Community Leader Howard Pe‘a: Talented Family Man, Haku Ho‘oponopono
Na Puanani Woo and Pualani Louis
‘Ohana
Howard Kahale Pe‘a, or “Uncle Howard” as he is known, is a talented family man. Genuine. He was born, raised and still resides in Hawaiian Homelands in Keaukaha-Pana‘ewa, Hilo.
In his late 60s today, Uncle Howard is grateful for the privilege of a good upbringing by his wonderful parents who, he says, “taught us wise morals and principles for living and to love the work one must do. John Lonomakaihonua Pe‘a, Sr. is my father’s name and he is from Kalapana, Puna. He was a large, tall, strong, humble man and didn’t discipline us when we needed it. My mother, Mary Kaiawe Manuia, did. She was strong, smaller than my dad, decisive, very neat and logical in her work, always finished a task and put things away before quitting. Her roots are from Maui. While growing up on Piopio Street in Hilo she was very close to Japanese families living there. In the old days, families helped each other out a lot.
“Today, my brother Eldred Kalei and I help each other out and try to keep our family together. We remember that although our father had a good steady job as a policeman and regular income, we were always poor with little money to buy food for the family. Our father was always broke when payday came. We found out it was because he co-signed loans for friends and when they couldn’t pay, the banks garnished his paycheck. So our parents and us older kids, 14 of us kids in the family, worked hard on our farm then, which is where Honsador Lumber is today, off Railroad Avenue.
“Kalei and I and all other people living in Keaukaha went to Puhi Bay for fresh seafood—fish, lobsters, crabs, pipipi, wana, hā‘uke‘uke, ‘opihi, and limu of numerous varieties. Our parents were happy when we brought fresh seafood home. Puhi Bay was our supermarket and icebox. I admired Kalei because he could free-dive deep down in the ocean to almost black depths where the island shelf ended, to hunt for fish.”
The Defining Years
“I was born August 27, 1949. After Hilo High School I attended Hawai‘i Technical School, studied accounting and graduated in 1969. I love to learn and love to work. Going on age 18 in 1967, I was a musician along with three or four much older Hawaiian men. We were hired to play Hawaiian music at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, which opened to the public in 1965. I could play the guitar, steel guitar, ‘ukulele, and upright and electric bass. My uncle William Manuia was the boss. He made it clear to us while working, NO DRINKING and NO FOOLING AROUND. We met hotel guests from all over the world. Our workdays were Monday through Saturday. We left Hilo at 5pm, arrived at the hotel at 7:30, started at 8 and played music ‘til midnight. My uncle Manuia was the driver to the hotel from Hilo and I always was the driver getting us home because the older men were tired. Our faithful car was a four-door Dodge Dart V-8.”
Uncle Howard also worked picking pineapples on Moloka‘i and Maui. He doesn’t talk openly about his ali‘i connection on his mother’s side: the Manuia legacy of Lāhainā, Maui. His grandfather, John Kalei Manuia was a bodyguard to Queen Lili‘uokalani and a 10-key Lua (Hawaiian martial arts) Master. Housed in the Bishop Museum in Honolulu is the feather cloak that belonged to his great-grandfather, Kalei Manuia, II.
As a loving husband of nearly 44 years to wife Charlene Puamohala Tirrell, and together raising their seven children, Uncle Howard made time to be a faithful servant to his community through his church work as a past Bishop at age 40 of the Pana‘ewa Ward LDS Church.
Community Man
After moving to his farm lot in 1987, Uncle Howard became very active in working with other homesteaders to establish the Keaukaha-Pana‘ewa Farmers Market, sponsored by the Keaukaha-Pana‘ewa Farmers Association (KPFA).
The one-acre farmers’ market site is located off Railroad Avenue directly across from the Home Depot. A team worked diligently to clear the forested growth and level the ground of that one-acre market site from an approximately 10-acre parcel. The remaining nine acres in back of the market site are still raw forested land.
Dr. William Sakai, University of Hawai‘i at Hilo College of Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resource Management (CAFNRM) helped homestead farmers establish a hydroponics program free to the public with funding from the Alaska Native/Native Hawaiian-Serving Institutions, Education Program, USDA, NIFA, and DOCE 2011-38426-30618. Elven Iwashita was and still is the key community volunteer in upholding the hydroponics program. This helps the homestead farmers increase their yields for the farmers’ market.
