Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 11, 1 November 2007 — Living laulima [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Living laulima

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By Lisa Asatū Publicatiūns Editur Early on a recent Saturday morning, Calvin Hoe of the Hakipu'u Learning Center placed a sign at the corner of Kahekili Highway and Ha'ikū Road leading the way to a "Kalo Work Day." Some 200 people from across the state followed the sign to the foot of the Ko'olau Mountains, where they spent the next eight hours working to breathe life back into an ancient lo'i. "There's tons of these (lo'i), but nobody's taking care of them, and that's why we want to teach our students that this is kuleana for us," said Hoe, whose Hawaiian-culture focused charter school will care for the restored Waipao lo'i. The taro will be used for the school's luneh program and the site will provide a lab, he said, where students will learn science and culture, as well as host community programs. But first there was work to be done, and Hoe's son Kalā instructed the early morning group of the three tasks ahead: bringing stream water in via PVC pipes; removing roots, mostly hau, from the patch; and moving debris. "For those of us that have been to other kalo events and such, there's a tradition to bring in water and to plant the same day," he told the workers, who were armed with ehain saws, shovels, buckets, 'ō'ō, bare hands and brawn. "We're hoping to continue that tradition."

The school, working on land owned by Kamehameha Schools and opened by the landowner for educational and cultural use, was being helped by members of 'Onipa'a Na Hui Kalo, a statewide hui of taro farmers that for the past decade has been helping to

restore lo'i from Anahola, Kaua'i, to Waipi'o, Hawai'i Island. "The group eame to Waipi'o three years ago and ever since we've been coming to every event that they have to help out," said Keali'i Lilly, a kumu with Kanu o ka 'Āina charter school in Waimea, whieh brought three leaders and 15 students to the work day. Helping one another is what it's about, he said. "It's what we teach at our school: kōkua aku, kōkua mai. You give help and the help comes

back." Ten-year-old Saul Rosa eame with a cultural group from Waipā, Kaua'i, and was among a group of children helping Lilly extract a stubborn root from the soil. Rosa was having fun, he said, '"cause it makes me feel better that I know I'm

helping people instead of just standing around and watching. It feels better when you help someone than when you just take." Upstream, with their feet in the eool water, Hakipu'u student Jenna Iaela-Okazaki and her mom, Vyna Gonzales, were helping Chloe Shaw, a Kamehameha Schools freshman, gather rocks for a dam to raise the level of the water, whieh would be piped 300 feet downstream. They collected 'ili 'ili as the men and boys

gathered larger rocks. "Small hands get the small rocks," Shaw said. 'Onipa'a Na Hui Kalo was born more than a decade ago, after Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center hosted a work day to introduce itself to the Waialua community, where

it was opening a satellite office, said Gwen Kim, a Windward unit manager for QLCC and a founding member of the hui. "Hawaiians eame out of the woodwork," she said. "It was as if a silent pū had sounded." Statewide community work days grew out of that experienee and are now an annual event, she said, "and the conditions are you have to be invited by that community, you host it, and the 'Onipa'a comes." Asked why they eame on this Saturday, volunteers point-

ed to values like laulima (many hands), kāko'o (support), reconnection with the 'āina, and returning to the ground Hāloanakalaukapalili, big brother to all Hawaiians from whom sprouted the first kalo. "I'm enriched because of this," said kumu Nālei Kahakalau of Kanu o ka 'Āina. Calling taro patches "gifts from our ancestors," Calvin Hoe estimated the patch would produce taro in about a year. He held his granddaughter, whose mom and dad, Calvin's son Liko, met about 10 years ago at the first Hui Kalo gathering in Hālawa, Moloka'i, he said. "And I have a grandson, too, from that meeting." At day's end, fresh water filled the lo'i and people took turns planting huli, or taro tops, in the freshly turned soil. As the thunderous Blue Angels zigzagged overhead, Babette Black, an educational assistant at Hakipu'u, looked at the young lo'i and saw hope. "This is the richest, the best gift I could give my son: his identity," said Black, who felt stripped of her Hawaiian identity growing up. Her son, Jaysen Black-Ho'opai, is a Hakipu'u sophomore and quarterback for Castle High's JV football squad, whieh was heading to the playoffs. But she was prouder that he had worked and dug dirt at the lo'i that moming before heading to practice. "Playing football, he's all-star quarterback over there," she said. "This is all-star to me." E3

MĀLAMA 'ĀINA • CARING FDR ĪHE

Left: Calvin Hoe and granddaughter AAaile. Above: KūIū Hoe (left) and Nalei Kūhūkūlau (right) receive help building a dam, where water for the lo'i starts its 300-foot journey downstream. - Photos: LisaAsato