 Hi Kako, my name is Walter Kawaii, your host for Roots Hawaii. We are here in the beautiful studios of Think Tech Hawaii, located in the Pioneer Plaza building in downtown Honolulu. And joining me today is my very special guest, Kama Kapili, aloha Hawaiian, good to see you. How are you doing? Long time. Well, let me, I know he's, this is a famous Hawaiian young man, but for many of our viewers who are not familiar with Kama Ka, let me give you a brief introduction. Kama Kapili was born and raised here on the island of Oahu, where he grew up in a multicultural environment. However, it was his native Hawaiian roots or his o'ivi of his ancestors that beckoned his spirit the strongest. Kama Ka has always felt the sense of kuleana or responsibility to actively perpetuate his cultural traditions in this modern, fast-paced world of business, politics, and development. From hula, dance, to lomi lomi, massage, laau la paau, Hawaiian herbal medicines, to ulana weaving, to kuku kapa, bark cloth pounding, to oli chanting, to heina lo surfing, and beyond. Kama Ka has been and continues to be an active participant in all of these native Hawaiian disciplines. His passion to grow, his knowledge doesn't stop in the Hawaiian community, but continues as this bright, ambitious young native Hawaiian has expanded his horizons to include both the hospitality and retail industries. Kama Ka is what we Hawaiians call eleo, meaning energetic or eager in finding ways to build bridges between the native Hawaiian culture and the world. So, that Kama Ka Pili doesn't find himself relaxing or resting. You can find him working as the weekend weatherman and reporter with KHON TV News. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Kama Ka Pili. Oh, that was really nice. Yeah, that was pretty good. And I made all that stuff up. Okay, so I'm going to do something different. You know, normally we have questions that we would ask and just have conversation, but I thought we'd do something different with Kama Ka. And so I'm going to ask, we're going to have visual. I'm going to ask our engineer to throw up picture number one. And so, Kama Ka, tell us who this beautiful Hawaiian lady is and just your thoughts and feelings. Oh, well, that is my tutu, I should say my 103-year-old tutu, Marietta Kama. She lives on Hawaii Island. That's my dad's mom's mom. So your dad's? My dad's grandma. And as a little kid, both my parents had to work, so she raised us partially as a young boy. And I don't know, I just, there's a lot of things that she is about that I totally took in like a sponge. So everything I do, I always kind of have her in the back of my mind. If what I do, if she doesn't like it, you know, that's kind of one of my means of seeing if I should do it or not. So you're connected to tutu, yeah? Oh, yeah, definitely. You know, that reminds me because when I was, well, when I was born, my mother's grandmother, so this would have been my great-grandmother, very similar. But the difference, she requested to have me raised by her. So from age, from baby to age seven, when my tutu passed away, I actually lived with her and her mother. And so I lived with these old Hawaiian ladies in my very formative years. And it really meant a lot. So I gather you may not have lived with tutu, but you have spent a lot of time enough to connect you and root you to tutu, is that right? Yeah, we actually, she owns an apartment in Kalihi. So as a young boy, we lived in the next apartment right next to her. She was always home. So when my parents left, we would just go right next door. So technically, we lived with her. I consider living with her for a little bit. So how long has she lived on the big island? Oh, at least 20 years. It's been a long time. That's her daughter, when she graduated my grandma, when she retired from the police department, they both retired and moved up there. That was, I don't know, at least 20 years. 20 years, yeah. Okay, we're going to ask Rob to throw up another picture of tutu, picture number two. There we go. So tell us a little briefly, because we want to get through all these pictures. Yeah, this, all I remember is this is Lake Tahoe. I think she's in her 30s at this time. And there is, especially when she turned 100, I was able to come across a lot of old photos of her. I don't know where I got it from. But for like a month leading into her birthday, I would post these pictures on Instagram, on Facebook, kind of like, make her famous. I just felt like, you know, 100, first of all, turning 100 is a definite milestone. Oh, it's an accomplishment. So I think everybody should be aware of that, you know. Well, you're fortunate to have your tutu still with you today. You know, I mean, 103, and I asked you before the show, how's she doing? She's still kicking? She's still kicking. She loves the talk story. Okay, well, that's good. Valau. Valau. But yeah, she's doing good. Out that side and I would, I mean, I kind of good feeling 104 is right around the corner. Right around