A Passionate Kanaka Maoli*: Keoki Kahumoku—Inspiring the Next Generation with ‘Ukulele, Guitar and Life Skills
*Native of this land
By Shirley Stoffer
Keoki Kahumoku is a passionate guy. His beautiful musical talent comes naturally, genetically, from a family that’s well-known in Hawaiian music. But it’s almost secondary to his passions — about many things, from teaching kids music and survival skills, to living sustainably and helping survivors of the recent Japanese tsunami. As his girlfriend and assistant, Tiffany Crosson, says, “His passion is what we all love most about Keoki.” His enthusiasm is contagious. When he talks about the things that matter to him, you can hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. In fact, the current of passion that flows through his singing and playing makes his musical performances stand apart.
“Really, everything I’ve done has been out of necessity, to survive,” Keoki tells me. “I wanted to stay in Hawai‘i; and I would rather not work for someone else. I never thought I’d be a musician and a teacher. I thought I was going to be a hunter and fisherman all my life—and maybe grow some pakalolo, like so many people I knew.” Many of Keoki’s acquaintances, and even some family, ended up in prison due to drug charges, and he had a close call himself, when he was 19, that made him determined to go another way with his life.
Fishing and hunting receded to the background in Keoki’s life in 1989, when he was called upon suddenly by his father, George Kahumoku, Jr., to fill in for his uncle Moses in the Hawaiian music group that George led at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. Keoki had to learn the ‘ukulele fast, out of necessity. It was imperative to keep the group going because George had experienced a medical emergency, in the form of an aneurism, that left him unable to continue his heavy farm work. With his Kahumoku resourcefulness and creativity, George decided he would support himself and his family with his music.
The Mauna Kea job “kick-started” Keoki’s productive music career. At first he was only allowed to play on one string on a baritone ‘ukulele! Then two strings, and on, up to four as he improved. After the ‘ukulele came the learning of slack key guitar. His early teachers included his father, his uncle Moses Kahumoku, Marcus Wong Yuen, Pekelo, Sam Ahia and others. His unique, rich voice and mastery of slack key guitar and ‘ukulele have all contributed to making him the fine musician he is now. As of this fall, 2011, at the age of 41, he has played on five Grammy-award-winning CDs. Even so, Keoki says, “My life is about ‘humbling.’ Every time you think you’re hot stuff, you meet someone who does it better or knows more than you do. Sometimes when people are humbled they give up, but I knew that if I didn’t ‘get over myself,’ nothing would happen. I was taught that whatever I did, I should just do the very best job that I could do. When you’re humble, you’re more able to receive information and be able to take that information and share it with other people.”
Keoki’s passion for the process of sustainability is a motivating factor behind many of the commitments and interests of his life; learning about and living in a sustainable manner himself, and teaching kids how to do it too. A natural and compassionate teacher, he says, “I want to teach them basic life skills, and how to be able to survive in the real world. I feel like Hawai‘i has ‘dodged the bullet’ so many times—with earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis. Now we have a chance to prepare.” He’s raising livestock on a farm in Hilo for the benefit of his extended family and families he knows who can use the food. Pig farming goes way back in his family. He’s using a “game-changing,” dry litter method of pig and chicken farming that was initiated many years ago by his dad and grandfather in Kealia, as a way to be able to farm with little or no available water. The method is in practice at Masazo Pig Farm in Ka‘ū, among other places. And, as anyone who’s attended one of Keoki’s fundraisers or camps knows, not only does he raise pigs, he’s become a “smoke meat” master!
At his Hawaiian Music and Lifestyle Camp each winter in Pahala, Keoki teaches kids how to raise their own food and prepare it from the ground up. Adults are welcome, too! This “everything from scratch” approach really makes his camps unique. The lifestyle camp also has music and cultural workshops as a major part of it, with world class performers/teachers such as Ledward Ka‘apana, the Rev. Dennis Kamakahi, Sonny Lim and Canadian ‘ukulele genius, James Hill, among others serving as faculty. Hawaiian food preparation is taught, including taro preparation, imu building, pig roasting and laulau making, in addition to hula, Hawaiian language and chant (oli). Kupuna from the area also share their knowledge of Hawaiian culture. Aunty Kaiwi Perkins teaches lauhala weaving at the camps. Her influence was responsible for getting the program started with the Big Island ‘Ukulele Guild which donates locally-made ‘ukulele to kids in Ka‘ū. Keoki’s ‘ukulele building workshops, using kits made in partnership with KoAloha ‘Ukulele Company, have resulted in 120 ‘ukulele being built for kids in need. Aunty Diana Aki, the famous “Hawaiian Songbird” from Miloli’i, is also often at the camps. Keoki feels strongly that “the future is in the hands of our kūpuna and young children.”
