January–February 2022

Hawai‘i Island’s Community Magazine The Life |

January – February Ianuali – Pepeluali

2022

13th Anniversary Edition

ARTS CULTURE SUSTAINABILITY

Stepping Beyond the Water’s Edge with Joshua Lambus Lost Bones of Kamehameha: Tyrone Young’s 1983 Discovery Secrets of the Sand

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KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

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The Life Hawaiÿi Island’s Community Magazine January – February | Ianuali – Pepeluali 2022

Arts Hawaiian Kingdom Lives on 22 at Uncle Robert’s Awa Bar

By Stefan Verbano

Stepping Beyond the Water’s Edge with Adventurer and Artist Joshua Lambus

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By Sara Stover

Community Ikaika no Kohala: A Community 32 Connects through Story and Art

By Jan Wizinowich

Culture

Lost Bones of Kamehameha 16 Tyrone Young’s 1983 Discovery

By Melisse Malone

Ka Lei Aloha with Kumu Hula Lori Lei

By Nancy S. Kahalewai

Secrets of the Sand

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What Lies Beneath: Coral Reef Education Institute

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Malama Mokupuni: Life in the Lava–the Anchialine Habitat

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By Walter Dudley

By Brittany P. Anderson

By Rachel Laderman

Front cover: Shades of Pink, a pastel painting by Jeannie Garcia.

Table of contents: Green Sand Beach, a photograph by Kathleen Carr.

Read more about the artists on page 53.

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Sustainability

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The Life

Hawaiÿi Island’s Community Magazine January – February | Ianuali – Pepeluali 2022

Ka Wehena: The Opening E Welo Mau Loa

By Kumu Keala Ching

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Business

Talk Story with an Advertiser

Maika‘i Veterinary Clinic LLC

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Hale Malamalama Ola Pono

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Local Food

Cool as a Cauliflower Recipe for Roasted Caulifower with Pesto

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By Brittany P. Anderson

Featured Artists

Featured Cover Artist

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Table of Contents Artist

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Jeannie Garcia

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Kathleen Carr

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Ka Puana: Closing Thoughts 905: He po‘i na kai uli, kai ko‘o, ‘a‘ohe hina pūko‘a

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Mary Kawena Pukui. Olelo Noeau: Hawaiian Proverbs and Poetical Sayings

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To Our Readers

Ke Ola Magazine recognizes the use of the ‘okina [‘] or glottal stop, as one of the eight consonants of (modern) Hawaiian language; and the kahakō [ā] or macron (e.g., in place names of Hawai‘i such as Pāhoa).

Ke Ola Magazine respects the individual use of these markings for names of organizations and businesses.

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HIeditor@KeOlaMagazine.com

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I am so excited to write my first letter to our readers as the stories we knew were worthy of sharing, were well written, and new operations manager for Ke Ola Magazine! Some of you we are happy to publish their contributions. We are accepting I’ve known for years and others I look forward to meeting. and encouraging new story ideas for our regular team of I am inspired to take charge of everyone’s favorite Hawai‘i writers, along the themes of Hawai‘i Island’s arts, community, Island magazine, with Barbara continuing to help from the culture, and sustainability, and will also consider more presidelines. We are both grateful for the positive feedback we’ve written stories from guest writers. These can be sent via our been getting about me stepping into this role. It seems like website contact tab or email to HIEditor@KeOlaMagazine.com.

I’ve been preparing for this for my entire work life, without If you own or manage a business on the island, having an ad knowing that those experiences in Ke Ola Magazine is similar would eventually culminate to having your “open” sign in being not only qualified, turned on—it reminds people but spiritually and mentally you are open and available prepared, to run Ke Ola. to serve them. The goal for As Barbara and I were editing advertising is always to figure the stories for this issue, it out the broadest way to reach occurred to us that it was on people for the longest time at purpose, in the literal sense, the lowest investment. Our that I chose to continue Ke Ola many long-standing advertisers when she was on the verge are a testament to the success of closing it. The stories here theyʻve experienced from speak to that. We realized the their ads in Ke Ola and we importance of publishing them, are grateful for them! As we Turtle, Punaluÿu Black Sand Beach, they needed to be shared! begin the “snowbird season,” a hand colored infrared photograph by Kathleen Carr One of them, “Lost Bones of itʻs a great time to showcase Kamehameha,” came about your business, if youʻre not when writer Melisse Malone already. For our long-time and contacted us towards the end of 2021, just when Barbara had loyal advertisers, mahalo a nui loa, we wouldnʻt be here without to decide whether or not to keep the magazine going. you! Now celebrating 13 years of on-time publishing, Ke Independent of Barbaraʻs inner questioning, I was undergoing Ola continues to offer complimentary island-wide distribution my own shift in purpose, and though I had considered jumping at more locations than any other publication geared towards in deeper much earlier, I knew Ke Ola could only continue with residents and frequent visitors.

Barb still at the core of the stories. Her vision, wonder, and You may wonder how we cover the cost of our “free” appreciation inspires us all through the stories shared in the magazines. It is by the grace of our advertisers, who value Ke pages of Ke Ola. Now, suddenly, I felt a strong pull to go all Ola Magazine for reaching their customers around the island in. She shared the story of Tyrone Youngʻs 1983 discovery and and beyond. I know our advertisers think highly of you, our we immediately knew it was a clear sign to keep the magazine readers, as I have had the opportunity to talk to many of them going. We are honored that Tyrone chose Ke Ola to tell the story recently and many mention their customers saw their ad in that he has kept a secret for the last 39 years. We know it will Ke Ola. We continue to be grateful that there are many loyal come as a shock to many people, and it is with utmost respect and long time advertisers who still value Ke Ola, even with the that we share it publicly for the first time. current economy, and we are starting to welcome many new We welcome Walter Dudley to our team of writers for the ones into the magazine, which will enable us to publish more first time. We are honored to have Walt’s contributions with stories in upcoming issues. Many blessings to you in 2022! the cover story, “Secrets of the Sand.” We look forward to having more stories from him in future issues.

Hau‘oli Makahiki Hou! You may have noticed in the past few issues we’ve had some Tanya Yamanaka guest writers. These are people who have approached us with

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Ka Wehena

E Welo Mau Loa Na Kumu Keala Ching

E welo mau loa ku‘u Hawai‘i E welo mau loa ku‘u Lāhui E welo mau loa ku‘u kūpuna E welo mau loa ku‘u hanauna Ua mau ke ea o ka ‘āina i ka pono Ua mau ke ea o ka ‘āina i ka pono Eō mai e ku‘u Hawai‘i Eō mai e ku‘u Lāhui Eō mai e ku‘u kūpuna Eō mai e ku‘u hanauna E aloha nō nā kau ā kau E aloha nō nā kau ā kau Kūpa‘a e ku‘u Hawai‘i Kūpa‘a e ku‘u Lāhui Kūpa‘a e ku‘u kūpuna Kūpa‘a e ku‘u hanauna E ola ke ola Hawai‘i E ola ke ola Hawai‘i Ua mau ke ea o ka ‘āina i ka pono E aloha nō nā kau ā kau E aloha nō nā kau ā kau

Hawaiian tradition strives ancestral practice continues eldersʻ (dead and living) teachings live generational understanding is perpetuated

Life of the land is perpetuated in Righteousness Life of this land is perpetuated in Righteousness Rejoice my Hawai‘i Announce my ancestral connection Exalt my elders (dead and living) Glorify my generations Gentleness, Unity, Truth, forever and ever Humbleness and Patience forever and ever Stand firm my Hawai‘i Firmly present my ancestral beings Steadfast my elders (dead and living) Dedicated my generations Live the Hawaiian life Live the life of Hawai‘i Life of the land is perpetuated in Righteousness Gentleness, Unity, Truth, forever and ever Humbleness and Patience forever and ever

A song honoring ancestral true life. Why are you living here in Hawai‘i? Youʻre here because of the healing, created by the true life of Hawai‘i. Hawai‘i is the healing upon you with ALOHA—gentleness, unity, truth, humbleness, and patience. Live the true life and perpetuate the righteous life of the land.

Ke Ola Magazine, a truth legacy perpetuated for generations to follow. Know your purpose here in Hawai‘i and live to perpetuate the RIGHTEOUSNESS of the land. E ola!

For more information on Kumu Keala and Nä Wai Iwi Ola, visit: nawaiiwiola.org

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

He mele ho‘ohanohano i nā kūpuna. I mea aha kou noho ‘ana ma Hawai‘i? I mea i ho‘ōla ai iā ‘oe iho i ke ola Hawai‘i. ‘O Hawai‘i ka mea i ho‘ōla aku ai iā ‘e me ke ALOHA—Akahai, Lōkahi, ‘Oia‘i‘o, Ha‘aha‘a, Ahonui. E ola mau ke ola Hawai‘i ā ua mau ke ea o ka ‘āina i ka pono!

My My My My

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Secrets of the

By Walter Dudley

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beach is a magical place for most of us, whether to swim, surf, snorkel, sip a Mai Tai, or simply watch the sunset. When people dream about going to the beach, they envision soft, warm, golden sand. But did you ever pick up a handful of that sand and begin to look at the individual grains, begin to wonder what they really are and where they came from?

10 Puÿu Mahana’s green sand beach, Papakölea, near South Point. photo courtesy of John Coney.

As a child growing up along the beaches of the US east coast, I was accustomed to yellow or white sand and was quite intrigued when I first came to Hawai‘i, to see not only lovely, golden sand beaches, but also black and green sand beaches.

Curiosity got the better of me and I began to examine the tiny particles. I had access to a good microscope and eventually even began studying and photographing sand grains with

Sand a scanning electron microscope, which could magnify the individual grains thousands of times. It was only then that the real secrets of Hawai‘i’s remarkable beach sands began to reveal themselves.

Most people assume that sand is—just sand. Many mainland beaches are made up of fragments of eroded rocks, often the main minerals found in nearby rocks such as granite. In Hawai‘i

Parrotfish beak for “scraping” coral. photo courtesy of Walter Dudley

we have no granite, but we still have golden sand beaches.

Where does this sand come from?

If you’ve ever been snorkeling or scuba diving in Hawai‘i, you’ve been swimming over some of the beautiful coral reefs that fringe many of our island shores. These reefs are made of corals, coralline algae, and a host of other organisms ranging from large fish to small marine snails, and even tiny

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amoeba-like animals called foraminifers (forams for short). If you guessed that most of our golden sand comes from these reefs, you’d be correct. Some sand is produced as the reefs are eroded by waves; however, much of the sand is created by the many fish that nibble at corals and coralline algae, and by sea urchins that scrape away at the reefs. The tiny fragments eroded by waves and bitten or scraped off by sea life are then carried by waves and currents to accumulate along the shore and create our golden sand beaches.

The details of this process can be rather surprising. For example, if you swim up behind a parrotfish, you may see the fish quickly swim away leaving a cloudy white trail in its wake.

This is the parrotfish excreting sand. Yes, some of that lovely golden sand you’ve been lying on at the beach came out the back end of a parrotfish. Not to worry, though, by the time it gets to the beach, it is very sanitary sand. You see, parrotfish make much of their living by scraping coral and coralline algae off the reef.

