AT ULUPŌ
Ulupō is so old that our oldest 19th century map identifies it as the "old heiau." So old that our Hawaiian language newspapers of the same century have almost nothing to say about it. So old that our mele and moʻolelo references to it are ambiguous at best. So old that its name is sometimes given, in those accounts, as Kānepolu and Upō. So old that its construction is attributed to the menehune who were brought here in the 10th century by Lonohoʻonewa, the priest who stretched his arms out to them in distant Kahiki.
Ulupō might be more than a thousand years old, and its voice has become a whisper in the more than two centuries since Kailua's fish- and taro-farmers were defeated and displaced by invaders from Maui, and then from Hawaiʻi Island, and then from farther away. Today, over this whisper, we hear the chatter of google experts whose luakini factoids, ghost-tour pronouncements, and panoply of sacred crystal and orchid lei posts make us cry out "uoki" – enough!
What we know about Ulupō is this: it is māpele, consecrated to ʻāina, dedicated to that which feeds us. It is the largest heiau of its kind on Oʻahu. It is built on springs whose waters collect and flow into the fertile soil below. We who work there, clearing, planting, tending, and harvesting can attest to this single most important fact. Ulupō is the holder of ʻōiwi life. Ulupō endures. And whispers. Our job is to listen carefully, learn slowly, turn our hands down, and embrace that which embraces us.
Ulupō is for doing this. For learning and teaching across our generations. In reverence.
Ulupō might be more than a thousand years old, and its voice has become a whisper in the more than two centuries since Kailua's fish- and taro-farmers were defeated and displaced by invaders from Maui, and then from Hawaiʻi Island, and then from farther away. Today, over this whisper, we hear the chatter of google experts whose luakini factoids, ghost-tour pronouncements, and panoply of sacred crystal and orchid lei posts make us cry out "uoki" – enough!
What we know about Ulupō is this: it is māpele, consecrated to ʻāina, dedicated to that which feeds us. It is the largest heiau of its kind on Oʻahu. It is built on springs whose waters collect and flow into the fertile soil below. We who work there, clearing, planting, tending, and harvesting can attest to this single most important fact. Ulupō is the holder of ʻōiwi life. Ulupō endures. And whispers. Our job is to listen carefully, learn slowly, turn our hands down, and embrace that which embraces us.
Ulupō is for doing this. For learning and teaching across our generations. In reverence.
Curatorship and Partnerships
While Hikaʻalani has had to sit on its hands at Waiʻauia, waiting for State approval of the Kawainui Master Plan, we've been able to channel our energies and huli-ka-lima-i-lalo beliefs into ʻāina-based restoration, cultivation, and education at Ulupō Nui, the name we have given to the undeveloped lands that connect Ulupō heiau to Kawainui pond.
In 2015, Hikaʻalani became part of the genealogy of people and organizations that have taken up the kuleana of caring for Ulupō Nui when we assigned our first full-time employee, Program Director (Pākuʻi Hou) Kaleomanuiwa Wong, to work there in coordination with its long-time stewards, the Kailua Hawaiian Civic Club and 'Ahahui Mālama i ka Lōkahi. He initially focused on 'āina restoration, transforming land to 'āina ("that which feeds") by reclaiming loʻi and planting kalo in areas that had long been covered in guinea grass, hau, and homeless debris. Where there were only two functioning loʻi kalo at Ulupō Nui, there are now 18 patches in various stages of cultivation, many of which are now in their second and third generations of productivity. Our three years of dedicated, aloha 'āina efforts have also led to a formal agreement with the State Department of Land and Natural Resources: Hikaʻalani is now the official curator of Ulupō with a five-year compact that we have every intention of renewing in 2023 and beyond.
The growth we have experienced would not have been possible without the above-mentioned Kailua Hawaiian Civic Club and ʻAhahui Mālama i ka Lōkahi, native Hawaiian organizations with whom we share the vision of a thriving, permanent Hawaiian cultural presence in Kailua. Over the last three years, we have also developed successful relationships with entities that promote the concept of a healthy, connected Koʻolau community – entities with whom we collaborate regularly on eduction and restoration initiatives. These include the Windward YMCA, Hoʻokuaʻāina, Kākoʻo ʻŌiwi, Paepae o Heʻeia, and Koʻolau ʻĀina Mōmona. Foremost among them is the Windward YMCA, owners of the open parcel at the eastern perimeter of Ulupō Nui. We currently co-host monthly community workdays with the Y and assist with its Togetherhood, intersession, and summer youth programs; the Y, in turn, provides facility access and in-kind donations of tools and supplies for our own program efforts.
