Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 5, 1 May 1986 — "The Mana is with the Kupuna" [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

"The Mana is with the Kupuna"

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By Kenny Haina, Editor Ka Wai Ola O OHA Unele Harry Mitchell of Keanae, Maui, ean be aptly described as a Hawaii folk hero, an esteemed authority on na mea Hawaii, a spiritual advisor and a philosopher of things plain and simple. While all this is so true about this legendary authority on Hawaiiana, how does one so aptly describe this 6-3 figure with a valuable mana that has been so dear to him in his Hawaii and the Hawaii of today? This warm, humble, knowledgeable and almost larger than life human being is one of a kind who is the very epitome of po'okela itself. He has shared his mana with young and old, into adulthood and now in his golden years. At age 66, this imposing figure in his familiar camouflage coveralls and matching eap has had audiences with legions of organizations and school children. His Unele Harry's Fruit and Gift Stand almost directly across from Keanae School sticks prominently out on the highway to Hana. Tourists and locals alike stop to talk story with Unele Harry and his son, Harry Jr., who runs the shop whieh is in its second year of operation. Harry Jr. is another story all its own. Unele Harry says there are three different spellings of the family name. It should actually be Miehel from his grandfather Louis. But Unele Harry's father, James, spells his name Mitehel. When Unele Harry eame along, he inherited Mitchell. When asked to explain, Unele Harry responded: "We were all born at home. So when somebody called the hospitaI to record our births, the person never bothered to spell our name. Whoever took the eall on the other end probably wrote down what she heard and spelled it like we have it today." Unele Harry's father, known familiarily in Hawaii sports circle as Jimmy Mitchel, was a eoaeh and athletic director at Farrington High School for many years. He was also a leading sports figure in Kalihi and taught at Farrington. Currently 94, he lives in Kailua with his second wife. Unele Harry's mother is Elizabeth Apuna Myers, 83, and currently living in Huelo, Maui. Unele Harry describes bimself as a native Hawaiian, being or^eighth "FrencK, one-eigKtK Chinese "and the rest all Hawaiian." His grandmother, Louis Michel's wife, was Ruth Aulani Mahoe. Unele Harry was married to the former Pear! Reinhardt, longtime forelady with Maui Pineapple Co. who died in 1975. One of the couple's two sons, James, was lost at sea in 1977 with George Helm during the Kaho'olawe protest. In addition to Harry Jr., there are three daughters — Isabelle Guerrero, who resides on Guam with her husband and family; Pearl Pahukoa, a teacher at Keanae School who is also a lay minister at Keanae Protestant Church, a branch of the United Church of Christ; and Sara Boece of Downey, Calif., an accountant with an oil company. Unele Harry, who said he and his sister, Ruth Aulani Leighton, were raised by five grandparents, remembers that the happiest day of his life eame in 1933 when at the ripe old age of 13 he was kicked out of Keanae School during the sixth grade. "I was kolohe then. I didn't want to study. I play hookey , go home eat luneh and no go back school. What I leam in school no apply to my Hawaiian lifestyle whieh is to go get the food. The kaukau no eome to you. Learning in schooI no fill you up. We hunt and fish, work in the taro patch and raise pig and eow for the Chinese who own most of the farm land that time," recalls Unele Harry. He further relates that it was "Iots of fun growing up those days; no more headaches like today. We had simple lifestyle living on the land whieh gave us food, shelter, clothing and medicine." Except for six years in the Army during World War II, Unele Harry has been a farmer and carpenter all his life. He was very active in the Carpenter's Union during his construction days but he never stopped yearning to go back to the land. "You show me the bushes and I know how to live. You put me in the city and I'm lost," he would say. While all of his five children had an education, Unele Harry himself turned down an opportunity to finish his schooling because "I was worried who going take care my grandparents." Asked for his opinion about today's Hawaiians, esp>ecially the youths, Unele Harry said: "Many doing well today. They in school because of grants and scholarship money, the kupuna, Punana Leo and many other kind programs. We making progress but things going slow." On another note, he declared that "the kids today live only for the body; they forget the spirit and they have no respect anymore. They no listen to anyone. They take their drugs, aleohol and end up in prison. No one teach them how to live and they forget the mana is with the kupuna but they no like turn to the kupuna."

Of Hawaiian organizations, he said: "We get lots of them and they all climbing the same mountain but from different directions. They not together." Unele Harry said he has two and one-half acres of lo'i kalo whieh he has turned over to his daughter Pearl and her family because he doesn't have time. He spends about one weekend a month in Honolulu when he meets with University of Hawaii Hawaiian Studies students who look after 14 lo'i kalo at Kanewai. It is his plan to establish a la'au lapa'au in the same area filled with Hawaiian medicinal plants. Unele Harry, humble as he is pointed in telling it like it is and how it is, is quick to acknowledge that everything Hawaiian he knows today eame from the kupuna, and this includes studying the stars, oeean, wind, current, planting seasons and other things. Unele Harry, fluent in the Hawaiian language, is also an accomplished musician and composer, wood carver and maker of Hawaiian stone poi pounders, poi boards and Hawaiian wood items, all of them for sale or made to order at his plaee. Sit down and give a listen to Unele Harry one day. You'll get an earful of valuable history and experiences you'll treasure for a long time.

Unele Harry Mitchell