But wait, there’s more: some of the sand grains are the entire shells of very tiny marine organisms, full grown. Among the sand grains you might also recognize some rather large, flat grains. These have been called paper shells and can be strung together, with lots of time and patience, to make very nice necklaces. These are actually forams mentioned earlier, ones that live on the bottom, more accurately called benthic forams. One species alone is thought to add as much as a pound of sand per square yard to O‘ahu’s beaches every year.

They also add to science. Thanks to deep water species of these tiny animals, and their planktonic cousins that live near the ocean surface, we now know the actual temperature of the oceans during the ice ages, but that’s another story with a lot of math and chemistry involved.

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Showing Their True Colors Papakōlea, popularly known as Green Sand Beach, near South Point, is one of the wonders of the Hawaiian Islands.

Lying in the shelter of a small volcanic cone named Pu‘u

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Sea urchin scratch marks on coral. photo courtesy of Walter Dudley Mahana, this beach obviously gets its name from the color of the sand, composed partly of the olive green mineral appropriately named olivine.

It was once thought that the beach formed as a surface lava

Newly formed black sand beach in lower Puna, with lava entering the sea at top left. photo courtesy of Walter Dudley

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flow entered the sea. But Pu‘u Mahana wasn’t always where it is today; both the sea and the site were at different elevations in the past. Thanks to radiocarbon dating of plants that the lava flows burned into charcoal, Pu‘u Mahana has been shown to be some 49,000 years old. In the past, most of Hawai‘i Island was higher than today because the weight of those huge mountains of lava which make up the island have caused the island to sink. Fortunately, it is sinking slowly, at least on a human time scale. It subsides only about 1/10th of an inch per year—multiplied by 49,000 years, that would put the little volcanic cone nearly 400 feet higher back when it was active.

On top of that, 49,000 years ago, we were in an ice age and sea level was some 230 feet lower than it is today, hence Pu‘u Mahana would have been well over 600 feet above sea level when it erupted and definitely not pouring lava directly into the sea to form the beach. The best evidence indicates that the pu‘u (cindercone) was formed from olivine-rich magma that cooled, hardened into basalt rock and then eroded with time.

Olivine is heavier than many of the other minerals in basalt and so it accumulated at the base of Pu‘u Mahana. When the ocean finally arrived, it became the famous green sand beach.

Black sand has a simpler explanation, or maybe not. Many of the black sand beaches in Hawai‘i are composed mainly of fragments of eroded basalt rock. The enchanting beach at the mouth of Wai‘pio Valley, as seen from the overlook, is just one of many examples. With a four-wheel drive vehicle, you can venture down the steep, windy road into the valley to the edge of this beach. From the beach itself, you can gaze back toward the scary road you just came down and to the left you see a beautiful little waterfall.

It was this very waterfall which served as the setting in the final scenes of the film Waterworld. That spot with the waterfall is the paradise of land discovered by the intrepid survivors of Waterworld. I can’t resist telling visiting friends that the waterfall lies almost directly beneath the restrooms at the lookout and that I personally wouldn’t swim there, though Kevin Costner did and survived.

There is another kind of black sand beach, which is very special, where the sand is formed as an active lava flow enters the sea. The hot molten magma meets the much cooler sea water that explosively cools the liquid magma into tiny shards of volcanic glass. These very sharp pieces of sand are definitely

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not the kind of grains you’d want to walk on or crawl through if you were a tiny sea creature. Fortunately, within days of their formation these grains are rounded and smoothed by being rubbed together in the breaking surf on these newly formed beaches. Examples of those are the new beaches created from

Sea urchins coming out at dusk for their evening meal. photo courtesy of Walter Dudley

Parrotfish bite marks on coral head. photo courtesy of Walter Dudley the Lower Puna lava flow in 2018, at Pohoiki and Kumukahi, and also the famous beach at Punalu‘u.

One final note about these amazing grains of sand: studying them can be very interesting if you’re really into really tiny stuff, but scientific knowledge about them may actually save your life. As it turns out, the periodic, catastrophic waves called tsunamis, which can inundate any coast in the world including those in Hawai‘i, are waves that reach so deep in the

ocean that they stir up very deep sand grains. These grains contain particles that are distinctly different from those which normally accumulate on a beach. By studying ancient deposits of sand grains, scientists can date very old and even ancient tsunami events and better determine the risk to modern day coastal areas. Thanks to these secrets in the sand, scientists can better evaluate tsunami hazard risks and better care for our safety. Next time you lie on that sandy beach, don’t think about the parrotfish poop cloud, but instead say, “Thank you, sand.” ■ For more information: dudley@hawaii.edu

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Native Hawaiian Tyrone Young,

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age 82, was born in the wild isolation of Waipi‘o Valley. Now, he is coming forward to disclose details of his mana‘o (truth) about the most haunting event of his life that has remained unsettled in his heart for almost 40 years.

In 1983, Tyrone, then 44, was asked to accompany a National Geographic photographer into the burial chambers of a North Kona lava tube complex. The magazine wanted Tyrone to pose with the skeletons of the four massacred sailors from the Fair American, a schooner captured off the Kona coast in 1790.

The photograph appeared in an article titled “Kamehameha, The Warrior King,” by Louise Levathes, for the November 1983 issue. Tyrone, who was claustrophobic, reluctantly entered the lava tube. He was startled to see the extraordinary sight of a complete skeleton in a canoe. It appeared to be at least seven feet in length. To this day, Tyrone believes—without a doubt—that the bones in this canoe are the lost bones of King Kamehameha the Great, the first ruler of the Hawaiian Kingdom. The “lost” bones refer to the infamous two-century-long search to locate the king’s final resting place, somewhere along the Kona coast. Today, the location of the lava tube burial is a protected historical site on land owned by Bishop Estates.

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Bone Boy of Sacred Waipi‘o On April 1, 1946, the most destructive tsunami in Hawai‘i’s modern history hit the Hawaiian Islands. “In Waipi‘o,” explained Tyrone, “the waves destroyed my grandfather’s rice fields and dragged my grandmother inside her house a mile deep into the valley. It also tore apart the ancient sacrificial temple, Pa‘akalana Heiau [historical spelling Paka‘alana], that had stood guarding the mouth of the valley for centuries.

The young conqueror Kamehameha once tended the heiau when Waipi‘o was the ancient capital of Hawai‘i Island.

“After the tsunami, when my father leased 11 acres from the Bishop Museum to farm lo‘i kalo [wetland taro] as part of the deal, they made him caretaker of the ruins of Pa‘akalana Heiau.

“During the winter months, the kona winds blew from the south over the black sand beach and exposed the bleached white bones of the fallen warriors that had been displaced under the heiau debris. My older brother Robert and I were tasked with reburying the fractured skulls, thigh bones, and pieces I could not name. I was eight years old when my father stood over me and said, ‘Never touch the bones with your bare hands. Grab a piece of driftwood to dig a hole.

Get them back in the earth. Hurry son. Don’t tarry!’”

Lost Bones of Kamehameha Tyrone Young’s 1983 Discovery

By Melisse Malone

Tyrone Young, photographed for National Geographic magazine’s November 1983 issue with a circulation of more than 30 million copies. Tyrone is in the burial chamber of American teenager Thomas Metcalfe and his crew of three Chinese men of the schooner Fair American. After publication, Herb Käne invited the Metcalfe family descendants of New Jersey to Hawaiÿi to meet Tyrone, “a descendant of Chief Kameÿeiamoku, the chief who killed their great-great uncle Thomas 193 years earlier.” photo copyright Steve Raymer, 1983

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Photo and above caption from a Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper clipping. photo courtesy of Tyrone Young

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A Favor for a Friend It was the 1970s. Tyrone, named after the Hollywood matinee idol Tyrone Power, was the star headline entertainer at the Polynesian Revue on the sacred grounds of the Keauhou Beach Hotel, known as “the gathering place.” He regaled audiences of 500 nightly with his soaring three-octave operatic

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Tyrone Young, called the “Don Ho of Keauhou” by the Honolulu Advertiser during his 1970s and 80s heyday at the Keauhou Beach Hotel. Tyrone is posing in front of King David Kaläkaua’s summer cottage on the sacred hotel grounds, circa 1972. In 1888, King Kaläkaua, the great-great-grandson of Chief Kameÿeiamoku, came to Kailua-Kona in search of the lost bones of King Kamehameha. photo courtesy of Keauhou Beach Hotel

voice, trained by his tūtū-man, Sam Lia, Jr., the famed “fiddle” troubadour of Waipi‘o Valley.

Most mornings, Tyrone had breakfast at the hotel with his good friend Herb Kawainui Kāne, renowned Hawai‘i Island artist-historian (1928–2011). They loved to share stories about Hawaiian history and reminisce. Herb’s brilliant, highly realistic paintings of events in Hawaiian history hung in the hotel lobby.

Management had given him a complimentary sixth floor room/ art studio to paint.

“Our friendship went way back,” said Tyrone. “Both of us had barefoot Waipi‘o childhoods, steeped in the mystical lore of the

valley. Herb also knew my family’s heritage.

“My pure Hawaiian maternal grandmother and greatgrandmother were born and raised in a hale pili (grass house) in neighboring Waimanu Valley. They are descendants of the Na Mahoe twins Kamanawa and Kame‘eiamoku, the lifelong guardians and advisors of Kamehameha the Great.

“One day, Herb asked me if I would go into a lava tube that contained the remains of the Fair American sailors killed by my ancestor Kame‘eiamoku. My decision was difficult because, as a Kanaka Maoli [Native Hawaiian], I was taught it was disrespectful to enter burial caves, strictly kapu [forbidden]. I agreed to go as Herb was my friend and like an older brother to me.”

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Tyrone, left, with cousin Billy Mills on April 4, 2009, his 70th birthday. He’s in the front yard of Billy’s Waipiÿo home. Billy’s family has leased their land from Bishop Museum for more than 100 years. Hiÿilawe Stream flows behind them to the mouth of the valley and Paÿakalana Heiau. photo courtesy of Henry Young

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Kaÿüpülehu, North Kona, Hawaiÿi. March 16, 1790. High Chief Kameÿeiamoku and his warriors approach 18-year-old fur trader Captain Thomas Metcalfe, First Mate Isaac Davis (the sole survivor), and crew of three Chinese men on the schooner Fair American. It was Herb Käne’s dream to rebuild the Fair American and use it as an educational classroom for youngsters in the Hawaiian Islands with Kaÿüpülehu as its home port. Attack on the Fair Amercian, copyright Herbert K. Kane, LLC.

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A King and His Canoe It was ten oʻclock on a clear blue August morning in 1983 when three accomplished mid-life professionals stood nervously over a three-foot-wide crack in the vast lavablackened plains of Ka‘ūpūlehu, North Kona. On assignment, Steve Raymer, a world-class photographer, arrived at Kona airport the night before after a 20-hour flight from Bangkok.

Next to him stood Herb Kāne and Tyrone Young.

“Herb was going to stay up top and keep watch. He repeated instructions to Steve and me that we would be passing through

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Ahuÿena Heiau, at historic Kamakahonu, Kailua Village, was the last home of King Kamehameha where he died on May 8, 1819. photo courtesy of Melisse Malone

three chambers to reach the burial of the Fair American saliors. Only one photograph was allowed,” said Tyrone.

