OCCC to hold makahiki

Hawaiian inmates in Oklahoma
also will mark the event

A small gathering of Hawaiian inmates will celebrate the end of the makahiki season tomorrow in Oahu Community Correctional Center.

The observance of the ancient Hawaiian spiritual and cultural festival is linked to a freedom of religion lawsuit filed in federal court by 33 native Hawaiians in mainland prisons. The suit is still pending, but U.S. District Judge David Ezra acted last year to allow a makahiki celebration in Diamondback Correctional Facility in Watonga, Okla.

About 100 men and several outside guests will participate tomorrow in the Oklahoma makahiki, according to a spokesman for Correctional Corp. of America, a private firm that operates that facility.

The Kalihi prison festival tomorrow will involve fewer than a dozen people. It was organized quickly within the past week, and "the word hasn't gotten around," according to an inmate organizer. Each prisoner must apply to attend, and only six requests were filed, said Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike Gaede.

Gaede said it is the first time inmates in Hawaii prisons have sought permission to mark the makahiki.

The celebration tomorrow will include chanting and some "talk story" about Hawaiian culture and spirituality, said the Rev. Kaleo Patterson, a mediator and Christian pastor. Kekailoa Perry, an instructor at the University of Hawaii Center for Hawaiian Studies, will participate in the program, along with Patterson and Rodney Shim, a former Maui pastor.

"We are supposed to be restoring these guys back to wholeness and health, back into the community," Patterson said. "I think everybody thinks that observing protocols where there is respect shown are good things for all of us."

Plans for inmates to participate in an awa ceremony were denied by the Corrections Division. The drink, made from the root of the pepper plant, numbs the mouth.

"It looks like there will be empty cups on the other side," Patterson said. "We have heard only the visitors can drink the awa. We're trying to get that straightened out." He said the ritual of drinking awa is a sacred ceremony throughout Polynesia. Awa is sold in various forms as a health product.

Celebration of makahiki has been revived in recent years. In early Hawaii, wars were put on hold and sporting competitions between villages were held in the festival time after the harvest season. Lono, the god of agriculture and fertility, was honored in processions and offerings of gifts from the harvest.

The Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. filed suit in 2003 on behalf of prisoners who sought to pursue native Hawaiian spiritual practices while incarcerated in the mainland prison. There are more than 700 state prisoners at the Oklahoma facility.

The Native Hawaiian Religion and Culture Club at Diamondback prison celebrated the opening of makahiki in November, said prison corporation spokesman Steve Owen, and there are plans to observe Kuhio Day and Kamehameha Day.