Photos from Hawaii

Well, the whanau have landed and settled on the land of the palm trees and coconuts

Arrivals

The whanau arrived at different days, different times and at different ports heading to meet at Makapala, our base located in North Kohala on the northern shores of "The Big Island" for stage II, 2 weeks in Hawaii. Some had come over earler to climatise and taste some of the fat of the land.

Saturday 24th May - Coming together

The planned date to meet was the 24th June. Some whanau flew into Kona, some flew into Hilo, but all met up at makapala, tired after a long flight. After meeting and greeting we settled down for a cup of tea and something to eat (Spagetti & Meatballs) after which everyone retired for a good moe.

Sunday 25th May

Sunday started with breakfast and then off to a local church which Tom, the founder of Island Breeze & the Makapala retreat, was pastor and leading the service. There we had a lively service and the roopu performed together for the first time, doing a couple of kapahaka items we had practised before going over.

Some saw for the first time, the devestating effects of an earthquake experienced in Hawaii in Sept. 06. The original church frame was still standing but parts of the walls had brooken away to expose large holes to extreems and the building had been condemned. This did stop the whanau of this church, who now temporarily hold church in what was a hall next door with the church right next door in full view from the windows. The resolve of this congregation is to eventually have service back in the church and we have no doubt that with gods grace they will achive this.

After service we headed back to Makapala for lunch. Tom and his whanau performed a traditional hawaiian welcome, bringing us on to makapala formally. Makapala was the area in which King Kamehameha was rasied and spent most of his early years in. As some of the whanau had already been to makapala before they formed some of the hou kainga.

In the afternoon we came together for our first meeting as a full whanau with all 33 here. A few basic ground rules were laid down as well as expectations of the roopu while at Makapala. The leaders also discussed some of the issues they had faced in setting up once they had got over to Hawaii and with the resolve of the whanau and the lords grace, would be overcome. A tentative timetable had been laid out for the 2 weeks and a bit of lively discussion followed. Up until now, most of the whanau were unsure what was going to be happening while in Hawaii, but it was now starting to become clearer. We weren't just there for the shopping but to become a "blessing to the Hawaian people and their lands".

A beautyful dinner of spagetti & meatballs was consumed followed by a kapahaka practise. Then it was time to turn down for the night.

Monday 26th May

Monday started with breakfast and a easing into our groups and duties. Most of us were just getting over Jetlag and settling in.

Beacky, Pastor Tom's wife came in and took us for a session which allowed us to explore our own inhibitions and fears which hold us back. We then took those fears and put it into a rock and laid it at the base of the cross, passing those fears to Jesus to take care of. Most of the whanau came out with a better understanding of themselves and felt more empowered having laid their fears at the feet of Jesus.

The afternoon saw the whaunau head over to a local beach for their first taste of an hawaiian beach. The temperateres were sitting at about 29 deg. so a swim was most welcomed.

On returning from the beach, the whanau tucked into a lovely meal of, yep, spagetti and meatballs. (Hopefully the last :-)

Tuesday 27th May

Today was lining up as our first full day. After breakfast we had a session with Pastor Tom who picked up were Becky laid off. He spoke of some of the things he noticed about the roopu when we first come in on Sunday. He then picked up from Becky the day before talking about fears that and how they can stop us frombecoming the person gods wants us to become. This session flowed and from it a deep insite to our fears had been realised. On ending Karen got up and did a mihi to Tom to thank him, then started talking about a Hawaiian kaumatua and how he had come to Kawhia a few years before. On completion of the korero, she presented Tom with a piece of polished timber which was from an old tree the Tainui waka had be buried beside in Kawhia. This symbolised the returning of Maori back to Hawaii. Tom was very humbled by this gift and thanked her for this honor.

After lunch, the roopu doned their "performing whites" and headed down to our first engagement of the trip. A performance at the Kohala middle school located just down the road in Hawi. This was to be our first formal engagement and boy did we hit the ground running. The whanau pulled together a great performance with the various items that had been practised the night before. The school kaiako and tauira were most appreciative as for many, this was the first time they had seen anything remotely to do with maori culture and were quite buzzy afterwards.

This followed by a performace at the King Kahamehame hospital just down the road. Some people here had not had anyone visit them for a long time and were very thankful. This was a very humbling experience. God had us minister to the young generation begining thir life and the old generation in their last days of life. It was quite sad but we spoke to their spirit a freshness in God.

A little kid aged 4, whomb the kids had met at a local swimming pool, wanted us to do a haka as his name means 'warrior' in thge Hawaiian language. Our kids responded to that and spoke over his life through haka to be strong and couragious! A few hours after that another kid aged 4 wanted that same encouragement, so our kids did the same to him at another car park.

Wednesday 28th May

Wednesday was an early start as the convoy of cars headed out at 6am off to Hilo, a town located futher down country about 2 hours away.

