Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 6, 1 June 2005 — Arctic aloha [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Arctic aloha

Hawaiian snowbird Sherry Cordeiro Evans brings island warmth to the Alaskan cold

By Keaumiki Akui Running into Tootsie Cazimero at the Pioneer Plaza was a lucky happenstance. Aware that I am always seeking subjects for articles, she advised, "Go north to Alaska!" Her Kamehameha classmate Sherry Leilani Cordeiro Evans had planted roots in America's "last frontier" since leaving Hawai'i for college in 1968. Her island roots ean be traced back seven generations. Sherry's maternal great-grandfather, Rev. Isaac Iaea, raised 13 children from two marriages, first to Hannah Pakamia of Makawao, and, after her death, to Elizabeth Lukela. During those times, up-country Maui eonsisted of private estates or kuleana lands. The family owned what is now Pukalani. Sherry's paternal great-grandpar-ents, Manuel Cordeiro and Mary Silva, were from the Azores, 800 miles west of Portugal, and up to her parents' generation all her tūtū spoke Native Hawaiian. Her parents, Manuel and Shirley Cordeiro, met while they were students at Farrington High School. Shirley was a hula dancer with Sally Wood and worked at the old Waimano Home Training School, while dad drove the city bus. The family moved out to Mākaha while Sherry was in the sixth grade, and the following year she started attending Kamehameha.

After graduation, Sherry had her sights on Colorado; however, with a reciprocal exchange agreement between UH and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and an unele living there, the "last frontier" seemed a more sensible ehoiee, at least to her parents. It was a hard adjustment for a loeal girl from Mākaha. So how cold does it really get in Alaska? Sherry remembers hitchhiking with friends to get pizza when the temperature dipped to 50 degrees helow zero. Considering water becomes iee at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, well you get the picture. In fact, on her 1 8th birthday, stuck in the middle of nowhere in the hills outside of Fairbanks next to a musk

ox farm, Sherry called home to Hawai'i in tears. That summer, she gave an ultimatum: "I am moving on campus or quitting school." Campus life was a huge improvement, and she doubled up class loads and graduated in three years with a degree in education. Sherry taught school in Juneau before finally moving to Anchorage. Today, Sherry is an office manager for a moving company and works part time for an air charter service, whieh allows her to make frequent trips to Hawai'i. "I have never claimed Alaska as my home," she says, "and whenever referring to Hawai'i, I eall it home." Besides her three sons, Kekoa, Kai and Cameron, and two stepchildren, Aaron and Bridget, Sherry

has numerous 'ohana members living throughout Alaska. There are Hawaiians living in Barrow, the farthest northern city in America, 340 miles from the Arctic Circle, where temperatures drop to minus 70 degrees and the only access is by air. Sherry has assumed the responsibilities of perpetuating the Hawaiian culture there. She chairs a minority education concerns committee, is director of Hawaiian studies for Nā Keiki o Hawai'i Civic Club and active in the Mainland Council of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs, sits on the mayor of Anchorage's Minority Hire Task Force and is a DJ for Puhlie Radio KNBA's "Island Style" program. In their home on the Kenai River, two-and-a-half hours from Anchorage, Hawaiian culture is alive and well. "It is my kuleana to share our Hawaiian values with my children and for them to do the same," Sherry says. "It is the only way we will survive as a unique people in a special environment we eall Hawai'i." Keaumiki Akui is the puhlie ajfairs specialist with OHA's governance division. lfyou are a Hawaiian on the continent with an interesting story to tell. or ifyou know of one. please contact OHA Outreach Coordinator Aulani Apoliona at 594-1912. or via e-mail at auIania@oha.org.

All in the 'ohana: Sherry Cordeiro Evans with her youngest grandson, Elijah. Photo: Courtesy of Sherry Cordeiro Evans