Cultural renaissance in Maui waters
By Christie Wilson
Neighbor Island Editor
KAHULUI, Maui — For Maui's premier canoe club, building a powerhouse organization found its roots years ago from another cultural institution — hula.
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The Hawaiian Canoe Club, one of the favorites in Saturday's state championship regatta, used hula to bring the club's mission into focus, said head coach Diane Ho.
Youth paddlers of the Hawaiian Canoe Club prepare for practice at Kahului Harbor in preparation for Saturday's state regatta on Kaua'i.
Although the 325-member club has been around since 1960, its formidable success was set in motion 20 years ago after Ho and other leaders witnessed the beginning of the renaissance of Hawaiian culture, in particular the language and hula.
"We asked ourselves why was hula held in high-esteem and developing and why canoe paddling was associated with drinking and partying," Ho said. "Hula was going forward and making huge gains but it didn't seem like paddling was doing that."
So she and other club officials went to the annual Merrie Monarch hula festival in Hilo to learn the organizational secrets of hula halau. What they discovered was that the values that make a successful halau — discipline, bringing your best to the group, attaining the excellence evident in the precise movements of dancers, and even winning — were long-held Native Hawaiian traditions.
"We went back to Maui to our kumu hula, people like Hokulani Holt-Padilla and Keali'i Reichel, to learn what was Hawaiian about canoe paddling," Ho said.
From that introspection sprouted a commitment to nurture Hawaiian culture and the sport of canoe racing throughout the state.
"It's the state sport. This isn't Hawai'i without our culture and we have to take care of our canoe clubs," Ho said.
Another milestone in HCC history took place just three years ago, when HCC and neighbor club Na Kai 'Ewalu were given large club facilities courtesy of Maui County and Alexander & Baldwin at Hoaloha Park on the beachfront at windy Kahului Harbor.
HCC immediately set about remodeling the open-air concrete structure to section off an air-conditioned, second-floor office with a classroom and meeting room. Downstairs are bathrooms, a kitchen, a weight room and canoe storage.
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While most clubs still operate out of the trunk of somebody's car, Ho said the building gave HCC a place to run an office, use computers and store records, which ensured continuity and credibility in the community. It also has allowed the club to operate year-round.
With the canoe held in place, Hawaiian Canoe Club youth coach Paul Ka‘uhane Lu‘uwai shouts instructions to correct his paddlers’ technique
"Because you have credibility, a phone, a building, a paid staff member, you can get money," Ho said.
HCC has used the money it receives from government and foundation grants to run its summer Kamali'i program, begun in 1994. Seventy youths ages 9-14 participated in this year's program, learning Hawaiian culture while taking field trips to work in taro patches in Ke'anae and to harvest a koa log from the Kipahulu forest that will be hewed into a gleaming racing canoe.
The club also runs a youth leadership program for teens, offers academic tutoring, an after-school program for at-risk kids and helps arrange bus service so that keiki from all of Maui's canoe clubs can get rides to regattas.
As part of its reach into the community, HCC allows its canoe hale to be used for church services, hula halau practices and Hawaiian language classes by the Department of Education's School for Adults, and club members share canoe paddling and other aspects of Hawaiian culture with visiting groups from Japan and other countries.
In turn, the programs have helped maintain HCC's dominance in the sport, particularly in the keiki divisions. The club has won 17 straight Maui County Canoe Racing Association titles and is a consistent top-five finisher in the state regatta.
Now, HCC's organization has become a model for other canoe clubs around the state that have sent representatives to learn from its success.
To Ho and other club members, it's a no-brainer.
"What is it worth unless you can understand and teach, unless you share it as much as you can?" Ho said. "The possibilities are unlimited. My dream is that everybody gets to that point, every canoe club.
"Then we'll know the traditional values will get passed along."
Notes: The Hawaiian Canoe Club qualified a record 34 crews for Saturday's Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association State Championship Regatta on Kaua'i. No other team will have more than 30 crews. O'ahu champion Outrigger is closest with 29 crews. . . . "We'll be knocking on the door," said HCC men's coach Rory Frampton. "Our advantage is depth, but you have to have quality as well. We need consistency from every crew we put in the water and that's our best shot. We have to have a complete club effort.". . . Only one Neighbor Island club has ever won the state championship — Hanalei from Kaua'i in 1982. . . . The state regatta will consist of 36 races in various age divisions, ranging from 12-and-younger to 55-and-older. More than 3,000 paddlers are expected to participate.
