PBS Hawaiʻi Classics is sponsored by The Olson Trust.

I can't quite see it, but I know it's there.

I can tell that just over the crest of  the hill is a paradise, the way the grass   whispers in the wind, and the constant voice  of the water meeting land rings in my ears.

I look upon the sky, although it seems  calm.

I see the clouds twist and turn,   break and rejoin again, almost like a game with  the wind.

I listen to the waves breathe in,   breathe out, as if in a deep sleep, continuous,  peaceful.

The water rushes forward to meet me,   encircling my feet and ankles.

The sea  is calling me.

I could keep walking and   let the sea embrace me entirely.

I am home.

It's where I belong.

I had a dream.

I have many dreams and visions of  things that might make a difference in people's   lives, especially the young ones, and I shared  this dream and vision with some students from   Lacey, Washington, of Hawaiian, Polynesian, Asian,  Pacific Islander blood that never been to Hawaii   or in the Pacific Ocean, and even past that, never  been to an island like Molokai, what I was able to   do is make that dream a reality, and so a whole  lot of fundraising and belief in people in the   Northwest, and in Hawaii we were able to get these  kids who applied for an essay, there were about a   whole lot of students applied for an essay, and  the essay had to do with what culture means to   them and why they should be the one chosen to  go to this special place, Moʻomo mi, Molokai,   to learn how to live in harmony with the ocean  and the land.

And there were six special ones   that got chosen, and they bonded together with  six inner city kids from Palama Settlement,   which they share the same lost  identity of their cultural heritage,   the Palama kids, of course, because of  their economically deprived neighborhood.

I want to say to all of you, first of all,  welcome.

And this is Moʻo momi, from this   area all the way down to that area.

We call this  area Moʻo momi.

It's a very special area.

I wanted   to talk to be over here by the sign, because it's  not just any old place.

This area has been in the   process of being set aside as a reserve area under  the control of the people who live in this area.

And the reason why we're doing this is because  all of the fish is disappearing throughout all of   the state, all of the reefs, the people are just  overfishing everything.

And every generation, like   yours, that's coming up, is getting less and less  and less and less, and it's not getting better.

So, the purpose of this whole area is to try  and stop the downward flow of the fish, and   to start having the fish increase on this, on the  reefs, and in the papa, and everything else.

So,   throughout this whole week, that's going to be the  theme that the teacher is going to be talking to   you guys about, not only what the fish look like,  but how to live with the fish, so that the fish   increases and stops the decrease, so that people  like yourselves going to have fish after we leave.

Hawaiian people have been connected to the  ʻāina and the ocean for hundreds if not   thousands of years.

It's a real spiritual thing.

We gon' pick up some limu kohu.

And get a feel   of what the thing, you know, feel like in a  water , yeah.

Actually the limu right now is   short.

It's not, it's not good time to pick  the limu.

He likes to pick them when he's   about four or five inches long, six inches  long.

That's the way most people pick them.

Pick one handful, now But just for the kids to   look at, you know, probably eat them later on.

Watch the wave now, watch the wave.

Hold on.

It's one of the more popular limu down here  in this area.

A lot of people come down here,   particularly just to harvest this limu.

It's the  best place to get at this limu.

This place get   the best limu kohu.

Two proper ways to harvest  this limu: one is by cutting, and one is by   pulling up by the root, but leaving a root down  here at the ocean, not taking it home with you.

This here is the paʻakai from the ocean.

It's  the salt from the salt waterr.

And it collects   here when the water comes over, and then it  comes out, and this to me is extra important,   because my name is Paʻakaiokahonua, salt of  the earth, and this here is a reminder to me,   yeah, of the importance of myself to  the land, and everything like that.

Salt.

Paʻakai is good.

You got it.

All stuck in the net.

You get ‘em?

Better than the net, yeah?

I mea the pole, yeah?

Ho, nice catch man.

Woohoo.

Small kine.

We no like take all the fish.

We let go the  small ones so they can grow bigger and you   catch them later on.

Then we don't need that much.

Instead of one dozen, we only need six fo eat.

Watch your right.

They stay  on your right.

Plenty ova dea.

Alright Paʻa!

Yay!

Right there Paʻa, in front of you,  get one right in front of you.

He got em all?

Yeah look   him.

He got em right on the side [inaudible] There it is.

One, two.

Woah he got   one.

Woo!

Take em home.

Can you do that again.

Huh?

Dis is my fish.

Oh yeah!

Nah nah nah.

Fishing was a way of life for the Hawaiians   that they depended on it.

And without fishing,  I don’t think there would be Hawaiians.

But   uh, that’s uh, that’s the most important thing,  teaching them conservation so that in the future   always gon’ have.

If nobody take the step or any  kind of measure to implement something like this,   we gon’ lose them, just like the other islands.

On this island we still have.

Everything is still   intact.

We still have what we want, but the  numbers are going down, and it's going down,   down, down, with people keep harvesting and  wasting and not paying attention to replacing.

