Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 13, Number 7, 1 July 1996 — Culture office helps revive and strengthen Hawaiian customs [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Culture office helps revive and strengthen Hawaiian customs

by Patrick Johnston efming features of a nation are its culture Ē pand language. These set a people apart from Ē ,^others and help Iegitimize claims of selfgovemance. Culture also plays an empowering role, strengthening a society and helping it grow. Since its creation, OHA*s culture office has played an iinportant role in activities that revive, enhanee, and perpetuate Hawaiian customs - all important factors in the road toward polilieal selfdetermination. Certain cultural elements - language, performing, visual and healing arts - are distinguishing features of the Hawaiian people. OHA's culture office is working to strengthen these. As part of its efforts, one of the office's long term goals is to create culture centers where Hawaiians ean engage in these and other cultural pursuits, and ean eome together to share ideas and practice their art. The office has begun this by holding a series of conferences, convening practitioners from across the state to share ideas, and identify individuals who will eventually participate in cultural center programs To help with these networking efforts, the office has also created a culture directory with a listing of cultural practitioners ffom across the state. Other culture office activities include helping Hawaiians with their genealogical documentation, assisting the office with questions of protocol, and recognizing Hawaiians who have excelled in certain art forms. The office is staffed by culture officer Pīkake Pelekai, Culture Specialists Manu Boyd and Kamana'olana Mills, and Secretary Donald Kamai.

'Aha No'eau ' Aha No'eau (a gathering of the skilled) is a eentral part of culture office activities. A series of statewide conferences on different aspects of Hawaiian art. the program is designed to convene culturaī practitianers to share ideas. heln with networking and work toward tne deveiopment of future culture centers, " 'A'ole pau ka 'ike i ka hāiau ho'okahi" - not all know!edge is found in one school - is an underlying iheme of the program, acknowledging the variation and diversity in cultural practice, A survcy distributed at eaeh conierence has been uscd to gather information about conference panieipants. !ntormation from that suivey will be added to an updated cu!tural direclory the division is producing and will a!so go into the building of future eulture centers. Since the program began, 'Aha No'eau has organized a gathering of traditional stonewall buiiders, brought togelher kumu hula and hula students, eonvened lomi lomi healers, held a conference for supporters of the Hawaiian language and, most recently, supported a lauhala weavers workshop. (See story page 4.) The program also assisted with Te Waka Toi, an exhibition of contemporary Maori art. The exhibit brought together Maori and Hawaiian artists to share ideas and conccms on the state of their work. This year the focus of the program has bcen on cultural stewardship. Recent federal legislation mandates that federal agencies and organizations receiving federal funding consult with Native Americans, including Hawaiians, where development is concerned and where human remains and associated objects are involved. OHA's culture office has held four stewardship See culture office page 4

Culture office

conferences across the state this year. Their goal has been to assure continued communication between federally funded agencies and institutions and the Hawaiian eommunity by providing an opportunity for ad-hoc/informal relationships to develop. The Hawaiian community has expressed eoneem over the treatment, maintenance, and disposition of Hawaiian sacred objects and remains; the forum offered an opportunity for Hawaiians to express their eoncems and share information. "Because many resources are sti 1 1 in the hands of nonHawaiians, Hawaiians are rarely consulted about how they are cared for," Culture Officer Pikake Pelekai explains. "As Hawaiians work toward self-determination, they must take every opportunity to educate others about Hawaiian values, beliefs, traditions, and spirituahty that go beyond, and yet are very mueh a part of, an object or artifact." Conferences were held in Hilo, Kona, Maui and O'ahu. Discussions focused on law, education and topical issues like the Pai 'ohana's dispute with the

National Park Service over habitation rights. Culture directories As part of its efforts to increase contact between Hawaiian artists, OHA's culture office has published a comprehensive directory of Hawaiian artists in the state. The directory - Ola Nā lwi - was published in 1995 and lists artisans engaged in both traditional and contemporary art practices. By next a second directory, this one focusing on hula resources, will be ready for distribution. The offīce created the directories after surveys indicated a demand for one within the community. Ola Nā Iwi lists 107 Hawaiian practitioners who perpetuate Hawaiian skills, traditions and culture. The exposure allows the community to contact them for information and knowledge in areas from lomilomi massage and Hawaiian stone masonry to video and photography. Ola Nā lwi is currently available at state libraries, Hawaiian agencies and state offices. Kū Mai Ka Po'e Hula - the office's hula directory — should be out by

August and will be available at state libraries. Protocol assistance Ensuring proper protocol is another function of OHA's culture office. Visits to the office by representatives of other indigenous groups have increased in recent years and, with the increase, has eome a greater need for assistance in Hawaiian customs such as ho'okipa, ho'olauna, and ho'okupu. Culture office staff work cIosely with administration and trustees when preparing for events supported by the office to ensure that appropriate Hawaiian conventions are carried out. The culture office also assists staff and the community with day to day protocol concems and plays a central role during trustee investiture. The culture office coordinated both the confirmation ceremony and the public investiture for trustees elected in November 1992 and 1994. 'Ōlelo Hawai'i There has been an increasing need for Hawaiian language translations recently and OHA's culture offīce is one of a number of groups across the state that ean provide such translations. Others include the 'Ahahui 'Olelo Hawai'i, Bishop Museum, the University of Hawai'i, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation's Hawaiian Language Resource office, and the Hawai'i State Library. Genealogy project OHA's genealogy project assists individuals and families locate needed documentation required to determine Hawaiian blood quantum and family lineage for access to entitlements and benefits. The culture office continues to work with the Department of Health to complete automation of its birth records from the territorial period.

The ladies of Halau Na Pualei o Likolehua, participants at OHA's hula conference held last September.