Hikaʻalani is also a member of Koʻolau ʻĀina Aloha (KAA), a group of non-profit organizations in Windward Oʻahu that seeks to educate Koʻolau youth and their communities through aloha ʻāina and Hawaiian-based values. Our regular meetings and capacity building workshops have led to reciprocal professional development days: Paepae and Hoʻokua'āina, for example, have come to work with us on our lands, and we have gone to work with them on theirs.
Finally, we are grateful for our established partnerships with Kailua Intermediate School, Kalāheo School, Trinity Christian School, Ka'ōhao Public Charter School, Mālama Honua Public Charter School, and various programs run out of KUPU, Kamehameha Schools, Punahou School, and the University of Hawaiʻi.
In 2015, Hikaʻalani became part of the genealogy of people and organizations that have taken up the kuleana of caring for Ulupō Nui when we assigned our first full-time employee, Program Director (Pākuʻi Hou) Kaleomanuiwa Wong, to work there in coordination with its long-time stewards, the Kailua Hawaiian Civic Club and 'Ahahui Mālama i ka Lōkahi. He initially focused on 'āina restoration, transforming land to 'āina ("that which feeds") by reclaiming loʻi and planting kalo in areas that had long been covered in guinea grass, hau, and homeless debris. Where there were only two functioning loʻi kalo at Ulupō Nui, there are now 18 patches in various stages of cultivation, many of which are now in their second and third generations of productivity. Our three years of dedicated, aloha 'āina efforts have also led to a formal agreement with the State Department of Land and Natural Resources: Hikaʻalani is now the official curator of Ulupō with a five-year compact that we have every intention of renewing in 2023 and beyond.
The growth we have experienced would not have been possible without the above-mentioned Kailua Hawaiian Civic Club and ʻAhahui Mālama i ka Lōkahi, native Hawaiian organizations with whom we share the vision of a thriving, permanent Hawaiian cultural presence in Kailua. Over the last three years, we have also developed successful relationships with entities that promote the concept of a healthy, connected Koʻolau community – entities with whom we collaborate regularly on eduction and restoration initiatives. These include the Windward YMCA, Hoʻokuaʻāina, Kākoʻo ʻŌiwi, Paepae o Heʻeia, and Koʻolau ʻĀina Mōmona. Foremost among them is the Windward YMCA, owners of the open parcel at the eastern perimeter of Ulupō Nui. We currently co-host monthly community workdays with the Y and assist with its Togetherhood, intersession, and summer youth programs; the Y, in turn, provides facility access and in-kind donations of tools and supplies for our own program efforts.
Hikaʻalani is also a member of Koʻolau ʻĀina Aloha (KAA), a group of non-profit organizations in Windward Oʻahu that seeks to educate Koʻolau youth and their communities through aloha ʻāina and Hawaiian-based values. Our regular meetings and capacity building workshops have led to reciprocal professional development days: Paepae and Hoʻokua'āina, for example, have come to work with us on our lands, and we have gone to work with them on theirs.
Finally, we are grateful for our established partnerships with Kailua Intermediate School, Kalāheo School, Trinity Christian School, Ka'ōhao Public Charter School, Mālama Honua Public Charter School, and various programs run out of KUPU, Kamehameha Schools, Punahou School, and the University of Hawaiʻi.
Ulupō Nui: the Land and the Program
In 2015, Hikaʻalani accepted the kuleana to care for our first land-based piko (center) of stewardship and learning in Kailua within the ʻili ʻāina (smaller land division) of Kūkanono. Ulupō Nui is our name for the land on which our primary program is grounded; it is also our name for the program itself. Ulupō Nui, the land, extends from the base of Ulupō heiau (the largest and oldest of its kind on Oʻahu) to the banks of Kawainui fishpond (once the second largest fishpond in Hawaiʻi, now the largest remaining wetland in our islands, and – since 2005 – an officially designated Ramsar Wetland of International Importance). Ulupō Nui, the program, is dedicated to ʻāina restoration and education, community regeneration, identity reclamation, the renewal of kuleana, and the pursuit of Hawaiian cultural excellence at one of the most storied places in our beloved ahupuaʻa of Kailua.
