#Peoplesavingplaces

June 23, 2020: Hawai‘i Public Radio’s Ku‘uwehi Hiraishi interviews Maile Melrose about her family's experience with the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 which took the life of her mother’s brother. Click here to listen. April 23, 2020: Maile Melrose is a woman wedded to place. As a multi-generational kama‘āina of South Kona, Melrose has committed her life to protecting and perpetuating the history, flora and fauna of the Kona District. She is a highly respected historian, researcher, author, speaker and noted living history storyteller with a background in Anthropology and Hawaiian Studies. Maile is the great-granddaughter of Henry Nicholas Greenwell, founder of the H.N. Greenwell Store, the oldest surviving store in Kona. Considered one of Kona’s living treasures, Maile holds deep knowledge of Kona's families, places, businesses and history. With her understanding of intricate relationships between places and people, Maile is able to weave a complex narrative about the people who have shaped this incredible history. Her work highlights the Hawaiian families of the Kona ahupua‘a and their stories and traditions that have persisted through the disruption of Western Contact, the achievements of European adventurers in their curiosity about the Hawaiian Islands through the 1800s, as well as the families who shape Kona's landmark agricultural industries, ranching and coffee. Renowned for her storytelling skills, as a volunteer of the Kona Historical Society and Living History Museum, Maile inspires and educates visitors with place-based lore. Her passion is evident in her performances in the Society’s cemetery tours and historical Jeep Tours.  In the Hanohano ‘o Kona Lecture Series, Maile shares her knowledge of Kona's natural history and unique bird and plant species. She has published stories of Kona in online form for several years via KHS' [...]