Keeping Molokai’s History Alive and Accessible

Photo by Léo Azambuja

By Léo Azambuja
The Molokai History Project offers a unique experience for locals and visitors. The nonprofit organization is a small museum in Kaunakakai, providing both a window to the past and a bridge that helps to keep the island’s rich history alive.
“When we started, we didn’t classify ourselves as a true museum, so we just called ourselves a history project, a beginning,” board member Judy Mertens said.
The History Project opened almost two years ago, in October 2023. Its first location was in a tiny shop next to Ho‘ala Café at Ala Malama Avenue. Last May, they moved to their current location, a bigger space across the street from the iconic Mid Nite Inn.
Mertens said the History Project is more like a cultural or a family center. They have a lot of material on local families, backed up by a lot of research, all of it available to the public.
“We honor all the families, if anybody brings anything in, we treasure it, we take care of it. We’re careful with it,” Mertens said, adding people can donate stuff or even leave it on loan with the History Project.
Besides having hundreds of objects and dozens of photos in permanent or temporary exhibits, helping piece together the island’s daily life going back many decades ago, the History Project also carries several books, newspapers and documents containing the island’s history.
And then there is the oral history.
“We’ve had a lot of talk story events with local people. We started with the boys whose family owned Mid Nite Inn across the street. It was so much fun. People were spilling out the front door, spilling out the back door. Everybody came. Everybody remembered those days and laughed. That was the start of the talk stories, and it has just gone on,” Mertens said.
Additionally, the History Project is run by volunteers, all of them “wonderful people,” she said, with a lot of history for being from Molokai or having lived here many decades.
As you walk into the History Project, you may be lucky to catch John Wordin as the greeter. Mike McVay used to own a kiawe charcoal business decades ago, and has a treasure trove of Hawaiian tales and Molokai history in his memories. Ted Kanemitsu, “who has done everything,” and Mike Dooley, who has lived at Puʻu O Hoku Ranch for some 50 years and shared “unbelievable photos” are among many others keeping the History Project going, Mertens said.
“The people who really make a difference are the greeters and the people who are actively here,” she said. “We have quite a solid core of people that are always helping.”
McVay is one of the volunteers at the History Project.
“Some people just want to know, and some people just want to explore,” McVay said.
Mertens said the reason the History Project started was to keep alive the memory of Dr. Noa Emmett Aluli, who passed away at 78 years old on Nov. 30, 2022 on Molokai.
“We didn’t want the younger generation to forget how much he did, not only for Molokai, but the whole state,” she said. “And then it just built from there.”
A display at the History Project tells the story of Dr. Aluli. He was one of four Native Hawaiian doctors who graduated in the first class of the University of Hawaii, John A. Burns School of Medicine, and a pioneer who fostered a Native Hawaiian approach to health care in rural Hawaiian communities. Aluli is also remembered for being arrested among other Hawaiians in 1976 for protesting the Navy bombing of Kaho‘olawe.
Lately, the History Project has spread beyond its walls, with a permanent display at Hotel Molokai and occasional exhibits at Molokai Public Library, Mertens said.
Molokai History Project is at 109 Ala Malama St. in Kaunakakai. They are open Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Call (808) 283-0792 or email info@molokaihistoryproject.org to get involved as a greeter for two hours a week or a volunteer.
Visit www.molokaihistoryproject.org for more information or to make donations.