Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea Hāmākua, 2019
Hundreds Gather in Hauola to Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea Hāmākua 2019
On Saturday, July 27, 2019, nearly 1000 aloha ʻāina gathered in Hauola, Hāmākua, at Paʻauilo School Field to celebrate the 176th anniversarry of Hawaiʻi’s first national holiday, Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea. The celebration was the fourth annual gathering for the holdiay that was organized and sponsored by Hui Mālama i ke Ala ʻŪlili (huiMAU), a community-based nonprofit organization based in Paʻauilo. “What we are celebrating today is an event that happened on July 31, 1843 right here in Hawaiʻi, on the island of Oʻahu...in a place now called Thomas Square,” explained long-time Hāmākua resident and respected Hawaiian educator, Kū Kahakalau, who was the emcee for the day, “where British Admiral Thomas took down the British flag [after a five-month long British military occupation], and Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) raised the Hawaiian flag, restoring the sovereignty of the Hawaiian Kingdom...and it was during this celebration that Kauikeaouli spoke the famous words that we have to this day, ‘Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono’...As long as we are pono, no one can take away the sovereignty of our ʻāina.” From that day in 1843 forward, Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea (Sovereignty Restoration Day) was celebrated on July 31 as a national holiday in the Hawaiian Kingdom by aloha ʻāina (people who love this land) of all walks of life. Communities across Hawaiʻi organized their own celebrations, including here in Hāmākua Hikina, where 19th century newspapers reported our kūpuna holding joyous festivities at the old Maunahoano Church (which was located just ma kai of Paʻauilo School Field next to the Hongwanji).
Photos from #LHEHamakua2019, by Anianikū Chong
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After the illegal overthrow of Liliʻuokalani in January of 1893, however, Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea was not celebrated publicly for over a century here in Hāmākua, like many places throughout Hawaiʻi. Yet, this did not deter the continuation of aloha ʻāina in our moku. Hāmākua has a long tradition of fostering the growth of strong aloha ʻāina. In eyesight of a mural depicting the moʻolelo of the great revolutionary aliʻi nui of Hāmākua, ʻUmi-a-Līloa, huiMAU’s Moʻolelo Booth at the event featured a display about Charles Kahiliaulani Notley. Kahiliaulani was born and raised in Paʻauilo in the mid to late 1800s, the son of Charles Notley, Sr. and Mele Kaluahinenui, a chiefly descendant of Keōua-kūʻahuʻula. He was the president of the Kūʻokoʻa Home Rula (Independent Home Rule Party), and the owner of the party’s two Hawaiian-language newspapers--Ka Naʻi Aupuni and Kuokoa Home Rula—in which were published multiple important stories and accounts of Hawaiian traditions. In 1906, while running as the Home Rule candidate for "territorial" delegate to the US congress, Kahiliaulani encouraged Kānaka across Hawaiʻi to unite “no ka Pono, ka Pomaikai, ka Holomua, ka Lanakila, ame ka Hanohano o ka Lahui,” for the Pono, the Prosperity, the Advancement, the Victory, and the Dignity of the Nation. Little over a century later, the same message of unity was being echoed in the bosom of his beloved ʻāina kulāiwi.
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The first group of musicians and educators to take the stage at Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea Hāmākua 2019 was Project Kuleana Nā Moʻo—a collective of youth from throughout Hawaiʻi, perpetuating the kuleana of Hawaiian music. Along with a number of mele lāhui and mele aloha ʻāina that they presented to the crowd, Nā Moʻo shared a new, original composition by one of their kumu, Kīhei Nahale-a of Hilo, entitled “Hālau ʻĀina o ka Moku.” The mele, as Nahale-a explained, honors the vast ahupuaʻa of Kaʻohe, Hāmākua, from the kai of Koholālele to Mokuʻāweoweo at the summit of Maunaloa, encompassing the entire summit region of Maunakea. “It’s a kuleana that will never go away,” Nahale-a reminded us of the kuleana of aloha ʻāina, “and we have to get our keiki ready now. We must emulate our deities, Kūkahauʻula and Poliahu, to stand firm with aloha and composure, not with anger...the nani of Kaʻohe emulates that.
