In this installment of the Hui Mälama Ulu Series of stories, we take a look at hana no‘eau and Hawaiian teaching. Hana no‘eau is often translated as “art”, but in Hawaiian thinking there is some debate as to what art is. Most of the crafts considered to be Hawaiian art are actually significant pieces to daily life.
‘Ike Hawai‘i Content Standards: Hana No‘eau
· E ho‘omaopopo mai ‘o ko käkou mo‘omeheu he wahi ho‘omana, ‘ike a me ka nohona mai waena mai o ko käkou po‘e känaka i mea e mahalo ai i nä ‘ano ‘oko‘a o ka hana no‘eau.
Understand our Hawaiian culture as a system of beliefs, knowledge, and practices shared by our people for the purpose of appreciating particular forms of hana no‘eau.
· E ho‘omaopopo a ho‘ohana pono aku i nä pono hana no‘eau, nä ki‘ina a me nä ka‘ina hana no‘eau ma ka hakuhia ‘ana mai i ka mäpuna me ke a‘o pü ‘ana i ka ‘ike kumu.
Understand and apply materials, techniques, and processes in creating and expressing oneself through a variety of hana no‘eau experiences while learning about the elements and techniques.
Making it Maoli
Hoaka Delos-Reyes
~Excerpt from The Maui Nö Ka ‘Oi Magazine: Making it Maoli
At the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, a large, circular stone stands upended, its face carved in relief. A mo‘o, or guardian lizard, climbs its circumference, while around a central “portal,” a pair of human figures curl in fetal position, one facing up, the other down. The portal represents eternity. The figures are humans traveling to and from it, one in birth, one in death. Remarkable to find something ethereal as a metaphor in an element so substantial. Remarkable, too, to find a poet in its creator, Hoaka Delos-Reyes.
“Hawaiian art is a genealogy of past, present and future,” he says. “You grow up with the culture, but you don’t use it. Later it awakens in you. Remembering is the connection.”
A mason in the construction trade most of his life, Delos-Reyes came late to his Hawaiian roots and his art.
“My son came home and said, ‘Dad, can you make a poi pounder?’ I said, ‘What’s so hard about that?’ He said, ‘You can’t use power tools. How did they make things back in the day?’
“I drove around the island, talking to elders. Kupunas said it’s done stone on stone. I came home, asked my son, ‘Can I use a hammer to chip the stone?’ Couple weeks went by, and I made it.”
“It kind of looked like a poi pounder,” Maile Delos-Reyes, Hoaka’s wife, says wryly.
“My son said it sufficed for him, but for me it opened the door. I went to libraries, talked with people. One day a friend on O‘ahu said, ‘There’s a man on TV, on Spectrum. Go see him.’”
The man was George Fujinaga, a Japanese-Hawaiian stone carver who was recognized as a living treasure by the State of Hawai‘i. Delos-Reyes became Fujinaga’s last student—and it almost didn’t happen.
“My friend went to see him, and said, ‘I have a friend on Maui who would like to come learn.’ Fujinaga says, ‘No. I don’t teach. Go away.’
“I call up a couple weeks later and say, ‘Try go see him again.’ My friend did. Fujinaga said, ‘What don’t you understand? No is no!’
“Months go by. I’m trying myself, making poi pounders using hammer, sandpaper. I call my friend again. ‘Please, just one more time.’
“The old man sees him. ‘You again? I tell you no, and you still coming! Boy, you really must love your friend to take this abuse. Okay. Have him call me.’
“I called. He told me to bring a poi pounder. I brought the best I had. He looks; first thing he says is, ‘You already made one. You don’t need me.’
“I said, ‘I want to know traditionally how to make it. I want to do and feel and understand for myself what they felt, the people of old.’
“He said, ‘You take time off, one week, and I will teach you everything I learned in sixty years.’ One week! It was old style: hard scolding, pay attention, don’t ask questions. The week ends, I know how to do it. I walk away with a sense of pride.
“Now I want to know more about the stone. The stone started to shape me, not the other way around. There was more to the stone than you could possibly understand.
“When I talk to children, I say, back in the day, did the Hawaiians go to Ace Hardware and get chisel and sandpaper? How did they make the canoe and the surfboard? How did they build the house? They had stone tools. An adze, a ko‘i, different sizes, to chop down the tree, to shape it, stone grinders to smooth it out, to dig the canoe, to make the paddles, build the house, strip the bark. Stone sinkers for fishing nets. Underground ovens used stones. When you got hurt and ran to your mother, she took stone and mashed herbs to heal you. Stone fills the valleys. Stone is above us, in the planets. This is how Hawaiian art mirrors life and has a spiritual connection to the past: That which is above is below. That which is inside is outside.”
….“There was a point,” says Maile, “when he went back to his teacher and said, ‘Plenty people tell me this isn’t authentic because I’m using power tools.’ George told him, ‘Tell them you have the knowledge, you have the stones and chisels. You can do. Those who question you, tell them, “If you can do it, sit down with me and we will do it together.””
