In this installment of the Hui M\u00e4lama Ulu Series of stories, we take a look at hana no\u2018eau and Hawaiian teaching.\u00a0 Hana no\u2018eau is often translated as “art”, but in Hawaiian thinking there is some debate as to what art is.\u00a0 Most of the crafts considered to be Hawaiian art are actually significant pieces to daily life.<\/p>\n
\u2018Ike Hawai\u2018i Content Standards:\u00a0 Hana No\u2018eau
\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 E ho\u2018omaopopo mai \u2018o ko k\u00e4kou mo\u2018omeheu he wahi ho\u2018omana, \u2018ike a me ka nohona mai waena mai o ko k\u00e4kou po\u2018e k\u00e4naka i mea e mahalo ai i n\u00e4 \u2018ano \u2018oko\u2018a o ka hana no\u2018eau.
\nUnderstand 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\u2018eau.<\/p>\n
\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 E ho\u2018omaopopo a ho\u2018ohana pono aku i n\u00e4 pono hana no\u2018eau, n\u00e4 ki\u2018ina a me n\u00e4 ka\u2018ina hana no\u2018eau ma ka hakuhia \u2018ana mai i ka m\u00e4puna me ke a\u2018o p\u00fc \u2018ana i ka \u2018ike kumu.
\nUnderstand and apply materials, techniques, and processes in creating and expressing oneself through a variety of hana no\u2018eau experiences while learning about the elements and techniques.<\/p>\n
Making it Maoli
\nHoaka Delos-Reyes
\n~Excerpt from The Maui N\u00f6 Ka \u2018Oi Magazine:\u00a0 Making it Maoli
\nAt the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, a large, circular stone stands upended, its face carved in relief.\u00a0 A mo\u2018o, or guardian lizard, climbs its circumference, while around a central \u201cportal,\u201d 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cHawaiian art is a genealogy of past, present and future,\u201d he says. \u201cYou grow up with the culture, but you don\u2019t use it. Later it awakens in you. Remembering is the connection.\u201d<\/p>\n
A mason in the construction trade most of his life, Delos-Reyes came late to his Hawaiian roots and his art.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son came home and said, \u2018Dad, can you make a poi pounder?\u2019 I said, \u2018What\u2019s so hard about that?\u2019\u00a0 He said, \u2018You can\u2019t use power tools. How did they make things back in the day?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI drove around the island, talking to elders. Kupunas said it\u2019s done stone on stone.\u00a0 I came home, asked my son, \u2018Can I use a hammer to chip the stone?\u2019 Couple weeks went by, and I made it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of looked like a poi pounder,\u201d Maile Delos-Reyes, Hoaka\u2019s wife, says wryly.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son said it sufficed for him, but for me it opened the door.\u00a0 I went to libraries, talked with people.\u00a0 One day a friend on O\u2018ahu said, \u2018There\u2019s a man on TV, on Spectrum. Go see him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The man was George Fujinaga, a Japanese-Hawaiian stone carver who was recognized as a living treasure by the State of Hawai\u2018i.\u00a0 Delos-Reyes became Fujinaga\u2019s last student\u2014and it almost didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy friend went to see him, and said, \u2018I have a friend on Maui who would like to come learn.\u2019 Fujinaga says, \u2018No. I don\u2019t teach. Go away.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI call up a couple weeks later and say, \u2018Try go see him again.\u2019\u00a0 My friend did. Fujinaga said, \u2018What don\u2019t you understand? No is no!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cMonths go by. I\u2019m trying myself, making poi pounders using hammer, sandpaper.\u00a0 I call my friend again. \u2018Please, just one more time.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe old man sees him.\u00a0 \u2018You again? I tell you no, and you still coming! Boy, you really must love your friend to take this abuse.\u00a0 Okay. Have him call me.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI called.\u00a0 He told me to bring a poi pounder.\u00a0 I brought the best I had.\u00a0 He looks; first thing he says is, \u2018You already made one. You don\u2019t need me.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018I 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.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018You take time off, one week, and I will teach you everything I learned in sixty years.\u2019\u00a0 One week!\u00a0 It was old style: hard scolding, pay attention, don\u2019t ask questions.\u00a0 The week ends, I know how to do it.\u00a0 I walk away with a sense of pride.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 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?\u00a0 How did they build the house?\u00a0 They had stone tools. An adze, a ko\u2018i, 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2026.\u201cThere was a point,\u201d says Maile, \u201cwhen he went back to his teacher and said, \u2018Plenty people tell me this isn\u2019t authentic because I\u2019m using power tools.\u2019 George told him, \u2018Tell them you have the knowledge, you have the stones and chisels. You can do. Those who question you, tell them, \u201cIf you can do it, sit down with me and we will do it together.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n
In the featured mo\u2018olelo on Hoaka Delos-Reyes\u2019s journey creating poi pounder and his more current work at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua, the above hana no\u2018eau elements are clearly visible:\u00a0 his persistence and faith, h\u00f6\u2018ihi, becoming m\u00e4kaukau 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.<\/p>\n
Hana No\u2018eau On-going Unwrapping Efforts & Its Connection to the Mo\u2018olelo 3<\/p>\n
\u2018Ike:
\nForms of Hana No\u2018eau
\n[Written expression, physical object and performance, e.g. hula, oli, mele, pule, oratory, visual arts, literary arts, performing arts, athletics, cooking, etc.]
