Kepā and Onaona Maly: Saving History
By Ma‘ata Tukuafu
Sharing stories is what Kepā Maly and his wife Onaona have been doing for almost 40 years now, working as record keepers and cultural historians for the people of Hawai‘i. This dynamic husband and wife team have recorded almost a thousand oral history interviews from Ni‘ihau to Hawai‘i Island with their business Kumu Pono Associates LLC, while creating a historic preservation program that is accessible to everyone.
Kepā was hānai (adopted) into a Hawaiian family on Lāna‘i as a young teenager. His Tūtū Papa Daniel Ka‘opuiki and Tūtū Mama Hattie spoke Hawaiian as their first language and both were in their 70s when they took Kepā into their home. From his hānai parents, Kepā received his Hawaiian name which translates into surround, or embrace. He learned the Hawaiian language, spoken in the old way, and from his adopted parents he gained the sense of connection to the ‘āina and culture.
In ancient Polynesia, certain children were groomed for various positions within the community that were matched to a child’s skill set. It can be safe to say that for Kepā, his interest in history from a young age led him to his life’s work: recording the stories of kūpuna in order to preserve the rich cultural heritage before it is lost.
Kepā says he was in the right place at the right time, with kūpuna who were willing to share their knowledge with him. At the age of 21 he left Lāna‘i and moved to O‘ahu, where he was hired to assist with the opening of Kualoa Park in the mid-70s. There was a program at the time called Hawai‘i Bound where leaders took at-risk youth to camp where they learned about cultural history. This is when he met his wife of 45 years.
“We met at Kualoa because my mom was teaching at a private school and her class was camping there,” says Onaona. “My dad and I had gone there to prepare the area for the students, and Kepā walked out. We were married six months later.”
Kepā’s recollection of their meeting is almost identical except that in his version, a beam of sunlight bathes Onaona when he first saw her. Their union has been a match made in heaven. Both Kepā and Onaona have gone on to do amazing work, researching stories together, not just from Hawaiian elders, but people of other ethnic backgrounds.
Onaona says, “We love working together, and even share the same office. I’m more in the background and helping others as we go place to place, but I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see all these places if it weren’t for Kepā.”
Though Kepā’s formal education is a diploma from Lāna‘i High School, he has taught at the university level and with Onaona’s research assistance, has turned out the equivalent of several PhD dissertations per year with their studies. Many of these 500-plus page reports are available online via their Kumu Pono website.
Their website states: “Perhaps the most fragile and precious source of information available to us, and the one most often overlooked (particularly in academic settings) are our elders—kūpuna, those who stand at the source of knowledge (life’s experiences), and kama‘āina who are knowledgeable about the tangible and intangible facets of the ‘āina, kai, wai, lewa, and the resources and history therein. For the most part, the paper trail—the archival-documentary records—can always be located and reviewed, but the voices of our elders, those who have lived through the histories that so many of us seek to understand, are silenced with their passing.”
Kepā feels the ethnographic studies they have completed are treasures from kūpuna who have survived the storms of change. He has been able to translate Hawaiian newspaper articles and documents from between the 1820s to the 1940s, in order to add to the general knowledge of Hawaiian places and cultural thoughts. The oral histories they have compiled over the years are culturally meaningful, not only for Hawai‘i, but for the descendants of those they have interviewed.
“My wife and I have done work for 40 years across the state. We so often get calls from family members of those we have interviewed in the past. They say they just found a study or interview with a family member and tell us, ‘We had no idea of the things our kūpuna knew,’ and they are so thankful,” says Kepā.
Kepā tells a story of visiting Hawai‘i Island while he was still with Kualoa Park in 1975, taking a group of students to Hōnaunau. He met a Hawaiian man named Abraham Moses who invited Kepā to spend a week with his family at their Nāpo‘opo‘o homestead. When Kepā asked Abraham why he was teaching him important cultural history, he answered, “Because your voice get mana and what your people took away, you can give back.”
Onaona’s own kupuna is Mary Kawena Pukui, the brilliant historian and scholar who co-authored the Hawaiian dictionary we have today. Kepā knew Tūtū Kawena before he met Onaona and says he learned much wisdom from her.