“Then Herb, who was the builder of the legendary sailing canoe Hōkūle‘a, pressed a measuring tape in my hand and told me that there was a canoe in the first chamber. He asked me to measure the length for him. I went in first by myself. I hit the bottom of a cold, dank chamber, and sure enough, there was the canoe, a single hull made of roughhewn koa.

“I was shaking in disbelief because I was not alone.

Stretched out inside was a magnificent white skeleton. It was whole; every bone was placed in perfect order. From a crack in the lava tube ceiling, a ray of sunlight streamed down over the massive skull. The eye sockets glittered. I was spellbound.

“Mixed with shock and awe, I felt in my heart…this is him, this is My King; here are the lost bones of King Kamehameha the Great, the first ruler of the Hawaiian Kingdom. It all happened in an instant.

“Then I had to take measurements for Herb. The canoe was over 12 feet long. My heart was pounding when the skeleton measured almost seven feet, as I remembered my father describing King Kamehameha as nearly seven feet tall.”

“When Steve joined me, I quickly signaled for him to follow me into the middle chamber. The passageway was suffocating.

I held up the lantern and saw pitch-black walls of floor-toceiling natural crevices that were filled with ka‘ai, woven sennit [coconut husk] caskets. I counted eight or more. They appeared intact. The traditional burial baskets were specifically made for the ‘iwi [bones] of ali‘i [royalty]. I immediately

The King with His Children Kamehameha married his niece in 1795 when she was around 17 years old, the Sacred Queen Keōpūolani, the highest-ranked royal in the kingdom. They had 11 or 12 children together. “Divine” heirs to enlarge the Kamehameha dynasty were cherished. Of three children who survived to adulthood, two became rulers of Hawai‘i: Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III. Hawaiian historian David Malo in his 1842 account of the life of Keōpūolani, reported that eight children of the King and Queen were stillborn.

In the oral histories of the Hawaiian culture, death is not the end of life. Life continues unbroken through mana (divine power) inherent in the ‘iwi (bones) as ‘aumākua (the spirit guardians of the ohana (family). So prized for their mana, bones of the ali‘i (royalty), including infant royalty, had to be hidden away in caves with the greatest secrecy. On his death bed, on May 8, 1819, Kamehameha gave his most trusted advisor Hoapili, the son of chief Kame‘eiamoku, the highest honor of caring for his bones. At that time, Hoapili was married to Keōpūolani, and the destiny of the King lay in their hands.

Reverend Pogue’s Mo‘olelo Hawai‘i of 1858 is the first written reference to the concealment of Kamehameha’s bones in a secret burial cave: “...Hoapili ordered his man (half-brother) Ho‘olulu to take the bones of Kamehameha to Kaloko. The next morning, Hoapili and Keōpūolani sailed by canoe to Kaloko.

Then Hoapili hid the bones of Kamehameha in a secret cave [lua huna] at Kaloko perhaps.” (Ka Hae Hawaii, Nov. 17, 1858).

It is conceivable thieves would not suspect that Kamehameha had planned with Hoapili and Keōpūolani to have his sacred ‘iwi (bones) hidden in a canoe in a lava tube known to contain the sailors of the Fair American. Or that a loving mother like Keōpūolani had visited perhaps for years, the middle chamber, the family crypt she had chosen for her royal children with Kamehameha.

In the dark and quiet of that early morning long ago, Hoapili and Keōpūolani had a mission to complete: escorting a loving father on his final journey home to be with his children. ■

knew by their miniature size that they held the ‘iwi of infants, stillborn births, resulting from inbreeding by chiefs. As a youth in Waipi‘o Valley, I witnessed the making of ka‘ai by a kahuna [high priest].

“Finally, crouching, we reached the farthest, deepest chamber where I eyeballed the skeletons of the four victims of the Fair American massacre. Three were short, all the same length, and the fourth one much taller: American teenager Thomas Metcalfe, captain of the schooner Fair American and his three Chinese crew.”

A few days after the March 16, 1790 attack, Kamehameha arrived at the scene and angrily rebuked his trusted advisor Kame‘eiamoku for his deed. Then he ordered the remorseful Kame‘eiamoku to place the bodies of the “foreigners” deep in the lava tube where Tyrone and Steve were now sweating profusely.

Aloha Oe!

We met one August morning, 1983.

The meeting was brief, but to this descendent of the High Chiefs who served him (Na Mahoe Kamanawa and Kame‘eiamoku), it was a very spiritual encounter to see him lying in his royal canoe, sailing to the stars, where his people await his arrival!

Aloha! My Kanaka Makua! My Ali‘i!

Aue! Aue! My King, Kamehameha!

We are now united together on this star called Hawaiki.

Aloha Oe! Tyrone Young, August 2021

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Friends Tyrone and Keoki Downes on October 20, 2021, standing next to the “Rock of Ages,” a 300-foot-long lava rock wall that Tyrone spent a year (2001) rebuilding at Mokuÿaikaua, the first Christian chruch built in Hawaiÿi in 1825. Tyrone found more than five buckets of the desecrated bones of his ancestors used as building material for the original rock wall. photo courtesy of Keoki Downes

Currently, Tyrone is working on his Kailua-Kona cultural center, Hawaiki Na Na Kanaka. He would like to dedicate this story to the memory of his dear brother, Herb Kawainui Kāne, who died on March 8, 2011.

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Hawaiian Kingdom Lives on at Uncle Robert’s Awa Bar

By Stefan Verbano

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KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

ig Polynesian hands hoisted the massive tile “puzzlepiece” mural upright at last, and Rika Blue took a step back to admire her creation for the first time in its rightful place.

This moment was the vindication of years’ worth of work for Rika: countless hours spent rolling out and cutting the clay pieces, carving three-dimensional motifs into them, glazing, firing, epoxying, grouting, and sealing, all at her pottery studio next door to the sprawling open-air market complex known as “Uncle Robert’s” in the village of Kalapana. It’s here, at the market’s main entrance, that the imposing six-foot-tall ceramic disk emblazoned with the Kingdom of Hawai‘i’s Royal Crest was to be unveiled.

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Robert Keli‘iho‘omalu, Sr.—the late, beloved patriarch of old Kalapana Village—is the market’s namesake, whose children now run its day-to-day operations. It was friends and relatives of the Keli‘iho‘omalu family who heaved the mural into place in mid-March 2021, dead-lifting what Rika estimates to have been between 300 and 500 pounds, bracing it upright with their bodies against the heavy-duty, custom-built metal frame cemented into the ground while a welding torch hissed and sparked away on the opposite side.

“We were all just standing around cheering them on,” Rika, interviewed later, says of those anxious moments before the unwieldy art piece was secured. “We just kept shouting, ‘Hold on!’”

Rika Blue’s massive tile mural depicting the Kingdom of Hawaiÿi’s Royal Crest, as it can be seen today at the entrance of Uncle Robert’s Market in the East Hawaiÿi village of Kalapana. The wooden “Uncle’s Awa Club” sign was added after the unveiling to mark the location for visitors. photo by Stefan Verbano

deliberately situated at the crossroads of the many intersecting routes that lead to the complex’s different areas: the road to the main entrance, the trail to Kaimū Beach, the street connecting the grocery store next door, and the footpaths to Uncle’s Corner Pocket restaurant and its nearby smoothie shack—all of these converge precisely where the mural now stands. This makes it a sort of nucleus, around which so much of the food, drink, and festivities at Uncle Robert’s revolves.

Sharing the Hawaiian Heritage with the World The project was the brainchild of Rika and Sam Keli‘iho‘omalu, one of Uncle Robert’s sons. In the past, Uncle Sam, as he’s affectionately called, had commissioned Rika to create cups, bowls, plates, and even ashtrays featuring the Kingdom’s royal crest as souvenirs for the thousands of annual visitors who’d come from all over the world to experience the raucous Wednesday night farmers’ market and kanakapila (live Hawaiian music).

“We merchandized them over here on top of our counters, and they sold,” Sam says about Rika’s handiworks, which were displayed most prominently at the market’s smoothie shack.

“People come here and they look at them, and they say, ‘Wow, we want that! That souvenir of Uncle’s place, it’s one-of-akind.’ Guaranteed it’s one-of-a-kind, ‘cuz nobody in the world has it. And then every item, everything she made was a little different; none of them are the same ‘cuz they’re handmade.”

Sam had been wanting to upgrade the market’s signage for some time, and when Rika informed him such a large project was possible, he was eagerly on-board. She spent many months working mostly alone, making small progress dayby-day, unperplexed by the sheer scale of the project or the intricate detail of carving which it called for.

Her daughter and fellow craftswoman, Hannah Blue, helped with forming and cutting border tiles, along with glazing the nearly 100 separate pieces during the final phase. Hannah’s name adorns the mural’s signature tile along with her mom’s.

The work was slow-going—a labor of love, and it became a commission unlike any other the veteran potter and ceramicist has received in her more than two decades spent working with clay.

For the artwork’s patron, it was about more than just signage, too. Sam comes from a native Hawaiian family and community, and for him displaying the Kingdom’s royal crest in

When it was finally deemed safe to let go, the burly men released their grip cautiously, and a semicircle of admirers formed, finally taking in the full spectacle of the piece’s colors and textures.

“It looked so different hanging up there,” the artist says. “It was great, you finally got to see it correctly, because I had been looking at it laying flat all that time. To see it mounted upright, it just all came together so pretty that day when it was finally done, and it was like, ‘There it is!’” Rika adds, “It was a momentous day for me.”

Since then, the mural has towered over marketgoers,

Rika Blue’s past commissioned works for Uncle Robert’s Market include her popular handcrafted coffee mugs. These also featured the Hawaiian Kingdom’s royal crest, and were often used to hold smoothies served up at the market’s smoothie shack. photo courtesy of Rika Blue.

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Top photo: The mural’s creator, Rika Blue, first assembled the nearly 100 unglazed clay pieces inside their round metal frame to make sure they fit before adding colors.

Center photo: The finished tiles being laid out against the backer board prior to being permanently set with adhesive mortar.

Bottom photo: Friends and family of the Keliÿihoÿomalu clan use 2x4s to carefully transfer the mural onto a trailer, soon to be driven down the street for the piece’s unveiling. photos courtesy of Rika Blue

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such a prominent way at the village hub keeps alive the legacy of who he and his peers see as the enduring, legitimate ruler of these islands.

“I believe in the independence of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i,” Sam says. “We have to show that we are the Kingdom, that we believe in our kingdom—in our independence—because it’s for real; it’s here. The United States acts like [our kingdom] isn’t here, but really it is. So, in my heart and in my thoughts and my spirit and my belief, we’re still living in sovereignty in our own way. That’s why we did that crest, because we are the natural people of the ‘āina [land] out here, so we got to stick with it as strong as we can, and to have the world—to have communities—recognize it. We have to try to stay strong in our kingdom, in our ways, in our heritage, in our culture.”

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

History of the Crest Hawai‘iʻs royal crest originated during the reign of Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III, when in 1842 the monarch sent his private secretary to London to submit a design for a royal coat of arms to the city’s College of Arms. The resulting image was adjusted slightly by 1850, and then became widely used as a symbol of the monarchy, including on coins minted by the Hawaiian Kingdom.