the corner. Yeah. She's 103 and a half. 103 and a half. Picture number three. Okay, so I'm going to guess, you know, that on the, on my right, that's tutu. That's tutu. How old was tutu? In age. That's one of the youngest pictures I have of her. I think, no, maybe that's like nine or 10 or so. But that on the left is her grandma. Oh, her grandma. Yeah. Her mom's mom. You know, it's so, I love looking at old pictures like this. You do? Yeah. I mean, you know, and I love them when they're in black and white. I don't know. For some reason it just makes it more real, you know. And picture, next picture there, Rob. Okay. Now we're getting a little deep. So, you know, these are all youngsters, but I think just because I look at the features, where's tutu in there? She's the one holding the baby. He's holding the, oh, do you know who all these others? That's all her siblings. She, part of her responsibility, I don't know how it happened. I think it just turned in that way. She kind of raised her kids, her siblings, even as a young girl like that growing up. Yeah. So. I mean, I'm going to imagine that most of them are no longer here. I think the younger brother, the baby that she's holding is still alive. Actually just met him last week, two weeks ago. Oh, really? For the first time ever. Yeah, I've never did. But the other ones have passed already. And this is here on Oahu? Do you know? Yeah, it's here at Oahu. I'm not too sure where. She was born in Wailua, and then she moved down to Cajaco. Oh, so to do it, they're from Wailua? She's from Wailua. Originally. Yeah, moved in. I know, he says, where Cholo's restaurant is, that's where her house was. Oh, okay. Wow. You have a good memory. Oh, good for you. You know, I mean, the name of our show is Roots Hawaii. And so I wanted to start off with these pictures and, you know, so that our audience knows that you come, the many things that you've done in your life, but you always go back to your roots, you're well grounded. Have you, I'm just a side note, have you done any genealogical research on either side of your family, mama, dad, side? I did a little bit. Every single time I try to start up and then it goes for a couple days and then I get distracted or something else comes up and then I just never get back to it. We can help you. I can help you to not be distracted on that one. And we have lots of people. I have to bring you down to, you know, the office where we are at the Remote Operations Center. We're all engaged in genealogical research. A lot of experienced people. And so we have to talk about that after the show. Awesome. Okay. Rob, do we have another picture there? Oh, yep. That was last year, I think. So a couple of years ago, she had fallen and as stubborn as she is, she didn't tell anybody that she'd fallen. So that ended up to be a crack in her leg. And by the time we took her to the doctors, the doctor was saying that, I'm assuming it's because she's too old that it's not going to heal. So they put her in a rehab across the street, other medical centers. She was staying there for a while. She's back home. And yeah, she's always stubborn. So even though something like that happens, it's like, come on. You could have told us. No, no, no. I don't want to bother anybody. I love when I see pictures like that because I love the fact that you love Tutu. I mean, who doesn't love Tutu? But I mean, seriously, you know, 103 years old and I'm not going to ask you your age, but you're young. Okay. We want to get into so we know that Kamakah is deeply rooted in his Hawaiian roots. And, you know, we've seen pictures of his Tutu and their siblings. I can ask Rob to throw up our next picture there. Okay. I think I know what that is, but I don't want to make a fool of myself. So I'm going to ask you. So to our audience, you got to know that Kamakah has embraced, as I mentioned in his introduction, many disciplines of the Hawaiian culture. And this is one of them. And I'm going to ask him to take his time where no rush, explain what that is, what you're doing and how you got involved in that. Yeah. So the practice of ulana or weaving, in particular, the laohala, the leaf of the hao tree. And that particular picture is me stripping it. So there's a lot of process you got to go through to get to the point where you can weave it. And one of it is softening it. Boy, if it has thorns on it, then you got to dethorn it first. Some of them don't have thorns. But then you got to soften it and then you strip it. And interesting enough, that stripper was given to me by my Tutu. Oh, wow. And that is, I would say, 60, 70 years old. Wow, that thing looks pretty good. So she gave it to me. I'm like, I better, I got to put this to use. So that was the first time I think I put it to use. So how long, I mean, when did you first start and how long have you been doing it? That was a few years back. So a few years back, I was really trying to be an entrepreneur. I didn't want to work for anybody. It's like, no, I can do this