Folk Art of Bobbi Caputo Brings Family Coffee-Picking Memories Back to Life
By Hadley Catalano It’s summer vacation for Bobbi Caputo. It’s the late 1950s and though she hasn’t yet reached adolescence she’s already versed in the ways of the coffee farming world. Sandwiched between Leonora and Faustino Orpilla, her mother and…
John Tanaka: WWII Hero, Inventor, Artist, Novelist
By Catherine Tarleton John Tanaka’s life spans 80-plus years across two centuries and throughout, he has remained youthful, inventive, positive and forward-thinking. His ageless face and energetic voice make one wonder if there’s a fountain of youth hidden in John…
Terri’s Vision: Showcasing Native Hawaiian Art
By Prana Mandoe “I want our people to know we can succeed,” says Terri Napeahi, proprietor of Papa Mū Gallery and President of Perpetuating Indigenous Hawaiian Arts, or PIHA, a nonprofit venue for Native Hawaiians to develop and show their…
Then & Now: Murder & Movies in Old Honoka‘a Town
By Ann C. Peterson For many decades, sugar was king throughout the island chain, and in no place was this more so than in the folksy village of Honoka‘a in the northeast district of Hamakua. At its core, Honoka‘a embodied…
Ka Puana: I Mua e Nā Wāhine
By Jackie Pualani Johnson Our backs twist together, nā wāhine o ke kai. We plunge our paddles as one, forcing the Pacific Under the ‘ama, the canoe piercing the incoming swell Salty spray clinging to lashes, lips, Filling the bottom…
The Life in Business: Showcase Gallery
Emily Gualtieri and Gary Brown, fine artists and owners of Showcase Gallery in South Kona, moved to Hawai‘i in 1989 and sold their silver and niobium jewelry at local art and craft shows and galleries around the state. Emily descends…
The Life in Business: A Hui Hou Crematory & Funeral Home
Penny Brumbaugh came to Hawai‘i in 2003 to open and manage a funeral home in West Hawai‘i for another company. After a few months the company decided that West Hawai‘i wasn’t a good market for them, and they decided to…
M. Kalani Souza: An Ecological Music Man Making a Splash
By Ke Ola Music Correspondent Colin John Many on The Big Island may know Kalani Souza as a great musician whose personality lights up the room when he enters and takes the stage—either solo or with Sugah Daddy or Hamakua…
Hollywood Calls Local Boy from Hilo; Still, His Heart Stays in Hawai‘i
By Cynthia Sweeney Pomaika’i Keko’olani still shakes his head in disbelief. A local boy arrives in Hollywood, and fresh off the plane, he is greeted by a chauffeured limousine that whisks him off to a major studio for an audition…
Slammin’ at the Gym: Local Youth Discover the Sport of Poetry
By Alan D. McNarie The bleachers of Pahoa High School Gym are packed with cheering, clapping students. The noise is deafening. But this isn’t a basketball game, or even a pep rally. It’s…a poetry reading? It’s Guinevere Balicoco’s turn at…
Is It Your Business or Your Life? Big Island Business Owners Find the Critical Balance
By Grif Frost, Life Quality Business Consultant Owning a business should give you freedom. Freedom to set your work hours…to decide what you do (and more importantly don’t have to do). Freedom to earn as much money as you want.…
Teas, Tinctures, and Tonics: Mamaki
By Barbara Fahs The traditional Hawaiian healing herb mamaki seems to have taken the world by storm. When you Google “mamaki” you’ll find 39,500 websites that talk about the Hawaiian version of the stinging nettle, including general information on sites…
Daniel T. Set to Change Waimea’s Food Scene: A New Look for a Treasured Old Building
By Devany Vickery-Davidson Any resident or visitor to Waimea has experienced the wind blowing down from the mountains on a daily basis. The winds of change are also blowing in Waimea’s food scene. Legendary chef and restaurateur Daniel Thiebaut is…
Treasures from the Sea: A Unique Farmers’ Market Comes to Kona
By Devany Vickery-Davidson Looking for live crabs and lobster? How about some local sea salt? Abalone? A free cooking class? Get the cooler out and head to NELHA! On the last Friday of each month Hawai’i Island residents are afforded…
Joy of Chickens: Big Islanders Are Discovering a New Use for Their Back Yards
By Alan D. McNarie I think a lot of people don’t think that chickens have brains,” muses Jeannette Baysa, co-owner of the Hilo Coffee Mill. “But I think they do. We train them. They know their names. They come when…
