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Hawai'i Alaka'i Project (Community Mentor Program) 2004

HAWAI'I 2004
The Arts of Life

Hawai'i is the most isolated archipelago on Earth - over 2,000 miles from any other land -but it was inhabited by Polynesian "wayfinders" by 500 A.D. at the latest and possibly as early as 100 A.D. Hawai'i's Pacific Ocean neighborhood engulfs a third of our planet and is larger than all our continents combined. It's 995 parts water to 5 parts land, yet almost all of its more than 10,000 islands had been discovered long before European explorers arrived in the region a few centuries ago. Extensive open-going voyaging settled the vast, remote Polynesian Triangle of islands and made possible the astonishment of Captain Cook at coming upon what he called "the most extensive nation on Earth."

(from "The Soft, Warm, Wet Technology of Native Oceania," by Harriet Witt-Miller, Whole Earth Review, Fall 1991.)

The skills of the wayfinder, like the skills of the tracker, are based on awareness and observation of the natural world. It is important not only to observe, but also to interpret the raw data and notice recurring patterns.

The Grade 7 'Ohe team, Kamehameha Schools, at Ho'omaluhia, O'ahu.

Last February we returned to the Hawaiian Islands for our annual Arts of Life - Hawai'i program, sharing our traditional tracking and cultural awareness programs with the youth of Hawai'i. We also had time to visit with friends and wahi pana (sacred sites) on the shores of O'ahu. In June, we returned to O'ahu's North Shore with a team of Native American elders, artists and Tracking Project staff to take part in the third year of the Alaka'i Project, our Hawaiian community mentor program hosted by the Kamehameha Schools.

These visits represented the eighteenth consecutive year of work with the traditional movement in Hawai'i Nei. Since our early work with cultural activists, land issues and the sovereignty movement in 1985 , our programs have continued to evolve and adapt to island life. Together with local cultural practitioners and artists, advised by our Native Hawaiian Advisory Council members, we have put together a package of survival / awareness skills that appeal to the youth, training their senses to experience the natural world in a way that cultivates connection, understanding and empathy with the remarkable environment of the Hawaiian Islands.

As we continued to deepen our ties with land and life, our February programs included:

O'ahu

* Work with all the Grade 1 students at Kamehameha Elementary School, walking in the mountains above the campus in the early morning, drawing connections between nature observation and art. Accentuating the skills of silent movement, observation and meditation. Letting each child know - "You are an artist." Thanks to Anna Lee, Faith, the Grade 1 teachers and assistants.

* Work with all the Grade 2 students at Kamehameha, playing traditional games of North and South America that draw on skills of silence and obervation. From the stalking game "Stealing the firewood" to the Amazonian game asking the snakes not to bother the people , these games delighted the students. Thanks to Joyce Ahuna Ka'ai'ai and all the Grade 2 teachers.

* Work with Brad Cooper and about 100 seventh graders of the 'Ohe team from Kamehameha Mid-school campus. We used the natural classroom of the Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden in Kailua to look at survival skills, the connections between Polynesian wayfinding and hard-ground tracking, as well as a cross-cultural approach to the edible, medicinal and practical uses of Hawaiian plants. Our thanks to Brad, who has kept this program alive since the early 1990's, and the teachers of the 'Ohe team .

* A day-long visit with the upper elementary students of the Hawaiian Language Immersion program at the Kamakau School in Kane'ohe, beginning with the chanting of the Hawaiian students and moving out under the kamani tree by the water's edge for the Thanksgiving Address, a workout and demonstrations of traditional firemaking. Thanks to Miki Maeshiro and Kalani.

* A short visit with Toshiko Takaezu - world famous ceramicist, teacher and long-time friend.

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