on my own. So I just, one, had my own jury business or design company. And I was trying to do craft fairs and stuff like that. And what I just love to do was just learning who I am. So I got into different cultural practices and I'm not an expert at it. I just felt like being aware of it, understanding at least the protocol of it, the basics of it. For some reason, I didn't know what I was doing, you know, because my parents was like, you need to get a job, this isn't going to get you a job. I was trying to find any kind of thing that I could use this for. And I couldn't. I mean, you had that, Lomi Lomi Hula, which I still do. And there's so much things and it's just because I loved to do that. And it didn't make sense until I got the job at the news station where I can take all that knowledge, not to the fine details of what it encompasses, but at least throughout essences of it or be aware of it. So if I speak about something that has to do with Lohala, I can share a little bit more information. Well, I have to imagine, and there's many other photos that we're going to look through that define some of these other disciplines that you've been involved in, as you mentioned. But I have to imagine that throwing yourself as you said you did into these different areas, just for the pure love of it and well, maybe the pure love of acquiring knowledge about all of these different things. And I have to commend you for that because I don't know how many young people your age would take the time to do that, especially in this day when we all need a job, we have to make money because we all have to pay bills. And unfortunately, that does get in the way of a lot of this. And so for people like yourself and other practitioners that have made a commitment to devote themselves to these different disciplines, you know, but I think that has one essence of tutu in me, I believe. I always credit my tutu for all that passion and love. Inspiration, yeah. A big part of it. Okay, so an expert in Lohala weaving. Not an expert. The first thing I ever made, I lost it. So I can't say I'm an expert on that. That's another set of skills that we can teach you about not losing. Rob, can we get the next frame up there? Oh, dear. Who's that handsome guy? You know, the only reason why I wanted to do this, because this, I kind of remember this event. I know where the location is, but I forget the name of the building. It's the Nalama Kukui, the Oha building. Nalama Kukui, right, where the office of Hawaiian Affairs is located. And I threw this in not because I've been there with my wife, but because this really kind of goes back to the beginning days of Kamakapili, and maybe in your crafting days. So this is one of the things this entrepreneur was trying to do. Oh, yeah. That was a stress and a half. But it was called Native Hawaiian Arts and Culture Expo. And when I first became an artist and doing craft fairs and stuff, I got hooked up with an association that was called Hawaii Culture and Retail Association. And through that, we were trying to find ways to bring artists together so that we could help give exposure, help marketing. But of course, sales was the big thing. So that was actually the first one and probably the most successful. But it was a cool experience, but it was a lot of work. So I give mad props to event planners because there's so much work to put into it. Plus, you have to care for everybody else. Of course. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth. But it was good because the most rewarding thing was to see how successful everybody really was at that time in terms of sales and exposure. These are all the crafters you're talking about. All the crafters, yeah. And then, I mean, with that, we brought in the crafters, we brought in musicians, so that's where you came in, thank you. And we had cultural workshops. And we had, what was the other one? I know I did a ukulele workshop. Yeah, so we had an ukulele workshop. We had a kahili workshop. We had Niihau Sheo workshop. Oh, that's right. But it was just a coup. Yeah, we actually had feather laymaking with Auntie Mele Chan. Right, right. So it was such, it's just what I thought a Hawaiian event is. And I know there's a lot of other events out there that kind of do the same thing. But this is Native Hawaiian arts and culture. Well, we'll have to come back after the break and ask you what were the lessons learned from that first cultural... Oh, I don't think we have enough time for that. Well, we'll take a 60-second commercial break and we'll be right back with our very special guest, Mr. Komakapili. I'm your host, Walter Kawaii of Rukts Hawaii. We'll be right back. Aloha, this is Winston Welch. I am your host of Out and About, where every other week, Mondays at 3, we explore a variety of topics in our city, state, nation and world, and events, organizations, the people that fuel them. It's a really interesting show. We welcome you to tune in and we welcome your suggestions for shows. You got a lot of them out there. And we have an awesome studio here where we can get your ideas out as well. So I look forward to you tuning in every other week where we've got some great guests and great topics. You're going to learn a lot. You're going to come away inspired like I do. So I'll see you every other week here at 3 o'clock on Monday afternoon. Aloha. