishes to acknowledge the Molokai students who participated at the 2013 National History Day State Competition.…
By Emily Sumners and Catherine Cluett
Rock mining isn’t one of Molokai’s more well-known industries, but it nonetheless plays an important role on the island. Molokai rock is used to pave all the island’s roads, form the cement for its buildings and sidewalks, provides gravel to repair its dirt roads and stones for its rock walls. Since mining poses certain risks and dangers, it is recommended that they offer msha new miner training to their workers.
In mining operations, the use of electric motors plays a crucial role in powering various equipment, from drills and crushers to conveyors and pumps.…
Thousands of supporters from Molokai, Hawaii and around the world gathered on Molokai April 27 to celebrate the life and legacy of Aunty Moana Dudoit. Members of the late kumu hula’s halau over the past 40 years reunited, performing together in remembrance of Dudoit, who died March 16 at the age of 73.
The celebration, which followed a memorial service for friends and family, honored Dudoit with hula, food and togetherness. Dudoit’s grandniece Zhantell Dudoit emceed the event, adding humor and commentary as different generations of the halau took the stage. Dudoit’s sister Raquel Dudoit, who also led the halau, helped provide music for the dancers.…
There’s a new history of Kalaupapa, revealed through stories told by those with Hansen’s disease exiled to the peninsula. Over the past 40 years, historian and author Anwei Skinsnes Law explored photos, letters and lost sources. She shared what she found in her book “Kalaupapa: A Collective Memory.”
“We have to let the people of Kalaupapa be the interpreters of their own history,” Law said during a book signing at Kalele Bookstore in Kaunakakai April 24.
The individual stories intertwine throughout the book, just as she discovered them intertwining during her research. From the first exiles sent to the peninsula in 1866 to the last generation of patients who came after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the book – and Law’s career – aims to debunk the myths surrounding the settlement.…
The Native Hawaiian Library quietly serves Molokai, offering programs and resources to children and adults while enduring as a place of learning and discovery.
Located in behind the Lanikeha Community Center and the Ho`olehua fire station, the library is the only one of its kind currently operating in Hawaii. It features an array of Hawaiian resources together in one place. Program Assistant Nani Kawa`a said this allows for new discoveries about the history of the islands and a place to share these discoveries with others.
“Our books are being rewritten because of people looking closer at history and looking for actual documents,” she said, noting a presentation in January offering discoveries on Hawaii becoming a state.…
High in the mountains of Molokai, nature and history grow together in a forest that echoes with the riches of ancient Hawaii. A narrow boardwalk trails through depths of vivid green. Drops of water rest upon leaves and moss, and stillness is interrupted only by the occasional bird or damsel fly.
Kamakou Preserve appears to be effortlessly pristine, an abundance of native life remained untouched since ancient times. But the prese
rve as it appears today is a result of 30 years of human determination. It represents an effort to reverse the effects of invasive species, restore native qualities and maintain a connection between culture and nature.…
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