Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 6, 1 June 2007 — Aloha Hanai [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Aloha Hanai

By ŪHA Educatiūn staff

The Hawaiian community is mourning the loss of Aunty Hanai Ali'i Hayashida, a well-known Hawaiian arts and crafts expert who passed away on April 12, 2007. She was 65. Always willing to share her knowledge, Hayashida taught

a wide range of students, from young keiki to kūpuna, from Hawaiians to those of other ethnicities as well. "One thing I remember about Aunty Hanai was her love for her craft and that she wanted to share it," said longtime student and associate, kumu hula Chinky Māhoe. "She gave it freely. You didn't have to pay her." Hayashida was born to Victoria Kaimuloa and Frank Bernard Vierra, a celebrated paniolo of Parker Ranch. She was raised on Hawai'i Island and eventually moved to Honolulu after she graduated from Honoka'a High School. While she was already quite proficient in quilt and lei making (she was taught by her mother), she further developed her talents in Hawaiian arts and crafts as a member of the Queen Emma Hawaiian Civic Club. As her reputation for cultural knowledge and fine craftsmanship grew, Hayashida started her own business, called Hanai o Hawai'i. She made a wide variety of Hawaiian crafts, including wiliwili seed lei, lauhala crafts and pūniu, a small knee drum made of coconut shell. She also taught courses on pahu-making at the Kalihi-Pālama Culture and Arts Society. Wendell Silva, former director of the society, said that Hayashida knew the name of every seed, flower, shell and their many traditional uses, applications, proper techniques and protocols for use, as well as the cultural significance of eaeh. "She had the ability to be creative but still work within the tradition, whieh is hard to do," he said. Riding horses was one of Hayashida's favorite pastimes, and she even learned to rope cattle as a youth. Her love of horses led her to start a pā'ū unit in the 1980s. Her pā'ū unit gained wide recognition, and her expertise was in great demand by other pā'ū groups. Silva said he fondly called Aunty Hanai's house the Hawaiian Cultural Center of Pālolo because it was a central meeting plaee for all those who wanted to learn about Hawaiian culture. "She had the value system of her parents and kūpuna - to share with love," he says. "She didn't hold anything back. She'd say, 'No, I'm not going to take this knowledge to the grave when I die. I'm going to teach it so it lives on.""