Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Outside Hawaii TV Show on OC 16

Kudo's to Cal Hirai on his great work on segments about Mālama Maunalua Makai Watch in OUTSIDE HAWAIʻI shown on OC 16. This is a great show which is very entertaining and educational. It discusses many environmental issues and cultural topics which should be of great interest to us all (thanks goes to Mahi for sending the schedule out to us earlier!)

OC 16 OUTSIDE HAWAIʻI Schedule:
  • Monday @ 12 am, 11am, 9:30pm
  • Tuesday @ 2:30 pm
  • Friday @ 1:30 PM
  • Saturday @ 4am, 11:30 am
  • Sunday @ 6pm

Monday, May 26, 2008

Sending Out a Kāhea

Sending out a call to all, if any one knows of any families or individuals who lived on Maunalua Pond or in the Ahupua'a o Maunalua prior to development of Hawaii Kai starting in the early 1960's, please reply to this post.

There is much interest to talk story with these individuals or families and document as much as possible of the old history of Maunalua. Kupuna who lived in this area with any knowledge or insights into the Ahupuaʻa o Maunalua and its history would be of great value to the community and community members who are working to restore and preserve the environmental health & cultural knowledge of this area.

Kaʻapuni Oʻahu




Today, many hard working volunteers came to Maunalua Beach Park to kokua in pulling a large amount of invasive alien seaweed from the bay. Others picked up ʻōpala along the shoreline and in the boat ramp parking lot.

The event was in celebration of Hui Nalu Canoe Clubs 100th birthday and was called "Kaʻapuni Oʻahu" in which the canoe club paddled around the island of Oʻahu. Duke Kahanamoku who was born in 1890 was one of the founders of Hui Nalu in 1908 (he would have been 18 years of age) and was a classmate of one of my aunties (my grandmothers sister) at Kaʻahumanu School in the late 1890ʻs and early 1900ʻs.

As a side note, I knew Dukeʻs brother, Sarge Kahanamoku and his wife when I was in high school and I worked at the Niu Valley Shopping Center hardware store (called "Handyman") in the mid 1970ʻs. He would come in and ask for me when he needed assistance. I would sometimes deliver stuff out of the back of my old yellow Datsun pick-up truck to his townhouse in Maunalua when he lived on Spinnaker Isle on the marina. He was a super nice guy and would always give me a nice tip after delivering stuff to him.

Also included in the celebrations and in partnership with Hui Nalu Canoe Club, Mālama Maunalua and other groups in the community were environmental, cultural & educational awareness activities in conjunction with the "International Year of the Reef" campaign.

Community service projects on this Memorial Day weekend included working with "Paepae o Heʻeia" and their Heʻeia fish pond restoration project, "Nani o Waiʻanae" and their Nānākuli Beach clean up & finally today finishing up at Maunalua with "Mālama Maunalua" and their alien algae removal and beach clean up.

Hui Nalu canoes shuttled volunteers back & forth and brought in bag after bag of alien seaweed to be loaded into trucks, disposed of or used for mulch. According to Eric Co who spearheaded the alien algae removal effort, 3705 lbs of alien algae was removed or nearly a half acre was cleared of the invasive seaweed. Quite an accomplishment I would say!

Mahalo nui to all for all your good work.


Thursday, May 22, 2008

Maunalua Talk Story with Uncle Fishy

Mahalo nui to Tokio "Fishy" Jodoi and Annie Inouye for meeting with us this past Sunday at Kuliʻouʻou Beach Park to talk story about the Maunalua of days gone by.

Uncle Fishy is nearly 90 years young and told us about the old days of living in the ahupuaʻa of Maunalua. His parents had lease rights to Maunalua fish pond from 1915 to 1938 with a couple other families.

Uncle Fishy grew up working on the pond with his family. He had to restock the pond with baby ʻamaʻama (mullet) which they would catch in the bay outside of the pond in front of Maunalua, Kuliʻouʻou, Niu, Wailupe and Waialae. The would catch the ʻamaʻama with nets and raise the pua (baby fish) in the pond until market size and than sell them.

They could control water flow and fish entering the pond by operating several mākāhā (sluice gates) at the entrance to the pond. Other fish besides ʻamaʻama that would enter the pond included, ʻawaʻawa, āholehole, awa, pāpio and kākū.

Uncle Fishy told us of how he would study by kerosene lamp at night and they would have to get there drinking water from town.

He remembers being able to see the glow of the big volcanic eruptions on Hawaii island during the 1930ʻs from the Kalama Valley and Sandy Beach areas.

Uncle Fishyʻs family lived in a structure that was approx. 50 yards from where Hawaii Kai drive meets Kalanianaole Hwy now. To get to town and back home, you would have to cross the May Way bridge which was just a single lane wood bridge. This bridge, Uncle Fishy said was plenty sufficient in those days because you would only have maybe 3 or 4 cars per day travel the bumby coral rock road to come all the way out to Maunalua which was than considered the "sticksʻ or "boondocks".

More about Uncle Fishy later.