HistoricHawaii

Kaʻapuni o Waimea: An Enhanced Experience through Waimea Valley By guest contributor Waimea Valley staff Photos courtesy Waimea Valley  Waimea Valley is recognized as a place of awe, a place of profound natural beauty and splendor; wahi pana or a special, legendary place.  In February 2023, Waimea opened a new program offering visitors cultural learning opportunities at three of the valley’s cultural sites. These interactive stations allow the visitor to ground their experience in cultural values and engage directly with the valley’s mission: to preserve and perpetuate the human, cultural and natural resources of Waimea for generations through education and stewardship. The overarching theme of the Kaʻapuni o Waimea is the Hawaiian cultural value of hoʻokipa – which we define as being gracious, considerate, and kind, a welcoming value and obligation; the act of treating others as we would like to be treated. The kaʻapuni (the circuit) is through three prominent Waimea Valley cultural sites: Hale Hō‘ike, Kauhale, and Kahua Pā‘ani. Each site is presented as a guided engagement; explained and shared through their inherent significance and supported by associated Hawaiian cultural values. At each of the three sites, participating guests will earn an identifying sticker by learning a cultural value. Visitors learn about Waimea Valley as an intact ahupuaʻa and the responsibility of preserving its natural resources at Hale Hōʻike. Hale Hōʻike (the house of wisdom and welcome) is the orientation area of the valley where visitors are introduced to the significance of the botanical collections and cultural sites. Spending time at Hale Hō’ike is important for enhancing the visitor’s sense of place and sense of respect for the sacred space they have entered. At Hale Hō’ike the visitors are introduced to [...]

Black History in 19th Century Hawaiʻi By guest contributor Deloris Guttman, founder and curator of the Obama Hawaiian Africana Museum (formerly known as the African American Diversity Cultural Center Hawaii). The history of the Black presence in Hawaiʻi goes back to the early sailors. Blacks were crewmembers of James Cook’s second and third Pacific voyages. Free and enslaved Blacks served onboard these ships in a variety of capacities. Many other African Americans worked in the maritime industry during this period as crew members, pilots, cooks, stewards, stevedores, builders and captains. The National Park Service Underground Railroad Network for Freedom dedicated wayside interpretive signage that tracks the life of Anthony D. Allen, a slave from Schenectady, New York to freedom in Hawai‘i in 1810. Washington Middle School in Honolulu is recognized as the Anthony D. Allen Site and home to the signage sharing Allen’s extraordinary story. Anthony D. Allen (1774-1835) was a slave who sought and gained his freedom at age 24. From enslavement in Schenectady, New York, he made his way by land to Hartford, and by sea to Boston where he shipped out on a commercial ship that began his travels around the world. He was hired as a steward for seven years and cook for one year under the same captain. Faced with recapture in 1806, he bought his freedom with help from the ship's owner who let him pay back the money demanded over time. After many adventures and traveling the world, Allen left the sea to make the Hawaiian Islands his home in 1810 because men of African descent could reside there without harassment or enslavement. Allen married a Hawaiian woman and had three children who survived to adulthood. Called Alani by [...]

  By Lilinoe Andrews Specialist, Chancellor’s Office, University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu Hawaiian diacritical marks comprise just two symbols: the glottal stop (ʻokina) and the macron (kahakō). Are they important? Worth the extra time it takes to insert them into your text? That depends, so let’s discuss. Simply speaking, the two diacritical marks are a way to show how a Hawaiian word should sound to a person unfamiliar with a particular word. More importantly, those two little marks are keeping the Hawaiian language alive. In 1826, a committee of seven missionary gentlemen thought diacriticals were important enough to wrestle mightily with them in the challenge to put the once oral language to print. They decided, after doing similar work in Tahiti, that Hawaiian should have just twelve letters. The ʻokina appeared in Andrews’ dictionary in 1865 and the kahakō in Judd, Pukui, and Stokes’ dictionary and grammar in 1945. In 1978 the ʻAhahui ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi published “Recommendations and Comments on the Hawaiian Spelling Project” and standardized the use of the ʻokina and kahakō. Not only do the ʻokina and kahakō change the sound of a word, they often end up changing its meaning. For example, these are separate words: pau=completed paʻu=soot paʻū=damp, soaked pāʻū=woman’s skirt Diacriticals are important to keeping Hawaiian (the fastest growing native language in the U.S.) alive because they help expand the lexicon and give the language the subtlety that fluent speakers know by heart. And they are helpful for those unfamiliar with the language, like little cheat marks to keep you from getting your pāʻū all paʻū. Your kumu hula would not be happy. There are a few contexts where diacriticalizing is not seen. For example, in the Niʻihau church [...]

Last Remaining Building at Mānana Barracks Reveals Rich History By guest contributor Deloris Guttman, founder and curator of the Obama Hawaiian Africana Museum (formerly known as the African American Diversity Cultural Center Hawaii). Naval Aviation Supply Depot (NASD) Personnel Quonset Hut 33 is a one-story former military building on the grounds in the Urban Garden Center, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources in Pearl City on O‘ahu. There were a 100 Quonset huts constructed in 1944.  Quonset Hut 33, the only structure that remains, served as galley storehouse at the segregated housing Manana Barracks for African American military personnel in the Naval Aviation Supply Depot.   In the midst of World War II, several factors led to the U.S. Navy’s construction of a segregated encampment between Pearl City and an area known as the Waiawa Gulch.  Among them were various racial tensions at housing areas for African American Cargo Handling Units at Pearl Harbor and surrounding areas, the arrival of over a dozen predominantly African American Construction Battalions (CBs or “SeaBees”) to the Fourteenth Naval District in July 1943, and the construction of two supply centers in Waiawa Gulch where many African American navy men worked. Under “Jim Crow” law, black servicemen could not socialize with white servicemen in Hawai‘i. A separate USO facility was setup.   The Manana Barracks housed over 1,800 African Americans that worked at the Waiawa Gulch Naval Aviation Supply Deport as stevedores and cargo handlers.  The contributions of these men who lived at Manana Barracks provided vital service to World War II war efforts in the Pacific Theater. During World War II, the majority of African American military personnel in Hawai‘i served in the [...]