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. My show is based on my book, also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports and life, which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 a.m. Aloha. Aloha, and welcome back to Roots Hawaii. I'm your host, Walter Kawei. Back with our very special guest, Mr. Kama Kapili. So before we took a break, we were talking about Nalama Kukui, and that was the name of that first... Native Hawaiian Arts and Culture Expo. You know, I remember that. It was a lot of work. I know a good friend of ours, Baraka was there, he and his wife. What were some of the takeaways? Both the good and the bad. You know, there's always good and bad to everything, and we learn from, you know, the mistakes we make. Not saying you made any mistakes. Oh, I can say that. But I think the first thing was just the behind the scenes, getting everything set. You know, the paperwork and the contract and all of that kind of stuff. And there was just so much lines we had to fit in. So it took a while to actually get it and secure it. But when we did, it turned out to be good. So at least I became more aware of that, and I'm not a big fan of it. Unless I can work with somebody to do that, I'm kind of definitely taking a break right now. But aside from that, I think to be as prepped ahead of the game as possible, because I'm a procrastinator. Which is weird, because when I was in school, procrastinating was like my skill. I did really good in procrastinating. Yeah, in procrastinating. I don't know why I hate it. It's super stressful, but it works. So for this, I try to be ahead of the game, but there are some things like when you just feel like yourself is burnt out and you're like, no, I'm going to give myself the day off. I'm going to give myself two days off. But to know, to be ahead, you never expect or you never know what you're going to expect. You never know what artists are going to throw at you or other vendors are going to throw at you. They want this, they want that, they want this and that. So to be, and that's what my parents always said, just be ahead of the game. And yeah, that's probably the biggest thing turned away from. When you were going through that whole thing, I'm just curious, was there any, do you ever hear your tutu's voice in your head from time to time when you're doing a good thing? Like would you hear her say, oh good boy Kamaka, would you do something not so good? Would you hear her say, Kamaka, what you doing? Yeah, well for this one I felt like this would please her. This would please her. Yeah, and when I called her after, she was very pleased, you know, and part of her family, Uncle Heli Manoli, who unfortunately recently passed, is her nephew. So he was the one who did the Kahili workshop. Right, so that explains why, because I've seen in recent post-ups, you know, on Facebook, how close you were to him. And I didn't know there was an actual connection there. And it was right, maybe a year or so before that, that I met him, and it was just by chance I went to his house with a kumu hula who told me, oh I'm going to learn about Kahili, you want to come with me and learn something? And I'm like, okay, shoot. And in talking story with him, he was like, who's your grandma? Because the names start coming up, and I'm just like, wow, what are the chances, you know? There you go Ruth. Such a, so close, yeah. I mean, this is a very common place. I mean, I'm sure it happens in other, I want to say indigenous cultures, but definitely in Hawaiian, it's a very common place to have this kind of a conversation, you know, you talk about him, and then, you know, before you know it, he's asking, who's your grandma? Who's this, who's that? And this is genealogy. This is how we are rooted, and we, especially in the island community that we live, you know, when you go back four, five, six generations, you know, we're all related, but we're going to find how we're related as we do our genealogical research. Okay, maybe I'll ask our engineer to throw up this next picture. I think our viewers want to see it. Okay, there you go. Okay, you know, the only reason why, for our viewing audience, I had this, I picked this, because this defines who this gentleman is. You know, in today's world, thanks to events like Mary Monarch, when you have participants like Kamakah, who have danced on stage, wearing this kind of a fashion outfit, very deep-rooted. I know there was a period of time where you were out on the streets, on the windward side in your molo, afternoon traffic, and I saw it. Getting yelled at every five minutes. But, you know, tell our audience why