(Instrumental music) (Singing in Tagalog)  We're not in Kalihi.

You have to get up.

We’re   in Moʻomoni.

Hello!

(Blowing the pū)  Most of the activities that we do, it pertains to  the ocean, because Moʻomomi is a fishing grounds   area.

But we also wanted to let the kids know that  there's food that comes from the mountain.

So, the   pig represents food that comes from the mountain.

So we’re, we’re eating fish from the ocean and   we’re eating pig from the mountain.

This one.

Put ‘em on the side, yeah.

This is called moa.

And you see all these,   um, yellow spores?

The old Hawaiians  had their own talcum powder, yeah.

They would gather this and then they would and  then they would turn it into a powder.

And when   they wore their malos, this is what they would  use for their talcum powder to prevent chafing.

We're in the forest of Molokaʻi, the only  rain forest that we have here on the island,   and the name of the mountain here is Kamakou,  and Kamakou is very, very significant.

Just   the name is very significant, because Kamakou  is our child, and it relates to Molokaʻi nui   a Hina which we relate to Molokaʻi as a child.

So Kamkou is our child.

This is our precious rain   forest.

And we're here with the children today.

We brought the kids here today to share with them   some of the plant material that the Hawaiians use  traditionally in gathering to make leis, for food,   for some of their war material, their housing  material, and so we're just sharing with them   the different plants, the different woods,  and the different foods that we have here.

The reason why I wanted to come here  is to find out more about my culture,   because right now Iʻm sort of getting really  into my culture.

And uh, like hula and stuff   like that.

I dance hula on the mainland.

Now I  really wanted to get into it more than just hula.

Well, when I first came to Molokaʻi I wasn't  expecting to feel all that emotion right there   on the airport.

I actually thought I was, it  would come more at the when we were down at   Moʻomomi.

But as soon as I got off the end and saw  all the area for myself, I had to be by myself,   because I just.. there's so much stuff that was  taken away from the Hawaiians long time ago,   and it affects us nowadays, even.

All my life, you struggle, yeah,   to find out what it is to be a Hawaiian.

And all I know is this area was all   Hawaiian people.

This is where a lot of it  starts.

Never had a rush like this before.

That was something that I'll remember for the rest  of my life.

The power, the power of this place.

(Singing) Ua nani Molokaʻi i ka laʻi o ke kai Kai milimili ia kēia kama aʻo Hina ʻĀina hoʻopulapula i nā hono aʻo Piʻilani Kū kilakila i ka ʻōpua ē Kuahiwi kū kilakila mālie aʻo Kawakiu Noho ana i ka mālie i ka wai aʻo Wailau I ka lau o Kaluapapa pākuʻi ʻo Pelekunu Kū kapu ʻo ʻOlokuʻi ē ʻO ka pua kukui ka ulu aʻo Lanikāula O ka heke nō ia ka lehua neneʻe o Kāʻana Pua kalaunu o Kalamaʻula ʻĀhinahina o Moʻomomi ē Kai aʻo Honouliwai i nā wai ʻekolu aʻo Hālawa ʻAlawa i kuʻu maka i ka wailele o Kahiwa Puana kou inoa e Molokaʻi nui a Hina A he motu he hiwahiwa ē Kai aʻo Honouliwai i nā wai ʻekolu aʻo Hālawa ʻAlawa i kuʻu maka i ka wailele o Kahiwa Puana kou inoa e Molokaʻi nui a Hina A he motu he hiwahiwa ē Molokaʻi Nui A Hina ē This is my first time in Hawaiʻi.

When I  first got here off the plane, it was like   the weather and everything just hit me, and  I was like looking down from the plane when   we were flying in.

It's like, is that Hawaii?

The  water's so clear, it's like because in Washington,   like water's cold and dirty.

When I was in Waikīkī  and I wsa watching Brother Noland and stuff,   I thought it was great, because I was in Hawaiʻi,  I had no thought of what it was going to be like   to be in Molokaʻi.

When I got here, it's like  Waikīkī was cool, it was fun and stuff.

When I   got to Molokaʻi, I just felt the mana here,  and it felt a lot stronger than Waikīkī,   because Waikīkī, it's fun, but it's too  crowded, too busy.

Here is nice, slow.

The kukui nut trees started falling on the  heiau so they started clearing it and cutting   it.

You see?

This one fell right on top of the  walls of the heiau.

You can see all the baby   kukui is starting to grow and other trees started  to grow, so you got to keep those off.

See,   on the bottom one, all the baby kukui trees,  all of them go into huge kukui nut trees,   and the roots gonna destroy all of the walls.

Now, you look at the walls, you see how smooth   the front is, the face of the walls?

All the  rocks is all even at the face of the walls,   and all the different terraces that go up, then  when you get to the top, after you get to the top,   we go up here and see it just stretches way  out.

Let's go around the corner and let's go   look at the top of the heiau.

