Posted on: Sunday, August 22, 2004
Homestead reunion reaches for buried roots
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Puni Kekauoha, president of the Papakolea Community Association, has learned that rebuilding a community can take an emotional toll as well as an incredible amount of work.
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser But the 200-some folks who did show up took a giant step in reconnecting with the homestead community from which they came.
"It's a start," said Kekauoha. "So it's a good day. We feel that those who came back are people we have not seen for many, many years. So it's been a very special time."
Kekauoha is the driving force behind an effort to reacquaint the people of Papakolea with their community — a 136-acre Hawaiian Homelands village above Punchbowl with 275 homes and about 1,500 residents that was added to the Hawaiian Homestead act in 1934.
Since the community's beginnings, it has struggled against negative perceptions, real and imagined. Local entertainer Danny Kaleikini, who grew up in Papakolea, recalled the hurt.
"It was hard," he said. "Coming from Papakolea, I had three strikes against me."
Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser Kaleikini said he was able to overcome those biases by getting an education and using his talent to share the gift of aloha. All the while, he remained proud of coming from Papakolea, he said, "because we had a piece of land that we could call our own."
Over the years, many left the homestead and moved on. Kekauoha and others believe the generation that remains in Papakolea has lost touch with its roots. They are convinced that building a better community requires remembering the past.
One poignant example came when Kekauoha was unexpectedly overcome in trying to narrate to the gathering how she and Papakolea Community Development Corp. board member Lavonne Sexton recently stumbled across boxes of old photos and handmade children's toys stored at the Papakolea Community Center.
Some of the items dated back many decades.
When Sexton examined one of the sock dolls they found, she was stunned to find a slip of paper penned inside the dress with the name of the maker, "Jo Ann," written in the hand of Sexton's late grandmother, Meali'i Kalama — the first park director at Papakolea.
"Lavonne cried for two days, and I cried for three," Kekauoha said, choking over the words. "And I'm still crying — because we didn't know these things existed."
Before the day was done, Jo Ann Maldonado, 47, was in tears as well. She's the person who made the sock doll at Summer Fun at Papakolea when she was 8 years old.
"Meali'i Kalama — she was the best," said Maldonado, who returned to O'ahu recently after living for nearly two decades on the Mainland. "She could teach kids how to sew, quilt, anything."
Sexton stressed the importance of finding more fragments from Papakolea's past, and urged everyone at the celebration to bring any homestead memorabilia to the Papakolea Community Center to be photographed and scanned into the computer.
"It's all about our legacy," Sexton said. "It's about everybody coming together. It's about reminding people of where we came from, so we can chart the way we're going."
Reach Will Hoover at 525-8038 or at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.
The turnout for yesterday's Papakolea 70th Anniversary Celebration — a lu'au and fund-raiser at Stevenson Middle School — was considerably smaller than the 1,000 people that organizers had hoped for.
Brenda Kekauoha, left, and Rosaline Kipapa of Papakolea homestead join in the music at the 70th anniversary celebration for the homestead community, held at nearby Stevenson Middle School.
First was the fact that he was Hawaiian. Second, he was from the homestead. And third was the presumption that he'd probably end up in prison.
Chad Takatsugi, left, and Ryan "Gonzo" Gonzalez performed in their band, 'Ale'a, at an anniversary lu'au and fund-raiser yesterday that aimed to reunite old and new residents of Papakolea homestead.
