Welcome to Cultural Kapolei
May 15th, 2008 by CarynWhile exploring the wilds of Kapolei on his horse, Shad Kane visits the remnants of a rich cultural history. After years of studying and learning from kupuna familiar with the area, he is currently writing a series of essays for myAdvertiser that share the ancient significance of O’ahu’s fastest-growing community.
Read about Kane’s own journey to find his roots, and how he came to be “driven to save and restore a Hawaiian cultural history that is at risk of being lost.”
He believes that “it is important that future generations come to know the true story of these islands that we have all come to love and call home.”
In this blog, Kane shares legends, pictures of old stones and paths, and the ancient significance of Kapolei, O’ahu’s second city.
Tags: introduction, Kapolei, Shad Kane
May 16th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
Shad Kane’s life experience is common for Hawaiians of his generation whose Hawaiian parents, in turn, were in the dark as a result of the effects of colonization upon their parents. Many of our generation had to go search for their roots and guess at mana’o. Through Western academia, politics and time, much guesswork mana’o is now established cultural truths, unfortunately. Many Native Hawaiians today do not understand the fullness of their ancient culture and therefore, are stunted and shortsighted over kuleana. I believe that even where the fullness of kuleana is presented, many Hawaiians would dispute it because they lack the spiritual depths of cultural training and mana’o. Mr. Kane’s arduous journey back to the foundation of our host culture’s roots has garnered him depths of personal wisdoms and insight of history and facts non-existent in written history by Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians (which are all Western works) or theories of archaeologists and similar. Mr. Kane shares that having Native Hawaiian blood or ancestry hardly qualifies one for anything meaningful. His experience shows that mana’o and understanding of kuleana are gained only through faith, integrity, discipline, commitment, humility, and a personal relationship to the Creator that we otherwise call God. Therefore, we see that the foundation of our Hawaiian culture is spiritual. Any Hawaiian who does not have an individual personal relationship with God is empty notwithstanding levels of education, celebrity, skills in hula, mele, language, Hawaiiana, or political status and recognition. The quality of an individuals personal relationship with God is directly proportional to his wisdom and cultural mana’o.
There is a big difference between the ali’i class and the commoner class not to mention the gradations of classes between. Colonization was purposeful and unkind to the Hawaiians. Yet, that history is superficial and hardly the substantive story. At risk is the full understanding of the meaning explaining today’s issues of sovereignty, self-determination, relations with the Federal government, explaining Hawaii’s colonization, ancient prophecy and Hawaiians’ relationship to the rest of the world. In the end, this all has less to do with fluency in language, mastery over history, trust inheritance, skills in hula or a singing voice. The Kumulipo is a discrete record of one lineage, i.e. Kalakaua, originally proposed to prove his genealogy, yet it is universally celebrated as our culture’s definitive word on Creation. Today’s Island Voices editorial by Edith K. McKinzie discussing the ‘Iolani Palace protest was on target but far from the bulls-eye. I’m not sure what is worse - being smart but not smart enough, or just not being smart. The former often results in one’s stopping short forever, whereas the latter leaves open humility and possibility of further consideration. The irony is that discussion of these poignant matters without a true spiritual foundation of ancient mana’o quickly deteriorates into shortsightedness, polarized polemic, egos, and scientific academia, or in other words, nowhere. Kupuna signifies a living aged wise person, or an elder that has passed away. Today, many “kupuna” are not really kupuna. They’re just old, still incompetent and destined to die as such. The substantive preservation of our Native Hawaiian culture is problematical and seemingly doomed because true preservation depends upon reestablishing spiritual integrities that are competent and real. If only the majority of our whole Native Hawaiian community of individuals were more like Mr. Kane.
me ko’u ha’aha’a
June 11th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Uncle Shad……you rock!