Woodwork inspires KA'ILI CHUN first called on master woodworker Wright Bowman Sr. six years ago to ask him to teach her how to make Hawaiian spears. She was so good at it that she became his apprentice and immersed herself in the making of all sorts of traditional Hawaiian weapons.
the aloha spirit
Bowman's work ties
in to isles' pastCARVER OF CULTURE
Suzanne Tswei / stswei@starbulletin.com
"I was into it big time. It didn't matter that my teacher wasn't into making Hawaiian weapons. I wasn't interested in making tables, chairs, calabashes or anything else that Mr. Bowman is famous for," Chun says.
Bowman, who is called a living treasure and the dean of Hawaiian wood working, knew Chun needed an attitude adjustment before she would be ready to carry on his legacy. He picked up a little wood pig that he received as a gift and asked her to make a copy.
"I really didn't want to make the pig," Chun says, crinkling up her nose to reenact her distaste for the assignment. "I was into being Hawaiian and the macho stuff. A pig? A cute little pig? That just wasn't me."
She kept her feelings to herself and grudgingly followed orders. By the time she was giving her little pig a final polish, she realized Bowman was teaching her the most important lesson in her life.
"I learned humility. I realized that was as important as learning how to cut a piece of log, carve a piece of wood or any techniques. Something went off in my head when I was making that cute little pig," Chun says.
Bowman chuckles whenever Chun tells the story, emphasizing that she's been a good student who is "as strong as a man," smart and dedicated."I never had to use the centipede pinch on her," says Bowman who used to pinch his students at Kamehameha Schools to keep them in line.
At 93, Bowman has a lifetime of trade secrets and life's lessons to share with Hawaii's younger generations. Bowman was fascinated by canoe carvers when he was growing up on the Big Island. Although he was trained as a machinery pattern maker in a General Electric apprentice program on the mainland, Bowman eventually took up wood working on his own during the Depression.
Bowman worked as teacher at Kamehameha Schools for 22 years, during which he earned a reputation as a master wood worker who crafted Hawaiian wood into canoes, paddles, digging sticks and other treasurers.
Bowman was instrumental in the building of the voyaging canoe Hokule'a, giving advice and crafting crucial parts that no one else knew how to make. He had hoped to pass his legacy onto his son, Wright Bowman Jr., better known as "Wrighto." Wrighto carved Hawaii's second voyaging canoe, Hawai'iloa, but died unexpectedly at age 53 of a heart attack in 1997.
Chun, the daughter of Kamehameha Schools President Michael Chun, came to study with Bowman while she was completing her master's degree in art at the University of Hawaii. An informal apprenticeship grew into a close friendship as well as a formal apprenticeship under the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts folk arts program.
Chun, 38, teaches at the University of Hawaii and apprentices three days out of the week with Bowman. The two spend most of the time in the wood shop at Bowman's Nuuanu home but Chun also helps with household chores.
"I can never pay him enough for what he's teaching me. I am more than happy to drive him to the doctor or the bank," Chun says of her teacher, whom she still refers to as "Mr. Bowman."
"He has so much knowledge, not just about making rocking chairs and canoes, but he has seen Hawaii as it used to be. To learn from Mr. Bowman is learning from a Hawaiian about Hawaii in a Hawaiian way," Chun says.
Bowman, in his gentle fashion, has instilled the Hawaiian concept of responsibility in her, Chun said.
"In the Western way, you feel it's your right to an education. In the Hawaiian way, I feel I don't have that right. I have to earn it, and I have a responsibility to my elders and my family to do the best job I can," Chun says.
The U.S. Census Bureau counted 17,564 Hawaii residents age 85 and older in the Year 2000, or 1.4 percent of the state's total population of 1.2 million people. That's up from 1990, when the 10,397 residents in that age group accounted for less than 1 percent of Hawaii's total population of 1.1 million. Here are the number of people age 85 and older, by county, according to Census 2000. AGE 85 AND UP
Total 85 and up statewide: 17,564 Honolulu County: 12,759 Hawaii County: 2,132 Maui County: 1,642 Kauai County: 1,031 Source: U.S. Census Bureau