The second Lā Kalo of our Pilimai cohort was held on Saturday, May 19, at Ulupō Nui. The day's work included planting, cooking, cleaning, and pounding – the latter under the maiau/maʻemaʻe instruction of the ladies Punua. -- KdS

Students from Punahou School (whose "lily pond" spring is credited to Kāneloa) are working today at Ulupō (one of whose old names is Kānepolu). -- KdS

Congratulations to Grace Benton and Ami Kinnamon of Kalāheo High School.

The Windward Academy for Career Tech Education hosted its second annual PBA (performance based assessment) event yesterday at the Koʻolau Ballroom. "A PBA is a real world, industry problem-based or design-based culminating challenge that assesses students' knowledge and skills of a Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathway program. The challenges, developed by local industry partners, ask students to develop a solution or product and present their ideas to the industry professionals."
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Hikaʻalani's challenge, in the field of digital media, was to create a video public service announcement that depicts our vision, raises awareness of our work at Ulupō, and issues a call to action for volunteers to attend our second-Saturday community work days. 
Six teams made it to the finals: three each from Kalāheo H.S. and Kailua H.S. All six PSAs are very worthy of use on our web and fb pages and will, in fact, appear monthly on these pages as community workday announcements and reminders. Look for the winning entry to appear, as well, as a regularly scheduled PSA on KFVE The Home Team.  

See our 3-1-18 post below for additional insight into the CTE challenge and how it engaged  Hikaʻalani and our Koʻolau high schools. -- Kīhei de Silva
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Mahalo ia oe e @chadtakatsugi no ka lawe ana mai i na keiki Angels at Play i keia la. He lealea no. -- Kaleo Wong

Pākukui, oia ka hana ana i na makalua a nunui; alaila, hali i ka lau kukui, hoopiha a uhi aku i ka lepo. A hala he mau pule, alaila, pulu ka lau kukui, a laila kanu na huli. He mea e ka ikaika o ka ulu ana o ke kalo ma ia ano; e ulu no ia ehiku kapuai ke kiekie a oi aku. A o kona kalo, he 20 paona a oi aku, e like me ka nui o ka pakukui, pela no ka nui o kona ulu haaheo ana a me ka io - Kepelino “Moolelo Hawaii”. The pakukui method consists of digging large holes and filling them with kukui leaves and then covering them with soil. After some weeks the leaves are decayed and the kalo is planted. It is amazing how big the kalo grows in this style; growing to 7 feet tall and more and the corm weighing 20 pounds or more. The more kukui you use, the bigger they will grow.  -- Kaleo Wong

Hau we spent the morning. Clearing hau, creating aina with UH/KCC MINA. -- Kaleo Wong

Kaleo: Sciencing, combining kanaka and western to grow our 20 varieties of Hawaiian uala ... ieleele, iliahi, mana pohaku, papaa kowahi, kaneohe ulaula, kaneohe keokeo, huamoa, palau, palaai, pauohiiaka, kala, mohihi, kalia, piko, lanikeha, and 5 unnamed ones. most are from Waimea, some from @noiau, 1 each from @kaualehuohaiku. @meapaahana, and @kepalino. Who else got? looking for uahiapele, uniki, and anyother kanaka variety.

Here's a sample of what to expect when you follow us on Kaleo's Instagram account: uluponui. 

Uluponui (Kaleo):  Mahalo e nā hoa o @noegk lāua ʻo @iwinchester me na haumāna kulanui no ka naue a mai i Ulupō. E kū ana ka paia! #hikaalani

Noegk (Noe Goodyear Kaopua):  Mahalo no nā moʻolelo a me ka hoʻokipa ʻana mai iā mākou!

Hikino70 (Kinohi Pizarro):  Beautiful!

Uluponui (Kaleo): @hikino17 trying to put what you guys taught us into practice. choke more pohaku to stack until we can get to your guys level.

Pictured below are four menehune caretakers of Maunawila Heiau in Hau'ula who were among the 20 Nā Hopena A'o (HĀ) conference attendees who visited us yesterday at our own menehune-built heiau at Kūkanono. We shared oli kāhea and komo, ate ceremonially (i mea e hoʻokō ai i ka pono), introduced ourselves to the pōhaku kiaʻi and each other, enjoyed a meal prepared from our ʻāina by people of our ʻāina, told Hiʻiaka, Mākālei, and Hika'alani stories, cried a little bit, and turned our hands down in a very successful effort at weeding our pūnāwai and the north-facing wall of Ulupō. 

