Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 16, Number 10, 1 October 1999 — Kupuna Kauahipaula: Honored and active [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]
Kupuna Kauahipaula: Honored and active
B v Paula Durbin AT AN age when many people have aiready been retired for decades, Elizabeth Kauahipaula refuses to slow down. "Kupuna just keeps on going. She is all over," said Hailama Farden, who teaches Hawaiian at Kamehameha Schools where the lady works as classroom kupuna. Kauahipaula will remain active, she said after turning 85 on Aug. 31, "as long as I'm able to get out of that house and back in again, stand on my own two feet and do what should be done." In September, those feet took her to the bus and then walked in the Race for the Cure, benefitting a loeal cancer foundation. Most of her time though is spent in the classroom, and last spring the Hawai'i Association of Language Teachers recognized Kauahipaula for excellence in second-language teaching. Mention of the award, however, puts Kauahipaula's self-effacing nature into high gear. "I have no idea how it happened," she insisted. "Of course I felt good, but I thought I might not be the person for it." But Kalani Akana, an immersion instructor at Kula Kaiupuni o Waiau who works there with Kauahipaula and himself a cultural ieon, knew she was "the person for it" when he nominated her. HALT's members agreed and honored Kauhipaula for, among other contributions, the most precious credential a Hawaiian teacher ean have. Elizabeth Kauahipaula is a mānaleo, a treasured native speaker of Hawaiian who grew up īn the Hawaiian way. Only 300 remain outside of Ni'ihau. Born in Honolulu, she became the hānai daughter of
a eouple rrom Ka'ū. As a I small child, she rode a
key to the beach where she helped her parents catch and dry fish to sell in the market to supplement their traditional subsistence. Like many of her generation, she started school without a word of English. "I had the hardest time," she recalled. "My teachers said, 'You cannot speak Hawaiian on campus or in the classroom,' but sometimes I would forget and I would say in broken English, 'Oh, I'm so sorry, I couldn't help it.' But I would have to go to the corner, stay after school or sit in a high chair with the dunce eap on and the other children would laugh at me while I cried. Then I would go home and speak English to my mom and she would say, 'When you go to school, you learn the new language there and when you eome in this house, we speak our language. You must remember that what you first learned is this language.' So that stayed with me."
AT 15, Kauahipaula left school to work. Ir 1935, when she was already the mother of two
small children, her birth family in Honolulu sent for her. When they did not
return her, her adoptive parents gave up everything they had to join
their daughter and make a home on O'ahu.
Kauahipauh worked as nanny to James Campbell Jr. and
was a telephone company employee before becoming, in 1978, a
charter kupuna, one ot the original elders to sign up to share their cultural background
and language expertise in the schools. Almost 20
years had elapsed since she had spoken Hawaiian, but, she said, "It eame back." Soon she was in demand as a cultural ieon. Still, she found the time, at 70-something, to complete her GED after school. Kupuna has been at Waiau since 1989 and at Kamehamha since 1995. Watching her, it's easy to see why I she is considered
such an asset. "Mai hilahila," she tells her
Kamehameha students as she introduces herself and invites them to do the same. They are not as shy as they are awestruck. Small and slender, Kauahipaula has a commanding, almost regal presence and the kids hang onto her every word. "I've known her since I was in kindergarten. She's really awesome," said Kawehi Tom, a Kamehameha junior and former Waiau immersion student. "She is an outstanding role model for students, teachers and everybody," said Keala Kwan, who chairs Kamehameha's language department. "She carries the culture and reflects the values. For example, when she did her fish preservation demonstration, she had her Hawaiian salt in a little bottle to the side. She sprinkled the salt and when she finished she picked up eaeh individual large grain of salt to make sure it wasn't wasted and put it back in the jar. That's a way of behaving we appreciate in our kūpuna." Kauahipaula teaches five days a week and usually works through the summer. With Farden, who has known her since she was his fourth grade kupuna, she also co-hosts Mānaleo, an 'Ōlelo program on whieh native speakers are interviewed the third Saturday of the month at 7 p.m. In between, she finds time for the Ka'ahumanu Society and to serve as an officer in the Hawaiian benevolent society Hale o nā Ali'i o Hawai'i. Hers has been a life of productivity and independence. "I want people to understand we Hawaiians were dragged down to the bottom, going on welfare, getting sick eating junk instead of our Hawaiian food," she said. "Taro became so hard to get and so expensive. But that's no excuse not to find a job, take care of yourself and eat properly. I want people to take care of them-
selves and never depend on anybody. I never did." ■
"Just as Genoa Keawe is the state auntie, Elizabeth Kauahipaula is the state kupuna." - Hūiioma Farden, Kamehameha Schools Hawaiian language leaehei
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Kaleoaloha Alexander couldn't resist the ehanee for a photo op with Kupuna Kauahipauia - to the delight of classmate Pilialoha Nagatani.
"I've shared what I have and i'm happy about that," she said. Kupuna Kauahipaula he!ps Makana Castro and Kekamahineokamelekane Kaiawa of Melelani Pang's class.
PHOTOS: PAULA DURBIN