US imperialism violently overthrew the monarchy at the end of the 19th century, and the crest was changed significantly, with most of the symbols of the Kingdom removed or replaced, to become what is today the Great Seal of the State of Hawai‘i.

Therefore, native Hawaiian sovereignty activists like Sam and many others in the Kalapana community hold the original royal crest in high regard as a powerful, symbolic representation of their heritage—of the memory of Hawai‘i’s old ways, which is

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Friends and family of Uncle Robert’s bracing the several-hundred-pound mural against its metal frame during its unveiling in mid-March, 2021. The 6-foot-diameter disk had to be held in place until a welder working on the opposite side had finished joining the two pieces. photo courtesy of Rika Blue kept visible through the labors of artists like Rika.

“It gives me goosebumps,” the ceramicist says when she’s asked about what the mural means to Hawaiians living in Kalapana. “That was the whole point of making it—to have that for them—to bring them that honor which I felt they deserved.

I wanted them to be proud, and I thought this was something that could give them great pride when they see it.”

The piece is large enough for passersby to get up close to the crest and study it in ways only possible at this scale; the shield at center with its two quadrants of white, red, and blue stripes representing the Hawaiian flag and the Kingdom’s eight inhabited islands, while the other two quadrants depict pūlo‘ulo‘u, sometimes referred to in English as “kapu sticks,” which are cloth-covered balls filled with relics fashioned atop wooden sticks and carried in a chief’s procession as royal insignia. In the middle of the shield, against a green background, are crossed spears and a triangular banner representing a puela—a thin strip of kapa cloth flown above the sails of a chief’s canoe to mark its royal status.

An elegant, bejeweled crown symbolizing the monarchy, trimmed with golden leaves of the taro plant—the traditional Hawaiian staple crop—rests above the shield. To its left and right are the royal twin brothers Kame‘eiamoku and Kamanawa, contemporaries of Kamehameha I, dressed in feathered cloaks and helmets, one holding a spear and the other a feathered kahili, another symbol of the ali‘i, or royalty.

On the traditional royal crest, the famous phrase “Ua mau ke ea o ka ‘āina i ka pono” (“The life/sovereignty of the land is preserved in righteousness”), known in modern times as the Hawai‘i State Motto, is written on the banner that drapes across the bottom under the chiefs’ feet. Rika adjusted this with her mural, opting to feature the motto in large text that wraps around the lower hemisphere, since the inscription would be too small to read from a distance if she’d been forced to shrink its font enough to fit in the banner. She added her own touch in other places, too, like the mountain and ocean wave border that encircles the disk.

Rika moved back to her home state of Montana to care for her elderly parents shortly after the mural was unveiled, making it the final act of the nearly six-year story of her life in East Hawai‘i. Although the Uncle Robert’s clan technically commissioned the piece, she still sees it largely as a gift: a token of appreciation for a community that showed her such aloha while she lived within it, a labor of love that honors and renews Hawai‘iʻs old ways in the hearts and spirits of people like Sam, and, in a way, a farewell present unlike any other. ■

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KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

The mural’s creators Rika and Hannah Blue (center and left, respectively) and its patron Uncle Sam Keliÿihoÿomalu stand proudly beside the giant tile disk depicting the Kingdom of Hawaiÿi’s Royal Crest during its unveiling in mid-March, 2021. photo courtesy of Rika Blue.

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What Lies Beneath:

By Brittany P. Anderson

O

n a clear day in Kamuela you can see everything—from the top of Mauna Kea, across the

pasture lands, and down to the blue Pacific. Birds glide overhead, as trees bend in the winds of the upcountry, and the ocean remains a perfect shade of blue.

Hidden below the ocean’s surface is an entire world complete with underwater forests, creatures, and currents. More than 50% of all species on Earth live under the ocean.

Hawai‘i is the most distant from any other landmass on the planet. Due to our unique location and geography, native plants and animal species are found nowhere else on the planet, including roughly 25% of Hawai‘i’s reef fish, coral, and algae species.

Heather Howard and Paul Badgley founded the Coral Reef Education Institute (CREI) to teach as many people as possible about the negative impacts humans have on our oceans and the attainable solutions for those issues. Through their education programs, Heather and Paul are bringing the trouble with Hawai‘i Island’s coral reefs to the surface.

What Is Coral?

“Does anyone know what coral is?” Heather asks a group of volunteers as they gather together on the sand at Kawaihae Harbor. Most in the crowd fidget nervously as they look at one another, collectively realizing they have no idea what coral is or even if it’s alive. Today’s beach cleanup is attended by an eclectic mix of residents, students, and a group of service members from the Pōhakuloa Training Area. Heather always starts with an introduction to coral. “I’ll talk about coral to anyone who will listen,” she says with a hearty laugh.

Coral is an animal in the same group as sea anemones and jellyfish. They are divided into two main groups—hard corals Heather Howard and Paul Badgley are working to protect the coral reefs of Hawaiÿi.

and soft corals. A single coral animal is called a “polyp,” and a grouping of coral is called a “colony.” Hard corals take the calcium out of seawater to create rigid structures that protect their growth. Hawai‘i is home to four endemic hard coral species. These corals form vast colonies made up of millions of polyps. Soft corals bend and wave in the water currents like an underwater forest.

This reef is located outside the Honoköhau Harbor in Kailua-Kona. CREI checks in frequently to monitor progress.

Coral Reef Education Institute Heather and Paul started CREI after seeing firsthand a massive loss to Hawai‘i Island’s coral population. It’s been their passion ever since. Leading groups of volunteers for beach cleanups is just one of the educational opportunities this dynamic team hosts.

“In 2015, we had a massive bleaching event when the ocean temperature rose three degrees for 18 weeks. We lost 50%

of our coral cover across the state and 95% of our cauliflower coral,” Heather says as Paul nods behind her. Heather, a dive master, and Paul, a dive instructor, saw it with their own eyes and knew something had to be done to help save Hawai‘i Island’s coral reefs.

The Culture of Coral “I didn’t know a ton about coral at the time, so we started learning,” Heather says. Paul and Heather studied coral reef ecosystems, vulnerabilities, and critical species—anything and everything they could get their hands on.

“We were like, okay, what can we do?” Heather says passionately. “Our idea was to plant coral because there are successful projects all around the world,” she adds. Heather and Paul researched laws surrounding coral planting in Hawai‘i and found the state has particularly stringent rules and regulations around coral.

Hawaiian culture is the foundation of the laws in Hawai‘i concerning coral. In the Kumulipo, the 2,000 line creation chant, the coral polyp is the first living creature born out of the darkness. Passed down through oral traditions, it says, “Hanau ka ‘Uku-ko‘ako‘a, hanau kana, he ‘Ako‘ako‘a, puka,” translated to mean “Born was the coral polyp, born was the coral, came forth.” The Kumulipo is one of the primary sources of information on Hawaiian culture, political structure, and way of life. The way the Kumulipo organizes the creation of species You can find coral reef education online and on the beach.

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

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An example of marine debris found on Hawaiÿi Island beaches.

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

closely resembles modern scientific species classifications.

The Kumulipo tells us that ko‘a (coral polyp) was the first organism created, and because of this, Hawai‘i has some of the strictest management practices around coral. “The laws and the policies written around coral make it very protected— you aren’t allowed to touch, change, or remove coral,” Heather adds, “And rightfully so.” The couple discovered that their plan to plant coral to strengthen Hawai‘i’s coral reefs would take a much longer permitting process than initially thought. “Hawai‘i wouldn’t allow us to do it,” Heather remarks.

The learning curve was steep, yet despite the temporary setbacks, Heather and Paul started their nonprofit, Coral Reef

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Education Institute, in May 2019. Through their Intro to Coral Reef Class, the institute educates the public on simple things they can do that significantly impact the health of our coral reefs. “Many people don’t understand the significance of coral.

In just an hour, you can walk away, saying, ‘WHOA, I’m going to make some changes in my life, they’re going to be easy, and I am going to help save the planet,’” Heather says excitedly.

Teachable Moments CREI’s goal is to make saving our coral reefs approachable to residents and tourists alike. “If we can teach somebody something small that they can do differently and the impact that their choices make, and those people teach their kids, or a family member; that’s where we can make the biggest impact,” Heather says.

The institute offers its Intro to Coral Reef Class in a variety of settings including on tour boats. “We work with a company called Ocean Eco-Tours and we use their boats a lot for teaching classes,” Heather states. They also teach oceanrelated tour providers, giving out free educational materials to crew members so the company can teach patrons all about corals in Hawai‘i. Heather and Paul stress the importance of ocean-safe sunscreens and why it’s important to the coral reef ecosystem. “Hawai‘i County disposes of sunscreens as hazardous waste,” Heather says with disgust, “it’s not good for any ecosystem and we especially don’t want it in our oceans.”

CREI has found that visitors are increasingly looking for opportunities to connect with Hawai‘i in new ways. Heather notes, “There are those tourists that are really excited by conservation education, and they are really receptive,” the Coral bleaching doesn’t just negatively impact coral; fish and other marine life dissappear from the reef.

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

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KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

forward-thinking pair say.

The Intro to Coral class is two hours long with one hour onshore and one hour in the water.

Students leave the class able to identify four corals in Hawai‘i’s waters. If someone can’t afford to take the course, there is a scholarship fund available because a portion of the proceeds from each class goes into the fund.

Heather and Paul want to ensure that coral education is within reach for everyone.

During the pandemic lockdowns, the institute submitted several grant applications, and so far, none have come to fruition. “We haven’t gotten a paycheck, but it is a labor of love that is very much worth it,” Heather says. While Heather and Paul operate Coral Reef Education Institute on a shoestring budget, their love for Hawai‘i’s coral is making a meaningful impact.

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Building a Community “Our interns have been a tremendous help,” Heather says emphatically. The Coral Reef Education Institute is always open to interns from creating education materials, to mapping, surveying, and teaching. “We’re always open to help,” she adds.

As the institute benefits from the additional help, interns receive a new perspective. One recent intern, also named Heather, volunteered before heading off to college intent on becoming a teacher. During the summer she created the Hawai‘i Coral ID course, which changed her outlook on education. She is now leaning towards teaching young children in the sciences.

The division of aquatic research gave permits for coral restoration in July 2021 to three nonprofits on O‘ahu, Kuleana Coral, Malama Maunalua, and Restore with Resilience. “We attended the event, which was the first time the public was It’s important to take care of our reefs because the loss of them not only means the loss of coral, but could potentially lead to loss of marine species.

Signs of coral bleaching.

All photos courtesy of Heather Howard For more information: onecoralreef.org Volunteers with CREI gather for a quick picture after a successful beach cleanup.

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

allowed to participate in a coral restoration project in Hawai‘i,” Heather says triumphantly.

Working with a consortium of organizations, government entities, and educational institutions, an event was hosted where community members were able to micro-fragment coral—essentially cutting it into pieces—stimulating growth, and planting polyps to repopulate the Maunalua Bay reef. “It was the first coral planting of its kind in Hawai‘i, ever, which was so cool,” Heather says of the experience. Heather is hopeful that the institute will receive permitting to host coral planting events on Hawai‘i Island in the very near future.

