Fishing canoe spawns cultural rebirth

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer

For more than two decades along the Wai'anae Coast — home to the largest population of Native Hawaiians anywhere — an ever-increasing segment of indigenous people have been acquainting themselves with a cultural past once so neglected as to be in danger of being lost.

This is what the 'opelu canoe looked like last summer as it was being transformed from a Big Island koa log into Keaolani O Wai'anae, believed to be the first koa fishing canoe carved in Wai'anae in 150 years. Ka'ala Farm

When the community began carving a fishing vessel from a koa log back in June, they knew they were undertaking a time-honored tradition. But even they have been awed by where the process has taken them, and by the power of what they have created — a 24-foot 'opelu canoe, throwback to the time of kings, revered tie to their origins and now a symbol of cultural rebirth.

Second-generation canoe builder Bobby Puakea believes that Hawai'i was probably still a monarchy the last time a koa fishing canoe was carved from a koa log in Wai'anae.

"Hawaiians are relearning our way of thinking and doing things that are practical in today's world," said Eric Enos, founder of Ka'ala Farm, a Native Hawaiian cultural education agency dedicated to preserving and perpetuating the culture, traditions and practices of old.

"The canoe is one of the symbols of bringing all the pieces together."

A 30-page article on the resurgence of the Hawaiian culture in the December 2002 issue of National Geographic magazine quoted Enos saying it had been 150 years since a koa 'opelu canoe was carved in Wai'anae.

The hope is that this piece of history renewed will unite and educate Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike.

"We've gotten so far away from our own traditional lifestyles that we don't even have fishing canoes anymore," said Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, director of the UH Center of Hawaiian Studies.

To understand how vital fishing and canoes once were to that culture consider this: On the day Capt. James Cook arrived in Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island, Jan. 18, 1778, 3,000 canoes showed up to greet him — virtually every one a fishing canoe.

"The importance attached to the supply of fish for food caused canoe-making to be one of their greatest industries," concluded writer Lucien Young in 1892.

Typically, those canoes were 'opelu canoes — the generic name given to heavily built, thick-hulled fishing canoes (as opposed to the modern, thin-hulled, shallow, flat-bottom racing canoes). 'Opelu, or scad mackerel, were once an important staple of the Hawaiian diet and the most common bait for yellowfin tuna, or 'ahi.

Koa fishing canoes were most common to the Big Island, which had forests of the necessary long, straight koa trunks. Wai'anae had koa trees, too, but they were rarely of the sort from which a canoe could be carved.

What became of so many fishing canoes? Canoe historians say many were allowed to rot by the sea as fishing became less and less a way of life in the Islands. No doubt many others were cut up for the wood. Those that survived to the 20th century were trimmed down and transformed into racing canoes.

"Here on O'ahu there are hardly any," said Puakea, who added that those that are were most likely built on the Big Island.

Master canoe carver Pat Kaimoku Pine uses a steel adze on a piece of scrap wood. Although still used in canoe building today, adzes have been replaced by power tools. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Thus began the odyssey by which a 3-ton, 27-foot koa branch was transformed into an 'opelu canoe in Wai'anae. Big Island saw mill operator John Kekua was called to remove the branch from where it had fallen across a state road. Kekua, who was given the log for his effort, let it cure for a year.

But two days before Kekua planned to saw the branch into lumber, he got a call from Lilette Subedi, executive director of Ka'ala Farm.

"She said, 'We need a log; we want to build an 'opelu canoe.' And I said, 'Perfect! I've got your log.' I haven't even seen one of those fishing canoes in years."

Kekua, himself a noted racing canoe builder, donated the log to Ka'ala Farm through his Kekua Foundation, a Native Hawaiian cultural organization. On April 15, 2002, the log arrived in Wai'anae.

Throughout the process of transforming the log, considered kane (male), into a canoe, considered wahine (female), the community was invited to participate in the protocols, chants, prayers and blessings that accompanied each step. Fishing and canoe authorities such as "Uncle" Eddie Ka'anana and "Uncle" Walter Paulo, who both hail from the noted Big Island fishing village of Miloli'i, offered advice on how the log should be cut.

Subedi and others quickly noticed how the formation of the canoe, which was named Keaolani O Wai'anae (Heavenly Cloud of Wai'anae), maintained an almost magical effect on the those who came to watch or participate.

"It was just an overwhelmingly warm sense of being together," said Subedi.

Canoe makers Kekua and Puakea assisted in the initial cutting stages. But the kupuna or principal canoe builder was Wai'anae master builder "Uncle" Phillip Naone, assisted by master carver Pat Kaimoku Pine and Ka'ala staff facilitator Hailama Bright.

"I have never had the pleasure of building a fishing boat from a single log," said Naone, who has worked on koa racing canoes too numerous to count.

The tools Hawaiians of old used to build a canoe included the wooden-handled hammerstone adze, rubbing stones and coconut sennit cordage. Such tools were employed in ceremonial activities surrounding the building of Keaolani O Wai'anae.

Traditional tools were the modern equipment of their age, Naone explained . While he and his crew respect those implements, they chose the modern equipment of this age — chain saws and electric power tools — to do the carving in a fraction of the time.

"Everybody likes to play around with this," said Pine, referring to a steel adze he made several years ago. "But your progress with it is miniscule. With a 4-inch electric grinder you can do it 20 times faster."

Even then it took six months to complete the 'opelu canoe, which is forbidden to be photographed in its finished form while it remains under a traditional kapu. However, the public is welcome to visit Keaolani O Wai'anae any time before the kapu, or taboo, is lifted at its official launching on March 22.

After that the canoe will become part of Ka'ala Farm's mission to incorporate the traditions of ancient Hawaiians into the modern world. Anyone, regardless of ethnicity, is welcome to participate.

"Being Native Hawaiian means we practice what aloha stands for, which is the principal of accommodating and welcoming all who come," Subedi said. "The 'aina is colorblind. And all people are equal in the mud."

Added William Aila, Wai'anae Boat Harbor master, who has been involved in the canoe project since the beginning, "This canoe exists to teach anyone how traditional Hawaiians fished for 'opelu using the hoop-net technique, because that's how our ancestors did it."

On the day the log was arrived from the Big Island, Aila thought an appropriate thank-you gesture to those who had made it possible would be 'opelu to take home to their families.

So, he approached some O'ahu fishermen to purchase 'opelu for the occasion.

"But when I explained to the local fishermen what this was for, they refused to take any money. And we had so much 'opelu offered that I actually had to ask them to stop."

Aila said that literal outpouring of aloha has been typical of the reaction to the fishing canoe. He is not alone in believing that Keaolani O Wai'anae holds great promise.

"With this canoe comes our journey into wellness," Subedi said.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.