In the featured mo‘olelo on Hoaka Delos-Reyes’s journey creating poi pounder and his more current work at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, the above hana no‘eau elements are clearly visible: his persistence and faith, hö‘ihi, becoming mäkaukau to the right tools (both physical and inner tools), developing layers of seeing, adapting new tools to ancient techniques with the right understanding, and most of all his pono relationship to his son, his friend, his kumu, his ancestors and his creation.
Hana No‘eau On-going Unwrapping Efforts & Its Connection to the Mo‘olelo 3
‘Ike:
Forms of Hana No‘eau
[Written expression, physical object and performance, e.g. hula, oli, mele, pule, oratory, visual arts, literary arts, performing arts, athletics, cooking, etc.]
In the mo‘olelo: Poi Pounder
Cultural context/genealogy or mo‘olelo of particular hana no‘eau and its adaptive practices
In the mo‘olelo: : ‘Imi ‘Ike, i.e. searching for deeper knowledge through research, making the poi pounder, persistence and faith that he will find a kumu and experimentations
Relationship governing hana no‘eau [“küpuna – haumäna,” “man-nature-ancestors/spirit – future generations,”
“layers of accessible kaona (in choice of materials and techniques),” “mana of knowledge – mana of kumu – mana of creator,” “personal kuleana”]
In the mo‘olelo: son’s faith in dad, father as a model in trying, trust in friend, friend’s trust in genuine intention, friend’s efforts communicating with kumu, kumu’s testing of potential haumäna, haumäna’s faith and persistence in following kumu’s instructions, stone starts to shape the carver, haumäna becoming the kumu, and becoming the kumu in the image of his kumu.
Hana:
Develop layers of seeing: Haumäna applies the cultural principles of the past to the present context.
In the mo‘olelo: eye for picking the right stone for the poi pounder, eye to choose the right hammer, the stone to be carved is now seen as stone’s mana influencing the carver and sees the act of making the poi pounder with power tools differently now that he’s experienced the authentic way
Demonstrate Maiau: be neat, precise, accurate, skillful, ingenious, thorough and tidy
In the mo‘olelo: his wife gave a look of doubt at his first attempt
Apply skills of particular hana no‘eau to practice, imitate and create/perform.
In the mo‘olelo: many experiments
Align purpose-use-function-material-design [includes managing resources, kinolau or many forms of kupua, actual use]
In the mo‘olelo: align contemporary tools with traditional intention
Practice personal kuleana through mälama: Hana no‘eau, tools, spirit, people and place; spiritual aspect of materials, such as giving mahalo, aloha, respect to what we use/used.
In the mo‘olelo: kumu on O‘ahu and haumäna on Maui, questioned if kumu will teach, only one week to learn, thus practiced intense focus, questioned if he can use modern tools, developed responsibility to the stones and to other materials
Ola:
Create new application with personal interpretation.
In the mo‘olelo: created a poi pounder on his own, articulating in new form
Express through hö‘ike.
In the mo‘olelo: demonstrated through hö‘ike and walked away with pride
Continue to Learn through articulating created form and expression.
In the mo‘olelo: repeated creation
Practice personal kuleana through mälama.
In the mo‘olelo: nurturing his spirit and nurturing the family’s spirit, especially that of his son’s, seeing purpose beyond doing his son’s project, passing on the kuleana of teaching to those who question – in the same way his kumu tested the haumäna
A Language Note: Pöhaku kuÿi ÿai
The pöhaku ku’i ‘ai is referred to as a poi pounder in the article and by the carver himself. Hui Mälama Ulu would like to provide further clarification on the term, “pöhaku ku‘i ‘ai.”
In the Hawaiian language, the word ‘ai denotes any vegetable matter used for food, and more specifically refers to cooked taro. When this cooked taro is peeled for further processing, it is called ‘ai pa‘a.
In the poi-making process, a specialized implement made of pöhaku (stone) is used to ku‘i (pound) the ‘ai pa‘a. Therefore, this stone implement is called a pöhaku ku‘i ‘ai. In this procedure, the ‘ai pa‘a is processed on a specially-made board called a papa ku‘i ‘ai (‘ai-pounding board).
Over several stages, the pöhaku ku‘i ‘ai is used to mash, grate, and ku‘i the ‘ai pa‘a into a firm mass called ‘ai pa‘i. Water is used sparingly during this process to keep the ‘ai pa‘i from sticking to either the pöhaku or the papa. As described in Handy, Handy, & Pukui’s Native Planters in Old Hawaii, “this [‘ai pa‘i], dried and wrapped tightly in ti-leaf packets like small bricks, is pa‘i ‘ai. (112)”
This pa‘i ‘ai may be placed in a suitable container and mixed/thinned with water. The result is what Hawaiians traditionally term poi.
Sources:
Elbert and Pukui. Hawaiian Dictionary. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press (revised and enlarged edition), 1986.
Handy, Handy, and Pukui. Native Planters in Old Hawaii. Honolulu, HI: Bishop Museum Press (revised edition), 1991.