On arrival we were straight into 3 performances, demonstrating various aspects of our culture to the young people of Keaukaha elementry school which who were very appricative. Ranagatahi from their school were painted up in traditional moko and taught the pukaka. During the periods between performance, some of the Hawaiian kaumatua entertained with some triditional ukulele's and a large bass made from a 22 gallon drum, wook and string. This was rounded out with a lunch with the staff from the school. Our tautoko was a song titled Te Haerenga. The hawiians responded with the same song but in Hawaiian. Turns out it had been translated and brought to these shores and featured in most hawaiian kura kaupapa & kohanga.

After that we drove the short distance to the Glad Tidings church, our base in hilo for the next couple fo days. Some of us were starting to feel a bit wary and grabbed a couple of winks. After dinned we were formally welcomed into the church by the congregation who had gathered for evening service. Boy what a service it was. As the service progressed, they invited us to take a more active role in the service and introduce the congregation to some of the aspects of maori culture. Various people from the roopu gave testomony about how their area came to be with Te Haerenga and this was all wrapped up with a hymn in maori. The Hawaiians responded with the exact same hymn, but it was in Hawaiian. It was a most amazing exchange and service which cannot be fully put into word.

On completion of the service, a real peace came over the church and it was felt the Hawaiian people had really opened thier hearts and we ours.

One thing the whanau have started had notice was how close the Maori & Hawaiian people actually are. In the music and korero, in facial features, we shared similar qualities. They look on us as cousins who left the islands a long time ago but slowy, we are returning.

 Thursday 29th May

Today we headed of to Keaukaha, a bilingual unit located at Keaukaha elementry school on the north side of Hilo. We were formally welcomed to the school by the kura. It was a hot day but this did not discourage the tamariki of this school who put on an awesome welcome. We did our performace here to a very appricitive crowd of tamariki, kaiako and whanau who had turned up just to get a glimpse of our performace. They put on an awesome meal of traditional hawaiian kai which the whanau tucked into. It was a great experience to see how the hawaiians, through the schooling of the young ones, are regaining that which was just about lost.

After this we went down the road to a very special place which uncle mickey had invited the roopu to. The hawaiians have just about lost all whanau lands over the years due to various means. Uncle Mickey's father fought long and hand to retain this small piece of land located down on the shores of the moana. It is a beautiful place with a fresh water spring with water that mixes with the sea in the small bay. Turtules come in and feed off the rocks, small schools of fish move past the area. On a hot day it is magic. We got to have dinner with uncle mickey's whanau and spend some time with them. The history of the whenua was explained and we felt very honored to be there. We were blessed to have the rangatahi from this whanau perform some items for us, which in return, we responded with a couple of our own.

We then headed back to glad tidings to meet the rangatahi from the ranagatahi program the church runs. This evening we introduced to a bit of maori culture and a few maori hand games. They all enjoyed the evening and afterwards invited us downstairs for yet another kai. Yep, we shore not starving over here, but then that's the hawaiians, very hospitable and generous people.

Friday 30th May

Today would turn out to be a most blessed day for us. Yep, we were going shopping but that wasn't the blessing. :-)

The day started with our normal devoition time in which the whanau discussed differences. Differences in people, difference in perception. Difference that weren't wrong, just different. We looked at the envirionment we were in staying which had emotioned packed words hung from the ceiling and discussed these.

Following devoition, Uncle Mickey and Daniel Kikawa came in to speak to the whanau and man what a korero. Uncle Mickey started off talking about what it was to be an Hawaiian today.and the some of the problems they face. He was very open and this encouraged a lot of sharing from the Whanau.

Daniel followed on by talking about differences in culture and perceptions which lead to how we view things. How one culture can force it's views on another. How one religion can force it's views on another. A bit of lively debate followed then daniel went on to talk about the "io project" and the book he had written. He gracously gave copies of his books to every whanaua represented in the roopu. The "io project" was the cleansing of an 800 year old sin in which hawaiian tupuna had moved away from god ("io preisthood") and started worshipping pa'au, the volcanoe goddess, by doing human sacrifices. The "io project" was to ask the lord for forgiveness though his son Iesu Kristo (Jesus Christ) for the many thousands of innocent lives that had been taken in these rituals and to give the people of hawaii peace and grace again. It is well documented in the book "God of Light, God of Darkness" and is an amazing historical account of what transpried on the 14 march 1998, fullfilling an 800 year old prophecy. It is widely suspected that this is why the waka's set sail from hawaii to aotearoa all those years ago, as the "io preisthood" had been carried to a far off land to protect it once the pa'au religion had got a strong foothold in the people. This was the real bessing this day on the whanau. To have these two man come and share what they did and to the level they did was just amazing. By the end of it we were like "stunned mullet" knowing that something very special had been shared with us.

The afternoon consisted of shopping in hilo. This marked the end of our time in hilo, we were on our way back to makapala.

Saturday 31th May

Today was a free day for the whanau. It was Cory's birthday and she turned 12. The whanau celebrated with a birthday party and pinyata. After the party some of the whanau went down to the beach and some stayed home to recuperate from an exhausting week.

All in all the whanau had in incredible week contributing to the local culture and also learning more about ourselves and each other. We were really started to gel as a whanau.

Next Page (Week 2) >>>>