Life-giving water
theme of art show
The substance remains
By Cynthia Oi
key to Hawaiian culture
Star-BulletinLong, long ago, when travelers from the southern Pacific sailed across the ocean to the Hawaiian Islands and saw all the fresh water, they probably said, "Ho-man, look at all this water."
Or so declared Imaikalani Kalahele, artist, poet and political activist, who along with 13 other artists are putting on a water show that opens Sunday.
It won't be wet. Water is the theme of "Ka Wai Ola ... Living Water," in which the artists, through their works, will illustrate the importance of water in Hawaiian culture.
"Water is one of the things that made our islands -- set us apart from other islands down south," Kalahele said.
It was true in ancient times and it is true now, he said, and the culture of the Hawaiian people demands that water as well as land be available.
One flash point for Kalahele is the Waiahole Ditch conflict. Water from Windward Oahu had been transferred by ditch and tunnels to Central and Leeward areas to irrigate sugar plantations. Now that sugar is gone, many Windward Hawaiian farmers want the water for their agricultural uses.
But earlier this year, Gov. Cayetano signed a bill that allows the state to buy and take control of the ditch. Although the state water commission had ruled in 1997 that the water would be shared by both sides of the island, Kalahele believes Windward Oahu farmers, especially taro growers, will be shortchanged.
"For more than 100 years, they've taken water from that side, merely to water the saddle," Kalahele said. "Well, no more plantations now. There is no excuse for this."
The issue here, he said, is not that Leeward agriculture needs the water, but that land developers want it.
"All of this stuff about diversified agriculture is shibai. It's to keep the water flowing, because once the water stops to one side, then it's more difficult to restore it."
Kalahele, 52, a McKinley grad who lives in Kalihi, counts many Windward farmers among his friends. He said the Waiahole area was traditionally the breadbasket of the island, "where most of the food came from."
Since the state made plans to buy the ditch, he and the other artists think the issue has fallen off the public agenda.
"We want to keep it on the front," he said. To that end, the artists will theme several exhibits on water. The next one is tentatively set for April at the East-West Center and the final show, also tentative, at the main gallery at the University of Hawaii-Manoa in the year 2000.
Kalahele is proud that an all-Hawaiian artists show will be exhibited at the UH gallery. "It will be first time for that gallery."
Another point of pride was an all-Hawaiian exhibit, "Ho'oku'e," displayed at the EWC last year, he said. That exhibit traveled to Germany, where it was a critical success, he said.
"The reception in Germany was marvelous, both intellectually and artistically," Kalahele said. "And we actually made a couple of sales, which was something that did not happen here at all."
He thinks that the Germans' distance from Hawaii's atmosphere was the reason the exhibit was viewed artistically instead of politically.
"When the show was in Hawaii, there was no talk of art; the talk was about Hawaiians and what Hawaiians want," he said. News stories about the exhibit "read like it was a political action and, while it was a political show, we're still being treated that way only, and not as artists.
"Even as poet, I get into this thing that I'm not writing Hawaiian poetry because it's not in the Hawaiian language; that's a racist statement.
"If we wrote all of this in Hawaiian, you wouldn't understand it and you'd look at us and say 'Wow, what a good cultural thing this is.' But 'cause we're saying it in English, in a language that you understand, all of a sudden it becomes subversive. Well, yes, it is, but we're not hiding anything.
"If you accept my ethnicity, then you need to accept my work as part of that ethnicity. No one does that with other races, only with Indians, us and Chicanos. Westerners used to do that to blacks, but they don't do that anymore."
While he wants acceptance of Hawaiians as artists, if it doesn't happen, he said, "I don't care."
"I do my art with my people in mind, not to exclude other people, but because if my people accept it, then I'm happy. If we accept ourselves, and start to rebuild our cultural awareness for things that are ours, maybe everybody else will follow."
Ka Wai Ola ... Living Waters
Dates: Sunday-Feb. 9
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