.
These are the rhythmic records of a people who for centuries had no written language.
Our ancestors were Polynesians.
They were master mariners who found their way to Hawaii by the stars and the feel of the moving sea.
In great open sea voyages of 2,000 miles or more, they came to this place across the trackless tides.
We know there was a migration to these islands, perhaps from the Marquesas sometime between 300 and 500 AD.
Some believe there may have been a later migration, from the vicinity of Tahiti between 1100 and 1300,
when sea captains in Europe still feared the edge of Earth.
After more than a month of great hardship, the first group of adventurers sighted land.
To them, the island seemed like a man standing at the edge of the ocean, his arms spread wide and welcome.
The Polynesians had found a natural paradise, an empty stage upon which they would play out the drama of their lives.
It was from this encounter with the natural world that their myths evolved.
Their gods, their songs, their view of the world and of themselves.
These traditions became the heart of the Hawaiian culture that would reach from the ancient past to touch the present.
Much of what those first wanderers saw and felt is still here for visitors to see and feel today.
According to one legend, their first landfall was the Isle of Kauai.
So enchantingly beautiful is Kauai, with its green-robed cliffs and magnificent valleys, that it is called the Garden Isle.
Washed by the tears of the sea, it is the most beautiful island in the world.
The island is the most beautiful island in the world.
Kauai, with its green-robed cliffs and magnificent valleys, that it is called the Garden Isle.
Washed by the tears of clouds, this may have been God's original idea of what a Tropic Isle should be.
From the heart of the island rises the cloud catcher, Vaialeale, the abode of the gods.
Nearly a mile high with an average annual rainfall of 460 inches, Vaialeale is often the wettest spot on earth, the birthplace of a thousand streams.
On Kauai, you are never far from the living crystal of flowing, falling, or cresting water.
Below Vaialeale is Waimea Canyon.
Four miles wide in places, the canyon weaves eight miles to the western side of the island,
twisting and turning, to the south.
Four miles wide in places, the canyon weaves eight miles to the western side of the island, twisting and turning, past haunted solitudes toward the sea.
In the course of a day, the sun creates a moving tapestry of light and shadow upon the canyon walls.
When he visited here in 1866, Mark Twain called this place the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.
Hiding within these mountain reaches are valleys more beautiful than any artist could ever capture.
Rich, verdant, and alive with brilliant splashes of vivid color, filled with vast bouquets of fern and bougainvillea.
The Ileao plant is found nowhere in the world except here on Kauai.
Generally, the plant lives between 6 and 15 years, usually blooms only once, then dies.
Goats were brought here by British explorers.
Captain James Cook and later Captain George Vancouver used them as gifts for the island chiefs.
With no natural predators, the goat population has multiplied over the years, and today poses a threat to the canyon's ecology.
Along the rugged north shore, great lava cliffs tower over the restless sea.
The Nepali coast is a testament to the island's violent birth.
Here and there, jagged ramparts rise like stone pinnacles hurled from the center of the earth.
On the high slopes above Nepali grows the ohia lehua tree.
Its feathery red blossoms were sacred to Hawaiian chiefs, and they fashioned the flower into leis as offerings to Pele, goddess of the volcano.
The art of weaving leis has survived in Kauai, in both story and in fact.
Erema Lee-Palmroy is a master of this Hawaiian art. The creation of her leis begins with the gathering of the flowers.
The Hawaiians, they didn't overabuse the gathering of these kinds of materials.
They were very considerate about the environment.
And now when I go out and gather these things that I use in my leis, I try to be careful. I try not to overuse what I'm gathering.
With the Hawaiians, making a lei was a spontaneous thing.
Whenever they went from one place to another place, if they were going to go to visit one family in another area,
they would walk along the beach or perhaps through the forest, and they would stop along the wayside and just pick up some of these things and make a lei.
The lei is given in love. It's given at times of festivities. It's given at times of sorrow.
Leis are given to almost anyone. When you step off the plane, one of the first things that a visitor receives is a lei.
And it's a lei of welcoming.
My favorite lei is the lei vili.
Vili means to wind and to secure your flowers onto a foundation.
The reason why I like this lei is because you can use almost any kind of material in this lei.
You create it as you go along. It's a beautiful lei. You wear this lei open-ended or closed.
Lei kui is to sew a lei with a needle and thread.
The Hawaiians did not have a steel needle like we use now, but they did have needles made out of fish bones, especially,
and made out of the midrib of the coconut leaf. And this is their needle and thread.
My mother had a wonderful garden, and she would make a lei for my father almost every day. He would put it around his hat.
Every morning she did this for him, every day. And this was given to him with love.
Love is often the reason people journey up the Wailua River on Kauai's eastern shore, for the river leads to a legendary place where lovers often go.
The river winds through hallowed hills and burial grounds and old gray sentinels of stone.
At the upstream landing is Fern Grotto. Ancient Hawaiians are said to have worshipped here in the full of the moon.
Today, Fern Grotto is a popular place for weddings.
On Kauai,
At the northernmost tip of Kauai is Kilauea Point, a wildlife refuge for frigate and other
sea birds.
This sanctuary is critical, for it is the only secure nesting site in the inhabited
Hawaiian islands.