this. I know this is one of your Na'auvalau designs in your molo that you came out with. So, this is the Mamo wearable arts fashion show put on by Pai Foundation. Okay. This was, I think, three, maybe four years ago. And it actually was with my friend, and the same lady who was teaching me how to weave Laohala, Luffy Lutero, and her company, Pavehik Creations. And she wanted to partner up with a few of her friends to kind of bring out as an extravagant show as possible. So, she took care of Laohala hats. And then we had myself who did Molo and Kihei for the women. And then there was a friend of mine, Aunty Mele Chun did some feather lay. And then there was, what was the other one? No, it's Vicky Ho Takamine. Is that the Pai Foundation? That's her, right? Yeah. So, she puts on this yearly event, this fashion show. Yeah. And I think I just got the email to her, you know, if we want to do it again, but I'm nowhere in the availability to do it. But, I mean, we had another friend who did Sterling Silver, or his jewelry. I think it's Sterling Silver jewelry. And then we had a friend of ours who did all the makeup. And the whole theme was, I think it was either the second or the third portion of the Kumulipo. Oh. And it kind of, for Luffy, she was doing it for a long time. So, every year this was kind of like her thing. So, I was able to do the Molo and the Kihei. And for us, at least for three of us, we had kind of a thing that we wanted to put together. Like, let's just do something with feathers. So, Luffy taught us how to make netting like that, to like a fish net netting. And then, so I made that. A friend of mine made one that kind of like a Kihei crossed over her shoulders. And then she did, I think it was a neck one. So, what you're wearing there, you made? I made it. That's what you're referring to? Yeah. Wow. So, there's that which took forever. And then the feathers, putting that on, I have so much respect for people who do feather work because there's so much patience that I didn't have. And I think the first half of it, I had to take it all off because I didn't do it right. So, it really frustrated me. That's like a hula-dove making a teeny squid for the first time. And the kumo says, Oh, two shot, all of all. Yeah. So, I mean, it's awesome. It's super cool. And right now it's just rolled up in my room. I just keep it. But I don't know when. I want to bring it out sometime. I don't know when. Well. It's gonna be a super cool occasion. Yeah. That would really be a cool occasion. There was something I wanted to ask you. So, in your Na'al Vala'au, that's another one of your businesses? Yeah. So, that's the business as me as an artist. So, Na'al Vala'au really, my dad takes credit for it because it was originally called Na'al Talks. And I just wanted to have something that... All horn. Well, for me, it was like all these stories and all the designs, it just literally flashes in my mind. Or I kind of talk to myself in my head, which kind of sounds cuckoo, but I'm not. But as I'm talking to myself, then I have these images that kind of just pop up. And so, I always felt that all these stories, all these designs come through my Na'al. And so, it's my Na'al talking, not necessarily me. So, I went home and I told that to my dad. Oh, my parents. I was like, oh, I'm gonna name it Na'al Talks. And then he's like Na'al Vala'au. Oh, he's just rolling. And now he's like, I need 10% of everything that you make. It's more like a true dad. But that's where, yeah. So, that's where Na'al Vala'au comes from. And it's interesting because even how many people who don't necessarily know how to pronounce Hawaiian words, they can pronounce it. Which, for me, a strategy is always if you name something, I think some people name things like a very extravagant Hawaiian name. In my perspective, it's hard for people to remember that. Especially those who may not necessarily know how to pronounce it or speak it. So, it was kind of a risk to do that for me. But it turned out that everybody was able to always pronounce that. For certainly, the Hawaiian community embraced that Na'al Vala'au. It just kind of rolls off your tongue. But when you said even the Caucasian people say it, my mind immediately, I don't know why. Maybe I'm cuckoo just like you. My mind went, I heard a Texan voice in there trying to say Na'al Vala'au. And I think one thing too is, and I think just in general in today's world, you know, old Hawaiian language, you never have the diacriticals, you never have the okina's or the kahakos. So, some people say like, we shouldn't have it today because it's traditional, we never have it. But for me, and that was a perfect example, is that when you add it in there, people know how, people know that there's a different way to speak it. You know, like Ka'u on Big Island, for example, people say Ka'u, people are gonna get super mad. But you're not gonna know until you put it in. Right, right. The diacriticals really teaches us where to place the emphasis, which