Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 8, 1 ʻAukake 2009 — Kalo kanu o ka ʻāina Taro planted on the land. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kalo kanu o ka ʻāina Taro planted on the land.

Natives of the land from generations hoek.

Robert K. Lindsey, Jr. TrustEE, Hawai'i

Trustee 's note: I am verv honored and gratefid to Jerry Konamn and Penny Levinfor producing this wonderfd article 011 the different varieti.es whieh eonneei us to Hāloa. Biodiversity - the variation of life within an ecosystem, an island or the earth itself. High biodiversity is eonsidered a measure of environmental heahh. It embraces all living things that evolved on this earth up to the present from the smallest 'uku ko'ako'a to the koa and the largest koholā - all that arose out of the kumulipo, including man. This diversity is what gives the whole of the living world its strength and its ability to survive and change. So it is with the foods we grow. Over the last 150 years, conventional agriculture turned from thousands of cultivars (plants deliberately altered or selected by humans) to monocropping (planting a single variety over a large area), mostly at the demand of the market for the fastest, biggest yield or a certain characteristic. In the process, crops lost their ability to fight disease, survive droughts, floods and pests. Over time, we began to lose a rich heritage of indigenous knowledge, science and creativity in agriculture and the sacred elements of food. That cord remains strong in Hawai'i nei, especially with the kalo. Hāloa, the kalo, was born in the 12th era of the kumulipo, a stillborn child planted in the ground who became Hawaiians most important food plant. In the manuscript notes for Mo'olelo Hawai'i in 1904, David Malo wrote, "Now you must understand that the children born from Hāloa, these are yourselves." Hāloa, the kalo, traveled in the eanoe with ka po'e kahiko across the breadth of the oeean to these Islands. Only a few key varieties made the joumey to begin life in this new plaee. Were these varieties selected because they were favorites of the travelers or the gods? Because they were hardy, easy to adapt or could siuvive exposure to the sea? Did they represent a core set of the kalo families of Kahiki. We may never know. Modern science says that the exact plaee and origins of kalo remain unknown (research points both to South Asia and Southeast Asia). We do know that kalo made its way across the continents as far as Africa, India, Nepal, China

and into the reaches of the Pacific where the gene pool began to separate and become distinct from its older siblings in Southeast Asia. It is here that the abilities of the Hawaiian farmer are evident. From the handful of huli that arrived on those first voyages and with a limited gene pool, an estimated 300 to 400 cultivars were developed by Hawaiians prior to Captain Cook's arrival. What made this proliferation of kalo varieties unique in Hawai'i was not the fine-tuned adaptation to a range of elevations, soil eonditions and climates; this occurred in many places under the skilled hands of loeal farmers throughout the Pacific and Asia. In Hawai'i, it was the development of cultivars that favored fresh or brackish water, eool or warm water systems; varieties that could shift between complex dry and wetland systems and thrive in both conditions; along with their colors, leaf shapes, fragrances and tastes, that distinguished them from all others. The Piko kea liked the eool waters of the uplands; the Piko uliuli could tolerate the warm, slow lowland waters and the strong winds of Kā'anapali, Maui. The hardy Piko uaua of Waipi'o grew in the wetlands of the valley bottom and in dry upland plantings. Numerous lowland lo'i kalo were built close to the coast in wetlands with brackish water tables. The kalo of Hanalei-Wai'oli and Hanapēpē grow in these conditions even today. Until recently, the Pa'akai kalo was still found in collections of the old varieties. Our mahi'ai excelled at creating new varieties with beautiful variations - the striped Manini 'ohana; the bold white patterns of the 'Elepaio; the glowing, smoky purple of the Auwahiapele (Uahiapele); the deep redpurple of the 'Ula'ula poni; the cupped kalos 'Apuwai, 'Apu and Pi'iah'i; and the Kāī 'ohana with their fragrant 'ūlika (gununy) corms. In ancient times, Pele traveled from Kahiki up the island ehain and settled in Hawai'i Island. She brought her craving for young lū'au leaves with her. Some of our kalo varieties, such as the 'Apuwai, the Haokea (or Haakea) and the Piko Lehua-'āpi'i, with its curls ('āpi'i) hidden under the leaf were prized for their tenderness. The 'Āweuweu, a kalo of the uplands, dismissed as a wild variety today, was favored by kupuna for its delicate lau, kept soft by the forest shade. The late 1800s and early 1900s saw a decline in the number of kalo varieties found in the Islands. In 1939, only 84 Hawaiian and Pacific cultivars were identified by the researchers