Volunteers swim, their heads submerged, as they count coral species in Kawaihae Harbor, enchanted by the underwater world and their ability to identify the plants and animals around them. As they slowly make their way back to shore, Heather beams with pride. “I will not give up. We’ve been beaten down a lot, it’s been a struggle, but we just keep going,” she says with a twinkle of optimism in her voice. The group assembles on the sand, and one servicemember looks back at the water, as if longing to see what lies beneath the blue one more time. ■

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Ikaika no Kohala: A Community

By Jan Wizinowich

W hen the historic Kohala Village HUB’s

(KVH) main building was lost to fire in March 2019, a heart center of the community vanished. A year later Covid hit, disrupting community connections. These dual tragedies inspired folks at KVH to find a way to help the community reenergize and strengthen connections.

“The mural was born out of a wish to find ways to reaffirm our connectedness as a community even while the needs of addressing Covid have isolated us,” shared KVH founder, Bennett Dorrance. This latest endeavor is just one of many in Kohala’s history of unified strength in the face of adversity.

With the idea of art and story as a heart connection, KVH’s 2020 resident artist, Raven Diaz, and outreach director, Joel Tan, decided on a mural project that would enclose the slab where the KVH main building once stood, becoming a meeting place surrounded by Kohala stories rendered in art.

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Preparing the Ground Starting in May 2020, Joel and Raven began to lay the groundwork. They invited Kanu o ka ‘Āina principal and

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community artist, Kanoa Castro, to join the team and spent two months interviewing kūpuna (elders) and other community members to gather stories and ideas to be featured in the mural. “We wanted to highlight who and what Kohala is during times of challenge, how we respond and what’s important,” explained Raven. Notices inviting ideas for the murals were also posted all around the community which led to three Zoom (online) sessions and many phone conversations. “We kept it broad, asking questions like, ‘What is important for us to know about Kohala?’ If people were born and raised here, we asked about history and traditions; if they had moved here, we asked about their experiences,” explained Joel. These conversations “sparked ideas behind the mural and we turned those ideas, stories, thoughts into visual images,” explained Kanoa.

Meanwhile the KVH maintenance crew built the walls around the slab and painted them with yellow primer, creating a canvas ready for Raven and Kanoa to pencil in the stories and by mid-June the panels were ready to come to life.

The next step was to lay down a base coat or background. A call out to the community yielded a diverse group of painters

Connects through Story and Art for seven painting days throughout the rest of June until the end of July. “It was a mixed crowd. Elders, local artists, and a lot of keiki,” said Raven.

At the entrance to the plaza are two sheets of paper, one with the QR code for the self-guided tour, available any time.

The other is a long list of names of the many contributors to the project.

The Vision Emerges The mural, which encloses the square, is a mixture of the Kohala community’s cultural, historical, and ecological mana‘o (wisdom).

The first panel is a pastoral scene that highlights the essence of Kohala. Rolling green pastures and pu‘u (cindercones) are depicted with grazing horses, highlighting Kohala ranching, all flooded by sunrays kissing the land and backed by ocean waters. A kupuna is sharing traditional knowledge with a keiki while sitting under the koai‘a tree, also known as the “Communitree,” where people can add their names to the leaves.

Two stories relating to sustainability and facing challenges are pictured in the mural. The stories of ‘Iole the rat are quintessential Kohala lore and many of the participants in the talk-story sessions mentioned them. The panel shows a graphic of the story of how ‘Iole the rat saved the people from starvation and features a net filled with the harvest hung in the heavens by Chief Makali‘i. ‘Iole is scrambling up a rainbow to gnaw through the ropes securing the net, releasing the food to all the people.

The food shortages caused by the pandemic are just the latest in the challenges faced by Kohala folks, and the spirit of sharing what residents grow captures the spirit of the community. The next panel on the wall is of Hawai‘i Islandʻs canoe, Makali‘i. A traditional responsibility of the canoe and her navigators is to provide food for the people, but Makali‘i also represents a community pulling together with generosity.

Another traditional Kohala story shared was Punia, which is illustrated on the makai side wall. The story is told in a series of images that creates a bridge between past and future. In the story, Punia’s father is eaten by a shark when he is diving

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

33 Three of the sacred sites of Kohala: Puÿukoholä, Koÿo Heiau Holomoana, Moÿokini. photo by Jan Wizinowich

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Pueo the guardian spirit. photo by Jan Wizinowich

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for lobsters. With his father gone, Punia takes on the role of food provider and finds a way to outsmart the sharks, and emerges victorious.

The story wall of Punia bridges from historic legend to contemporary times and inspires the images that follow. Punia and his mother receive a flag in commemoration of a fallen soldier who, just like Punia’s father, was taken before his time.

The next two panels symbolize the legacy of tradition emerging in the present and features the Kohala High School basketball team, who were victorious at the state regional champions in January 2021, flanked by Punia and his father.

In the final panel, by receiving the lei kukui, a symbol of lasting strength, Punia follows his legacy and goes on to become a medical doctor who, with a caduceus in one hand and soil in the other, champions social justice and respect for the ‘āina.

Featured on the wall parallel to Punia is a representation of the deep spiritual roots that underlay the community. At the center of the display are three pahu drums, eliciting the rhythmic sounds of ancient hula, at the heart of Hawai‘i’s cultural practices.

This is bordered by a panel depicting three of the many sacred sites or heiau, with Kohala Mountain, an important water source, in the background.

The Mo‘okini heiau, which is near King Kamehameha’s birthplace, was rebuilt in the 13th century through the Community mural artist Kanoa Castro and his two daughters efforts of Kekapa and Kawelo working on the pueo panel.

18,000 men photo courtesy of Raven Diaz

Panels showing plumeria lei inspired by Aunty Maile Nepolean, and bird spirits, pueo, and ÿiwa, photo by Jan Wizinowich

who passed stones, stretching in a line from Pololū. Mo‘okini was Kamehameha’s spiritual home until he was advised to build a heiau in preparation for the enormous task of unifying the islands. Again, a massive effort ensued with thousands positioned in a work line, resulting in Pu‘ukoholā heiau. The third site pictured, Ko‘o Heiau Holomoana, a navigational heiau

Feed the People The east wall speaks to the ecology of Kohala and features the many plants that have fed Kohala for generations. Many kūpuna spoke of gathering food from the ocean and the cliffs of Kohala. The first panel pictures ‘opihi and at the bottom of the cliffs, tucked away in caves are menpachi, a favorite of Kohala fisherman, pictured at the far end of the east wall.

Another panel features kalo (taro), an essential food plant, brought to Hawai‘i by the first Polynesians. There are many different kinds of kalo and Kohala has its own special variety called bakatade, which is Japanese for hard-headed.

Also featured is ‘ulu (breadfruit), an abundant food provider, and an ‘awa (kava) grove, created by Eric Dodson, Kohala artist and medicinal plant grower. ‘Awa is a canoe plant that has many uses and has been an important part of Kohala’s lā‘au lapa‘au, as well as being a ceremonial drink prior to big endeavors such as ocean voyages.

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

The Punia story. Depicted here, Punia accepts the challenge to carry on. photo by Jan Wizinowich

located just south of Māhukona, is a historic training ground for young navigators and a place of ceremony.

Kohala’s history is immersed in the legacies of King Kamehameha, who exemplified strength and resourcefulness. The panel on the other side of the pahu drum panel is a representation of the ‘aha ‘ula or royal cape worn by Kamehameha, made up of the yellow ‘ō‘ō feathers contrasted with the red feathers of the ‘apapane.

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The ÿiwa, whose name means thief, is known for its ability to steal fish from other birds in midair. photo courtesy of Raven Diaz Language of Lei Lei are woven throughout the mural, just as they are woven throughout Hawai‘i life. ‘Ōhi‘a lehua, ancient symbol of the strength of Pele, graces the heiau panel. In the panel representing Kamehameha, it changes to a unique Kohala plumeria lei, inspired by Aunty Maile Napoleon, formed with petals bent back to create a rounded shape.

The lei plumeria transforms into a lei hala in the next panel, representing the completion of a phase and the starting of a new one. For talk-story participants, it’s a reminder of a special grove of hala in Niuli‘i, the location of a historic sugarcane camp.

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Feathered Spirits The mural also includes a large image of pueo (Hawaiian owl), a quiet guardian and ‘aumakua (peronsal god) for many families. Participants in the talk-story sessions mentioned

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encounters with pueo that signified a warning or the marking of an important event.

Centered on the east wall is a large image of the ‘iwa or frigate bird. The ‘iwa, whose name means thief in Hawaiian, is known for its extraordinary ability to steal fish from the beaks of other birds in mid-flight. The name Ka‘iwakīloumoku was given to Kamehameha to commemorate the “stitching together” of the Hawaiian Islands, and connotes someone who is daring, with great expertise.

The essence of Kohala is hard work, pulling together, resourcefulness and a spiritual connection to the natural world.

The mural project has provided an opportunity to build anew from the ashes. “It’s such a powerful process when you paint and think about something, then it shows up in your life,” concluded Raven. ■ For more information: KohalaHUB.com Raven Diaz: raven9nevar@gmail.com

Community mural artist Raven Diaz. photo courtesy of Raven Diaz

Cool as a Cauliflower Recipe for Roasted Cauliflower with Pesto

Local Foods

By Brittany P. Anderson

cauliflower fried rice has become popular as a healthy alternative to the classic rice-based meal. It can take on so many flavors, making cauliflower an easy ingredient to hide or highlight depending on your dining companions.

A whole roasted cauliflower is stunning as a side or main dish.

Ingredients 1 cauliflower (about 1 to 1.5 pounds) 3/4 cup water 1 tablespoon coconut oil Pinch of Hawaiian sea salt and black pepper Pesto 1 Tbs lemon juice ½ cup lightly packed flat-leaf parsley leaves and Italian sweet basil ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil ¼ cup raw macadamia nuts 1 garlic clove, sliced ¼ tsp kosher salt Pinch of black pepper

Method First, make the cauliflower. Preheat oven to 400°F. Trim the cauliflower by removing any leaves, and cut the stem down so the curd sits flat. Pour 3/4 cup of water in an oven-safe dish (preferably with a lid), and place cauliflower in it. Rub cauliflower with coconut oil, then sprinkle a pinch of salt and pepper over it. Cover dish either with lid or foil and place in the center rack of the oven. Bake for 20–30 minutes, or until a knife easily cuts through the cauliflower.

While the cauliflower cooks, make the pesto. Place the parsley, basil, oil, lemon juice, macadamia nuts, garlic, salt, and pepper in a food processor. Pulse until well combined.

Remove cauliflower from oven and spread pesto all over the top. Serve immediately. Enjoy!

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Cauliflower is making a comeback as broccoli’s cooler, more versatile cousin. In supermarkets today, you can find riced cauliflower, cauliflower pizza crusts, even tortillas made from cauliflower. While it is now popping up in unexpected places, the strangely brain-like vegetable has been around for centuries.