In addition to the Hawaiian Music and Lifestyle Camp, Keoki leads spontaneous “long weekend” camps for school kids at different locations around the island; they are usually tied in to school holidays. Keoki’s camps and workshops have made a huge difference in the lives of a lot of kids, especially in the district of Ka’ū, which is one of Hawai‘i’s most economically depressed areas since the closing of the Pahala Sugar Mill. Many of these kids have attended the camps using scholarships funded through his non-profit Center for Hawaiian Music Studies. Philanthropist Edmond Olson of Ka’ū has helped fund Keoki’s enterprises over the years, as has the Queen Lili’uokalani Children’s Trust and Alu Like, which supports indigenous cultures (Diane Kai from the Hilo office has been especially helpful). Terry Shibuya of BISAC (Big Island Substance Abuse Council) has referred at-risk kids from Pahala High School to Keoki’s workshops, and Miss Tonini, a teacher at Na’alehu Elementary, has arranged for Keoki to do an after-school program once a week in Ka’ū, teaching ‘ukulele. Some of Keoki’s older students are now able to take over teaching a few of the classes, which makes him very happy. Keoki is teaching music at Pahala Elementary and Ka’ū High School three days a week now, too. He teaches some private lessons and often instructs at his father, George Kahumoku Jr.’s, annual music camp on Maui.
Keoki is a true mentor to the kids he teaches, and he shares his past mistakes with them in the hope that it will help them make good decisions about which way to go with their own lives. “I’ve lost three friends to suicide lately,” he says. (West Hawai‘i Today newspaper just ran a feature article by Carolyn Lucas-Zenk on Sept. 6, 2011, about how high the suicide rate is on the Big Island, stating that according to a 2009 risk study, “Hawai‘i high school students had the highest self-reported prevalence of seriously considering suicide, making a plan and attempting suicide, in the nation. They also had the third highest rate of being sad or hopeless.”) Keoki has had to battle his own demons: “I know about heartache and depression,” he says. “Sometimes people just need a little help to tip the balance the other way.” Keoki tries to live his life in a way that sets a good example for his students.
Keoki credits his father with exposing him to a lot of different music genres from a young age. (The late harmonica legend, Norton Buffalo was a close family friend, as is internationally-known steel guitar wizard, Bob Brozman, to name a couple of influences.) Keoki helps organize bluegrass workshops twice a year on Maui and the Big Island, with talented young bluegrass performers from Alaska and the mainland serving as teachers. The program started out five years ago as a collaboration between a wonderful elderly woman fiddler, the Rev. Belle Mikelson from Alaska, and the Haleakalā Waldorf School on Maui. Christ Church in Kealakekua sponsors the bluegrass workshops on the west side of the island, and members of the church’s congregation have opened up their hearts and homes to the visiting musicians while they’re here. The musicians call themselves the Olowalu Outfit band when they’re in Hawai‘i, and they usually do a dinner/concert at Christ Church, a concert at the Blue Dragon in Kawaihae, and a dinner/concert at Hana Hou Restaurant in Na’alehu. They’ve also performed at Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo with Brittni Paiva, another student of Keoki’s.
As far as his music performance goes, Keoki is still touring regularly with his dad and others, but he’s currently only doing a select number of local appearances. His primary music gig on the Big Island is at Hana Hou Restaurant in Na’alehu on the second Friday of every month, from 6-8 p.m. (reservations recommended!), and he usually plays at the Blue Dragon in Kawaihae one Saturday a month. Sometimes, too, he will hop a plane to go over and play at his father’s Masters of Hawaiian Music Slack Key show at Napili on Maui, and, of course, Keoki participates in the annual Slack Key Guitar Festival, which comes to the Big Island every September.
“Always thinkin’!”, Keoki intends to start a community garden in Pahala soon, on the property of the Pahala Plantation House. ❖
Contact writer Shirley Stoffer at shirley@konaweb.com.
For more information about Keoki, visit www.keokikahumoku.com
For information about the family’s low-water method of pig farming, visit http://mysare.sare.org/publications/hogs/profile2.htm.
To find out more about the Hawaiian Music and Lifestyle Camp: http://konaweb.com/keoki
