Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 6, 1 June 2009 — Kalaupapa's Henry Nalaielua [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kalaupapa's Henry Nalaielua

This montli 's eolumn is again dedicated to a Kalaupapa warrior who has recently passed on. The eolumn is written by Valerie Monson, staunch advocate and board member of Ka 'Ohana O Kalaupapa. A close friend of the residents of Kalaupapa, Monson shares her alohafor Unele Hemy with all ofus. Sadly, many ofus will witness the end ofa tumultuous era, as the transition is made from sanctuary to memonal. Henry Nalaielua, who wrote about his accomplished life in the memoir No Footprints in the Sand, died early Apiil 17, 2009, leaving the people of Kalaupapa to bid aloha to yet another great kupuna who left behind permanent footprints on the hearts of all who knew liim. "After hearing that Henry had died that morning, I noticed at sunset that there was no rain, just heavy clouds and deep crimson skies," said Dr. Emmett Aluli, a longtime friend and colleague of Nalaielua. "There was just all this crimson. It was like Hemy was passing without commotion, without fanfare. He was being welcomed home by the ancestors." Nalaielua was 84 years old. He was bom Nov. 3, 1925, in the plantation village of Nīnole on the Big Island. When he was just 10 years old, his mother was forced to take him to Honolulu on a ship and leave liim at Kalihi Hospital because he had been diagnosed with leprosy. Henry was the third chhd the Nalaielua 'ohana had to give up because of the disease. Many years later, Nalaielua would still remember every detail of that cluldhood moment when the ship slipped away from the dock at dawn. "My father was standing at the pier, ciying," he recalled in an interview with tliis reporter in the early 1990s. "I'd never seen my father cry before. As the boat went away, as I could see him getting farther away, he was crying, ciying, crying, crying. He knew he had lost one more child." In 1941, when Nalaielua was 15, he was told he was being sent to Kalaupapa. It was a move he welcomed, so could be free of the barbed wire that ran along the top of the fence that suirounded Kalihi. He immediately relished the wide-open spaces of Kalaupapa that reminded him of home. "There were all these things I was used to - 'ōpae, 'o'opu, ginger, watercress, mountain

apple," he said. "Ah the things I grew up with." There was no cure for leprosy at that time so Henry was told he had only a few years to live. Because of that, he saw no good reason for educating himself. Books were not a part of liis life until a friend who was a strong Catholic gave liim a book about Father Damien de Veuster. Henry was suiprised to leam that he had the same disease that Damien had contracted generations earher. That book had life-changing implications for Nalaielua. He became devoted to Damien and would eventually visit Damien's hometown and attend beatification ceremonies in Brussels in 1995. He became friends with Damien's descendants who were as inspired by the life of Nalaielua as Nalaielua was of their ancestor. There was also sadness for him at Kalaupapa. Soon after he airived, Nalaielua was told that his two sisters who he knew had left home before liim, had also been sliipped to Kalaupapa. Both had died before he anived. He spent years searcliing for their graves, a search that proved to be fruitless. It was one of the reasons he became a strong supporter of a monument on the Kalaupapa peninsula that would hst the names of those who had been sent there because of leprosy. He not only wanted liis name permanently engraved on the monument, but also the names of liis sisters. During his hfetime, Nalaielua had many jobs. At Kalaupapa, he was a pohee officer, carpenter and tour driver for Damien Tours. When he was able to leave Kalaupapa after testing negative for the disease in 1949 (dmgs to cure leprosy were introduced to Kalaupapa in 1946), he worked for Hawahan Electric and played music after hours. He later moved home to Kalaupapa, missing everything he held dear. Although he eventually became an author when liis autobiography was published in the fah of 2006, Nalaielua might best be remembered as a musician and artist. He produced so many paintings during his lifetime that he had a oneman show in Honolulu in 2003. "He was a poet, a composer, a genealogist, a storyteller, an artist," said Aluli, "but what stands out for me about Henry is the scholarly and pliilosopliical person that he was." For years, Nalaielua served on the board of directors of Nā Pu'uwai Native Hawahan Heahh Systems where he was the guiding force for Aluh and BUly Akutagawa, another good friend, and others. He also seived on the Board of Health for the State of Hawai'i. Burial was at Kalaupapa where his family and friends gathered together to eelebrate a man whose life was a masterpiece. ■

Cūlette Y. Machadū TrustEE, Mūlūka'i and Lāna'i