A member of the Brassicaceae family, along with broccoli, cabbage, and mustards, cauliflower has a mysterious beginning. Ibn al-‘Awwam, an agriculturist in southern Spain in the 12th century, made the first direct notation of cauliflower, attributing its origin to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus in his exhaustive catalog on agriculture titled Kitāb al-Filā‘a, or in English, Book on Agriculture.

The name cauliflower, in most languages, can be directly translated to cabbage flower—an accurate description from the looks of it in the garden. The young cauliflower starts have leaves similar to cabbage yet as it grows, the white flower heads form in the middle instead of tightly bound leaves. Each plant produces just one dense mounded head, called a “curd.”

The edible stage is just before the flowers on the curd open.

Cauliflower’s signature color is white, the absence of pigmentation from being shaded by the large leaves that surround the curd. In sunnier locations, it may take on shades of cream to yellow. There are even purple, green, and yellow cauliflower varieties.

Hawai‘i Island farmers grow cauliflower in cooler locations like Kamuela, Volcano, Mountain View, and higher elevations, where it does quite well. One variety of cauliflower that is adapted to slightly warmer conditions is the Puakea. Puakea is a white variety somewhat smaller than standard cauliflower with heads varying from three to four inches in diameter, a small price to pay to grow your own.

When purchasing cauliflower, look for hard, compact heads that are as white as possible. Look for consistent coloration, unblemished, and compact florets. Avoid heads if they are black, speckled, or soft.

There’s nothing better than cauliflower in Indian curry, pickles, or au gratin. In many Hawai‘i Island kitchens,

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Stepping Beyond the Water’s Edge with Adventurer and Artist Joshua Lambus

By Sara Stover

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

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oshua Lambus is literally paddling through a sea of foam noodles. Clinging to these bright green, blue, and pink cylinders are visitors of all ages, many of whom have never been snorkeling before today. As he scans Kealakekua Bay, Joshua is delighted to see that the very snorkelers who were terrified to leave the beach earlier that morning are now bobbing along, smiling.

The sight calls to mind the first time he ventured beyond the water’s edge himself and discovered a new world below the surface.

“That first moment I dipped my face in the water, I realized there was a whole world to explore that I barely knew existed. It changed the direction of my life and led to some insane experiences,” Joshua recalls. “I want other people to experience these things. It’s why I became a dive master and adventure guide!”

Originally from Houston, Joshua first visited Hawai‘i Island when he was only 17 years old. It was on that trip that his uncle, a Hawai‘i resident and adventure-seeker, first introduced Joshua to the ocean and taught him to surf.

“I was hooked!” he admits, so after graduating from high school in 2003, Joshua moved to Kona and has called Hawai‘i home ever since.

He began his life on the island as a chef at the original Splashers Grill. From the kitchen’s window, Joshua would gaze out at the ocean and watch dolphins playing in the waves.

Unable to resist the pull to life offshore, he started scuba diving for fun.

Unsatisfied with simply trying something out, Joshua is intent on immersing himself so deeply into a subject that he can teach it. It’s this passion for sharing his knowledge that led Joshua to become a divemaster at Big Island Divers, with an emphasis on daily blackwater dives.

Blackwater diving is a night scuba experience that takes divers miles offshore, where they essentially hang suspended from a tether, over thousands of feet of dark water, just for the chance to spot pelagic (open ocean) animals floating by.

Joshua’s years of experience in Hawai‘i’s waters, caves, and canyons ultimately led him to seek a deeper connection with life’s great unknowns, and capture it all with his camera.

Although his commitment to photography began with 35mm

and medium format film, Joshua was soon diving deeper into the ocean and into the world of digital photography.

The Art of Capturing Blackwater on Camera “In the 1970s, Chris Newbert was shooting photos while doing blackwater dives, but with film. When I got into blackwater diving two to three times a week and photographing plankton at night, I was shooting with a digital SLR camera, which enabled me to be more prolific, capturing a lot more images of these animals,” Joshua affirms.

As his images of glowing jellyfish, transparent plankton, and other gelatinous creatures that resemble beings from another universe began to make the rounds, they garnered popularity. It’s not just what Joshua photographs—it’s how he captures these images—that has attracted the likes of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural

migrations to the ocean’s surface.

“It’s actually the largest migration of any group of animals on the planet! Some are coming up to feed because there’s a more nutrient-dense layer of water at the surface,” says Joshua, about their behavior. “Some are even coming up to respirate—they absorb oxygen, go back down, and use it during the day.”

Through photographing pelagic animals, Joshua is able to introduce others to a world of translucent and reflective creatures most have never seen before. His personal favorites,

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

History in Washington, DC, and other museums where his work is on display.

“I situate myself a little far forward in the current so I can wait for the animals to drift by. When I do see something, I can start drifting with it,” says Joshua, who then has one or two chances to photograph these pelagic animals before they swim off through water as dark and disorienting as outer space.

During the day, pelagic animals live in complete darkness.

By night, the light-sensitive animals make massive vertical

39 “That first moment I dipped my face in the water, I realized there was a whole world to explore that I barely knew existed. It changed the direction of my life,” says Joshua.

Through photographing pelagic animals, Joshua is able to introduce others to a world of translucent and reflective creatures most have never seen before.

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

however, are those that make him question things, including a photograph he took in 2008 of an octopus that appears to be holding two tentacles.

“It took me three years to find someone who could tell me what they were!” Joshua says, explaining that most likely the octopus tore off the tentacles from a Portuguese man oʻ war, and is actually using them to defend itself against potential predators.

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The Edge Is Just the Beginning Inspired to offer everyone the opportunity to explore the underwater world through his lens, Joshua attempted to show his work at local galleries. What he encountered was a narrow concept of photography.

Standing at the proverbial edge, Joshua was faced with the choice to back away, wait, or find a new way to share his art.

Deciding to turn the edge into an adventure, Joshua opened his own kiosk in Kona, and eventually a few art galleries, all which met with tremendous success.

“I had an art gallery on Ali‘i Drive for eight years,” Joshua says. “But I found that I didn’t do well sitting inside all day. So now I sell the images I photograph on my website, and work as a divemaster and tour guide.”

It is in this role that Joshua is able to live his personal motto: The edge is just the beginning!

This belief empowers him to face his fears, be it diving with Laverne, Kona’s resident tiger shark, or free diving—first down 25 feet to the “ALOHA” sign at the bottom of Honaunau Bay, then down to depths of 50 and eventually, more than 250 feet.

In turn, Joshua shares this belief with others who have never been in the ocean.

“They get to the water’s edge and want to turn around.

That, however, is where the adventure starts!” says Joshua of

his job helping others step over the edge, past their fear.

“I like to shake people up and love watching people surprise themselves. Some have even gone on to become divemasters themselves!”

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

A Conduit for Culture and Conservation Sunset-infused skies create a stunning contrast against misty waves lapping the sand. A monk seal peers curiously into his lens.

Joshua captures each image with palpable intention.

“When I take these photographs, I can show people things they’ve never considered,” he says, pointing out that the ocean produces more than half of the planet’s oxygen.

“Hopefully they realize that there is something very important for us to conserve!”

While Joshua’s art assuredly speaks for itself, he also recognizes the power that an entire community of artists can harness. Through putting on art shows, he’s been afforded the chance to help nonprofits like Kona’s Surfrider Foundation and the Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund protect the world’s ocean and beaches, and conserve Hawai‘iʻs wildlife.

“To get into the shows, we ask for a donation that goes toward a nonprofit. The events help lesser-known artists gain exposure!” he exclaims.

“I feel a responsibility as a tour guide to be a conduit for Hawaiian culture,” Joshua says of his strong sense of responsibility that extends beyond the art community to the island’s culture. “To bridge this gap between the mainland perspective on Hawai‘i requires a deeper understanding, so I’ve reached out to kumu and kūpuna on the island who can teach me.”

This effort has allowed him to educate others about sites long misunderstood, including the red rock where High Chiefess Kama‘eokalani is buried. “Because of that, I’m able to share the truth about the coup d’état staged against Queen Lili‘uokalani.”

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A Hole in the Clouds Today, Joshua’s art has been published in National Geographic, as well as many other magazines, periodicals, and films. His extensive knowledge of the Kona coast also makes him an imperative resource for underwater productions, including projects for the Discovery and Travel Channels.

As exciting as that recognition is, the moments that truly take his breath away are those that challenge Joshua’s perspective.

“I was on a tracking [sky] dive, which means that while freefalling, I was moving horizontally and chasing a friend who jumped before me,” he says of a particularly transformative skydiving experience. “There was a hole in the clouds and my friend got there first, so we dove down together!” Joshua says, recalling how the moment left him asking, “Did I just chase my friend through a hole in the clouds?!”

Even after 5,000 dives, it’s the same liberating rush he gets when plunging into unknown depths of blackwater.

“I’m on a mission to learn as much as possible about life, myself, the ocean, the land, the people and culture of this

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Joshua uses his photography to help others realize the importance of protecting the world’s oceans and beaches, and Hawaiÿi’s wildlife.

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From blackwater diving to skydiving, Joshua steps over the edge, past fear, and helps others do the same. island, and the ways I can serve my community,” Joshua reflects.

From black waters to holes in clouds, Joshua’s epic experiences serve as proof that anything is possible if you commit.

“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough,” Joshua says, quoting Mae West. Undoubtedly, it’s a perspective that he is imparting to all who know him. ■ All photos courtesy of Joshua Lambus For more information: jlambus.com

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

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Mälama Mokupuni: Caring for Our Island Environment

Life in the Lava – the Anchialine Habitat

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

By Rachel Laderman

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Nestled in the cracks and dips of Hawai‘i’s rugged coastline are sparkling pools filled with tiny, darting red shrimp. These pools are just the tips of an incredible labyrinthine habitat that goes far under the lava, and is almost uniquely Hawaiian.

Hawai‘i’s relatively young volcanic fields are highly porous, with numerous fissures. On the rising tide, seawater pushes up through these cracks and fills depressions to create landlocked pools. Fresh water from uplands seeps into the cracks, tops off the water table, and adds to the wide variety of shapes and sizes of pools that move with the tides.

These partly salty, partly fresh “brackish” pools are called anchialine, from the Greek “anchialos” meaning “near the sea.” Unlike tide pools, they have no direct ocean connection.

Hawai‘i Island has by far the most anchialine pools in the world, hosting 650 of approximately 1,000 worldwide. Another 50 anchialine pools are found on Maui, Kaho‘olawe, Moloka‘i, and O‘ahu; on O‘ahu, they form in ancient limestone reefs.

Tiny Denizens The Hawaiian name for the pools, “wai ‘ōpae” meaning fresh water (wai) shrimp (‘ōpae), shows the pools’ close association with their petite inhabitants. Two ‘ōpae species are commonly found on Hawai‘i Island. The first is Halocaridina rubra or ‘ōpae ‘ula, an algae-eating grazer, measuring around half an inch.

Twice its size and less common is Metabaetaeus lohena, which sports the pincers of a carnivore. Their appearance cause the ‘ōpae ‘ula to scatter. Six other species are very rare, two of which are endangered.

“Think of anchialine pools as a window into an underground world,” says Ranger Dean Gallagher with Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, who has worked with these habitats for years. When the water level drops, the shrimp retreat into a maze of underground channels. This ability to travel through tiny cracks, plus their long lives (up to 20 years) and ability to go without food for months, has led to some amazing findings.

