Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 2, 1 Pepeluali 2012 — OHA Grantee Profile: Rediscovering the almost lost art of feather gathering [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA Grantee Profile: Rediscovering the almost lost art of feather gathering

By Sarah Paeheeo When Gerry Miyamoto and Shad Kane teamed up to refurbish some 30 kāhili, or feather standards, from Queen Emma Summer Palaee, they had no idea that in the span of two years they would, in fact, be contributing to the royal eolleehon a kāhili of their very own. But on Jan. 2, with the sun in its highest point in the sky, Kāhili Hānaiakamalama was presented in honor of Hawai'i's beloved Queen Emma during a spectacular display of pomp and ceremony at the Nu'uanu Valley palaee known as Hānaiakamalama. "Anciently, the kāhili represented the authority of the chief; it was done to establish a sense of governance in the island," said Kane. "But a kāhili's not just a symbol of authority. It's also viewed as an earthly home for the person you make it for. So that kāhili represents really Queen Emma in her earthly home here at the palaee." While kāhili are regularly made today using contemporary tools and materials, very little is known

about the traditional cultural practice of feather gathering and the protocols that go along with it. To that end, Miyamoto and Kane - along with Eric Matanane, kahuna of protocol Kalama Cabigon and videographer Tina Aiu - formed the group Nā Kiamanu o Hānaiakamalama, The Feather Gatherers of Hānaiakamalama, and set out to rediscover the ancient practice and resurrect it for future generations The first step was to secure a permit with NOAA, the Nahonal Oeeanie and Atmospheric Administration, in order to collect feathers from four species of seabirds native to the Hawaiian archipelago: the koa'e kea, koa'e 'ula, 'iwa and mōll. However, access to these protected birds on the main Hawaiian Islands is limited, as most nest on sheer rock cliffs along the oeean coast. So the group changed course, setting sights further north to Midway Atoll. During the weeklong trip made in June 2011, the five-person team collected feathers from the mōll, or Laysan albatross. In addition to being the most abundant bird on the island, the mōlī also heeame

the group's bird of ehoiee for its feathers, whieh were of great significance to ancient Hawaiians, especially ali'i. "The mōlī is a high-flying bird, so those feathers were more important because (the birds) flew higher in the sky and were closer to the gods," explained Miyamoto. "They had the most spiritual significance, or mana," Kane added. The group also saw a number of koa'e 'ula, a snow-white seabird with two long red pinfeathers, whieh ean be seen in kāhili at Queen Emma Summer Palaee. "We have about eight tall kāhili that are made up of nothing but those koa'e 'ula feathers, and there are hundreds on eaeh kāhili," said Miyamoto, a former regent with the Daughters of Hawai'i, the group responsible for managing and maintaining the historic palaee and its contents. For the new kāhili, Nā Kiamanu o Hānaiakamalama collected approximately 50,000 feathers from the breast, back and neek of the mōlī. Initially they had planned to gather these feathers from the ground, as they would be arriving on the island near the end

of nesting season. However, many young fledglings had perished in the tsunami that hit Japan a few months prior, resulting in an unfortunate scarcity of birds and feathers. Their only other ophon was to hand piek feathers from dead birds that had been collected and frozen by island scientists before the group's arrival. But, as Miyamoto and Kane soon discovered, this method of feather gathering may have been part of the practice of the ancient kiamanu, who according to Kane, was a maka'āinana, or commoner, allowed to walk among the chiefs. "Feather gathering from these seabirds differs greatly with respects to forest birds, the 'i'iwi, 'apapane, the 'elepaio," said Kane. "What we suspect is that our ancestors had to have gathered feathers during the end of nesting season from the tledglings that were unahle to get up into the air and died. "A lot of the time when you go into situations like this, you need to assert your own kind of thinking, and that's what we did." Rethinking their original notions of the kiamanu and feather gathering turned out to be par for the course in recreating a tradition that, mueh like hula and lā'au lapa'au, had been virtually forgotten until after the Hawaiian Renaissance. "The protocol was always changing, because none of this stuff on feather gathering was written, it's all passed on by oral tradition. The protocol, therefore, was a work in progress," Miyamoto said. "The kiamanu was a very interesting person," added Kane. "There's a whole lot more we need to leam about him." Upon returning to O'ahu, Kane, a modern-day kiamanu, set to work creating a traditional-looking kāhili using modern-day tools. The end result - a pure-white feather head that sits atop a 12-foot-tall koa pole - was on full display during

the procession held on what would have been Queen Emma's 176th birthday. "I felt proud of what our group had accomplished," said Miyamoto of seeing the project eome to fruition. "And I felt so proud for the Daughters of Hawai'i that they supported us in all of this, because it is part of our mission . . . to perpetuate as mueh as we ean at least a small part of the Hawaiian culture." Fittingly, Kāhili Hānaiakamalama stands on permanent display in a sunlit corner of the palace's parlor next to Queen Emma's baby grand piano and a portrait of High Chiefess Alapa'i, wife of John Young II and granddaughter of Alapa 'inui. A sister kāhili made from the remaining mōlī feathers will join Kāhili Hānaiakamalama at the palaee later this year. The resurrection project also was made possible thanks to a eommunity grant from OHA, awarded to Nā Kiamanu o Hānaiakamala under the fiscal sponsorship of the Daughters of Hawai'i. "OHA played a very critical part in helping us fund this trip," stated Kane. "Getting the grant . . . was to get information so that OHA could add it to their educational files," added Miyamoto, who noted that along with the kāhili, Nā Kiamanu o Hānaiakamala also created a video documentary that will serve as a blueprint for others interested in this ancient cultural practice. "This is going to be a great tool for other people who want to do this - where to go, how to do it, the conditions under whieh this is done," Miyamoto said. "We knew we couldn't replicate what was done before, but our whole purpose was to do this as closely as possible to what was done before, but in the 21 st century, in our own time." ■ Sarah Paeheeo, a former writer anel Assistant RegionaI Editor for MidWeek, is an 0'ahu-based freeīance writer.

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Feathers gathered on Midway Atoll are readied to be used to create a kāhili for Queen Emma. The finished kāhili now stands in Queen Emma Summer Palaee, where it was presented by members of Nakoa '0 Palehua on Dec. 2, 201 1 , in observance of the queen'S 1 76th birthday. - Courtesy photo by īina Aiu