The Buzz
The Buzz
THE Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau's 10th annual "Keep it Hawaii" Kahili award ceremony provided entertaining moments this week, including the reasons some businesses were selected as awardees. The two masters of ceremonies for the event were KITV news anchor Paula Akana, and musician and cultural expert Manu Boyd. Businesses go local
for HVCB awardsHawaii's Kahili-winning restaurant is Mama's Fish House on Maui, run by Floyd and Doris Christenson. The couple considers more than 100 fishermen part of their ohana, and lists them on the menu when their catch is being served.
Boyd, whose name in Hawaiian means "bird," had fun with the Kahili award winner in the Environmental Protection category -- Chevron Hawaii. It was chosen for its efforts on behalf of the endangered Hawaiian stilt, a bird which breeds at ponds on Chevron's six-acre refinery complex in Leeward Oahu. Pretending to accept the award on behalf of the stilt, also known as the aeo, Boyd made a bird-like sound, causing laughter through the Mauna Kea ballroom at the Hawaii Prince Hotel. When it became obvious KINE FM's Frank B. Shaner was not present to accept his award for the Aloha Festivals falsetto singing contest bearing his name, Boyd surmised Shaner may have been otherwise occupied "feeding the aeo."
The awarding of a Kahili to Billy Fields, of Billy Fields Masonry, drew loud applause. He was honored for perpetuation of uhau humu pohaku, the traditional Hawaiian technique of dry, stacked rock construction evident in many ancient but still-standing heiau. Fields has been invited to the 2001 Smithsonian Institute Folk Life Festival in Washington, D.C.
The 3-foot-tall Best of Show Kahili given to Janet Babb of Project LAVA, as well as the 21-inch kahili given to the family of the late Dr. George Kanahele, were created by Big Island artist/photographer Natalie Jensen. Her father, woodcarver Rocky Jensen, was given a Kahili last year. The poi pounder-shaped pomaikai award given to Pleasant Hawaiian Holidays founder Ed Hogan was created by Martin & MacArthur.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4757, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com