Posted on: Friday, November 1, 2002
HAWAIIAN STYLE
Students challenged to uncover true lore of the land
David Manu Bird teaches local folks about local things.
Bird brings to the course English 217, "Writing About O'ahu," 30 years of life experience in these Islands and an almost overflowing love of the land. And he expects a certain amount of the same from his students. If not, he tries to instill it.
He directs his Leeward Community College students to "nana i ke kumu": Look to the (original) source. Talk to the "living treasures" of this place, the curators of things historic, the keepers of the knowledge, the gate-keepers of the legacy who will one day be gone. They include everything from community notables to the maka'ainana, literally "those who attend the land," as well as sometimes little-known reservoirs of information of things local: university, museum and church archives, government and historic society reference centers, the Web — even tourist spots.
"You can learn from these, too," he said.
What his students find ranges from the curious — Jesus on a surfboard on a church's stained-glass window — to the heartfelt — the story of the last hours of a young man's father.
Sometimes, the students' pursuits take them back in history. One student, niele, or curious, about the popular drive to save Waiahole/
Waikane lands in the mid-1970s, went back to the source to learn of the 80 agrarian families who led a populist revolt, refusing eviction from their leased land to make way for a massive housing development. With unprecedented statewide support, they forged a victory against the post-statehood development boom.
Willing valley residents in four-wheel-drive vehicles bounced hard around 'auwai, down culverts and over streams to show him the land firsthand. Dinner at their home was mixed with hours of talk-story, "verbal history."
One student used Bird's class to save her own land, researching family ownership records of the Great Mahele — and successfully fending off a pending commercial "quick claim" on the property.
Of the most memorable papers was the student who wrote of Tripler Army Medical Center, where his father had lost his fight for life after being wounded in Vietnam.
The student "even went to the morgue (to see where his father lay). He had to confront his demons. It was very powerful writing," said Bird.
Bird is vigilant against perpetuating half- or untruths, knowing that the students' research becomes part of history. One paper told of a cockroach and of Jesus on a surfboard in the stained-glass facade at St. Andrew's Cathedral.
"Well," said Jenny Wallace, director of Christian Formation for the church, laughing, "It's close to true. Actually it's Jesus during 'The Ascension' " on a surfboard-shaped cloud.
But when the question was asked of the original stained-glass artist, he chose not to answer, perpetuating the mystery — and popular appeal — of the story.
As for the cockroach, said Wallace, "It's a termite," that perpetual invader of Hawai'i abode — even if it's God's abode.
Class topics this year include La Pietra, Wahiawa Botanic Gardens, The Moana Hotel, Hale'iwa and Dillingham Air Field.
For some sites, a certain background in Island ways, language and history is essential: Windward fishponds, O'ahu Cemetery, Lili'u's last days ... or "Ohhh, Royal Mausoleum (Mauna Ala)," he said.
That's one he hopes someone will choose one semester. "It'll take a special person with that reverence (for the culture) to make it truly effective," he said.
For himself, Bird has an abiding interest in Lanihuli, the prominent Nu'uanu Pali peak, overlooking Kamehameha's Battle of the Pali.
"I'm intrigued," he said. "By legend and mana, it's a benevolent place — very beautiful.
Bird commutes by bicycle and bus and sometimes gets off at Kailua's Pohakupu just to look at Lanihuli. He wrote a chant in English about the mountain.
His kumu hula daughter translated it into Hawaiian and it became a gift for his wife's 50th birthday.
And to himself.
