The Ka‘u community is hosting a Sakada Day celebration from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the Pahala Community Center.
Sakadas, or Filipino contract laborers, were recruited to work on Hawaii’s sugar and pineapple plantations from 1906-46. Sunday’s event will feature entertainment, exhibits, demonstrations, games for keiki and Filipino food.
The event is free and open to the public.
Thousands of mostly male Filipino contract laborers migrated to Hawaii in order to meet the labor shortage on Hawaii’s thriving sugar plantations. The fourth and final wave of laborers were known as Sakada ’46. Fourteen members of the original 7,361 who came during this final wave are still alive on the Big Island.
“Those still living are now in their late 80s and 90s, and it is important that we honor them for the economic and social contributions they have made to our Big Island community,” said Cornelia Anguay of the Sakada Day Planning Committee.
Prudencio “Andy” Tayamen and Leovegildo “Tata Hildo” Mercado are surviving members of the Sakada ’46 who will be honored during the celebration.
Tayamen, 95, of Waiohinu, immigrated to Hawaii from Laoag, Ilocos Norte, at the age of 24. He retired in 1986 from Ka‘u Agribusiness where he spent many years as a seed cutter, known to be the most strenuous of field labor jobs.
Mercado, 90, of Pahala emigrated from Salomague Port in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur, at the age of 19. After a nearly 50-year career working Ka‘u plantations, he retired in 1996.
This year’s celebration is the latest in a series of annual observances that have honored the lives of the Big Island’s sakadas and their families. In past years, events have taken place in the Keaau-Pahoa area and the Hamakua Coast.
This year’s event is sponsored by Hawaii County, the Pahala Filipino Community Association, Hawaii Island Sakada Day Committee and the Big Island Resource Conservation and Development Council.
