By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Maile Meyer at the store, Native Books,
with some of her books.
Just wild about
native crafts
Native Books & Beautiful
By Kekoa Catherine Enomoto
things branches out to
Ward Warehouse
Star-BulletinIN ancient Hawaii, under a shimmering hoku, or full, moon, taro planters would wade into the cool waters of their lo'i to plant shoots, in anticipation of healthy tubers for creamy poi.
At 8:30 p.m. this Saturday, a hoku moon will shine down on the newest and largest Native Books & Beautiful Things at the ewa end of Ward Warehouse.
It's the "humble" -- vis-a-vis grand -- opening of a 5,000-square-foot showroom in a site that formerly housed a restaurant, museum offices, then a martial arts studio.
"It's kind of like a metaphor for us," laughed quilt designer Patricia Lei Andersen Murray, "you start with a barn and you make a castle."
Treasures in this third Native Books & Beautiful Things shop range from petroglyph art and black-and-white photographs of wahi pana, or legendary places; to turtle-screened baby T-shirts, tropical-scented soaps, and Hawaiiana books in a thickly carpeted nook, with chocolate-chip cookies within arm's reach.
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Patricia Lei Andersen Murray.
Native Books & Beautiful Things is a 3-year-old hui, or cooperative, of selected Hawaii artisans who conceive and make arts and crafts in Hawaii.Hui member Grant Kagimoto -- of the Cane Haul Road line of hand-printed T-shirts, kitchenware and canvas accessories -- saluted the hui's Hawaiian paradigm of business.
"Many of us have been friends for years," Kagimoto said, "but it never occurred to most of us to partner up this way until Maile (Meyer) came along with this concept. The concept is on several levels. On the philosophical or spiritual level, it's having a store that has Hawaiian values. And that is something I'm not sure about, but I'm learning about it all the time in this relationship."
The first two Native Books & Beautiful Things shops are located on Merchant Street downtown, and in the Bishop Museum. On July 1, the artisans became owners of all three.
Meyer, president of Native Books Inc., gave birth to the concept and reality, and reflected on the hui and where it's headed.
"It's about focusing on the needs of the other person, truly, because you're going to get the best possible attention and vice versa. People who worry about what they're going to get out of something, they're missing the point. Because they can't take care of themselves as well as somebody else who's taking care of them; I believe that.
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
The store features the work of many local artisans.
"I mean Hawaiians are just simply vulnerable people by nature, because aloha isn't about you -- it's about the other person, what you can do for the other person."The Native Books hui of artists crosses ethnic lines into the realm of "partnering" and "relationship business."
"But you can't just manifest it without participating in it," Meyer said. "More aloha means an awareness of other people's needs over your own. I see that more and more in the Hawaiian movement myself. I went through the angry phase; I said, 'Uh oh, I'm married to a haole. What am I going to do?' But I understand now it's about partnership with people who value Hawaiians and Hawaiian values. They are able to stand and recognize that relationship and ask, 'What do you think, Hawaiian person?'
"It's exciting to recognize the partnership aspect. It's not about 'He Hawai'i au' (I am Hawaiian) and that's the end of the story. It's about the ability of people to support and work with the Hawaiian community, because that's the real strength -- the combination of what each culture has to bring to the table and what their strengths are."
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Native Books store artisans attend monthly
planning meetings.
Meyer struggled to define success in Western, quantified terms, then opted for the model of Hui members Calvin and Charlene Hoe, who employ their cousin's son in the Waiahole Poi Factory's crafting of ancient Hawaiian instruments, 'umeke (calabash) and poi boards. They're giving work and enriching another person, she pointed out; that's qualitative success.In turn, Calvin Hoe struggles through monthly hui meetings, replete with the jargon of cash-flow projections, fixed assets, minimizing general excise taxes.
"I eat the whole meeting," he whispered, sipping guava juice and nibbling taro perhaps planted under a hoku moon. "It helps to go faster."
But, he added proudly, "Us guys got a Hawaiian store. To me there should be more businesses like us guys. Dis kine hui. It's enabling, yeah. But it's not easy, heh heh. So we gotta make plen'y meeting for work things out.
"But it's worth it."
Pidgin-speaking young people, encroaching construction and a modern-day Hawaii edginess provide the backdrop for the play book "Kamau," to be unveiled at Saturday's full-moon opening of Native Books & Beautiful Things at Ward Warehouse. ‘Kamau’ now in print
The play by 33-year-old Kailua artist Alani Apio enjoyed a sold-out stage debut four years ago.
"We were asked to print it," Apio said. "Teachers wanted to use it in the classroom. The issues involved moved people."
The book -- intended as a text in college-level American studies, sociology and drama courses and in high-school classrooms -- is the first in a trilogy by Apio.
He said the themes, as relevant today as they were in 1994, are finding and maintaining one's self and social identity in Hawaii today; and examining Hawaiian cultural values -- such as lokahi (harmony), lokomaika'i (generosity) and sharing -- in contrast to Western values of capitalism and individualism.
"I think, at its core, America is very much an individual-based society," said Apio. "That's why it's so screwed up. You can sue anybody for anything insofar as your individual rights are stepped upon; individuals have a divine right. I don't believe it was that way in a traditional Hawaiian sense."
The book features woodcuts by Michael Harada. The book is $10.
Grand opening
Full-moon opening celebrationHourly giveaways with 10 percent of sales going to Bishop Museum's Hawaiian collection
Place: Ward Warehouse
Donna Burns, fabric painting