Our Mission
is to grow the interdependant relationship between land, people, and community at Ulupō Nui through the retelling and reliving of our cultural stories, replanting and eating of our ancestral foods, and reviving of our land- and water-based practices through huli ka lima i lalo, turning our hands down towards the earth in the restoration of some of the most significant wahi pana in Kailua: Ulupō heiau and Kawainui fishpond.
Our Vision
is one of the land and people of Kailua reunited in a relationship of aloha ʻāina on the thriving lands of Ulupō Nui, including a restored and functioning Ulupō heiau and Kawainui fishpond.
Our Guiding Moʻolelo
The moʻolelo of Mākālei, the fish-attracting branch of Kawainui fishpond, was recorded by Samuel Kekoʻowai in the 1922-1924 issues of the Hawaiian-language newspaper Kuokoa. His account establishes Ulupō Nui as a center for stewardship and learning in the ahupuaʻa of Kailua. This ancestral text and the many lessons embedded therein provide a culturally grounded, contextually relevant framework to all of our work at Ulupō Nui. The story tells of a time when our people came together at Ulupō Nui to address a community-identified problem: Kawainui fishpond had become so overgrown with vegetation that Kailua’s people could not catch fish to feed their families. The problem was urgent and the need was great, so the people of Kailua called on their neighbors from bordering communities to work alongside them. It is at Ulupō Nui, where our community was once reunited, that we work to bring our people together again in this contemporary time through our Hawaiian culture- and ʻāina-based activities.
While our reach is broad and we welcome people from across Hawaiʻi and beyond to engage with us at Ulupō Nui, the story of Mākālei reminds us to remain focused on those learners and families with historical ties to Ulupō Nui—those who are still tied to Kailua today in some way but who, over the generations, have become disconnected from each other, from the place that once fed them, and from the cultural practices that once sustained these places.
While our reach is broad and we welcome people from across Hawaiʻi and beyond to engage with us at Ulupō Nui, the story of Mākālei reminds us to remain focused on those learners and families with historical ties to Ulupō Nui—those who are still tied to Kailua today in some way but who, over the generations, have become disconnected from each other, from the place that once fed them, and from the cultural practices that once sustained these places.
Our Activities
Our program at Ulupō Nui consists of two interlocking, community-dependent activities:
ʻĀINA- AND CULTURE-BASED EDUCATION
We engage pre-K to post-secondary students, teachers, administrators, and families in Hawaiian culture-based learning experiences on the land of Ulupō Nui via school trips, professional development days, monthly community workdays, cross-cultural exchanges, and volunteer service-learning days. The hosting of groups on our ʻāina is key to rebuilding kānaka-ʻāina (people-land) relationships, thus ensuring healthy futures for our people, places, and practices.
ʻĀINA RESTORATION AND CULTIVATION
Through the hands-on efforts of our staff and volunteers, we work to restore balance and abundance to the lands of Ulupō Nui by caring for Ulupō heiau, expanding the cultivation of kalo and other native food crops, removing invasive species, reintroducing native lei, fiber, and medicinal plants, and performing a variety of maintenance tasks from lawn-mowing to trash removal. This activity is key to creating and sustaining the healthy spaces in which to run our educational programs and re-establish Ulupō Nui as a piko of stewardship and learning for Kailua.
Click here for info about our Second Saturday Community Work Days at Ulupō Nui.
Click here to Schedule a Visit for your school, class, organization, or group to engage in our Hawaiian culture- and ʻāina-based activities at Ulupō Nui.
ʻĀINA- AND CULTURE-BASED EDUCATION
We engage pre-K to post-secondary students, teachers, administrators, and families in Hawaiian culture-based learning experiences on the land of Ulupō Nui via school trips, professional development days, monthly community workdays, cross-cultural exchanges, and volunteer service-learning days. The hosting of groups on our ʻāina is key to rebuilding kānaka-ʻāina (people-land) relationships, thus ensuring healthy futures for our people, places, and practices.
