Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 4, 1 April 2004 — Cultural Foundations [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Cultural Foundations

6y Sterling Kini Wong For master stone mason Billy Fields, building a traditional Hawaiian dry-stack wall is like putting together a puzzle. "Every stone is a puzzle pieee," Fields says. "They all fit, they're all numbered. You just gotta find the number." Fields lays two stones down next to eaeh other on a thigh-high, half-built wall on the grounds of Bishop Museum, site of a recent wall building workshop. "You are looking for shapes," he tells about 45 students, as he searches the ground for his next stone. "You're not trying to just fit a rock in to a plaee." He picks one up and uses it to loek the other two stones in plaee, creating a bed for the next layer. "You're always trying to stay three or four stones ahead of yourself, setting yourself up for the next stone," he says. Pōhaku, or stones, formed both the literal and symbolic foundation of Hawaiian culture. The centerpiece of the traditional Kanaka Maoli lifestyle, they were used in everything from fishponds to taro patches, poi pounders to war clubs and adzes. Pōhaku were such a significant part of the culture that Hawaiians believed 'aumakua, or familial gods, could take form as a stone. However, traditional Hawaiian dry-stack stone masonry, or uhau humu pōhaku - the method of stacking and locking stones together to create structures - nearly became a lost art after the introduction of mortar and brick. Consequently, the role of pōhaku, just like many other elements of the Hawaiian culture, has diminished in modern society. But Fields - who has been a uhau humu pōhaku practitioner for 20 years, and is maybe the only one left - is doing his part to rebuild the Hawaiian culture, stone by stone. Fields' main objective is to restore historic sites while educating people and helping them connect with Hawaiian culture. In the last ten years, Fields has worked with various state agencies and Native Hawaiian organizations to rebury about 5,700 sets of iwi, or human remains, throughout the islands - including such places as the notorious "Forbes Cave" complex in Kawaihae. Currently, he is working to rebury some 2,500 iwi at Mōkapu. Fields has also restored the walls of loko'ia, or

fishponds, on Moloka'i; built terraced taro patches in Limahuli on Kaua'i; and restored heiau in Mānoa and a hōlua (sledding) ramp in Kohala. Fields, who was taught the art by his kumu, Sam Bell, began working with stone walls as a union mason. Later, he created his own traditional stone masonry company, Kona-based Fields Masonry, in order to "support my cultural habit," he said. At the recent Bishop Museum workshop, museum cultural education specialist Chiya Hoapili

said that it's important for people to learn Hawaiian traditions "to carry on what our kūpuna have done for years." "This is an awesome legacy for our kids," Hoapili said. Well-known surfer and hōlua sledding revivalist Tom "Pōhaku" Stone, who brought his Hawaiian studies students from Kapi'olani

Community College to the class, said that traditional stone walls represent a cohesiveness that brings Hawaiians together to work for a eommon goal. "This represents who we are; it's holding us together," Stone said. Fields teaches the students that the niho, or largest rocks, go on the bottom of the wall to act as its foundation. The wall starts off wide at the base and tapers off towards the top, with its face created by interlocking larger stones, and hākāhākā, or smaller stones, used as back fill. Gravity holds the structure together. Pointing out that some Hawaiian sites are 500700 years old and still standing, Fields insists that if a traditional stone wall is built properly with all the proper protocols (he does a traditional chant that instills strength and life's breathe into the structure to ensure its stability), it ean be just as strong and durable as structures that use mortar. But traditional walls must be maintained, just as the Hawaiian culture must be practiced, says Fields. "The walls ean last forever if you just maintain it," he says. "It's the domino effect: if one rock falls out, the whole thing will fall down." ■

Pohaku in print

The stories hehinā many of the stone structures that locals encounter everyday in Hawai'i are told in the recent book "Pōhaku: The Art & Architecture of Stonework in Hawai'i" Editors David and Scott Cheever commissioned over 50 architects, journalists and cultural experts to eontribute essays on 100 pōhaku, including fishponds, heiau, churches, quarries, government buildings and homes. One essay explains that Kamehameha I marshaled 20,000 men to pass stones to build Pu 'ukoholā Heiau at Kawaihae. Award winning photographer Douglas Peebles took the 250 color photos included in the book. Published in 2003 by Editions Limited.

UHAU HUMU POHAKU — Traditional mason Billy Fields helps rebuild Hawaiian culture, stone by stone.