Cultural practitioners and volunteers started the arduous work of rebuilding a 200-year-old Hawaiian grass house at the Bishop Museum yesterday, just over a year after the hale pili was gingerly taken apart to make way for the renovation of Hawaiian Hall.

The grass house is the only surviving example of its kind, and its restoration is providing new insight into Native Hawaiian architecture. Some say the project could also help trigger a resurgence in Hawaiian housebuilding and cord weaving as both are dying out.

An opportunity like this, said project director Pomaika'i Kaniaupio-Crozier, "only comes once in many lifetimes. When this one is constructed, it won't be disassembled for another three to five generations. But we want to continue to provide opportunities for younger Hawaiians."

The house is intended to be the hallmark exhibit on the first floor of Hawaiian Hall. Once it is reassembled, in about six weeks, the hale will sport a new grass roof and grass siding — harvested from around the state — along with grass cordage and the original foundation made from a now-endangered tree. The woven grass cords bind together the framework of the home.

Visitors to the Bishop Museum will first get a chance to see the hale pili up close in early summer 2009 — when Hawaiian Hall is set to reopen after a $21 million renovation. The iconic building closed in July 2006.

Museum officials say the hale pili exhibit will feature informational placards and historical photos.

In all, the restoration is expected to cost about $200,000.

According to the museum, the grass house was built sometime before 1800 in Miloli'i Valley on Kaua'i.

It was already abandoned before the Bishop Museum bought it, disassembled it and brought it to O'ahu in 1902.

Over the subsequent 105 years, the house underwent few repairs.

In the 1950s, the grass house was sprayed with fire-proof material.

In 1970, staff members completed minor repairs to the pili grass and lashings holding the house together.

The house was disassembled in January 2007 and its pieces stored at the museum for research.

GATHERING MATERIALS

Over the past five months, volunteers and others gathered materials to restore the hale.

For the restoration, the Bishop Museum contracted with Kaniaupio-Crozier, a cultural practitioner who learned from kupuna and his father how to build traditional Hawaiian hale.

Though he had worked on other hale projects, he said, he has never been able to see handiwork similar to that found on the Bishop Museum grass house. For example, those involved in the project pointed out that on modern grass hale, nylon cordage is used to hold together the wooden framework and lash down the roof and siding. So Kaniaupio-Crozier and others had to learn how to replicate the grass cordage on the hale pili.

"We found out a lot of things that we've never seen before," Kaniaupio-Crozier said.

And the next generation is learning, too, he said.

Farrington High students, as part of the Hawaiian Academy at the school, have volunteered hundreds of hours to search out and gather the pili needed for the home, to braid grass cordage to hold together braces and to document the project on video and audio recordings.

KEEPING IT AUTHENTIC

The project also involved lots of research.

When the hale pili was taken apart, each piece was studied and documented.

Marques Marzan, a weaving and cultural expert at the Bishop Museum, was brought into the project to determine the best way to dry grass for cordage.

He said it is important the restoration be authentic.

"This is a treasured piece of Hawai'i," Marzan said.

The biggest task in restoring the hale was finding the materials Hawaiians used to build homes and preparing them for use on the hale pili. About 7,000 feet of grass cordage is needed to lash together the braces of the home. Each cord is a tight braid of an indigenous grass found only in certain spots in the state.

The wooden poles that hold up the home are from a tree that can no longer be cut down.

To repair damaged poles, project participants called up woodcarvers around the Islands to ask whether they had any scraps of the native uhiuhi wood. The woodworkers came through, providing pieces here and there that were used to fill in any gaping holes on the framework.

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.