Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 5, 1 May 2013 — Workshops teach essence of stone, wood carving [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Workshops teach essence of stone, wood carving

By Kekoa Enomoto LAHAINA, MAUI — Four traditional carvers shaped artworks and attitudes at a six-day Valley Isle workshop. The inaugural Lahaina Carvers Symposium involved more than three dozen participants from various islands over three weekends in March. The vision was to pass on generational knowledge, according to organizer Ke'eaumoku Kapu of Kaua'ula Valley, Maui. Funded by a $10,000 Office of Hawaiian Affairs grant, the event merged "the imagery of custom, religion and belief (with) the ability to forge things using traditional and contemporary" ideas and techniques, he said. Instructors were master woodcarver Sam Ka'ai and stone carver Hoaka Delos-Reyes, both of Maui, woodcarver Alapa'i Hanapi of Moloka'i and stone/woodcarver Hanale Hopfe of Wai'anae, O'ahu. Ka'ai also served as 'iele makua, or distinguished elder, of the event held at Malu'uluolele Cultural Center. The septuagenarian lectured against allowing traditional Hawaiian art to be overrun by pop art and commercialism. Espousing traditional methods and tools, such as the ko 'i, or adze, Ka'ai mentored students to create a large papa lā'au 'ai, or wooden food platter. Delos-Reyes' student works included poi pounders and a guardian stone, or pōhaku kia'i, at the facility entrance. The latter work is titled "Pōhaku O Ka Lua'ehu," referring to an ancient Lahaina fishpond, Kapu said. Atop the pōhaku, Delos-Reyes carved a mo'o, or lizard, representing the deity Kihawahine of

the fishpond. Participants etched the pōhaku sides with genealogical totem petroglyphs of Hawai'i Island and Ukumehame, Maui; birdmen petroglyphs of Lāna'i, Moloka'i and Maui;

a dog petroglyph of Wai'anae and a circular piko petroglyph of Waikoloa, Hawai'i Island. The constant chipping, rapping and tapping of mallets against ko'i pervaded the symposium. The staccato noise sounded against the backdrop of a squealing grinder molding poi pounders and strains of Hawaiian music. Wood and stone chips flew everywhere. Representing the Friendly Isle was activist Hanapi, a principal of the 'Aha'ino School of Native Arts. He indicated that outsiders are appropriating Native Hawaiians' intellectual property and selling it for profit as so-called Hawaiian art.

Hanapi guided students to carve two imposing standards, including an image of the war deity Kū atop a pole, all chiseled from an 'ōhi'a log 14 inches in diameter. When finished, the 12-foot standard is destined to grace the Kāneiolouma restoration project at Po'ipū, Kaua'i, Kapu said. The other smaller standard features the deity Lono. When completed, this standard will lead a seven-day, 193-mile Maui ka'apuni, or circleisland march, in February 2014. The website mauinow.com will confirm the ka'apuni start date a month prior, Kapu said. Promoting an entrepreneurial approach was 37-year full-time artist Henry Kila "Hanale" Hopfe, 64. The carpenter-turned-carver men-

tored symposium attendees to create individual projects: traditional and contemporary fishhook pendants made of bone, mother of pearl, ivory and wood. He also taught lashing techniques for the pendants. "Basically I am trying to teach sustainability through arts and crafts of wood and stone," he said. "It's good to represent our Hawaiian culture. Besides it's good to have handmade items made in Hawai'i. People out there, vendors, are importing stuff benefiting other people's economy and not ours, so let's strengthen our own economy." Hopfe operates Hale O Hanale Art Gallery at 85-031-A Lualualei Homestead Road on O'ahu. And he offers cultural tours on the Wai'anae Coast. Contact him at (808) 696-8 17 1 or on Facebook. Event coordinator Kapu called the Valley Isle workshop a successful "hands-on experience ... with peers who have perpetuated the traditions of kālai (carving) for many years." A symposium will follow in six months focusing on "weaving, feathers, nets and 'ie'ie using contemporary materials," he said. ■ Kekoa Enomolo is a retired copy editor and staff writer with The Maui News and former Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

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GULTURE

Lahaina Carvers Symposium instructor Hoaka Delos-Reyes etched a figure into a pōhaku kia'i, or guardian stone. A replica of a genealogieal totem petroglyph from Ukumehame, Maui, sprawls across the pōhaku while the mo'o (lizard) goddess Kihawahine is visible in relief on top. - Courtesyphotos: Na'Aikane OMaui

Master wood carver Sam Ka'ai, second from left, instructed participants to make a papa lā'au 'ai, or wooden food platter, from a mango slab.

Keoki Ki'ili of Maui, left, and Keoki Makaweole of Kaua'i, right, wielded mallets on ko'i, or adzes, at the Lahaina Carvers Symposium. They are shaping a log into a standard.