For those not familiar with Department of Education policy,
"Nā Hopena Aʻo is a framework of outcomes that reflects the DOE's core values and beliefs in action throughout the public educational system of Hawaiʻi. The DOE works together as a system that includes everyone in the broader community to develop the competencies that strengthen a sense of belonging, responsibility, excellence, aloha, total well-being and Hawaii (ʻBreath') in ourselves, students, and others."
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The theme of this year's 250-member summit is "ʻO Hawaiʻi ke kahua o ka hoʻonaʻauao – Hawaiʻi is the foundation of our learning wisdom." Keynote speakers on opening day were Kīhei de Silva, Lilinoe Sterling (Hawaiian Culture teacher and Kaʻōhao School, and Ed Noh (Director of Kaʻōhao School). We talked about how a little mele named "Hanohano Wailea" became the inspiration for the re-naming of Lanikai Elementary School. We call ourselves "do, re, mi") – the three-note keynote – and hope we struck a meaningful chord.

Kanaeokana has produced "ʻO Hawaiʻi ke Kahua o ka Hoʻonaʻauao," a video of the HĀ Summit; it can be viewed here. -- KdS

Hawaiian language immersion students from Kula Kaiaupuni ʻo Waiau's papa 5 & 6 visited ʻAnakala Kaleo at Ulupō on Oct. 7. There is little he loves more than hearing, in the piko of Kailua, the cherished language of our land.  In his words: "Nani lua ole ke lohe i ke keiki e olelo ana i ka kakou olelo oiwi i makee ia, ka olelo hoi o keia aina nei ma ka piko o Kailua." Mahalo iā ʻoe e Kumu Māhealani no ke kipa hou ʻana mai. -- KdS

Kaleomanuʻiwa:  "Punahou came down today to learn about themselves and the kalo process: ʻohi lūʻau, huki kalo, hehihehi lau, waele, kanu, next time ʻai." Mahalo as always to Kaniela Alm and company for their commitment to shifting the paradigms of a Punahou education. 

Manuʻiwa: "He māmalu kēia mau lāʻalo a ʻaneʻane ulupō. Mahalo e ke kula o Mālama Honua no ka hele ʻana mai i kēia lā." If you know what lāʻī is (a contraction of lau kī), then youʻre on your way to figuring out la(uk)alo. We'll leave the poetry of shelter, maturity, and growth to your own imagination. -- KdS

Digital media students from Kailua and Kalāheo high schools came to Ulupō on March 1  to film public service annoiuncements for Hikaʻalani that will be entered in a Windward District CTE competition at the Koʻolau Ballroom on April 2.  When asked if Hikaʻlani would like to be a CTE "client," Kaleo said: sure, but you've got to come and work first; you can't be good storytellers if you don't get hands-on experience. -- KdS

Aloha e nā hoa Pilimai,

This past Saturday was a great first lā kalo. Being able to go into the loʻi to huki the kalo that we cooked, cleaned, then kuʻi has sadly become a rare practice. If we think about people’s relationship with Hāloa these days, it mostly consists of eating poi out of a plastic bag or container bought in the store, or going to work in a loʻi but not taking home kalo. Not us, e nā hoa Pilimai. We took him from mud to mouth.

Kamuela [Bannister] provided us a good example on where we want to get to with our kuʻi skills, but no worry if we never look like that. For many of us this was our first time. It would have been like if Chad showed us how to play Hawaiian music then handed us the guitar and said, ok your turn 😳. It is a process and everytime we practice we will learn new things and get more comfortable.  
...
Ke Aloha,
Kaleo 
(Photos: Kīhei de Silva. "Ulupō Nui," c. Kīhei de Silva and Zachary Lum, 2017. )

We often ask visiting haumāna to sit quietly, listen to what Ulupō is telling them, and write what they hear. Here's what can happen; it's from M. G. of Kailua Intermediate. ​

The Song Ulupō Heiau Sings to Me

The birds whistled songs and made sure I could hear it
The wind wailed like a flute and made sure I could hear it
The swaying trees set the melody and made sure I 
could hear it
Eager to explore I danced to the
soft but loud tune with every verse different
Heart broken to leave, I whispered
"Sing me your song one more time"
As I listened my soul unwinded itself
Once more
I felt overwhelmed but in control.