KOHALA COAST— At Pacific Islander Heritage Day, the demonstrations on display were as much about the future as they were about the traditions being shared Saturday.
For Lara and Kapu Kalilimoku, who brought their daughters to Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site where the event was held, it was an opportunity for the girls to experience the activities and learn more about their culture.
“A lot of these things are taking from the land and things like that,” said Lara Kalilimoku. “So we want to instill the importance of taking care of the land and utilizing things from nature and respecting it like that, because a lot of these things are useful to us, even today.”
Kalilimoku said the demonstrations — which included activities like lei making, coconut leaf weaving and much more — aren’t always covered in school, and it’s important to her that her children be exposed to those parts of the culture, and hopefully, she said, her children will continue to pass those traditions on to their own children.
The family was one of many taking part in Heritage Day, which drew residents and visitors for a day that put local practices on full display and gave people the opportunity to experiences those activities for themselves.
And, Lara Kalilimoku said, the event is great for anybody that calls Hawaii home, but is even more important for anyone visiting the islands.
“It’s important to have these hands-on activities for visitors to come, so they’re able to have more respect for the things,” she said. “When they come and go to these places, they see these plants or these rocks and things like that and they have more respect for them because they see what comes of it all.”
And like Kalilimoku, many of those attending and exhibiting at Saturday’s event spoke of the importance of sharing those traditions with future generations and passing on the cultural legacy.
Tony and Naomi Silva, visiting from California, said events like Heritage Day are an important way for communities to keep culture going strong.
The couple is originally from the Azores, an archipelago west of the Portugal mainland, and they spoke about their efforts to teach their own children traditional dances so the children can learn and keep those traditions going — so the couple recognizes why it’s so important to pass customs on to the next generation.
“Because otherwise, you forget,” said Naomi Silva. “I mean, the kids don’t realize it. The kids don’t learn the language, and then they regret not learning it.”
“And I think it’s the same thing here,” she added.
That dedication to future generations also extended to those leading the demonstrations at the event, such as Nani Lehano, a cultural demonstrator who started coming to Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site 20 years ago with her mother.
“We always came down here; we always did the cultural demonstration,” Lehano said. “Whatever events was going on around the heiau, we were always there.”
For Lehano, it’s a legacy she wants to instill in her son, Shawn, “who’s going to be my legacy to leave all this to,” she said.
Lehano was teaching visitors about ti leaf lei on Saturday, encouraging them to try their hand at crafting lei of their own, and noted cultural demonstrations also give visitors a chance not just to learn something new, but to see how their own traditions might be similar to local ones.
That’s a point also raised by Conall Kahakaio Ravenscraft, an interpreter with the Hawaii Pacific Parks Association, who was displaying traditional tools and materials and spoke about the important relationship between people and the resources they have in their environment.
That relationship between people and their resources, he said, offers an opportunity for the people he speaks with to connect with Hawaii’s own traditions.
“When they see these things, it’s something new and different, but then when you actually take apart what the tool is, you see people had these same tools all around the world actually,” he said.
And while the aesthetics might be different, it’s the similarities that create a connection and drive conversations, such as how different natural materials — from coconut to cedar — are used in different cultural contexts.
“So it’s cool to get that cultural exchange,” he said. “It kinda gives us something to relate to.”
