Kalae Tangonan
My family goes back five generations on Molokai and my mother's family three. Her family is from the Big Island, eight generations. Her great-great grandpa was a rancher, a paniolo [cowboy]. Then my great-grandma moved to Molokai. We're really in the community, my family. My uncle is Walter Ritte, a Hawaiian activist. My other uncle is a mortician because my grandpa was the only mortician on the island. My uncle and my dad delivered me at home. I'm one of nine children. I'm a local artist here. There aren't too many Hawaiian artists. We're also generational lei makers. On Molokai, you get lost in the feeling of connectedness, and being home and finding a place where you really, really belong.
Kawika Foster
There's a presence moving through me in the photo. It's the spirit of my ancestors talking through me. Not only did our ancestors survive, but they ensured that their essence and their spirit were not lost. Being on Molokai, in connection with lineage, contributed to the essence that comes through in this photo. Molokai is old-school. It has that presence. Our kupuna [ancestors] need to see it in us so that their spirits can be at peace. They need to see the new generation channeling that energy, so that they can be assured that their effort to pass it on has been fulfilled. It's what we do. We share.
Ikaika Bishaw-Juario
Throw netting is an ancient art. It was taught to me by my father. To me, it's probably the hardest method to learn of all the fishing techniques. In the Native Hawaiian way we have a kapu system, where certain species can't be gathered during certain times of the year because that's when they're spawning. And when you take, just take what you need and let the rest go. Growing up on Molokai you're taught the old ways, and you also take a little bit of the new world and you kind of forge your own life with both. I expect my children will do the same-carry on the traditions and also learn which direction the world is going.
Greg Solatorio
I grow traditional food, I farm, I practice the traditions of my ancestors. This photo shows how I live every day. We are the ones who share culture with the younger generation. We share it with our brothers and sisters and their children. We share it with family who may live farther places now, who no longer see these things every day. We've got to make sure they see these things, so they can carry on who they are and where they come from into the world. Showing how I carry the kalo [taro] over my shoulder represents carrying culture and tradition into the new generation and the next. It represents family, ohana, and how we keep our traditions alive and moving forward. How we plant, how we harvest-generations carry on.
David "Maka" Makaiwa
I'm a farmer, a fisherman, a hunter. I live on forty acres of Hawaiian Homestead land, the fourth generation on this land. What was handed down to me from my father, I hand down to my kids. My kids always have a place to come back to if they no can make it any other place. What I want to pass down to my kids is to learn about surviving in this world, because it's not going to get any easier. Respect the culture, respect the land. My faddah, when teach me and my uncles, teach me when we go in the ocean and get our food, we only take what we need. We no sell nothing. If someone need, we help them out. And the kupuna [elders] are da numbah one, they teach us preservation. We just keep on trying. If we no succeed, just keep on trying.
Bobby Alcain
The basic understanding of the culture is to live aloha. Currently, I'm growing a sustainable life. I grow fruits, a garden and a lot of native plants because in time the native plants will be used to restore culture and life on the land. All the stories and chants are related to the native plants in a sense. If you look at native people as indigenous to the land, and you look at the plants as the DNA of the land, it makes sense that the plants need to be part of the culture. That's the healing process: To heal the land you heal the people. If you live aloha, then you understand what it is you need. You need the native plants, you need each other, you need the ocean. Live aloha is the wholeness of life.
Aunty Snooky
My grandfather was an original homesteader here. I first came here in the '60s, and when I stepped off the plane, it was like, 'Oh my God. This is my home.' Acknowledge your ancestors. On behalf of my ancestors and on behalf of God, I'm a divine instrument. It didn't begin with us, ok? The chain that binds us. So we gotta get back into our ancestry. Talk with the tutus [grandmothers], communicate with them wherever the ever began. Learn how to love you, every ounce of you, and learn forgiveness not only for yourself but for all. Wherever you go, ask permission and listen. I do a small oli [chant] and the birds will answer me, and they guide me from tree to tree. This is my home. I know who I am, honey, and all that I've been. I bore nine children, I have seven still living. Twenty-plus grandkids.
Samson K. Kaahanui
I been here my whole life. I get eight kids and eight grandkids. We always clean up after ourselves. I always try to teach my kids. I been to Honolulu, dat place crazy. Here everybody knows everybody. My family goes back here kinda long, yeah? East end side my mom and dad born and raised. They used to grow taro before. Do a lot of fishing. We still do a lot of hunting, fishing. When they'd catch something they'd share wit' everyone. The kupunas, the older generation, they be good fo' talk to. I always look to the older generation for advice, fo' talk story.
Anakala Pilipo Solatorio
Culture is sacred, not secret. You learn culture from the inside out, not the outside in. Nana i ke kumu: Go to the source.
Uncle Jimmy Duvauchelle Sr.
I've been here all my life, seventy-eight years, and many people don't know paniolo [cowboy] culture. But it's a part of Hawaii's unique culture. Sadly, we are a forgotten culture. I want to tell people who we are and where we come from. We are Hawaiian cowboys. We are Hawaii-made. We raise grass that feeds the animals, and it connects us to the land. But it's more than that. It's a lifestyle, it's how we live. My children are paniolo, my grandchildren are paniolo. They carry on the tradition.
Kananikala Bishaw-Juari
My family goes back on Molokai four generations. I've always been here. My connection with music brings a language that everyone can understand and relate to. It brings people together. Molokai is very special, and the culture is always there. It's up to people who visit to be open to learning about our way of life and the way that we were taught to connect with people. As long as you come in with that respect, towards the land and the people, they will show aloha to you.