ʻĀINA RESTORATION AND CULTIVATION
Through the hands-on efforts of our staff and volunteers, we work to restore balance and abundance to the lands of Ulupō Nui by caring for Ulupō heiau, expanding the cultivation of kalo and other native food crops, removing invasive species, reintroducing native lei, fiber, and medicinal plants, and performing a variety of maintenance tasks from lawn-mowing to trash removal. This activity is key to creating and sustaining the healthy spaces in which to run our educational programs and re-establish Ulupō Nui as a piko of stewardship and learning for Kailua.
Click here for info about our Second Saturday Community Work Days at Ulupō Nui.
Click here to Schedule a Visit for your school, class, organization, or group to engage in our Hawaiian culture- and ʻāina-based activities at Ulupō Nui.
A look at some of the groups we've hosted and work we've accomplished in 2017. Our participant count for the year was over 3,000 – 2,000 more than in 2016, and 2,000 less than we project for 2018. Mahalo to the Punahou 7th graders who showed up at Ulupō on December 20 and gifted us with their rendition of "Māpuna ka Hala o Kailua." The text and translation of this song – along with a detailed explanation by its author – can be found here.
Project Pili Mai
"Pili Mai" means "to come together" but can also be rendered as "pilimai," which is Kawena Pukui's word for the third generation of kalo. The Pili Mai Project, begun in January of 2018, is being run by Kaleo Wong and Maya Saffery who find significance in both interpretations. Their intent is to bring together and reconnect Kailua people to an older, healthier Kailua by means of a complete round of family-centered, multi-generational Hāloa instruction: make the papa ku'i ʻai (pounding board) and the pōhaku kuʻi ʻai (stone pounder); learn how to plant, care for, harvest, clean, cook, and pound the taro of Ulupō Nui; reflect on the significance of Hāloa to our people; share stories of Kailua's abundant past; engage with some of the most inspiring kalo practitioners of our time (including Ānuenue Pūnua and her daughter Koʻiahi, pictured at the top of this page); and celebrate the entire journey at Kūʻokoʻa Kūkanono, a day of sharing at UIupō, a day that includes teaching to family members the process that will help put Ulupō poi back on their tables on a regular basis.
As explained by Kaleo at the first gathering of our first cohort: “The slabs of wood we will be using for our papa are manakō (mango) from a tree we cut down at Ulupō in September; the pōhaku will all come from Kailua as well, so that every part of this program is Kailua based.” As he explained at the cohort's second meeting in February: "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."
If our hopes are realized, Kaleo and Maya will be starting the next cohort in early 2019, when the project will become a full-fledged program.
As explained by Kaleo at the first gathering of our first cohort: “The slabs of wood we will be using for our papa are manakō (mango) from a tree we cut down at Ulupō in September; the pōhaku will all come from Kailua as well, so that every part of this program is Kailua based.” As he explained at the cohort's second meeting in February: "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."
If our hopes are realized, Kaleo and Maya will be starting the next cohort in early 2019, when the project will become a full-fledged program.
Pili Mai, February 24, 2018: When Hāloa was harvested and prepared, when the newly named papa and pōhaku kuʻi ʻai were introduced, and when kalo was pounded on and with these boards and stones for the very first time. The words to "Ulupō Nui," the song that accompanies this video were composed by Kīhei de Silva and put to music (and sung) by Zachary Alaka'i Lum. The text and translation of "Ulupō Nui," along with a brief explanation of its allusions, can be found here.
A second video, "Mud to Mouth; Building Pilina at Ulupō" was created by Mahina Kaomea as part of the culminating project for her Kamehameha Schools Kapālama internship assignment with Hikaʻalani at Ulupō Nui. She received an award for her work and promptly donated it to Hikaʻalani as a mahalo to Uncle Kaleo and Aunty Maya "for all the ʻike that you showed over the past several months. I am learning so much from you!" Mahina's video can be accessed here by means of a link to googledrive.
A second video, "Mud to Mouth; Building Pilina at Ulupō" was created by Mahina Kaomea as part of the culminating project for her Kamehameha Schools Kapālama internship assignment with Hikaʻalani at Ulupō Nui. She received an award for her work and promptly donated it to Hikaʻalani as a mahalo to Uncle Kaleo and Aunty Maya "for all the ʻike that you showed over the past several months. I am learning so much from you!" Mahina's video can be accessed here by means of a link to googledrive.
