By Dean Sensui, Star-Bulletin
Fifth-grader Chris Pagaduan and fourth-graders Mikiala Cravatt
and Maria Simich learn the art of weaving from No'eau Penner
at Lanikai Elementary School.
There's more to the lush green
By Lois Taylor
than meets the eye as history of
Hawaiian flora comes to fore
Special to the Star-BulletinIT has become a travel magazine cliche -- the view of the lush green forests of Hawaii's mountains backing the white sand beach with its graceful palms, seen from the deck of a cruise liner. When the first Polynesian explorers, probably from the Marquesas, first viewed the Hawaiian islands from their voyaging canoes, they may have seen a similar sight, but they soon would discover a major drawback.
There were fish in the sea and plenty of fresh water, but there were no plants to provide food. On later migrations, these early settlers brought taro, sweet potatoes, breadfruit, bananas, coconuts and sugarcane, which are known as "Polynesian introductions," and the period before Captain James Cook's arrival in the islands is known as "pre-contact."
By Dean Sensui, Star-Bulletin
Assorted carved gourds in a basket.
During this period, the first Hawaiian people proved themselves to be skillful farmers and natural conservationists. All of this will be celebrated at Foster Botanical Gardens Festival of Hawaiian Plants, "Na Waiwai Ka Laau o Hawaii-Nei," starting tomorrow.Shirley Gerum, an instructor of ethnobotany at Chaminade University, and Gregory Koob, assistant researcher at Lyon Arboretum, met last week to talk about the importance of the festival and their hope that this will be the first of an annual series in Honolulu. In addition to its being an entertaining and educational event for residents, the festival is expected to draw visitors. That's why the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism is a major sponsor.
Most of the native plants, the ones growing here before the arrival of the first Polynesians, are used in crafts, clothing and medicine. "It is too bad that the missionaries didn't learn from the Hawaiians instead of teaching them their western medicine practices," Gerum said. "The Hawaiians practiced preventive medicine. They knew the importance of exercise, recreation and diet health. Ho'oponopono, the way of forgiveness and setting things right, was a way of treating the whole family.
"They had everything to keep things right, treating the whole individual. That was all in place before the missionaries arrived. Western medicine wants a quick fix instead."
Olena, she said, has immune properties, "but who know what else they knew? We have lost some of the uses of the native plants. They may now be used for other things, but there is no way to know what their original uses were."
Koob said that many varieties of the early taro and banana introductions have also been lost. "When other starch foods were introduced after European contact, many of the taro varieties were lost. Bananas, because of their high maintenance, were lost. They can't be propagated by birds dropping seeds because bananas have no seeds. They have to be planted from the underground stems."
By George F. Lee, Star-Bulletin
Shirley Gerum and Gregory Koob.
The Hawaiians used koa trees for their canoes. When the trees grow close together in the high forests, the trunks are straight and without branches sometimes for a height of 60 feet. Lumber from ohia and kauila trees were used as posts for their houses and coconut fronds and pili grass were used as thatch for roofs.The oily nuts of the kukui tree were strung on the ribs of coconut fronds and burned as candles. The roots yield a black dye that was used in kapa making. Several years ago the kukui was named the state tree of Hawaii. Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden has cultivated 200 young kukui trees that will be sold during the festival, Koob said.
"We have intentionally scheduled the event near Kamehameha Day (June 11) because we hope it will become an annual event. We've been talking about it for a year as way to get the community interested in Hawaiian gardening. We wanted it to be educational, but not too much." The demonstrations will not be technical, and they won't be humdrum, he promises.
They have also arranged for the heavy hitters to be giving some of the workshops. Marie McDonald, Bill Char and Brian Choy are among those doing lei-making demonstrations, and Alyce Ikeoka and Pam Lipscomb from the Big Island will demonstrate kapa making.
Bring the family, bring the visiting cousins and celebrate summer. Hawaii's plants have a unique history. Most of them, like all of us, came from someplace else.
