KEAU’U, Hawaii – The preservation of culture and precious tradition is becoming increasingly more difficult as the world becomes smaller and more standardized. Individuals are replacing unique cultural lessons with homogenous practices and losing their sense of individuality.
At the Ola’a Community Center after school program, “Kupukupu,” Hawaiian children are learning first hand the depth of culture and tradition they are a part of in order for them to stay on track and grow to be strong Hawaiian adults.
Kupukupu founder and University of Hawaii Community College professor Trina Nahm-Mijo said she developed the program with advisor Rachel Kruse when they saw the impact “ice” or crystal meth was having on families in the Puna region of the Big Island.
“This is the third-lowest socio-economic location in the state and this island is the worst for any factor you want to pick out – drug use, child abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence,” Nahm-Mijo said. “We wanted to give Hawaiian children the skills they need and the opportunity to pursue their talents and create products that reflect their life stories.”
To Kruse, this meant developing a curriculum that would teach and celebrate the Hawaiian creation story, cultural knowledge and traditional ceremony.
“I want them to be proud of where they come from,” Kruse said. “I tell them, if you’re going to stand for something, stand for Kumukahi, the First Source, where the sun rises. … with each day, there is a new beginning.”
Kruse said many Puna students identify with poverty or heightened levels of drug use in the region rather than with the cultural history and significance of the area – such as the fact that because the Big Island of Hawaii is the eastern most island in the state, the sun rises here first, hitting land at Kumukahi point.
Kruse said that by connecting children to their culture and their land, they are connected to their family and their traditions providing a sense of self and pride.
“I try to get the kids to understand all the gifts they have on this island and then when they get it, they are so excited and tell their parents. So it has an impact on the whole family,” she said.
Beside the community center where the daily after school program takes place is a large mural depicting kalo (the taro plant) accompanied by the handprints of the children who painted it. Before this painting is a small nursery of both wet and dry-land kalo, sweet potatoes, ti and a few coffee and tomato plants.
The advisors explained that the youth programs are student-driven; despite the fact that Kruse planned to teach the children about taro, it is the students who chose to cultivate the plants due to their availability and significance in Hawaiian culture.
“I wanted them to learn about the kalo. It’s important for them to learn the mythology. Kalo is like their brother, one of their ancestors,” Kruse said. “And the ti is kinolao, a protector,” she said pointing to the plantings around the doors and entrances.
Kupukupu instructor Jasmine Kupihea, who is also studying Hawaiian lifestyle and mahi’ai (farming) at Hawaii Community College, explained that kalo is at the center of Hawaiian life.
In the Hawaiian creation story, Kupihea said, Papa (the Earth Woman) and Wakea (Sky Father) gave birth to a child who became the most beautiful woman of time. When she grew to adulthood, she became pregnant and delivered a stillborn baby who was named Haloanaka (ha – breath, loa – long, ka – quivering).
From the place that Haloanaka was buried grew kalo, with a long stem and leaf that quivers in the wind.
Kupihea said kalo is at the center of Hawaiian life and all traditions.
“We like to grow it because it tastes good,” 12-year-old Kupukupu student Kahekili Donner, said. “And my uncle had to go down to Waipio Valley way down into the field to collect it for our family to use.”
In addition to cultivating the traditional food crops, the students learn to use the produce in traditional recipes such as lau lau. One of the students’ experiences involved a journey to a local ti leaf farm where they cleaned the ti plants and then harvested enough for their meal.
In making the lau lau the students placed a taro leaf in their hand upon which they placed pork, pork fat, salted butterfish and sweet potato, which was placed upon a ti leaf. This leaf was then tied in a traditional manner.
Kupukupu instructor Robert Ronia stressed the importance of tying the ti leaf.
“This is how you do it from long time. It’s an art that’s being lost. Nowadays you’ll see people tie the leaf with a string or rubber band. Some people just use tin foil to wrap the lau lau in and that’s what the children are learning. I wanted them to know this way,” he said.
When complete, Ronia steamed the packages for hours in an outdoor oven and then sent each child home with several bags of lau lau.
Had it been completely traditional, Ronia said, the steaming would have been conducted through the night in an imu (traditional earth oven made of volcanic rock).
Kupihea said the cultural activities have ignited the students’ interest in their region and customs. The students have requested to learn the traditional method of pounding taro to make poi (taro paste) and need not be asked to go outside to care for their plants.
In addition to cultural activities, the students devote daily time to their schoolwork, computer activities and sports. They gleam with happiness and pride in their work.
“When we started Ola’a, which means sacred, we named the program Kupukupu, or First Shoots. This refers to the first shoots that grow out of the volcanic lava to symbolize that out of the harshest conditions, you can spring a bud and new life can grow,” Nahm-Mijo said.
For more information about the program visit www.olaacommunitycenter.com.
