Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 12, 1 December 2015 — --NA KOA LIMU-- Natural resource protector Uncle Henry is remembered [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

--NA KOA LIMU--Natural resource protector Uncle Henry is remembered

By Wallaee "Wally" K. lto Henry Chang Wo Jr. was a very humhle, gentle and soft spoken man. Evervbodv

I I knew him as Unele Henry. From 'ōpio to kupuna, he introduced himself as Unele Henry. He was generous to a fault. Henry Chang Wo Jr., a guardian of our oeean heritage, passed away at the age of 74. He shared his limu knowledge with anyone who asked

and was willing to listen. Whenever he would share his limu knowledge people would in turn share their knowledge with him. But he always wamed them "If you no like everybody know, no tell me 'cause I going tell everybody." And that was his style. Unele Henry grew up in Hālawa Housing and played in the streams, fishponds and waters of Pu'uloa (Pearl Harbor). In 1971 the family was forced to move out of the housing complex to make way for the construction of Aloha Stadium. His parents Henry Chang Wo and Irene Kekona Chang Wo moved to the 'Ewa Beach community. Unele Henry's introduction into the world of limu started as a young boy when his mother and grandmother dragged himalong whenever they went to the heaeh. They were expert spear fishers, 'opihi pickers andlimu gatherers. Unele Henry was their bag boy and that is how he was educated on how to harvest from the oeean. His father was not mueh of an oeean person so all of his early education in limu eame from his mother and grandmother. Occasionally he would make fun of one of his mother and grandmother's limu picking techniques. He called it the limu dance. He

would moek the way they used their feet to feel for the right kind of limu and when they found it they would either use their toes to piek up or use the limu dance to keen

their hair from getting wet. He taught many people how to do his signature limu dance. Although he was generally described as a gentle and unassuming man, Unele Henry had the heart of a warrior. He heeame concerned when his plaee, Hau Bush, often referred to as the

House of Limu, was losing its limu. Unele Henry noticed that as the Ewa plains transitioned from agricultural use to housing development and golf courses his limu beds suffered. This brought out the warrior in him. He fought to restore limu. He fought to minimize the impact that future development would have on limu. In the last 15 years of his life Unele Henry travelled to almost all corners of Na Kai 'Ewalu (main islands) to spread the story of the loss of limu in the House of Limu. He told other communities not to let it happen. When he attended the popular Hana Limu Festival last year he stopped in Kīhei at a plaee he regularly gathered limu to share. It was desolate. With his passing some of these battles may be dropped. But days before he passed he asked KUA the organization where I now work to carry on his fight. We will do our best to keep his legacy and fight alive. ■ Wally Ito is former refrigeration/ air conditioning repairman. He gave up that career to heeome a manne biologist. He has spent the last six years working with Unele Henry and the 'Ewa Beach Limu Project and is currently the Limu Hui Coordinator for Kua 'Āi.na Ulu 'Auamo (KUA).

j HEHO'OMANA'O ^ > IN MEM0RIAM f

Henry Chang Wo Jr. - Photo: Courtesy