Western culture tends to think of land as a commodity but Kepā says ‘āina is instead considered family to the Hawaiians. During interviews, touching on a sense of place is what brings the kūpuna stories to life. With an open heart and listening meaningfully to kūpuna with care and compassion, Kepā says they are easily transported back to earlier times.
In addition to their own business, Kepā worked as executive director of the Lāna‘i Culture & Heritage Center for more than a decade, reviving the center and creating an oral history program. Though the Malys now live in Hilo, Onaona primarily handles the Kumu Pono project and Kepā is still involved with the Lāna‘i center.
Danny Akaka, Kumu Hānai (cultural advisor) for the Mauna Lani Resort, says Kepā and Onaona truly make a dynamic duo in the preservation of Hawai‘i’s oral history. “Kepā, for me, is my go-to person when it comes to Hawaiian place names and the knowledge of ‘storied lands,’ as Kepā would say, that are not easily accessible or perhaps even recorded,” says Danny. “He is a walking encyclopedia of Hawai‘i’s past and kindly shares his in-depth of knowledge with us whenever we’re searching for and in need of historic facts or ‘ōlelo no‘eau [proverbs] to assist us in creating themes for cultural events. We are truly blessed to have both Kepā and Onaona, who have spent their life’s work on recording Hawai‘i’s treasures, our kūpuna, their genealogy and their stories, many of whom are not present today and so now just live in our memories.”
Much of the material available on their Kumu Pono website includes research from most of the Hawaiian Islands on topics ranging from home life to hunting and fishing, as well as places and events to traditions of old. As an example of important and knowledgeable history from kūpuna they interviewed, see the sidebar of problems and solutions to the fishing practices of Hawai‘i excerpted from their book. We are deeply indebted to the fortitude and research that Kepā and Onaona have compiled over the years and can consider them both cultural treasures.
As for Kepā, he says he hopes to have done justice to the trust of Abraham Moses and to all of the kūpuna he has interviewed, by sharing their stories and awakening the sense of kuleana (responsibility) in all of us. ❖
Excerpted and abridged from VOL I: Ka Hana Lawai‘a a Me Na Ko‘a o Na Kai ‘Ewalu
A History of Fishing Practices and Marine Fisheries of the Hawaiian Islands, by Kepa Maly & Onaona Maly, August 1, 2003
Nearly all of the interviewees, particularly interviews after 1990, commented on changes in the quality of the fisheries, and the declining abundance of fish—in almost all areas, from streams, to near-shore, and the deep sea.
The interviewees attribute the changes to many factors, among the most notable are:
- Loss of the old Hawaiian system of konohiki fisheries; lack of respect for ahupua‘a management systems and tenant rights.
- Over-harvesting of fish and other aquatic resources, with no thought of tomorrow or future generations.
- Sites traditionally visited by families, having been developed and/or traditional accesses blocked.
- Changes in the environment—near-shore fisheries destroyed by declining water flow and increasing pollution.
- Too many people fish in one area, and too few people take the time to mālama the ko‘a.
- The focus on commercial fishing is damaging to the resources.
- Use of modern technology means fishermen no longer need to have in-depth knowledge of the ocean and habits of fish, as was necessary in earlier times.
- Failure of the state system to enforce existing rules and/or regulations.
- The present centralized state system of management is out of touch and does not take into account regional variations and seasons associated with resources on the various islands.
Interviewee recommendations included, but are not limited to:
- Return to a system patterned after the old Hawaiian ahupua‘a, kapu and konohiki management practices.
- Enforce existing laws and kapu; ensure that penalties for infractions are paid.
- Programs established to manage fisheries and limits on take need to be established and enforced.
- Decentralize the fisheries’ management system, giving island councils authority to determine appropriate kapu and harvest seasons.
- Establish a fee/license system to help support fisheries’ management programs.
- Take only what is needed, leaving the rest for tomorrow and the future.
- Protect the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands from commercial fishing interests.
For more information: kumupono.org
