I started this blog on Wednesday, but I couldn't download the images. And I got caught up in the rest of the Halauola. This post was never posted. Here it is a few days late. There are no images. Kala mai ia'u. I'm sorry.
These are images from my visit yesterday to Kanewai (Water of Kane) Lo‘i. Youʻll see the kalo (taro) in the lo'i as well as some of the plants that are associated with kalo and lo‘i, banana, breadfruit, kukui and hau. There aren't any pictures of us in the lo‘i because I was afraid of getting my camera dirty. But we sweated. We cleaned the auwai (canal) of dead leaves and twigs, mixed them into the mud with just-picked hau leaves by stepping them into the muck, build mounds around the base of the kalo, and picked a few. Mahalo Kekailoa, Alapaki, Keoki and Shannon, our knowledgeable facilitators.
Kalo is central to Hawaiian folklore and philosophy. Kalo is the eldest, stillborn brother of Haloa, the first man, both of whom were born of Wakea (sky-father) and his daughter, Ho‘ohokukalani (to generate stars in the sky). Kalo is the eldest brother of all men. The star design in the middle of a kalo leaf is inherited from his mother, hence a whole lo‘i of kalo looks like the constellations. Did you know that kalo is one of the rare naturally hypoallergenic plants in the world. No one is allergic to it, I was told.
The cultivation of kalo is supported by two cultural values: mālama ‘āina and laulima, which mean, roughly, care for the land and thousand hands, sustainability and collective action.
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