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As the day’s festivities took place on the northeastern slopes of Maunakea, another gathering of aloha ʻāina continued to grow in numbers and in the strength of kapu aloha on the interior side of the mauna at Puʻuhonua o Puʻuhuluhulu. Nestled there between Hawaiʻi’s two mākua mountains, Maunakea and Maunaloa, on the rolling plains of Humuʻula, thousands of aloha ʻāina from around the island, across the Pae ʻĀina, and throughout the world have gathered in support and protection of our sacred piko, the first-born mountain child of Wākea—ka Mauna a Wākea. As an expression of solidarity with the movement to protect Maunakea, two murals were created at our event in Hauola. One mural, created by Kanoa Castro, depicts Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) along with the names of the 34 kūpuna who were arrested by state law enforcement officers for peacefully, lovingly standing against the desecration of Maunakea on July 17, 2019. The second mural, a collaboration between Castro and and Haley Kailiehu, proudly displays “We Are Maunakea,” and was signed by many who attended the event. Both murals were gifted by huiMAU to Puʻuhonua o Puʻuhuluhulu on July 31, 2019, and remain standing there alongside the Mauna Kea Access Road near the kūpuna tent, having now gathered thousands of signatures.
Two of the many kiaʻi mauna and koa aloha ʻāina who came down from the Puʻuhonua to join us in Hauola were Jamaica Heoli Osorio and her father, Jonathan Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio. Both descendants of kūpuna from Hāmākua, Heoli and Jon have been yearly regulars at Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea Hāmākua. This year, however, Heoli shared a number of new poetry compositions she had written while staying at Puʻuhuluhulu in protection of Maunakea. In one of these new poems, entitled “Frontline Pilina in the Malu of the Mauna,” Heoli states, “Aunty tells me, we are the generation they always dreamed of. So it’s Wednesday, and now I am weeping, and every kūpuna that ever fought, ever cried, ever died so that we would know for sure how to stand is singing through me...” And sing she did alongside her father, Kamakawiwoʻole, who is now the Dean of UH Mānoa’s Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge. |
Photos by Anianikū Chong.
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Another new composition that was birthed and given ea on this day was a mele composed by Kainani Kahaunaele, entitled “Aloha ʻĀina ʻOiaʻiʻo.” According to Kainani, the mele honors the kiaʻi and poʻe aloha ʻāina ʻoiaʻiʻo who have remained to “ʻoni a paʻa me ka lōkahi,” standing in unity, stength, and deep aloha for Maunakea and all our sacred ʻāina, “i ola e nā kini e,” so that all will live and thrive. “Aloha ʻāina ʻoiaʻiʻo,” as Kainani explained, “is not just love for your land, but it’s being really committed to the relationships between the land, the kanaka, the ocean, and the elements...” As an award-winning composer and a respected educator, Kainani not only sang the mele that day, but she also took the time to teach and explain the meaning of this mele to all gathered. Her hope is that this mele will live on for generations to come, as a mele “for the lāhui to sing,” calling us all to rise up and remain steadfast in our aloha for our ʻāina. So let us sing it together, e ka lāhui, as follows:
E welo mau nō kuʻu aloha |
My love will always prevail |
Mahalo nui to all who came out to kōkua and kākoʻo, learn and share, breath and exhale ea with us at this year’s Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea Hāmākua event. Mahalo nui to Paʻauilo School and Principal Michelle Barber for sharing your beautiful campus with us for this event; Mahalo nui to our huiMAU planning and organizing committee, Haley Kailiehu, Kodie Solis-Kalani, Liana Honda, Valerie Peralto, Kalā Lindsey-Asing, Lokelani Brandt, and Kamakoa-Lindsey Asing; Mahalo nui Mahalo to Uncle Dexter Alpiche for volunteering your equipment and expertise to run the sounds; Mahalo nui to all our amazing musicians and educators, Project Kuleana Nā Moʻo, Kīhei Nahale-a, Kamakoa Lindsey-Asing, Kainani Kahaunaele, Heoli Osorio, Jonathan K. Osorio, and Lanakila Manguil; Mahalo to the Lewis ʻohana for the tents; Mahalo to our emcee, Kū Kahakalau; Mahalo to the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities and the Consuelo Foundation who sponsored and supported our Moʻolelo Booth; Mahalo to the volunteer kuʻi ʻai tent crew, Kaʻiana Runnels, Keahi Tomas, Nick Francisco, and the Konanui ʻohana; Mahalo to Uncle Nālei Kahakalau for leading the Makahiki games; Mahalo to our parking attendants Clyde Bailado, Joel Peralto, Alfred Kailiehu, Bronson Palupe, and Lucon Route; Mahalo to our volunteer nurses in the First Aid Tent, Kalaʻi Carreiro, Gail Walker, and Alice Dela Cruz; Mahalo nui to our set-up and clean-up crews; and Mahalo nui to all the EAducational, craft, and food vendors who came to share your abundance with our community. We are experiencing a wā hoʻihoʻi ea. Let us continue to rise, lift and hold each other up, and make our kūpuna proud. This ʻāina deserves nothing less. E mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono!