 It's time for Community Matters. I'm Jay Feidel and we have a really special show at this block, the 3 o'clock block this afternoon on a given Monday with Kailani Kaiho who joins us from VMIX call in Waini today. Hi Kailani, are you there? Yes I am Aloha Jay, thank you for having me. Oh it's great. So we became aware of you through Cheryl Lynch who runs the Waini Library and she was putting out a newsletter for the event I guess it has to do with your big project and your big project is all about Hawaiian legend books, eight of them. And so I want to talk about that with you today. It's really special to have somebody publishing these books, not only in English but also in Hawaiian. So how did you get started in all that Kailani? I actually started as a student teacher in a Hawaiian language immersion school in Kame Ohe Puohala and at the time back then there weren't any books being published in Hawaiian. It was at a time when we had English books and we typed the Hawaiian translations and we cut and paste those Hawaiian translations over the English words and that's what we would use and that's how we would build our Hawaiian language library. And it was fine but there was one time where I read this book you might have heard it called The Giving Tree. I really loved that book growing up and I thought it was wonderful and I started to read it and it really had a different impact on me when I read it in Hawaiian. And I don't know if it's because when you speak Hawaiian you kind of look at things through a Hawaiian perspective but I felt like how could this boy just take and take and take and take from the tree and at the very end there's only a stump and he just sat on it and that was the end. From a Hawaiian perspective you would pray first, you would ask, you would think about ways that it could be sustainable. We're on an island with limited resources so every natural resource was managed to the tea. So you'd think of harvesting seeds or planting cuttings in a way that would ensure that this tree would continue on, it would grow, you'd plant baby versions of the tree and you'd always be very respectful of the tree. And so after that experience I began thinking you know why are we kind of putting our language onto these English books when we have tons of our own Hawaiian stories that are in the Hawaiian language newspapers or passed down orally from our grandparents. And so in 2011 I launched He Ohia, our non-profit organization to publish Hawaiian books that come from a Hawaiian source basically. That's a beautiful picture. I'm getting the feeling that somebody helps you with these beautiful pictures. Are you the photographer, Kailani? I'm not the photographer. I am kind of just the director, the puppet master of everything that's happening. So we did our first project with the Legends of Waianae and that series came out in 2011 and then our more recent project, the Legends of Ko'olau Loa, which is just coming out this year in a couple months. And what we do is we actually wait for an invitation from a certain district in the state of Hawaii, it could be any district. So for this project we were invited by people from the Ko'olau Loa district to come in, help research and find the stories of their district and help them to share those stories with the world. So of course it was a lot of work. I didn't do it all by myself. We go into the community and we find over a hundred Hawaiian models who live or from that district to reenact all the Legends. We get a lot of hula halau and canoe clubs to help us with costume. Oh it's more than a book then. You actually have an event going on with a halau and some hula. Yes, and so we usually do eight Legends at a time. So we look for in that community eight Hawaiian photographers who can capture the reenactments of these Legends and we try to also do them on location of where they happen traditionally. And so, you know, we reenact them. We have Hawaiian makeup artists from the district, Hawaiian seamstresses from the district, Hawaiian graphic designers, editors, language translators. Yes. To really get the people from that area to share their stories with the world. They're not my stories at all in any form. And so that's basically the type of protocol that we follow to ensure that things are done correctly here. So you don't actually go out and forage for the stories. You get the community to find the stories for you. That's a lovely idea really. Yes we do. So we have a kupuna council or a council of elders, Hawaiian elders from that district who help us to determine what stories we need to research more or which ones we might be missing and ultimately they help to choose the eight Legends that we will be publishing at the end. So the one Koho Laulua, the one that you showed the graphic a minute ago, that's your current project. That's the eight books, eight stories, eight Legends. Can you pick one and tell me what it's like? Pick one of those eight. Sure. Let's see. We have a legend about Ki'iaka, which she was a Hawaiian goddess, the younger sister of Hele, and I can go ahead and read a little excerpt from that book. That'd be great. Sure. So, if you have that image of the excerpt. So some of you might be familiar with Crouching Lion on Oahu. It's a big dog up on the top of the mountain. So this story talks about that Crouching Lion. It wasn't actually a lion, it was a dog from Tahiti. And this here in this image is Ki'iaka, and she's talking to him. So the excerpt reads, Ki'iaka's chant awakens the Eleo, and he responds, If that is you, O forest-eating woman of Puna, woman from the sunrise, I have grown weary of this long breast, and if you both so too shall I, for I have had my fill of sleep, the stone shifted as if to rise from his slumber to meet his visitor. So Ki'iaka, as she's traveling to Kaua'i to go and get her older sister's lover, Lohiao, she meets up with one of her family members, which is this dog from Tahiti, and when she greets him, he's like, you're here, can I please come with you? And, you know, ultimately, he says, I'm sorry you can't, you have to stay here and watch over everything. He's not really happy about that. But it just tells of all the things she does and the people she encounters as she's traveling through the Kaua'i Loha district. And what is it said? Is it said at a time, maybe it's a mythological, a legend time? Or is it set now or then, 19th century? I don't know exactly when in time, I know it's hundreds of years ago, but I'm not sure when exactly she actually came through Kaua'i Loha, but it is considered an ancient legend. So you have translations into the native Hawaiian language for each of these books then? So a lot of these legends were recorded in the Hawaiian language newspapers of the late 1800s, early 1900s. So the research that we do includes going into these old archived newspaper documents, finding the stories, and then what one of the issues were with that. The legends are very, a lot of the legends are being lost because unless you have access, which now we do through Ulukau.org, they've digitized hundreds of pages of the Hawaiian language newspapers. But unless you can read at a pretty high level of Hawaiian language, you can't access the legends. And so a lot of people didn't know, they don't know the stories because they don't read Hawaiian. And unfortunately, because of our history, a lot of Hawaiians are growing up not knowing how to speak the language. And so one thing we did was to translate it into Hawaiian, into English, so that all Hawaiians and everyone who loves Hawai'i or is interested in Hawaiian history would be able to read the legends that we are hoping to preserve and perpetuate them in that way. Yeah. Oh, I love the idea. So the original story comes from one of the Native Hawaiian language newspapers in the 19th century. Is that it? And you take that out of the newspaper and you make a book out of it. And what's interesting, did you ever go to the Mission House Museum program called Pupu, I think it's called Pupu Dinner at the Oahu Cemetery? And they have, they examine the cemetery. They examine all the people who have buried in the cemetery. And they give you a history lesson of the 19th century. And one of the interesting threads that run through this whole program is the Native Hawaiian newspapers. There were some very literate people in Native Hawaiian in the 19th century throughout, well, the latter part of the century anyway, who were people of letters who could write the language and publish the language and do newspapers. So you find a treasure trove of this kind of material in those newspapers. Too bad we don't have that now, but maybe we'll have it in the future, I suppose. It really is a treasure trove. There is so much information there. And you're right. I'm a descendant of one of the missionaries, Edward Bailey from Massachusetts. And just earlier this week, I was looking up stories about farming for a book that I'm putting together on farming. And he had written a whole series of pieces on farming and he published them in the Kauai Hawaii newspaper. And it was just amazing to me because he came from Massachusetts, came here to Hawaii. He really learned the language. He learned it very well. And he opened a school for girls to educate them. And he was nearly excommunicated from the mission because he was teaching women how to read and write. So that's part of my family. So what about the translation? I get that you did the translation for this book. You start out with the Native Hawaiian legend story and then you write it up into English. And what you were reading before really struck me as very well written. So you must have A, experience in reading Native Hawaiian. I want to know how you got that. And B, you must have some experience in writing English too. So what's the story, Kailani? Well, I'm from a family of educators. I always knew I would be a teacher. So all throughout high school at the Kamehameha schools, I did take Hawaiian language. And then I went on to do a bachelor's degree in Hawaiian language. And following that, I did a master's degree in education. And so for quite a long while, I was a teacher in the Hawaiian language immersion schools. And so, you know, because of those two degrees and my background, I really am able to read the Hawaiian language and translate it. But I'm not the only translator. I do work with a number of other Hawaiian language teachers who help with translations and a number of English, I guess professors and majors and different writers who do help with the English translations and editing. Yeah, so I just, you know, I wonder this, you know, to me, it presents a problem. If I'm me, just take me. Nice, holy guy, right? With a great sense of appreciation and all. I have to go buy two books. I have to buy the book in native Hawaiian and I have to buy the book in English. And if I lay them down side by side so I can make the comparison and try to figure out what means what. Maybe you're thinking of this for the future, but why not make one book where the pages, the opposite pages will show the opposite languages? What do you think? I get that question a lot more than you probably realized. And we have considered it. But being a teacher in the Hawaiian language immersion school, the kids are not just Hawaiian language readers, speakers at home. They learn English usually as their first language. We're starting to get into a generation where the parents are now able to speak Hawaiian at home. So there are kids who can read Hawaiian and who speak Hawaiian at the home, but most of them come into the immersion schools already being able to read and write and speak in English. Now, because of that, that makes Hawaiian language their second language. And because of that, whenever there's a bilingual book, they will read the English instead of reading the Hawaiian English. Oh, so you want to make sure they have the Hawaiian so make them go out and get it. You know, it reminds me of a high school I am familiar with on the Big Island, where they have a lot of Pacific Islanders there. And the principal of the high school decided that, you know, it's important that the kids get an education, but he thought the parents needed one too. So he started organizing classes. I don't know if TOE knew about this. He started organizing classes for the parents too. So it strikes me that you not only want the kids to learn native Hawaiian, you want the parents to learn it too because they missed it in their education. How do we do that? How do we get the parents involved? Well, I know for a lot of the Hawaiian language schools, they do offer parent classes for their students. I heard recently the University of Hawaii has opened up free Hawaiian language courses on campus. So if anyone is interested, they should go. And there's also a number of different programs that offer free Hawaiian language courses online. So the resources are really growing for people who are interested in learning the language. So do you ever get stories from outside the newspaper? I mean, just talk story stories. Stories that are passed down through the generations that are just that are pure legend, never having been reduced to any language before, or is it too late for that? No, we do. We do get stories that are passed down from families. So the three main ways that we get legends are either reported in the Hawaiian language newspapers, either from a Hawaiian or a non-Hawaiian author. And we also get, you know, there were non-Hawaiians during that time also who are recording all of our legends. And so we get legends that their only source that we can find is an English source from someone who is just recording. And then our third source is from families who have kept these legends and have been passing them down orally in their family, usually because one of the characters in the legend is one of their ancestors. And so those are really... That's personal. Yeah. That's personal. Yes, it is. So it strikes me also that all the stories have a takeaway. They have a moral point to make, a lesson to give. You spoke of some of that, but I wonder if you can give me sort of an array of the kinds of lessons that I would take away from these stories in the eight books. Okay. So the Hii'iaka story, the one that we read, it is such a small snippet of the entire Hii'iaka Pele saga. There's a really long book. Kuaikea Nobomair actually compiled every newspaper entry that one of the writers did over... I think it was a span of two years. Every newspaper entry, he added a little bit more of the legend, a little bit more. And what we took out for this book is really just maybe two weeks of entries. And the title that we have is Respecting Hii'iaka because she was a goddess and the people who were respectful to her, who welcomed her and followed proper protocols for meeting a deity, they were rewarded, they were blessed. And then there were people who were very disrespectful to her. They ended up losing their lives or losing their lands or losing something. And so just talking about how we respect one another, how we treat people. And that's just one of the books. Yeah, so that'd be a big part of the lesson that you provide. Also, it strikes me that you have a limited, defined body of knowledge here. It's those newspapers and it's what's handed down by people who are still alive. But the question I ask, is there going to come a time, Kailani, when you actually run out of stories? Or are there enough stories to keep you busy forever and ever? There are millions of pages that were digitized from the newspaper and there are so many more that were not. We can't even begin to touch the tip of the iceberg. Really, I wish I had a long enough life. I'm trying to feel my company so other districts can just go and do it for themselves. Stay healthy. Yeah, I don't think we will be running out anytime soon. Even for that Hiyaka example, I could probably create 100 books just out of that one person. Well, let's look at some of the graphics that you showed us so we can make sure to include everything that you wanted to talk about. So let's take a look. Okay, Hiyaka, you mentioned. So this is beautiful. You have an artist in the company that makes these beautiful graphics. Yeah, so we have our two models here, Kelsey, Maui, and Tareti Grace and our photographer, Poolea Keena. They're all from Poolea Loa. And then we do have a Hawaiian graphic artist, Matthew Kaubam, who did a lot of our graphic work. And I can look for these books and graphics for that matter on your website. What's the name of the website? Hihia? Hihia. H-I-O-H-I-A.org. Okay. And .org. .org. Okay, all right. Let's see some more graphics. Okay. So this is another story about the two Hilo fish and how they traveled around to the Poolea Loa District. I don't even want to talk about this story. I might spoil it, but it's about two brothers. And one brother kind of gets lost and the other brother comes searching for him. They're not just fish, are they? They have much more than fish. Okay, what's the next one? Kylie Tizani? Kylie Tizani is a fun surfing legend about the North Shore and how he fell in love with this woman. And, you know, he vowed that he would be, you know, he would just, he would be hers basically. But one day he went surfing and when he landed on the beach, this another girl came and gave him some Ilimales. And his first wahine, his first woman was not very happy about that. So he first him and I will let you find out what that curse was. Okay, don't be sure. You weren't the model in that, in that graphic, were you? That was not me. That was a distant of mine, Umi Jensen from Poolea Loa. Okay, how about another one? What we got? Oh, this is one of my favorite pictures. This fabulous, this picture. What is it? This is such a fun, this was a fun, fun photo shoot about the legend of the floating island of Kahuku. So, anciently it was believed that the Ahupua'a of Kahuku was not connected to the rest of Oahu. It was actually separate from Oahu. And there were these Menehune or these little people who lived on that island. And they would kind of paddle their little island. It was a floating island. They paddled their little island to Oahu to get water. And so, one day, the famed demigod, Maui, what's his name, he used his magical fish hook to kind of catch that island and connect it to Oahu. And the little Menehune were not very happy about it. And the fish hook was, you know, a symbol for the super ferry. I'm only kidding. Oh, that's great stuff. What else? Let's see another picture. Oh, yeah, this is another one of my favorites. This is, and we have here in the center, the chief Olopana, and he was from the Ko'olau Popo District. And what was happening in this story was that the demigod, Kamapua'a, who was a pig god, kept stealing Olopana's chickens and eating them all. So he sent his warriors, you know, he and his warriors came and tracked him down in Ko'olau Loa where he was hiding out and living. And, you know, they tried to capture him. So if you're familiar with the area of Ko'olau or I think it's sacred falls, it's now closed, but that area, that valley and a lot of the geographic features of it were believed to be created by the pig god Kamapua'a at the time. And what I love about that picture is seeing these young men wearing mallows. Let's see it again, yeah. One of the best parts of doing the project is having these really squirmy teenage boys, young men, older men, you know, saying, I have to wear what? A model and, you know, not knowing how to put it on, not knowing, you know, it's basically a very long, skinny strip of material. And they say, what do I do with this? Is this for my head? What is this for? And teaching them how to do that and then seeing them really embrace wearing the mallow and holding the weapons and not wanting to take it off. And even after the photo shoot is done, they're wearing their mallow to food land and to the beach and, you know, and sharing with me that it was one of the first times that they really felt like a Hawaiian, not just knowing that they're Hawaiian or that they have Hawaiian ancestry, but really feeling like they are Hawaiian and grateful to be a part of something that is perpetuating the culture. It's a beautiful photograph, as the other. You have a photographer who takes pictures like this, it's very good. So each legend has a different photographer. That photo was taken by Korean Thai hook. Ah, okay. Okay, got any more graphics? Let's take a look at them. Okay, what's this? Is this something else you want to read to us? I can. I can definitely read it. This comes from the legend of Laie Ikabai. And so we have here Iwohi Kupua, who is a chief from Kaua'i and Koli Agu, who is the snow goddess of Mauna Kea. So this excerpt reads, Iwohi Kupua immediately sails back to Kohala, hoping to distract himself from his broken heart while still holding on to the pride he acquired from his victory as the new boxing champion. He meets Koli Agu, the goddess of the snow, along the slopes of her Mauna Kea home. They spend time together and Iwohi Kupua exchanges his yellow O-O feather cloak for Koli Agu's white snow mantle. Yet his mind wanders back to the mysterious woman in the O-O feather house, Laie Ikabai. And O-O is the name of a yellow bird, a native Hawaiian bird that was used, you know, we would catch the bird and pluck a couple of its feathers and over years and years and years, you know, build a feather cloak. So Iwohi Kupua was trying to win the heart of this young woman and he brought this feather cloak to give to her, Laie Ikabai while she was on the island of Kaua'i. But she rejected him and he felt rejected after he saw that she was living in a whole house covered in those yellow feathers. So he felt like, oh, this gift isn't really enough for her. And then he went on and he met with Koli Agu and he gave the cloak to her and he stayed there for a while with her. Great, great stories, great love stories, great, great sort of humorous and fun and friendly. But I thought an O-O was a tool. I thought an O-O was what you put in the ground to plant things. Now you say that it's a little bird too, a bird and a tool with the same word. Can you tell me the difference? I need to look it up on the dictionary. I don't have to deal with, you know, the grammatical markings. I think it might have the exact same grammatical markings actually, but would you like me to look it up right now? Well, I want to know the future of the company. Sure. And you guys, you know, it's such, it's profound actually and it's so fun and it's so heartwarming is what it is. And it reminds me of some of the Disney movies that have been made. So have they called you? Maybe we should, you know, send them a note, ask them to call you. Because some of this could be great movie stuff, cartoon or otherwise, you know. Is that the future? Is that what you're ultimately hoping for? I have been thinking about it. I think with the right partnership, it's definitely something we would consider. Currently, we have about five other districts that would like us to come into their district to do this project. We are also going to be putting these books online so that people can download the iBook format. Our first series, which was the Legends of White Night, we have already translated into Japanese and Chinese for our foreign friends. And we'll be putting those up. But ultimately, our goal is to continue to get as many legends out, help as many districts who want to do this project. And like I said, if we find the right partners to kind of take it even further, Disney or any other company that, you know, would want to do that, we're definitely open and interested in that. I think a lot of people would be. Aloha, ko-o-la-o-la. That's your latest, but there'll be much more, won't there? Kalani, thank you so much for telling us about this and showing us about this. We wish you all the best. And I think this will be very popular, successful. And I can't wait to buy stuff online from you. I may buy both, you know, English and Hawaiian language copies. Thank you, Kalani. Thank you for having me. It was an honor, Jay. Yeah, great to talk to you. Aloha.