KEALAKEHE — As Kumu Keala Ching and students chanted “Ahupua‘a o Kealakehe,” a special oli written for the area, a mural honoring the traditional Hawaiian land division was unveiled Monday morning at Kealakehe High School.
From the cloud shrouded Hualalai to the ulu belt on her flanks and down to the ocean at Alula, the stately mural depicts the ahupua‘a that is Kealakehe. It represents the stories of the mauka-makai land division, honoring Hualalai, the spiritual forces, ancestral values, cultural traditions and humanistic pride, to carry on through generations to come.
“The chant really helped put it all together and really learn and understand what this whole mural meant,” said 10th grade student Makayla O’Keefe. “And, Kumu Keala Ching, he really just helped us get the understanding of it because if I just came up and saw this, I’d be like, ‘what is this, it’s pretty, but what is it?’”
But that’s no longer the case after having taken part in the collaborative educational effort that resulted in the mural that graces the northern facade of Building I. Now, like more than 500 other students at Kealakehe High School, O’Keefe knows the ahupua‘a within which her school lies and is named after.
“Having the chant and knowing each part (of the mural) and what it means — all of it — is cool and it really helped with understanding why we don’t have footprints on it (the mural) or why there are certain things on it that other ahupua‘a don’t have,” she said, before explaining that unlike other ahupua‘a, Kealakehe doesn’t have a valley, a fact that makes the area dry and preferable for burials. Kealakehe means pathway of the ancestors or spirits.
“Just learning the little things about the land we live on, where we call home, is kind of cool,” O’Keefe continued. “All of it was a good learning experience overall.”
Spearheading the project were teacher Karen Sheff, Ching and Keep It Flowing, a for-profit organization that bridges the gap between government, for- and non-profit agencies providing key messages like drug-prevention, anti-bullying and keiki empowerment to the community of Hawaii and beyond via art.
Kenneth Nishimura, Keep It Flowing founder and creative director, said while the organization typically does murals to prevent the use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco this project fit easily in the organization’s foundation of “awareness through art.”
“Awareness can cross all boundaries this is just another way of getting the youth to be connected with culture,” said Nishimura. “Once you have identity for yourself and you can have a sense of belonging, that’s when everything starts to make a turn toward the right.”
Sheff said it’s been her dream to have a mural on the side of the building within which her classroom lies for a decade. But this project brought so much more than she thought it would have with the involvement of Ching imparting his vast knowledge upon the students, including creating two special chants, and Keep It Flowing Hawaii for making the mural long-lasting.
“This dream became reality, however, it’s beyond what I dreamt,” she said. “It’s beyond what I dreamt because of all the collaboration that went into it.”
In addition to the work by Ching, Sheff and Keep It Flowing, the mural was made possible through a Department of Education Hawaii Innovation Grant and Kealakehe High School administration. Supporting the project were Kealakehe students and teachers, the Sheraton Kona Resort and Spa at Keauhou Bay, Kona Town Brand, Akamai Art Supply and Kellee Kubota. The mural is the third of its kind by Keep It Flowing at the school.