syllable to make the sound, the emphatic sound. Well, let's see if, before we run out of time, ask our engineer to throw up our second to the last shot there. All right. So, we wanna keep that up and that looks like jewelry. You know, I got one of them. Men, those are all the men line of jewelry, is that right? That is, yeah, well, not to share what I had at that time, but I do have a couple more collections since then if it's not Big Joan. It started off with that one in the brown back thing and those dog tag looking ones and it all, everything that I do really is about aloha. I try to. And it all started with the same sex debate time. I came home from something, I forget what it was, and I went to the back of the house and my parents were there and the debate was on TV and they were grumbling and they were bickering and whatever and we have this long hallway and my room's in the front but because there's a long hallway it just echoes. So I was in my room kind of just doing something and I kept hearing them bicker, bicker, bicker so I was like, you know what, screw it, I'm just gonna turn on the TV and see what it is. And I was flipping through the channels and I believe it was a channel right before the debate because it was part of Olelo and the debate was on Olelo channel where I seen, it was a recorded conference with a previous teacher of mine and when I went to UH Hilo, Kumumonumair and Ponoshim and I never met Ponoshim at this time but they were talking about the acronyms of Oloha going back to Epilahipaki because that's Ponoshim's anti, I believe. And just there as she was explaining these things I started to jot down all these images and I didn't know what I was doing I was like, okay, okay and then I just kind of like left it on my desk and I didn't really do anything with it and when I met the right person Terry Funakoshi, now she's a host over here she was the one who really got me into being an artist because I didn't know what I was going to do with it when I met her the first time I showed her all my designs and what I needed to do I just felt like I want to step into it she was the one who really helped me and the jury was really her connection and that first line of jury is all those designs that I sketch not knowing what I was going to do I kind of remember that that period of time we were running out of time I'm going to ask Rob to throw up that last picture for us okay, this is I think this is bringing Kamakapili up to today where you work on weekends as the Weekend Weatherman and reporter for KH1 TV and so you've come from your roots with Tutu we've walked all this pathway of all of the different native Hawaiian disciplines that you've been involved in just embracing the culture and so on behalf of all of us props to you in your youthful age for being an example to the younger generation and I'll look at that because of that he listened to his mother and father who said get a job to get a regular paycheck if it wasn't this job I probably would have said no but it really was a I don't know this literally kind of landed in my lap and I only can mahalokea cool for that because it really started well after I started and I was at craft fairs and just sharing the stories of all my things a representative from Olalo TV had approached me and said would you want to have a TV show on Olalo channel I was like I'm always down to try something once so let's do it and that started in 2014 and I had three seasons of that and you were part of that so thank you very much for allowing me to you know move forward but from doing that and then it was you know they don't give you statistics they don't give you numbers it's everything is word of mouth so I didn't know who was watching it most of the people who would come up to me were older people and there was a couple keiki which totally surprised me in my mind I'm thinking how am I going to engage more with the keiki and then it was I think two halloween's ago a friend of mine who I used to work with texted me a picture of a friend of his friend who was vandalizing Prince Cahill's statue down in Waikiki and he sent it to me he just told me do what you want to do with it because he knew I would piss me off and I wanted to do something but he said please don't drop my name I was like okay no problem and I took that and I emailed all the news stations and I said you know I think we should have more Hawaiian education in your newscast and I sent them my website with all my episodes and done some street name stuff and that's kind of how it turned out well good for you congratulations for your success well when I have to come back and do another show I say that to all my guests there's so much to Vala'au about and I have spent and I really have enjoyed this time with you Kamakapili thank you for coming my special guest today Kamakapili mahalanui and continuous success in future endeavors thank you for watching this episode of SOE I'm your host Walter Kawaii until next time take care everyone alohono