Like I told you guys  earlier, This is Iliʻiliʻopae Heiau.

And it was   built by the menehune and was used for agriculture  purposes, and later on, human sacrifice is done on   this heiau.

Half of it has been washed away.

Even  though half has been washed away, it’s still the   second largest heiau in all of Hawaiʻi.

(Chanting in Hawaiian)  Aloha (speaking in Hawaiian).

What I just did for  you was the traditional way of greeting people.

And in our culture it was an everyday thing.

Chanting was not just a part of hula or a part of   the religion, it was part of every day.

When  they got up, they chanted.

Your moʻopuna,   your kūpuna would chant you awake.

Hawaiians never  believed in just waking the kind and shaking em,   c’mon, get up.

They would chant softly until  the spirit went back into the body.

So,   chanting today, I know, for the most part, is,  is only used for hula or for ritualistic type   of situations or circumstances, but in the old  days, chanting is part of everyday life.

You   chanted when you went to go plant the grass.

You  chanted when you went up to the forest before you   went hunting.

You chanted before you went to  the sea to take fish.

And after you were done   you chanted again to give thanks.

That was very  much a part of our people, and for the most part,   that's why we didn't have a written language,  because everything was oral transmission.

Coming from inner city, you know, the ghetto  Palama settlement, where I was surrounded by   concrete, welfare, poor side of town.

When I  got to go to Molokai, and experience that really   opened up my vision, made me more peripheral,  made me understand myself better.

As I grew up   I found out that that was probably one of the  most important parts of the puzzle of yourself,   knowing who you are and where you stand in the  struggle.

So, all these kids that we're working   with, you know, I've just been able to navigate  them to the same area, geographical, ocean that   I was fortunate enough to experience, and it  feels really, really good, because this vision,   now, I can see it in their eyes.

My first time catching a deer,   first time I went ever.

So, we went out and got in a field.

I give them just basic rules, like anytime you're  hunting, the first thing I wanted them to remember   was always safety first.

So, if you're you're the  hunter, you make sure when you get, like, if I'm   carrying a rifle, you always stay behind the guy,  never on the sideway or in front, because, you   know we're out there and out there trying to get  a deer, and we don't want anybody getting hurt.

There's a bunch of us that believe in an  alternative lifestyle outside of tourists and   resort development and massive growth, and Walter,  along with a handful of us, have been leading   a significant movement in trying to look at  economic alternatives that not going to impact   our subsistence lifestyle.

Where you're staying at  at Moʻomoni, we were concerned about conservation   practices, because we're worried about the  fishing resources being depleted quickly by   all these people that got big boats that come  off from different islands, and we're really   trying to concentrate on the inshore resources.

Now this ahupuaʻa right here, you see the top of   the mountain?

You see how it comes down like a  pie, narrow on the top, wide on the bottom?

This   ahupuaʻa starts up there, and the two valleys  are the sides, and this fishpond is the bottom.

So ʻUalapuʻe Ahupuaʻa, this is one ahupuaʻa.

In  this ahupuaʻa I get everything I need to live.

I can go up there, pick wood, plant whatever I  can, in the middle I can plant all my taro.

Over   here I can plant all my taro.

I can come in my  fish pond and get my fish.

I don’t need go over   there hana ʻino the other guy’s ahupuaʻa  because I get everything in my ahupuaʻa.

Each person, as we went out, knew exactly where  the other person is, because it's important that   two guys watch each other, never go alone.

So,  every once in a while, we do one body check,   and then everybody would join hands, just to make  sure that they're not dreamy, because it's simple   to get carried away when you're diving in, because  the ocean floor is so beautiful.

You see one fish,   and you start just wandering off by yourself,  and you know, like anything else, the ocean get   predators, the ocean can just get rough.

So, I  was just teaching them safety first, how to stay   together, and everybody watch each other while  we're diving, that's the most important thing.

But I think what I've learned is to listen to the,  to the sounds of nature, to, to see the beauty of   the nature, without, you know, your, your human  eyes that just see normal things, everyday things,   and that's how you get judgmental, is when you see  with your eyes, you learn to see with your heart,   and that's how you feel the land, and that's  when you can talk to the land.

The land will   teach you if you just learn to listen, and  it'll show you the beauties of the history,   if you just learn to see.

The most important  is the respect, and once you learn to respect,   you can learn to see and hear.

(Singing)  I know a great Hawaiian man His freedom burns in sacred land  And I can feel it in his voice and hands And all at once I finally understand  I hear his song, it echoes in my heart I am the child left to carry on  I am tomorrow but I’m living for today Holding on to wisdom that he gave me yesterday  I know a great Hawaiian man Him made of stone, him made of sand  And as I watched him walk across that lonely beach I found myself surrounded   in the magic of his eyes And I say sail on soul of the sea  Spread your wings and carry me I am the vision and you are the light  Take me home, take me home (Instrumental music)