In the “Islands Under the Island” Scott Santos, head of a molecular genetics lab at Auburn University in Alabama, was born and raised on Maui. He had ‘ōpae ‘ula on a shelf in his lab, and was curious about their genetics. So, during a visit to Hawai‘i Island in 2004, he took

samples from Hilo and Kona pools. When he sequenced the ‘ōpaes’ genomes, he found unexpected differences.

In many follow-up surveys across the islands, Scott found there were 13 distinct genetic groups belonging to eight lineages—just within Halocaridina rubra—that do not intermingle at all. “Their genetic similarity means that they traveled underground. They evolved in the islands under the island,” Scott explains. They could not cross major lava flows, so on Hawai‘i Island there are different lineages within the bounds of the major rift zones.

Another amazing phenomenon is happening in the wake of loss. The 2018 Kīlauea Volcano lava flow obliterated several unique “hot spring” anchialine pools at Pohoiki. As the volcanic activity came to rest, however, a black sand beach was created and behind it, a new series of pools. Halocaridina have started popping up in this remote location. Scott thinks the Hilo population is “seeding” these new pools—from miles away the tiny Halocaridina larvae, feeding off their yolk sac as they travel through the ocean, navigate through cracks to reach the pools.

ÿÖpae ÿula grazing on algae. Their colors can be speckled or banded, and range from clear or white to pink or red, depending on environment. Red is most common on Hawaiÿi Island. photo courtesy Hawaiÿi Department of Land and Natural Resources

Live-Giving Pools The mostly-fresh water of anchialine pools helped make early settlement possible. “Hawaiians knew when to gather water from the pools at their peak of freshness,” Dean says. Different pools had distinct, protected uses, including drinking, bathing, and managing ‘ōpae for bait. ‘Ōpae were important bait for attracting ‘ōpelu, a staple fish. “Native Hawaiians collected the ‘ōpae, put them in mud balls wrapped in tapa cloth, then slowly unraveled them under a canoe,” Scott says. Over time, the ‘ōpelu learned to trust and follow the canoe, so that all a fisherman had to do was lower his net and let fish swim in.

Vetericaris chaceorum, an endemic and endangered Hawaiian anchialine shrimp. photo courtesy Hawaiÿi Department of Land and Natural Resources

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

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KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Many wai ÿöpae have a colorful ring of algae and bacteria called a “cyanobacterial crust,” seen here during low tide in Kona. Some pools go dry when tide and groundwater are low. ÿÖpae must be able to handle a wide range of salinity and temperature. photo courtesy Hawaiÿi Department of Land and Natural Resources

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Anne Farahi, Aquatic Biological Science Technician with the National Park Service Pacific Island Network Inventory & Monitoring Division, demonstrates sampling equipment at anchialine ponds full of invasive gases and fish at Hilo’s Richardson Beach Park. photo courtesy Rachel Laderman

Respecting Anchialine Pools There are numerous threats to such a vulnerable habitat: invasive animals and plants, development, pollution, and sealevel rise. The resilience of the charismatic shrimp lends the hope that they will continue to pop up, given just a crack at a chance. Here are ways you can help:

• Do not use pools for bathing—soap, shampoo, and sunscreen contaminate the water.

• Do not dispose of garbage in pools.

• Do not release fish or other aquatic life into pools.

• Do not fill in shoreline lava cracks.

• Do not harvest ‘ōpae for sale.

• To join a volunteer group to help restore pools, contact barbara.seidel@tnc.org with Hui Loko or check wildhawaii.org/ calendar/ ■

For more information: dlnr.hawaii.gov/dsp/ Rachel Laderman, Sustainable Pacific Program Lynker LLC/NOAA Affiliate, Hawaii Island KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Hui Loko or ‘pond group’ is a network of 24 organizations that care for loko iÿa (traditional fishponds) and wai ÿöpae (anchialine pools). photo courtesy of The Nature Conservancy, Hawaiÿi and Palmyra

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Ka Lei Aloha with Kumu Hula Lori Lei

By Nancy S. Kahalewai

“

I

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

’m going to dance with them!” Lori Lei Shirakawa Katahara announced to her mom when she was only four years old, They were watching their family friends at a hula recital, and she started to get up to join them. Her mom literally held her back, explaining that these girls had been practicing for years. “Mom later sent me to Dot’s Dance Studio in Hilo in the mid60s. I danced with Kumu Hula Dorothy Horita for 13 years up until my high school graduation.

Aunty Dot learned from Kumu Hula Rose Kuamo‘o,” Lori Lei recalls.

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Hilo Harbor. “For ‘auana [modern dances] we picked yellow plumeria flowers to put in our hair and make a lei. For kahiko [ancient dances] we made lei po‘o, ‘ā‘ī and kūpe‘e from mock orange leaves for our head, neck, wrist, and ankles,” Lori Lei remembers.

Kumu Hula George Naope, considered an expert in traditional Hawaiian chants and the oral history of the Hawaiian culture, co-founded Hilo’s famous Merrie Monarch Festival.

Later, he moved to Kona, where he founded the Hawai‘i Kūpuna Learning from the Hula Festival.

Masters After dancing for Lori Lei later joined Uncle George in hula master George the 1980s, and Lanakilakeikiahialii after decades of Naope’s hula studio. watching her teach, “We had weekly he honored Lori hula lessons under Lei with a formal the Hilo Hawaiian palapala (certificate Hotel. The floor was of hula excellence) concrete and boy did in 2007. He died Uncle George work in 2009 at the age us! We went home of 81. with ‘strawberries’ on While modeling our knees and feet for a local artist’s from learning hula fashion show, Lori noho [sitting hula].

Lei met Kumu Part of our training Hula Glenn Kelena was performing at Vasconcellos, who the weekly boat at the time was shows. We were creating fabulous compensated with hairstyles on the fruit punch and models right on the Lori Lei’s first childhood mentor, Kumu Hula Dorothy Horita. photo courtesy of Lori Lei Katahara cookies, the joy runway stage while of dancing to a live audience, and the invaluable knowledge the show was going on. She joined his hālau and danced in shared by Uncle George.” her very first Merrie Monarch hula competition with Halau ‘O Not only did they experience the depth and discipline of Ke ‘Anuenue in 1983. being taught in a coveted hula hālau under strict “old-school” Lori Lei later joined Kumu Hula Rae Kahikilaulani Fonseca’s style, but they also learned how to create traditional foliage Halau Hula ‘O Kahikilaulani. She was surprised and honored to adornments. They had to make fresh lei every week and new be chosen as one of his dancers for the 1989 Merrie Monarch ti leaf skirts about every three weeks for their performances hula competition in which they were awarded second place in on the SS Independence cruise ship that was docked in both the wahine kahiko and ‘auana divisions.

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Life in Ka‘ū was in contemplation while tuning his ‘ukulele, repeatedly When she moved to Ka‘ū in 1990 with her family, the plucking G-C-E-A as he absorbed the beautiful scenery.

Hawai‘i County Parks and Recreation department phoned Lori “Upon returning from his huaka‘i (excursion), he had Lei and asked her if she would teach hula to their seniors. composed his famous mele ‘Ka Nani A‘o Ka‘ū’. If you listen “With the blessings carefully to the from my kumus, I melody, you will began teaching the hear those four kūpuna women at main notes in every the Nā‘ālehu Senior verse of the song!

Center.” Upon the That evening, he requests of her surprised Aunt Sarah students to teach and sang it for the their grandchildren first time at their too, she soon had so gathering outside many students that of her home. This she had to create beautiful song has multiple classes blessed many since, based on their and has become the ages. Her following proud ‘anthem’ for had outgrown the people of Ka‘ū.” the center, so the Lori Lei also former Kauaha‘ao fondly recalls that Congregational it was Aunty Hattie Church Hall in Macomber, her Wai‘ohinu became her wise and loving new hula studio.

Wai‘ohinu neighbor, At one time, who mentored her Lori Lei had about on profound hula 150 students and and life insights taught hula classes such as, “Always in Wai‘ohinu, Hilo, pule [pray] before Kona, and Waikoloa. a performance.”

Today, she teaches She also told her only in Hilo and her traditional tips Lori Lei’s Hula Studio including, “Always has approximately wear a green ti 75 dancers, ranging leaf for protection: in ages from three put a fresh piece to 81 years young. somewhere on your She also teaches body—wear it or weekly hypertension tuck it under your hula classes for Hui clothes if you have Mālama Ola Nā ‘Ōiwi. to!” This protective She shared a custom still strongly precious story about prevails in the her days in Ka‘ū, Hawaiian Islands, “While teaching the which is why many song ‘Ka Nani A‘o families grow green Ka‘ū’ to the kūpuna ti plants around their wahine, one of the homes. dancers, Aunty Esther Beck from Maui, ‘Ūniki shared the story One day, Kumu of how that song Rae Kahikilaulani came to be: Uncle Fonseca decided George was visiting to select his future Lori Lei with Hula Master George Naope, circa 2005. photo courtesy of Lori Lei Katahara his Aunt Sarah Ke in ‘ūniki (graduates) to Nā‘ālehu, and she asked him: ‘Keoki, have you seen Palahemo carry on his lineage and legacy as teachers. “Kumu tasked us [a brackish pond in Ka‘ū]?’ Since he hadn’t, Sarah arranged a each to create an ‘oli or mele. I was feeling overwhelmed, so sightseeing trip to South Point with her daughter Esther and I prayed to God to help me. In the middle of the night, I sat Esther’s husband Leighton Beck, showing him the sights of the up, half asleep, and wrote down my thoughts.” As she read southernmost point of the island. All the way, Uncle George it the next morning, she was surprised and realized it was

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KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Hawaiÿi Küpuna Hula Festival first place winners, 1999. photo courtesy of Lori Lei Katahara

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divinely inspired. She turned to her friend Kaliko Trapp-Beamer, a master in ‘olelo (Hawaiian language), asking him to please translate it. “And he did. He named it ‘Mele Mahalo,’ which describes a song of gratitude. It is about the true meaning of why I am here, and fulfilling my kuleana as a kumu hula.

In the first verse, the line Ka wai a Ke Akua e ola mau nei represents the nurturing and forgiving ‘divine waters of life, forever flowing’. I believe this is God’s gift to all of us, once we accept it.”

Lori Lei and five others were chosen on March 24, 2007 at a huge ‘ūniki celebration at Sangha Hall in Hilo. While she did not fully realize it at the time, she was being groomed to carry forth a new life-changing legacy, spreading the aloha spirit to all through hula.

She and her fellow ‘ūniki, whom she calls her “hula brothers

and sisters,” still share a very strong and special bond. Kumu Rae passed suddenly on March 20, 2010. “Since our kumu passed, we only have each other to call on and support one another.” In preparation for their 25th Anniversary Hō‘ike, she invited her hula brother Kawika Alfiche to teach her students an ‘oli. “We spent a weekend at Kalōpā Park, near where Kumu Rae’s ashes had been scattered. One evening, we had an amazing ‘chicken-skin’ experience while Kawika was teaching us a chant for the occasion in the Hall. He said, ‘Louder!