Whitney, Bowers and Takahashi ( Bidleti.n 84). After years of decline, there are now more growers interested in and actively raising the old varieties than ever before. Taro eolleetions are found on eaeh of the main islands. Moloka'i hosts the most complete collection. Alton Arakaki, at the UH Agriculture Station in Ho'olehua, has been perpetuating this treasure and sharing kalo with growers for decades. Like many of the older growers, he learned from people such as Cowboy Otsuka, who generously shared their knowledge. To farmers like Cowboy, who recently passed, and the unnamed Native Hawaiians who gathered and cared for the earlier collections, we owe a great debt for recovery of so many of the kalo kahiko. Plants like mai'a, kalo, 'uala and kō were propagated mostly from cuttings. Larmers also used hand pollination and natural seed development (hehu) to achieve the high diversity of cultivars onee found in Hawaiian gardens. Lor the most part, the keiki were almost identical to the makua but still carried the genetic diversity of the parents. Present day scientists consider this to be a limiting factor in Hawaiian kalo but they discount the ways in whieh Hawaiians managed that risk. Keeping the soil healthy, the water cold and flowing, long fallows in the fields, and growing a multitude of varieties together, kept the kalo strong. On O'ahu, one modern way this risk is being diminished is by storing kalo in a tissue eulture lab. At Lyon Arboretum in Mānoa, Nellie Sugii and her staff labor over the job of storing these rare varieties in plastic cells where they ean live disease-free for years and be returned to the ground for planting. The tiny tempera-ture-controlled room is packed with miniatures of some of the rarest endangered native plants, along with Hawaiian bananas and kalo. Sugii and taro growers dream of an additional lab space dedicated specifically to Hawaiian food cultivars (mai'a, kō, 'uala, kalo, 'ulu) as

a bank for the future, where farmers and scientists ean work together to restore these vital resources back to the land. The cost, $1 million, isn't mueh in the bigger picture to protect such an important heritage, but seems insurmountable in today's budget crunch. Diversified agriculture is a frequent topic in the halls of the Legislature, among university specialists, farm agencies and the Department of Agriculture. Too often, it only means changing one crop for another, still relying on the same monocrop practices. Commercial taro growers plant acres dominated by Maui Lehua. But old photographs of lo'i kalo tell us the fields were planted with

numerous varieties in a single patch - high crop biodiversity. We rarely hear of the ingenuity of Hawai'i's mahi'ai in the reahn of diversified agriculture. Here in the Islands, the piko of sustainable agriculture and food security rests in indigenous knowledge. The book, Nati.ve Planters i.n 01 d Hawai.'i. (Handy 1972:2 1), described the depth of wisdom and experience held by Hawaiian planters: "There is ample evidence to the amount and character of practical knowledge that the old planters embraced and utilized in their horticulture...The accuracy of systematic differentiation, identification, and naming, whieh is characteristic of all real planters even today, evidences powers of observation and classification of the first order. The experienced planters' knowledge of the anatomy of their plants, of their habits and requirements, evokes the admiration of expert agriculturalists of more eomplicated cultures whose intimate knowledge of plants rarely exceeds that of these tropical gardeners... A vast amount of stored experience and natural originality and observation lay back of all the Hawaiian planters' science." The taro farmers' observation skills and expertise are still as keen today and the old varieties that are returning to the land in growing numbers stand testament to native intelligence. E 'ai ana 'oe i ka poi paua o Keaīwa. Now you are eati.ng poi. madefrom the paua taro ofKeaīwa. The paua was the best taro in Ka'ū and the only variety that grew on the plains. ■ 1 Manuscri.pt notes kept by the Hawaiian Naua Soci.ety (Becb\>i.th 1951: 119 The Kumulipo). 2 Many of the Pacifi.c Island vari.eti.es are characterized by thi.cker leaves that do not break down as easi.ly i.n cooki.ng.

LEO 'ELELE ■ TRUSTEE M ESSAG ES KA WAI OLA | ĪHE LIVING WATER 0F OHA

HūIoū, the kolo, traveled in the eanoe with kū po'e kahiko across the breadth of the oeean to these lslands. - Photo: Courtesy