Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 6, 1 June 2010 — Preserving the past for Hawaiʻiʻs future [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]
Preserving the past for Hawaiʻiʻs future
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By Francine Murray KaWai Ola
Teaching the Hawaiian eulture through music for more than a half-century, Eddie Kamae is well-known for seeking out long-forgotten - traditional Hawaiian mele and lyrics from the original sources and sharing this music with the world. He is truly one of the founding fathers of the Hawaiian cultural renaissance. "I do it for the children - they are the future of Hawai'i," says Kamae, whose many distinctions include receiving the highest federal award
a folk musician ean receive, the National Heritage Fellowship Award from the Nahonal Endowment for the Arts. "I want them to know the sights, sounds and voices of authentic Hawaiian culture. You need to inspire the children. If they love it, then they are going to do it. I would tell them the importance of the culture and the land. My teachers Mary Kawena Pukui and Sam Li'a all focused on this." Kamae and his wife of 44 years, Myrna, established the nonprofit Hawaiian Legacy Foundation with the belief that Hawaiian voices, language, music and cultural wisdom preserved on film would be an enriching experience for everyone. The foundation also perpetuates the cultural heritage of Hawai'i through educational programs, community outreach and archives. "In the very beginning, we wanted to have something that would give back because Eddie has been given so mueh by his teachers along the way," says Myrna. "We wanted this project, through whieh we are preserving and perpetuating the culture, to be called the Ho'okupu Project, the Gift." As a part of this gift, the award-winning filmmakers have completed nine films - and they plan to rerelease on DVD the films that
were originally available only on VHS. "We have a very active archival project going on, so that even when Eddie and I are gone, people will still be able to see these films," Myrna says. Among those rereleased is their first film, Li'a: The Legacy ofa Hawaiian Man, about Sam Li'a Kalainaina Sr., the revered traditional Hawaiian mele master affectionately known as 'The TutuMan," whieh was originally produced in 1988. Kalainaina, as it turns out, was a rather elusive subject. "Everyone told me he was on the Big Island. It took me 10 months to find Li'a," Eddie recalls. When the film was completed, Eddie showed it to Luther Makekau, who was in the hospital. "Luther smiled and he said, 'Eddie you're not finished.' I asked: ' What do you mean? You're looking at the finishedproduct.' He said, 'No, now you do my story.' " Makekau got his wish. He heeame the subject of the film Luther Kahekili Makekau: A One Kine Hawaiian Man, released in March. The DVD remembers the colorful spirit of this amazing Hawaiian born in 1890, during the time of King Kalākaua's reign, who lived through nearly a century of great change in Hawai'i.
"Luther was named for an old warrior chief. This chief, Kahekili, was the father of Kamehameha the Great," says Ka'upena Wong, the narrator for all the Kamaes' films. "Two centuries later Luther was roaming these islands a restless warrior cowboy. Everyone said they knew him, yet he was never easy to find." For all his contributions in music and culture, Eddie was honored as a Living Treasure in 1979. But long before that, he knew who our treasures were and understood that they were important to our culture. Mālia Craver was one of these great treasures. "She is in our documentary called Listen to the Forest, in whieh we went all through the state
looking for happy-face spiders, snails and endangered plants," Myrna says, describing their most recent DVD, released in May. Other films in the collection include: • Keepers Of The Flame: The Legacy of Hiree Hawaiian Women, 1988, honors Mary Kawena Pukui, 'Iolani Luahine and Edith Kanaka'ole. • The Hawaiian Way premiered in 1993 at the Kennedy Center's American Filmlnstitute in Washington, D.C., when Eddie Kamae's Legacy series was honored. This film shares how music has been the Hawaiian way of telling our stories, and how kl hō'alu, slack key, is a Hawaiian way of making music. • Words, Earth & Aloha: The Source of Hawaiian Music, 1995, pays tribute to several composers whose first language was Hawaiian and who thrived from the 1870s through 1920s. • Hawaiian Voices Bridging Past to Present, 1998, features respected kūpuna Ruth Makaila Kaholoa'a, Lilia Wahinemaika'i Hale and Rev. David "Kawika" Ka'alakea on preserving the Hawaiian culture. • Lahaina Waves ofCJiange, 2007, captures the spirit of the first capital of the Kingdom of Hawai'i as Lahaina moves into the future. ■
SEE EDDIE KAMAE PERFŪRM Attheage of 82, Eddie Kamae is still playing music every Sunday at Honey's at the Ko'olau Golf Course in Windward O'ahu from 3:30 to 6 p.m. Kamae, who is well-known for being able to pluek and play melody at the same time, says, "I will always be there."
The Kamaes' film on Luther Makekau, a "restless warrior cowboy."