Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 5, 1 May 2011 — STATE LEADERS RECOGNIZE AUNTY AGGIE COPE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STATE LEADERS RECOGNIZE AUNTY AGGIE COPE

Culture and health advocate Agnes Kalanihookaha Cope, seated at center, was honored recently at a ceremony in the state Senate ehambers. Fondly known as Aunty Aggie, Cope is a founder of the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center and a member of its Kūpuna Council. She also founded the Wai'anae Coast Culture and Arts Society more than four decades ago to preserve and perpetuate Native Hawaiian traditions and practices. Surrounded by traditional healers, Kūpuna Council members and CE0 Richard Bettini of the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center, Cope received a Senate Certificate of Honor and proclamation from Gov. Neil Abercrombie, center, declaring April 8, 201 1, as Agnes Kalanihookaha Cope Day in Hawai'i. Speakers included Sens. Maile Shimabukuro, Mālama Solomon and Brickwood Galuteria. Reps. Jo Jordan and Karen Awana also attended. Abercrombie said Cope set a standard for living aloha that others, including him, eonhnue to follow. On a more personal note, Abercrombie, a hānai son to Cope, said having two mothers - a birth mother and a hānai mother - was an "extraordinary privilege in this life." Cope earlier teased her hānai son, telling the gathering: "I used to pull his ears, and I told him just because you're governor, I ean still pull your ears." - Photo: LisaAsato