Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 1, Number 2, 1 September 1981 — Loʻi Kalo of Hui Aloha 'Āina Tuahine Impresses OHA Staff [ARTICLE]

Loʻi Kalo of Hui Aloha 'Āina Tuahine Impresses OHA Staff

Packing up their work for the week, OHA staff members — Ed Auld, Administrator; Marlene Styan, Land Agent; Kathy MiyashIro, Research-Statis-tician; and Cynthia Lee, Media Specialist — headed out to Mānoa one Friday evening to explore the lo'i kalo of the UH Club, Hui Aloha 'Aina Tuahine. Unele Harry Mitchell, advisor to the project, and club members graciously showed the OHA staff the lo'i and irrigation system and explained its background and history. With this kalo raising project, entitled Ho'okahe Wai Ho'oūlu 'Āina (Make the waters flow, make the land productive) club members are restoring traditional kalo patches along Mānoa Stream. Through this practical experience, they

are learning about traditional Hawaiian farming methods, and revitalizing several important Hawaiian concepts — aloha 'āina (a love for the land) expressed through malama i ka 'ōina (caring for the land) and hulihuli i ka 'āina (reapingfrom the land) the gifts or the product of the land referred to as ka 'ai kamaha'o o ka 'āina (the amazing sustenance of the land.) The beauty and productivity of the lo'i impressed the OHA staff, who took off their shoes and actually got into the mud to help plant the huli (taro stalks). Then the OHA staff accompanied Unele Harry and Keoni Fairbanks upstream to view the irrigation ditches and to eool their feet in the rapidly flowing stream. It was a refreshing way to end the week.