Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 11, Number 12, 1 December 1994 — ʻAha Kūpuna '94: Elders feel the power of the word [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻAha Kūpuna '94: Elders feel the power of the word

bv Jeff Clark "I ka 'Ōlelo ka Mana - In the Word there is Mana" was the theme of this year's 'Aha Kūpuna, and the power of words, language, and story was impressed upon the 90 kūpuna in attendance. Through a wide variety of workshops the elders heard about chanting, oral history, haku mele, genealogy, plaee names and more. During a panel discussion titled "Ikaika ka 'Ōlelo," kūpuna heard mo'olelo from the likes of Woody Fem and Puanani Burgess, among others. Ho'oipo DeCambra said that stories figure prominently in her work with Hawaiians recovering from drug and aleohol abuse. The recoverees loosen up their emo-

tions by portraying such characters as Pele, Hi'iaka and Kamapua'a. Then, their inhibitions gone, they are free to act out their own personal experiences of anger and hurt. Mo'olelo, DeCambra said, "help us name the pain, and perhaps, name the solution and take action." Māhealani Kamau'u, a Hawaiian activist who has gained considerable loeal recognition for her poetry, said that deep down we are all poets. She encouraged the creative use of colorful language, saying, "We all have it in us, we just need to do it." According to the conference program, chanter and Hawaiian cultural authority John Keola Lake was to give a talk on Hawaiian protocol. But, he said, when looking in the Hawaiian

dictionary he found no word for "protocol," and instead used a term for "culture," whieh he said was the closest s y n o n y m : "loina." He defined it as "the total sum of a group of people ... what we have ... what we think ... passed on generation to generation." Part of the

Hawaiian culture, he aeknowledged, is the importance of protoeol in every activity from hula to fishing. "There are things you do, things you don't do, things you take, and things you don't take," he said. Lake talked of the origins of what some may argue is the Hawaiians' most famous cultural trait: hospitality or ho'okipa. He explained that hospitality was codified by a law of old -

kanawai luna 'ike - that was handed down by very ancient ali'i. "Among the Hawaiian people, it was mandated for them to share," he said. "If I eome your house, you are to share, you are to provide the stranger or friend hospitality of your house. Why? Because the cycle comes around." Lake also discussed the honi inu (the touching of noses), the

'ohana and the importance of genealogy today in light of governmental programs, and ho'okupu. These cultural practices all make up "that spirit we can't lose because that's our identity," he said. Lake left the group by saying that "when we remember our past, we strengthen our present and secure our future."

Kupuna listen intently to one of the presentations at OHA's 'Aha Kūpuna 1 994. Photo by Sabra Kauka