Picture Perfect Memories
Written by Amber Manini
Some memories last a lifetime. It is amazing how years after a specific activity we took part in we still remember certain things about that activity. We may remember how it rained and we got soaking wet, or how someone made a funny joke and everyone laughed. Our brain’s hold these vivid memories and each time we do something recalling the memory, a spark goes off allowing us to relive the activity all over again. This simple reaction is what most would consider the joy of life. The joy of living to make memories that last a lifetime.
While some memories bring joy, others bring enlightenment, love, curiosity, and energy, just to name a few. The beauty of these memories is that every time we remember we learn something different. Whether it be a new emotion, understanding, or fact, there is always a different perspective taken on the second or third viewing than on the first. Through each memory knowledge is shared with ourselves and the others around us. It is for this reason that each new generation learns from the last.
Students of Kumu Kainani’s (featured in red at the bottom right of the photo) Pana Hawaii course stop for a photo after their work in Koholālele. Photo provided by Bridgette Uʻilani Ige.
Learning is not the only thing each new generation will experience. Sometimes if they are lucky, the new generation will have the opportunity to relive the exact actions of their kupuna, or elders. UH Hilo Hawaiian Studies students have this opportunity to relive and experience some of the actions of their kupuna. In turn, students are given the opportunity to make their own memories learning in a classroom that was once their kupuna’s.
The UH Hilo College of Hawaiian Language, Ka Haka ʻUla O Keʻelikōlani, offers students a course titled Pana Hawaii. Through the Pana Hawaii course, students are able to study various places of Hawaii through stories using Hawaiian Language primary resources. Originally created by Kumu Larry Kimura, this course is a Hawaiian Studies major requirement and is only offered to students in the Fall semester.
Kumu Kainani Kahaunaele, a lecturer within the Hawaiian Language College, has been teaching Pana Hawaii for the past three Fall semesters. In these semesters she has personalized the course a little more, allowing students many different applied learning opportunities within the course.
“That is the best way to become aware, make connection, participate, and appreciate the area. It is also a way to meet the natives of the area, participate in community efforts, and get inspired to do community work in their own community. Lessons are better absorbed and students are happy to get out of class, travel, and learn! Huakaʻi are the best part because the connection is better remembered and appreciated. I wish the whole class could be huakaʻi based!” said Kahaunaele.
As Kahaunaele explains, “Pana Hawaiʻi highlights our islands' origins and genealogy, famed places in stories and mele, rains, winds, and land features for each of the six moku of this island.” Students in her course are not only able to go on various huakaʻi or field trips but they also take part in various in class activities to help supplement their learning. Students participate in activities such as, art depiction, re-enacting stories, singing, chanting, looking at pictures of the areas learned, and researching the wahi pana or places in their own homeland.
UH Hilo’s Pana Hawaii class takes part in clearing out the cane in their trip to Koholālele. Photo provided by Bridgette Uʻilani Ige.
UH Hilo senior Bridgette Uʻilani Ige is a student in this semesters Pana Hawaiʻi course. Taking the course not only as a major requirement Bridgette explains how she thought the course would be interesting and, it was the perfect opportunity to learn more about the place she feels blessed to call home. Having gone with the class to the museum, Moku Ola, and Koholālele Ige has a feel for applied learning at its finest.
“Huakaʻi definitely helps to facilitate our learning because we get to see the ʻāina, be there personally, engage in giving back to the ʻāina, the community, the ʻohana of that wahi, and just be in that environment. It gives us so much more to connect to. When we're personally there, we can look around, picture the moʻolelo that we learn about and just connect to the moʻolelo on a personal level. It's easier for us to remember the stories when we can picture it there, and when we can engage in the work that we learned about in class. Being able to get our hands dirty and work with the ʻāina, like we have done at Koholālele, gives us a better understanding for how life there could have been. We see and understand the culture of the ʻāina, the ways of the ocean, the types of plants and animals that live there now and compare it to what was there in the times of the moʻolelo that we learned about,” said Ige.
Bridgette recalls recently completing a group project after having researched a specific wahi pana and sharing it with the class. She states, “It was really awesome hearing about the history and moʻolelo of these wahi pana all around the Hawaiian islands. Also, seeing the passion and aloha that each of my hoapapa (classmates) had for the ʻāina that they chose to present about.”
Memories like those that Ige and many of her classmates share in Pana Hawaii are those that will some day be shared with their children and their children’s children. Creating a picture of the events and huakaʻi, these students have learned from in the minds of their listeners. As Ige stated, “It sparked a drive in me to seek out the old, uncommon place names and moʻolelo for other places in Hawaiʻi. It's special knowledge that needs to be learned to be passed on so it isn't lost.”
Picture perfect memories of our wahi pana in Hawaii are shared with students through UH Hilo’s Pana Hawaii course. It is these memories that will last generations. Living forever in the minds of those who experienced first hand the work, wonder, beauty and awe of their kupuna.
