Papa Mahiʻai Kalo I & II (HWST 351 & HWST 352)
Papa Mahiʻai Kalo I & II are listed with the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies and are taught by the director of Ka Papa Lo‘i o Kānewai. It is a reflection of the interdisciplinary nature of Hawaiian knowledge. These classes introduce and reinforce student learning in the realm of Hawaiian traditional practices of kalo farming and stresses the importance of ma ka hana ka ʻike. The final project for HWST 351 involves each student creating their own pōhaku ku‘i ‘ai and papa ku‘i ‘ai and using those implements to make their own poi. Students are also responsible for finding their own materials to make their implements.
HWST 351 students with their completed papa kuʻi ʻai and pōhaku kuʻi ʻai.
Success is gauged on the quality of food produced with the kalo they cared for over the semester, relationships they fostered in the class, knowledge of traditional practices of agriculture and sustainability, and the quality of the implements and skill to produce food.
HWST 352 student with their completed ʻumeke.
In the HWST 352 class, students build on their knowledge of different varieties of kalo and its purposes, but are also introduced to different plant diseases. Students engage in modern issues affecting kalo farming including water rights. The Mālama Hāloa event is associated with this class as a way of providing students, faculty, and community members an opportunity to become familiar with traditional and modern ways of caring for Hāloa, our kaikuaʻana. As a culminating experience, students are charged with presentations on specific varieties, which they are responsible for harvesting, cooking and cleaning, replanting, preparing of extra stalk for interested participants, and creating an informational display on the particular variety of kalo chosen, including details of certain diseases affecting kalo and environmentally responsible remedy. The final project for HWST 352 involves each student creating their own ʻumeke and using only their ʻumeke to hold a food product made of kalo. Students are also responsible for finding their own materials to make their ʻumeke. Success in this class is gauged on the ability as the class as a whole
to contribute to the body of information on kalo farming and effectively servicing community participants at Mālama Hāloa.
Mauiakama
Mauiakama is one of Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language Immersion Camps and is a collaborative effort between UH Mānoa and UH Maui College. Ka Papa Lo‘i o Kānewai provides the venue and support teaching staff for these students in the week prior to the immersion camp and the technical support and expertise for the students upon their return from the camp. Mauiakama consists of a 1 1/2 week immersion in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, while working at Ka Papa Lo‘i o Kānewai and Ka Papa Loʻi ʻo Punaluʻu, a 1 week immersion experience on Maui, followed with preparation of final projects and presentation to encourage the revitalization of traditional Hawaiian values, concepts, and practices by stressing the importance of the traditional style of listening to the kūpuna and following their guidance; promoting kōkua, laulima, lōkahi and huki like, the traditional social practices of people helping each other, of unity, and of working or “pulling” together; and emphasizing the traditional Hawaiian sensitivity to the land and total environment; that is, the basic underlying concept of aloha ‘āina expressed through mālama ‘āina and the waiwai o nā ʻāina momona.
Ma ka Hana ka ʻIke Workshops
One learns by doing. The Ma ka Hana ka ʻIke Workshops provide experiential, cultural, and educational opportunities for students to learn and teach traditional Hawaiian arts, practices, and processes, in a modern context through practice a long side skilled practioners. Workshops include but are not limited to themes such as making inamona, poke, ʻohe kapala, ʻapu ʻawa etc.