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo: Poi Pounder<\/p>\n
Cultural context\/genealogy or mo\u2018olelo of particular hana no\u2018eau and its adaptive practices
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo: :\u00a0 \u2018Imi \u2018Ike, i.e. searching for deeper knowledge through research, making the poi pounder, persistence and faith that he will find a kumu and experimentations<\/p>\n
Relationship governing hana no\u2018eau [\u201ck\u00fcpuna \u2013 haum\u00e4na,\u201d \u201cman-nature-ancestors\/spirit \u2013 future generations,\u201d
\n\u201clayers of accessible kaona (in choice of materials and techniques),\u201d \u201cmana of knowledge \u2013 mana of kumu \u2013 mana of creator,\u201d \u201cpersonal kuleana\u201d]
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo: son\u2019s faith in dad, father as a model in trying, trust in friend, friend\u2019s trust in genuine intention, friend\u2019s efforts communicating with kumu, kumu\u2019s testing of potential haum\u00e4na, haum\u00e4na\u2019s faith and persistence in following kumu\u2019s instructions, stone starts to shape the carver, haum\u00e4na becoming the kumu, and becoming the kumu in the image of his kumu.<\/p>\n
Hana:
\nDevelop layers of seeing:\u00a0 Haum\u00e4na applies the cultural principles of the past to the present context.
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo: 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\u2019s mana influencing the carver and sees the act of making the poi pounder with power tools differently now that he\u2019s experienced the authentic way<\/p>\n
Demonstrate Maiau: be neat, precise, accurate, skillful, ingenious, thorough and tidy
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo:\u00a0 his wife gave a look of doubt at his first attempt<\/p>\n
Apply skills of particular hana no\u2018eau to practice, imitate and create\/perform.
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo:\u00a0 many experiments<\/p>\n
Align purpose-use-function-material-design [includes managing resources, kinolau or many forms of kupua, actual use]
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo: align contemporary tools with traditional intention<\/p>\n
Practice personal kuleana through m\u00e4lama:\u00a0 Hana no\u2018eau, tools, spirit, people and place; spiritual aspect of materials, such as giving mahalo, aloha, respect to what we use\/used.
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo: kumu on O\u2018ahu and haum\u00e4na 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<\/p>\n
Ola:
\nCreate new application with personal interpretation.
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo: created a poi pounder on his own, articulating in new form<\/p>\n
Express through h\u00f6\u2018ike.
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo: demonstrated through h\u00f6\u2018ike and walked away with pride<\/p>\n
Continue to Learn through articulating created form and expression.
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo:\u00a0 repeated creation<\/p>\n
Practice personal kuleana through m\u00e4lama.
\nIn the mo\u2018olelo: nurturing his spirit and nurturing the family\u2019s spirit, especially that of his son\u2019s, seeing purpose beyond doing his son\u2019s project, passing on the kuleana of teaching to those who question \u2013 in the same way his kumu tested the haum\u00e4na<\/p>\n
A Language Note:\u00a0 P\u00f6haku ku\u00ffi \u00ffai
\nThe p\u00f6haku ku’i ‘ai is referred to as a poi pounder in the article and by the carver himself.\u00a0 Hui M\u00e4lama Ulu would like to provide further clarification on the term, \u201cp\u00f6haku ku\u2018i \u2018ai.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Hawaiian language, the word \u2018ai denotes any vegetable matter used for food, and more specifically refers to cooked taro.\u00a0 When this cooked taro is peeled for further processing, it is called \u2018ai pa\u2018a.<\/p>\n
In the poi-making process, a specialized implement made of p\u00f6haku (stone) is used to ku\u2018i (pound) the \u2018ai pa\u2018a.\u00a0 Therefore, this stone implement is called a p\u00f6haku ku\u2018i \u2018ai.\u00a0 In this procedure, the \u2018ai pa\u2018a is processed on a specially-made board called a papa ku\u2018i \u2018ai (\u2018ai-pounding board).<\/p>\n
Over several stages, the p\u00f6haku ku\u2018i \u2018ai is used to mash, grate, and ku\u2018i the \u2018ai pa\u2018a into a firm mass called \u2018ai pa\u2018i.\u00a0 Water is used sparingly during this process to keep the \u2018ai pa\u2018i from sticking to either the p\u00f6haku or the papa.\u00a0 As described in Handy, Handy, & Pukui’s Native Planters in Old Hawaii, \u201cthis [\u2018ai pa\u2018i], dried and wrapped tightly in ti-leaf packets like small bricks, is pa\u2018i \u2018ai. (112)\u201d<\/p>\n
This pa\u2018i \u2018ai may be placed in a suitable container and mixed\/thinned with water. The result is what Hawaiians traditionally term poi.<\/p>\n
Sources:
\nElbert and Pukui. Hawaiian Dictionary. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press (revised and enlarged edition), 1986.
\nHandy, Handy, and Pukui.\u00a0 Native Planters in Old Hawaii.\u00a0 Honolulu, HI: Bishop Museum Press (revised edition), 1991.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In this installment of the Hui M\u00e4lama Ulu Series of stories, we take a look at hana no\u2018eau and Hawaiian teaching.\u00a0 Hana no\u2018eau is often translated as “art”, but in Hawaiian thinking there is some debate as to what art … Continue reading