Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 3, 1 March 2011 — SHARING MEA HAWAIʻI [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SHARING MEA HAWAIʻI

OHA Compliance Manager Kai Markell, center right, spent the morning of Jan. 1 9 sharing Hawaiian culture and mea Hawai'i (things of Hawai'i), with fourth graders at Cathedral Catholic Academy on Nu'uanu Avenue in Honolulu. Said Markell: "Ke Akua was in the house as we shared Hawaiian beliefs about ki'i pōhaku (stone images), akua kā'ai (stick images), 'uhane (spirit), 'aumakua (ancestral guardian spirits), and 'ānela kia'i (guardian angels). We talked about the means for daily survival and all the wonderful ingenuity and hard work of our beloved kūpuna reflected in stone and wood. The children lifted my spirits tremendously and I know the many spirits in the pōhaku, ki'i and all around the room shared their love with the mo'opuna." At left is teacher Lei Kondo - Photo: Courtesy ofKaiMarkell