Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 9, 1 September 1990 — Makaku [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Makaku

By Rocky Ka'iouliokahihikolo 'Ehu Jensen • ■•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••■••••••••••••• •••••••••••■•••

I speak for those who cannot speak

I realize that many of my editorials are controversial, but sometimes drastic times require drastic measures. My work is very dear to me. The art that was Polynesia is very dear to me. The fact that it is quickly mutating into something unrecognizable is a painful thing to witness, especially when the mutation was never properly understood in the first plaee. I hurt inside when I see such TV programs as "Nigerian Art" recently shown on Channel 11 and other native art presentations. Where are ours? I hurt when I do not see the proper respect given to our artform, old or new. I am not speaking of other people's respect, I am referring to the laek of respect shown by our people. We have virtually nothing to set up to ignite the minds of the young. Nothing established to teach, explain or share in the knowledge of our ancient sculptors. We are a society of knick-knacks. A society that will not see the fore<;t for the trees. A society that doesn't want to make waves. A society that is afraid to speak up. A society that is afraid of our ancient truths. A society that is afraid of hearing something that might contradict what it has been brainwashed into believing in the past 150 years. And when a few of us do speak up we are targeted by our own. Please read my eolumn with this in mind: Ispeak for those who cannot speak — for the sculptors of old; for my qrandfather Keka'alauniu who was reduced to carving saddles; for those thousands who were forbidden by Ka'ahumanu to lift the adze to create another ancestral akua; for those few silent statues that survived "the burning" and

are strewn like lost souls all over the world staring with blank eyes into still blanker ones. 1 fear the loss of our ancient art of sculpting. The understanding of it. The precise execution of it. The presentation and displaying of it. I truly fear the loss of the knowledge of our symbols, the understanding of them and the precise execution, presentation and display of them. 1 truly fear the loss of ho'oponopono. We Hawaiians talk a good story. We teach the ha'ole about ho'oponopono but we seldom use it ourselves. Again, too afraid. Ho'oponopono is truly an exalted artform. I am a sculptor. I sculpt, carve, shape and form images of our people; ancestors and akua. I am an illustrator of ancient symbolisms. Through these symbolisms, I tell a story; a story of our people, ancestors and akua. Without the story, without the symbols, without the sculptures our artistic foundation is lost. My sculptures are surrounded by the artwork of others who tell a story with paint, ink, cloth, weavings, metal, fibers, plastics, ceramicsand the total story becomes a rich tapestry of different colors. But, we must remember that beneath that contemporary tapestry exists the one true form that is its backbone' the carving of those ancestral images, based on the artistic symbolisms of our forefathers. Without those symbols and sculptures, we cease to have a native artform, for that was Kanaka Maoli's paramount mode of artistic expression.

So, before you criticize, try and feel the loss of something that was truly awesome...I have tried to communicate this for the last 20 years. If there is ever an art that is on the verge of extinction, it is that of the Kala'i Ki'i. Mai ka po mai o'ia'i'o...and what ean I tell you about truth? It exists regardless!