Chant from your na‘au!!’ And we did. Suddenly a folded metal chair leaning up against the wall fell hard and loudly! Kawika immediately responded, ‘Oh, hello Kumu!’ We all felt Kumu Rae was with us. There was no wind and the windows and doors were closed—no way that chair could have fallen!”

Kumu Hula Lori Lei at Lori Lei’s Hula Studio and Waiÿohinu Hula Studio’s 25th Anniversary Hoÿike, November 14, 2015. photo courtesy of Lori Lei Katahara

Hula brothers and sisters of Na Kumu Hula: (L-R) Emery Aceret, Sammye Ann Young, Nahokuokalani Gaspang, Leinaÿala Pavao-Jardin, Lori Lei Shirakawa Katahara, and Kawika Alfiche. photo courtesy of Lori Lei Katahara

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

E ola mau i ka hula Lori Lei has recently remarried and lives in Hilo with her husband Cleve, and her sons, Tyler and Noah. Her classes are mostly non-competitive, although the haumana (students) do enjoy being part of Hawai‘i Kūpuna Hula Festival. “My kūpuna enter for the pure love of the hula, and to be with other kūpuna who have become lifelong friends. We don’t go there expecting to win, but are pleasantly surprised when we do.

My hula studio is open to everyone, young and old, no matter their capabilities as long as they want to learn hula. All are welcome!”

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The current youngest keiki class, Papa Pua Liko Lehua, practicing at a Hilo park, October 2021. photo by Nancy Kahalewai

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Since the days of dancing on the ships, she always scanned the audience for someone to give her lei to after the performance. “People were always so surprised and grateful!”

Today it has become a Lori Lei’s Hula Studio custom for the haumana to give their lei away to someone after their performances. “It’s our way of showing that the aloha spirit

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still thrives in Hawai‘i. I am thankful and blessed to be a kumu hula and to perpetuate the legacies of my kumu. We are all connected in the divine waters of Life. E ola mau i ka hula!” ■ For more information: 808.938.2394

Featured Cover Artist: Jeannie Garcia When asked where she gets her inspiration, Jeannie shares, “As a landscape painter here in Hawai‘i I have an endless supply of wonderful subject matter. For me, the awesome beauty of this island reflects Godʻs artistry. I can clearly see His talent as the Master of Creativity and it is His creativity that inspires me. I am truly blessed to be among those who get to witness and attempt to record His talent.”

Jeannieʻs goal in painting is to capture the endless beauty and ever-changing landscape that surrounds her on the rugged and magnificent island of Hawai‘i.

Her paintings are on display at the Kohala Coast Fine Art Gallery in Waikoloaʻs Kingsʻ Shops.

For more information: jeanniegarcia.com

Table of Contents Photographer:

Kathleen Carr

Kathleen Carr first discovered her passion for photography as fine art while she was attending University of California, Santa Barbara as an art major. She ended up going to Ohio University to get her bachelors in fine art (cum laude) in photography in 1970.

Kathleen became a fine art photographer, teacher, author, and a former Polaroid Creative Uses Consultant. Her awardwinning work has been exhibited internationally, purchased for private collections, and has appeared in numerous books and periodicals, including her own four books. She received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1991.

Kathleen first moved part-time to Hawai‘i Island in 1991, and has been here full time since 2006. Her current passions are digital infrared, color landscapes and nature, photographing and filming dolphins, whales and other life underwater, and the digital darkroom.

Kathleen is president and co-founder of South Kona Artists Collective (SOKO) and is participating in their annual artistsʻ studio tour on February 26 and 27, 2022. She is also part of West Hawaii Artists Tribe (WHAT).

For more information: kathleentcarr.com

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Jeannie Garcia grew up in Pennsylvania and attended York Academy of Arts in York, Pennsylvania. After college, she moved to Southern California and trained at the Mission Renaissance Studios in the traditional methods used by the Great Masters. While she enjoyed living in Southern California for more than 20 years, the beauty of Hawai‘i called her family to Kailua-Kona in 2003. She and her husband, musician Dennis Garcia, raised their two sons here, and are still loving life on the island.

Since living in Hawai‘i, Jeannie has attended workshops in oil and outdoor painting, and pastels, which she has been experimenting with recently.

In August 2011, Jeannie joined the West Hawai‘i Plein Air Painters group and loved painting outdoors; however, lately her health has limited her ability to join them. She also enjoyed participating in several “Paint-Outs.” In 2014 and 2016 Jeannie participated in the Big Island Plein Air Show at the Wailoa Center in Hilo, and Arts at the Pavilion in Kona in 2015 and 2016. In December 2015 she received best in show for her oil painting Calm and Quiet in the juried Big Island Plein Air Exposition held at the Kahilu Theatre in Waimea.

Jeannieʻs artwork consists of small landscape oil paintings, plein air, studio work, and large scale paintings. She accepts commission requests from clients to paint their favorite locations, which is a great way to preserve their Hawai‘i memories, whether living here or visiting. Her clients overwhelmingly express that she evokes a calming and peaceful emotional response with her paintings. These sentiments are attributed to some of the traditional techniques of the Old Masters, such as an underpainting, and in the color palettes she uses.

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Maika‘i Veterinary Clinic, LLC

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Talk Story with an Advertiser

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There are lots of reasons that make Hilo’s Maika‘i Veterinary Clinic unique. One is that they treat various small animals, avians, and exotics; another is they are open seven days a week for appointments, with two full-time doctors on staff, and also offer tele-medicine.

Dr. Alfred Mina comments, “I started this business to give back to the community I grew up in, by helping both humans and their pets. I have been a veterinarian for 21 years, but in this industry since I was in high school, working for other local veterinarians.”

Dr. Mina was born on Kaua‘i and raised on Hawai‘i Island.

After graduating from Hilo High School, he obtained a bachelor of science in agriculture and a bachelor of arts in biology at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. In 2000, Dr. Mina graduated with his doctor of veterinary medicine from Washington State University, College of Veterinary Medicine before heading home to Hilo where he’s been practicing ever since.

Dr. Mina’s special areas of interest are emergency medicine, avian and exotic animal medicine, and orthopedic surgery. Although his patients are mostly dogs and cats, he also provides medical care for injured endangered birds and birds of prey of Hawai‘i.

Assisting Dr. Mina is Dr. Malia Lyons. Dr. Lyons was born on O‘ahu, raised on Hawai‘i Island, and graduated from Waiakea High School. She originally pursued a degree in agriculture at the University of Hawai‘i, Hilo. Through her college courses she became curious about veterinary medicine, started working with animals, and changed degree paths. Dr. Lyons graduated from Colorado State University of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in 2011 and returned home to provide services for her local community. Her interests include internal medicine, soft tissue surgery, and working with livestock.

Dr. Mina mentions, “Due to Covid-19 we have had to change our approach to our practice, including using tele-medicine more, offering curbside appointments, and also seeing our clients in clinic.” He projects their clinic will grow in the future, with more associate veterinarians and support staff members, so they can better serve our community. “I am thankful to have a very dedicated staff that sacrifices their work/life balance by working overtime to complete the daily case load with me,” Dr. Mina says.

If you need a doctor for your fur family any day of the week, call Maika‘i Veterinary Clinic—their name says it all—they are good!

Maika‘i Veterinary Clinic, LLC 111 E. Puainako St., Ste A-109, Hilo 808.959.2273 maikaivet.com

Hale Malamalama Ola Pono Talk Story with an Advertiser

Hale Malamalama Ola Pono Hawaiian Holistic Health and Wellness Center 808.773.3237 thesacredhawaiianway.com

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

Kahu Kahealani Satchitananda is a loving, dynamic woman of power, purpose, passion, prosperity, and inner peace, who imbues the true spirit of living aloha. She is a Hawaiian metaphysical minister, Healy Resonance and Ho‘oponopono practitioner, TimeWaver analyst, consultant, and one of a council of eleven respected elders who were chosen, initiated, and given the sacred duty of offering an ancestral Ho‘omanamana blessing to the world.

Kahu Satchitananda was first taught ho‘oponopono by her mother, Aunty Ku‘ualohaemaliakalawaianui and her kupuna, tutuwahine Kawaiolamanaloapa‘akaula, from the island of Moloka‘i. Her very deep love is supporting the healing process for individuals, couples, and parents and children. Her focus is family, business wealth, health, and happiness.

Kahu Satchitananda has formal education and degrees from the University of California, Berkeley (1974), University of California, Los Angeles School of Dentistry (1980), United Church of Religious Science (1980), and International Teaching Order of Science of Mind (1987). She is one of the pioneers in holistic dentistry and yogic psychology. She has researched, studied and performed spiritual practices with kāhuna, mystics, and masters since 1977 as well as studied the five major religions.

She is certified in many forms of frequency energy medicine, Reiki, Oneness Diksha Practitioner/Trainer, Mahikari Divine Light, and the Hawaiian Ho‘omanamana Breath of Life. She is a master prosperity teacher trained by Unity minister Edwene Gaines. Kahu has served on the board of directors for Unity of Kaua‘i and is a founding member of Agape International Spiritual Center where she has served many years as codirector of Practitioners Ministry of Prayer and Healing Revealing Services.

As the founding CEO of Hale Malamalama Ola Pono Hawaiian Holistic Health and Wellness Center, Kahu performs online Zoom TimeWaver transmissions, coherence healing circles, counseling, and sacred ceremony. She does extensive work with business success, personal stresses, and challenges that Covid lockdowns have placed upon our families financially, mentally, emotionally, and physically. She uses state of art new technology of the Healy Resonance and TimeWaver healing frequencies, getting amazing, immediate, and tangible results.

Kahu is accepting new clients and offers phone and Zoom sessions for clients. Call today for a free introductory long distance frequency scan and consultation, offered for a limited time.

Aloha Ia O‘Koa Pa‘a Pono!!!

“When We Meet In Love…We Shall Be Whole!!!”

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Wishing you a year of good health, laughter, joy and love.

KONA | HOLUALOA | KEAUHOU | SOUTH KONA

73-1408 KALOKO DRIVE KAILUA KONA, BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII 4 Bed | 2 Bath | Single level home on 1.5+ acres $1,250,000 | MLS 654477

Kelly Shaw 808.960.4636 Realtor Broker, R(B )-21516 ABR, e-Pro, CRS, GRI, CLHMS kelly.shaw@compass.com buyahomeinkona.com

SALE PENDING

KeOlaMagazine.com | January - February 2022

This stately up-country home boasts spectacular, broad ocean views. It was thoughtfully designed & built by the current owners with steel frame construction and countless custom features throughout. The expansive lot offers seclusion and tranquility.

An amazing lanai with big ocean views stretches across the back of the home.

This very special property presents an opportunity for buyers hoping to own a little piece of paradise.

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“Her professional integrity combined with her sincere aloha impressed us immediately and remained so until the sale was complete. Kelly was responsive to all of our questions and guided us along the way in making many major decisions. Without hesitation, we would highly recommend Kelly for all your real estate needs she’s a gem!” - Satisfied Seller Compass is a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only.

Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. No statement is made as to the accuracy of any description. All measurements and square footages are approximate. This is not intended to solicit property already listed. Nothing herein shall be construed as legal, accounting or other professional advice outside the realm of real estate brokerage.