For Hualalai Keohuloa, a Hawaiian traditionalist and subsistence fisherman, the past is bound to the present through strands of belief. And the belief makes real the ideas that have been passed down.
As Keohuloa lashed a canoe outrigger made of hau wood harvested from Hamakua, he weaved the story of how the waa fits into the tapestry of the island and its heritage. His demonstration was part of a lineup of hands-on activities at Pacific Islander Heritage Day, held Saturday at the Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site in Kawaihae.
“Our plants to build houses, build our canoes, feed people, came from all around the world,” he said. “That tells me this canoe belongs to everyone.”
Brisk winds were preventing Keohuloa from taking people out in the 17-foot cedar-hull canoe like he had planned. So he was doing a rigging demonstration instead.
“I’m trying to show people how practical they are,” said Keohuloa, a member of the Bertelmann family of voyaging canoe builders.
“They bring balance to the land and resources,” he said. “It’s not gasoline powered, so you’re not going to use it to commercial fish. It reawakens the idea. People think it’s buried in the past, but it works.”
Best known for the heiau that King Kamehameha I dedicated to the war god Ku on a prophesy that he would be able to unite the Hawaiian Islands, Puukohola hosted a group of University of Hawaii at Hilo students from Micronesia, who demonstrated a traditional technique of making sakau, the equivalent of awa.
The drink is central to the culture of the Micronesian island of Pohnpei, said UH-Hilo student Travis Herman. To ask a woman’s hand in marriage, you must offer the father sakau. If the father doesn’t drink the sakau, it means he doesn’t accept the marriage.
“In Pohnpei, you cannot be considered a man until you know how to plant it, grow it and make the drink,” Herman said.
Nancy Krekler, from Montana, tried the beverage from a coconut shell bowl.
“It made my mouth a little numb,” she said. “It tasted a little like mud with pepper. They told me I’d feel calmer but I’m already pretty calm.”
Krekler perused coconut-fiber rope used for climbing breadfruit trees, displayed by Micronesians United Big Island. She also checked out informational displays by the Hawaii Pacific Parks Association. Both organizations co-sponsored the annual event, which featured live music, crafts, games, dance and weapons displays.
“It’s wonderful for someone like me, who has no idea what the issues are,” Krekler said. “I had no idea there were islands that were threatened by global warming and the people left. You don’t hear about that in Montana.”
Sharon DePauw of Napa, Calif. learned how to weave a lauhala bracelet from Ariel Jimenez of Hawaii Pacific Parks. Jimenez explained how saltwater is used to soften the leaves. The water-resistant lauhala fiber was a mainstay of sails, mats and skirts.
“They say it was one of the most important plants along with taro,” Jimenez said.
At a nearby table, Ben Saldua, chief of interpretation at the heiau, demonstrated lei wili, a type of lei that is made from ohia stems and ferns and used in hula ceremonies. Saturday’s celebration represented a chance to bring Pacific Islanders together and immerse visitors in a tactile experience of their cultures, he said.
Kat Neilson and her mother Dianne McQuaid, both visiting from Colorado, tried their hands at lei making and eating soft coconut from a shell with a spoon made from the husk. Kat Neilson finished about four inches of the lei and was happy with it.
“It’s finished for me,” she said.
“I told her it’s like doing an old-fashioned quilting bee, where everyone gets together and spends hours and hours,” McQuaid said.
Park Ranger George Enuton passed around pieces of soft coconut and encouraged people to try their hands at the crafts.
“This event is really about getting people to participate,” he said.
Nibbling on a square of coconut, Waikoloa resident Amalia Mueller said she likes to take harder coconut, shred it, then wash the milk out of the fiber and use the milk to cook rice.
“You get that great coconut flavor.”
“I’m having a wonderful time,” she added. “Look at all the cultures represented here.”
