By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

What exactly is a tita?

Kai'ulani Edens-Huff is surprised so many people don't know.

Edens-Huff defines "tita," and at the same time, she re-defines "tita."

Tita, a Hawaiian slang for "sister," generally has come to mean a tough woman, a lady you don't want to cross, a powerful wahine who doesn't suffer fools gladly.

To Edens-Huff, a tita is that and more. She's the cornerstone of her extended family, the most loyal friend anyone could have and the ringer on the tackle football team. A tita is endlessly able, amazingly resourceful and will always come out swinging, black pearls, French manicure and all.

"These are the requirements," says Edens-Huff, a Kaua'i media personality. "Can you pick up things with your toes? At the very least, can you open a screen door with one foot? Can you pick up something with your toes and put it in the sink?"

One tita she knows can throw rocks with her feet, "like a baseball," she says. "She uses it to seduce men. She says, 'Eh, you like see something?' "

Another mark of titahood, according to Edens-Huff, is the ability to hold one baby on each hip, watch five kids in the ocean and pulehu meat all at the same time.

For the second year, Edens-Huff is organizing the Miz Kaua'i Tita pageant. The event is part of the 21st Kaua'i Mokihana Festival.

She is recruiting contestants, something that isn't easy because, she says, "The one way to make a tita quiet is put a microphone in front of her mouth. They can be yelling up in the parking lot when somebody takes their space, but ask them an interview question and suddenly, oh, they're shy."

Last year's inaugural tita pageant drew one contestant who could shaka with her toes and another who, for the talent portion, did small engine repair.

Contestants will be judged on pupu preparation; their ability to decorate a hat; a fish and poi eating contest (fingers only, of course); talent presentation; telling a joke on stage; and overall "Titatude."

Edens-Huff herself shatters the tita stereotype. She is a classic beauty, impeccably groomed, articulate and glib. Just don't steal her parking space.

Last year's pageant was a sold-out event. Edens-Huff hopes tourists will join local fans in the audience, "Because, face it, the titas are the ones who run everyone's vacation from the reservation clerk who books your stay to the handler who throws your bags back on the plane when you go home," she says. "Titas are the ones holding the island together."

Reach Lee Cataluna at 535-8172 or lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.