He Knows the Uke from the Inside Out: Sam Rosen—Craftsman, Teacher, and Historian
By Margaret Kearns Longtime Hawai‘i Island resident Sam Rosen is preserving one of Hawaii’s cultural treasures, one student and one ‘ukulele at a time. Soon after relocating to Hawai‘i Island 33 years ago, Rosen found he finally had the time…
Feng Shui Hawaiian Style: Lighten Up Your Life With the Fire Element
By Marta Barreras, Master Feng Shui Practitioner Have the stresses of life got you feeling burned out? Has your passion for living, your joi de vivre, become a distant memory of the past? Would you like to rekindle a sense…
Inspiring Visions in Glass: Artist Calley O’Neill Teams with Stained Glass Artisan Lamar Yoakum
By Catherine Tarleton If eyes are windows to the soul, then windows must be the eyes of a house’s soul, particularly a house of God, where stained glass windows cast cascading colors to illuminate the people. In the quiet little…
Physical Challenges Never Stop This Triathlete: Jason Patrick Lester Keeps Running on Faith
By Fern Gavelek “Today is the youngest you will ever be. Live like it.” This advice comes from Jason Patrick Lester, who recently posted it on Facebook to his nearly 3,000 “friends.” Fewer than a dozen words, they speak volumes…
Angel of Aloha
By Jessica Kirkwood Kalau Iwaoka will tell you without hesitation that her life’s goal is to be the embodiment of Aloha. And so far she’s good at it—really good. If you passed her on the warm and weathered street of…
Then & Now: Multi-Cultural Holualoa—The “Long Sled”
By Ann C. Peterson When King Kamehameha ruled from Kamakahonu (near today’s Kailua Pier), he would look up to the slopes of Hualalai and know that all was good. This is where he had built Kuahewa, an extensive, dry-land farming…
Ka Puana: A Dream of Old Hawai‘i
I had a dream, a dream of old Hawai‘i. And in that dream, a woman stood beside me, and in her arms were stories that were pure as gold, but stories that looked sadly old, stories that had not been…
The Life in Business: Mountain Gold Jewelers
Mountain Gold Jewelers is a jewelry store and design studio owned and operated by master goldsmith Moses Thrasher. Specializing in diamonds, opals and pearls of all kinds, Thrasher has been a goldsmith for over 35 years and can design and…
The Life in Business: GYROTONIC Kona
Laura Crittendon and Steve Von Hargett started a unique business as a result of their own search for healing a painful injury. In 1999 a major low back injury left Laura bedridden and unable to perform the simplest of daily…
Feeling Good, Bringing Joy, and Cleared for Take-Off: Mili Nanea
By Colin John Ke Ola Magazine Music Correspondent Take three pedigreed and talented musicians with mutual respect for one another. Add patience, perseverance, family, community, faith and friends. Combine together in a laid-back home environment utilizing a strong work ethic.…
Beyond Organic: Natural Farming
By Noel Morata A new trend—natural farming—is being embraced by backyard gardeners and farmers here on Hawai‘i Island. These methods have been shown to enhance growing organically, focusing on long-term sustainability and using local, raw products and indigenous, green materials…
Let There Be Light! There’s Power in Photovoltaics
By Mike Moore It’s been said that the amount of sunlight that hits the Earth’s surface in one hour is enough to power the entire world for a year. Given that within the next 25 years our world’s energy demands…
Is It Your Business or Your Life? Big Island Business Owners Find the Critical Balance
By Grif Frost, Business Consultant While a member of the faculty at the University of Hawai‘i Hilo College of Business and Economics I worked with my students to identify the key factors in creating a business lifestyle model that enhances…
Building with Bamboo
By Noel Morata Of the fastest-growing and reusable materials, bamboo is becoming a viable building material to be utilized in a tropical environment. David Sands is one of those passionate individuals who advocates and evangelizes the use of bamboo for…
Holuakoa Gardens Restaurant and Café: Connecting the Plate with the Planet via Slow Food
By Fern Gavelek Handmade potato gnocchi…house-cured bacon…homemade fresh pasta lasagna… Admit it—the above is not your normal restaurant fare. They can be had, however, in the heart of Holualoa village at Holuakoa Gardens Restaurant. The delicious, labor-intensive delicacies illustrate the…