Today, the farmers’ market has been redesigned with a clear mission, and guidelines for vendors are provided in a Pana‘ewa Farmers Market handout by KPFA. Maile Luuwai is president of KPFA.
Ho‘oponopono
With multiple opportunities available for living longer in reasonably good health, Uncle Howard’s knowledge in the capacity of ho‘oponopono to improve the quality of life has led him to teach it, partnering with educators in Hawai‘i and elsewhere who share his teaching goals.
According to Uncle Howard, ho‘oponopono is not just about settling conflict. It is an important life skill that assists each person in establishing a direct connection to Akua (God). Uncle explains that ho‘oponopono is about “knowing who you are as a ‘child of Akua’ so that you realize your self-worth. Knowing your identity restores your self-esteem, which allows your self-confidence to grow. Eventually the person realizes that Akua made them to be successful, because Akua don’t make rubbish.”
Uncle Howard learned ho‘oponopono from Aunty Abbie Napeahi, a Hawai‘i Island native, born in La‘aumama, Kohala and best known as a Loea Ho‘oponopono (highly skilled ho‘oponopono expert). She worked as Kūpuna Outreach Facilitator for Alu Like’s Native Hawaiian Substance Abuse Prevention Project in Hilo from 1980 and was recognized by Judge Ronald Moon, State Circuit Court, for her success rate with adult ex-offenders in the criminal justice system. A mere 3% of the adult ex-offenders who participated in her program were re-arrested, compared with 60% of adult ex-offenders not involved in the program.
Uncle Howard joined Aunty Abbie at Alu Like in the mid-1990s. He learned the old way, on the job. Under Aunty Abbie’s mentorship, he became a community-recognized Haku Ho‘oponopono (master instructor of ho‘oponopono). Together they developed a highly successful ho‘oponopono curriculum that emphasized the importance of addressing the individual first, because helping a person regain his or her confidence, competence, and life purpose is the most important part of his or her healing process.
After implementing the curriculum as a team for several years, Uncle Howard knew Aunty Abbie believed he was ready to handle the rigors of being a ho‘oponopono practitioner the day she did not show up for a job they were scheduled to complete together. Uncle remembers, “She was old style, sink or swim.”
When it was near her time to join her ancestors in 2005, she assigned a final request to him: tend to the youth, help the community, and ensure kanaka (Hawaiian natives) come first.
As Uncle Howard continues to work in and for his community, he is increasingly troubled by the frequency of disturbances he is asked to help contain. It is clear to him we need more well-trained ho‘oponopono practitioners.
In 2017, he started training the next generation Haku Ho‘oponopono with classes in Miloli‘i, Waimea, and Hilo. “That was exhausting,” he shares.
Today, he works with a small group of haumana (students) in Hilo adding hydroponic gardening as part of their own personal ho‘oponopono lifestyle regimen. Some have also begun working with KPFA to ensure hydroponic classes remain an integral part of its newly designed Pana‘ewa Farmers Market.
To honor Aunty Abbie’s final request, Uncle Howard, with help of some haumana, is in the process of establishing a nonprofit organization, Ke Ala Ola Aloha, to perpetuate the practice of ho‘oponopono passed down by Aunty Abbie.
Uncle Howard has volunteered to be a mentor for EA (Education with Aloha) Ecoversity, an endeavor scheduled for startup in 2020. Conceptualized by one of his haumana, Ku Kahakalau, PhD, of Ku-a-Kanaka, LLC, “The goal of EA Ecoversity is to transition Native Hawaiian ‘ōpio, or youth, to kanaka makua, or responsible adults with life skills to revitalize our native language, culture and traditions, for a sustainable Hawai‘i.”
Sustainable living through farming, reusing, recycling, and reducing are very close to Uncle Howard’s heart. He and his wife Charlene share their lifestyle with their family and friends. Using Korean natural farming practices, he raises pigs to sell and feed the family. Brother Kalei makes the best, perfectly seasoned pork sausage for family use and also helps with hydroponic farming of the most delicious, fresh vegetables on their homestead.
Uncle Howard’s enduring faith in Akua, continued celebration of life through the sharing of his belief in the good of Akua, love for music, and his determination to perpetuate Aunty Abbie’s legacy gives his community a pillar of hope. ❖
For more info: panaewamarket.org, kuakanaka.com
