Posted on: Friday, April 12, 2002

Keiki hooked on old fishing arts

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

After a learning session on how to use a throw-net, Palani Carden, 13, tests his technique under the watchful eye of Glenn Kalima. Children from a Palama charter school went to Waimanalo to learn old-time fishing skills from elders. Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser

WAIMANALO — The ocean gives you life, but it can take your life away.

Those are two of the fishing lessons 91 children from Halau Lokahi charter school learned from Waimanalo kupuna Wednesday at a shoreline classroom at Kaiona Beach Park. The children from kindergarten to 11th grade also learned how to mend and throw a net; gut and scale a fish; read the wind and currents; safely pick 'opihi; set up an octopus lure; and paddle a canoe.

The Hawaiian fishing traditions and techniques, accumulated over generations by the members of the Waimanalo Ramp Fisherman Club, flowed freely to the younger generation, many of whom were not Hawaiian.

But the desire to preserve the information has prodded these kupuna, or elders, to find repositories for their skills and wisdom.

"It's fading away," said Haywood Kalima, 55, president of the fisherman's club that organized the lessons and provided lunch. "We want to teach what we know — the knowledge, the culture — so they can go on in life and teach their children."

The ocean is a big icebox. If you know how to throw a net, you'll never starve.

The kupuna-teachers, whom the students called uncle and auntie, said it was easy to learn to throw a net. But the children had their doubts until they tried. They concentrated as Uncle Bully Duarte patiently showed them how.

"It's hard to hold the net up on your body," said Kalima Watson, 10, who had to grasp one-third of the net in his left hand; place another third under his right armpit and hook it over his right shoulder; and drape the last third over his right knee. He opened the portion that was on his knee and took hold of a lead weight — and the net was ready to throw.

Duarte moved among the groups of students reviewing each step as the children struggled with the nets. He said he's eager to pass his knowledge to the students.

"All of my kids are on the Mainland," Duarte said. "I have to teach the kids or all the knowledge will die with me."

The lessons lasted all day under a blue sky dotted with scattered puffs of clouds and next to a clear ocean of gentle waves that washed upon the shore without breaking.

Besides members of the Ramp Fisherman Club, members of the Waimanalo Canoe Club taught the children. The only other time they taught was last summer, to University of Hawai'i freshmen from the Hawaiian studies class.

Sometimes it was difficult to tell where the lessons ended and the fun began, with children swimming, snorkeling and taking turns in the canoe.

The canoe is like a person who is deserving of respect and aloha. So when you're out in the water, if you take care of the canoe, it will take care of you.

Pomai Grube-Hose, 9, said it was fun to get a canoe moving through teamwork and to learn to clean a fish. Even the teachers are learning, said Grube-Hose, who enjoyed the family-like atmosphere at the beach.

"When we come here, you think this is your real family," she said. "They take care of us. They bring us in their situation."

At Halau Lokahi, learning is based on traditional Hawaiian values as well as on the Hawai'i Content Standards, said Leimaile Quitevis, in charge of the gifted and talented program at the school located at Palama Settlement. The students will return to the campus and use the computers and the Internet to research similar Western traditions, Quitevis said.

"We're using the beach as a learning environment, a learning center," she said.

Whatever the 'opihi eats, you eat. When you're picking 'opihi, always watch the ocean: It's dangerous and can take your life.

Long after many of the students dashed into the water to play, three to four of them were still focusing their efforts on learning to add eyes to throw-nets, under the supervision of net-maker Uncle Louis Palea.

Kele Anderson, 15, said learning the technique was difficult, but once he caught on, it went faster. Still he said he had to really concentrate to do it right.

Palea, 58, had told the students about the different parts of the throw-net: the piko, or center; the hula skirt, which traps the fish; and the pu'umana, added eyes that make it possible for the net to open.

Girls usually don't take to the net, Palea said, but several had expressed a keen interest, including Kuupilialoha Akana, 14.

"I never did this before," Akana said, after spending close to an hour working on the net. "I'm just trying a new thing."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.