Cultural stories to be woven into books
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer
Thousands of family and cultural stories circulate throughout the communities from Ka'a'awa to Pupukea, and now some of these tales will be recorded and produced in a set of 12 books for Ko'olauloa's youngest children to read in Hawaiian and English.
The project is made possible by a $1.1 million grant from the federal Administration for Native Americans. The recipient, Na Kamalei-Ko'olauLoa Early Education Program, will collect stories from the Ko'olauloa Native Hawaiian community and put them in books for children 2 to 4 years old toward a goal of fostering education, the culture, the language and economic development.
The books will be distributed free to 500 families in Ko'olauloa.
"This is a literacy family-based, child-based project that has a hidden component of community building," said Nalani Mattox-Primacio, executive director for Na Kamalei. The project is the first of its kind in Hawai'i to create books in a collaborative manner, Mattox-Primacio said, with the community providing the stories and helping to screen and select the ones that will be used.
The tales selected to be part of the Ho'ulu Hou Project: Stories Told By Us, could be about a freshwater spring in the ocean, a 57-foot double-hulled canoe that a community built or the pig demigod Kamapua'a whose escapades include narrow escapes and seductions.
Kamapua'a was always doing unacceptable things to Hawai'i ali'i, including stealing chickens, said Cathleen Mattoon, president of the Ko'olauloa Hawaiian Civic Club. Several stories tell of chasing after the demigod. In one tale he is chased from Kane'ohe to Sacred Falls or Kaliuwa'a in Kaluanui ahupua'a, where he was trapped in the dead-end valley with sheer cliffs all around him, Mattoon said.
"He grows to a huge pig, pushes up the side of the mountain and all his family climbs over him and they're all saved," she said, adding that there is a groove in the mountain where he made his escape.
The civic club is participating with three other organizations to help select the stories from community events and cultural traditions.
Other participants in story selection are Kapa Aloha Perpetuation Association, Na Hulu Mamo and Brigham Young University-Hawai'i, Hawaiian Language and Cultural Studies. A committee of kupuna will review each story, and they will be tested on parents and children before publication, Mattoon said.
"I think one of the biggest questions that we're faced with, especially as a native people, is whether or not those books are culturally appropriate," Mattox-Primacio said, adding that the kupuna will help make that decision.
The idea for the book came from Kawai Aona Ueoka, a kumu hula and kapa maker, Mattox-Primacio said.
"We were looking for a way for a nonprofit to survive on something other than donations and grants," Mattox-Primacio said. "We were looking a little bit toward social entrepreneurship, coming up with a product that had family, community and children in mind."
Project manager Keali'i Greene said the stories chosen may be about objects in the communities like stones or bodies of water. Whatever the story may be it will be scrutinized for its true meaning and evaluated for other subtle meanings as well, said Greene, a native practitioner.
For instance the Crouching Lion formation in Ka'a'awa is a misnomer because there were no lions in Hawai'i, he said. There were dogs or 'ilio, so he suspects the name was miscommunicated when being explained to a non-Hawaiian speaker who might have heard leo instead of 'ilio.
"You got a misunderstanding of the language ... then it's perpetuated," Greene said.
"In those publications not only will we educate, but educate with the truth and be able to reference back to the book on a field trip."
Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.