Though many ocean-going birds will stay at sea for five years at a time, they must nest
on land.
One of the most commonly seen of these birds is the red-footed booby.
As a chick, it wears a coat of white down.
After about two months, the down is replaced by smoke-gray feathers.
Within three years, the plumage again turns white, the color it will remain the rest of
its life.
The refuge is also the roost of an abundance of great frigate birds.
Their wingspan can measure seven and a half feet, greater than most men are tall.
Great birds are also called men-a-war, because they attack other sea birds and steal their
lives.
The Koa'ikea, or white-tailed tropic bird, is easily recognized by its graceful tail
streamers.
Its feathers were prized by ancient Hawaiians, who attached them to the tops of long ceremonial
poles.
The Koa'ikea builds its nest high in the inaccessible cliffs of Kilauea.
High upon Kilauea Point, above the cliffs where the tropic birds nest, is an old lighthouse.
Built in 1913, its turning eye was the first beacon seen by mariners sailing east from
Asia.
It was also this light that many emigrants from the Orient saw when they came to work
the sugarcane fields that lay green upon the hillsides and in the valleys of Kaua'i.
For centuries, sugar grew wild in Hawaii.
In about 1835, island entrepreneurs turned to agriculture.
Sugar plantations were established.
There was money to be made in cane, but the planters needed laborers to work the fields.
After 1850, hundreds of thousands of laborers from Japan, the Philippines, Portugal, and
other lands came to work the cane.
Many thousands stayed and created a culture of unparalleled diversity.
Among the first of the contract laborers to come to Hawaii were the Chinese.
Hong Minhee's family has lived on Kaua'i for more than a century.
He started working in the cane fields as a young man and eventually became a supervisor
for a sugar plantation.
Most of the Chinese in Hawaii came from Canton, Guangdong province.
My grandpa came from Chung San district about 1875, and he went to Pipikio Plantation.
First the Chinese came in.
The Chinese were entrepreneur type.
They fulfilled their contract, they went out and seek some kind of business of their own.
They want to be on their own.
Always trying to start some sort of business.
Then the industry looked for other types of labor that brought in some of the Portuguese
and the Japanese, Filipinos, and Koreans.
That's made for Hawaii the melting pot.
Agriculture has ruled Kaua'i's economy since 1835, but the oldest crop is taro.
Most of Hawaii's taro is grown in the Fertile Valley of Hanalei on Kaua'i's north shore.
According to legend, the taro plant was born from the body of a god, a fitting tale as
taro was the most important food of the early Polynesian settlers who brought it to Hawaii
in their hand-hewn canoes.
When cooked, pounded, and kneaded, the enlarged taro corn becomes poi, the Hawaiian staff
of life.
After the plant is harvested, the leafy stem is saved and replanted to grow the next crop.
In this way, the plant is continually reborn.
Some families, like the Haraguchis, have farmed the Hanalei Valley for generations using simple
plows and methods that have changed little over the centuries.
Farther along the coast are Kaua'i's fabled beaches.
So beautiful and unspoiled, they have found their way into dozens of Hollywood movies.
Here still, sunset falls on Hanalei Bay, as it has since Kaua'i was formed, as a day passed
or a thousand years.
In the fading light, you can almost hear the song of the ancient Polynesians who were the
first to come this way.
The song of the ancient Polynesians, the song of the ancient Polynesians, the song of the
ancient Polynesians, this dance tells the story of Pele, the goddess of fire, who once lived
in another part of Polynesia.
But she was stirred by thoughts of far away lands.
One day, Pele left her family to begin a journey to find a new home.
Searching far across the seas, she came to the island of Kaua'i.
But Kaua'i was so wet that everywhere she tried to dig her fire pit, the water would
drown out her fires.
Pele continued on to the other islands, Oahu and Maui, Mulukai and Lana'i.
And each time she would dig with her magic stick, the flames would be extinguished.
Then she went searching, searching.
Then one day, Pele's quest ended.
Her journey was over.
She had found her new home on the island of Hawaii, inside the ever-seething crater of
the volcano Kilauea.
And there she dwells to this day.
Hawaiian mythology abounds with legends about Pele's terrifying rages.
When rebuffed or offended, she would hurl her fire and molten stone from her lair beneath
the earth, and her enemies would be consumed.
In this way, the islands were formed by the creative rage of Pele.
Today, scientists can accurately forecast when volcanoes will erupt.
It can even be said that scientists are able to predict Pele's changing moods.
These predictions provide warnings that can save lives.
In 1983 and 84, more than a dozen evacuated homes were destroyed by Kilauea's molten flows.
In 1986, Pele's fury carved a path of destruction all the way to the sea.
A study of these eruptions reveals how the Hawaiian islands were formed.
The earth has an inner core and an outer core.
Together, they are a little more than 4,000 miles in diameter.
Surrounding the outer core is the earth's mantle, about 1,800 miles thick.
Most of it's at an extremely high temperature.
Above the mantle is the crust, from 5 to 50 miles thick.
Occasionally, molten materials from the mantle invade the crust.
Pressure builds in the magma beneath the surface.
When the pressure becomes greater than the surface strata can tolerate, gases, fire and
molten stone are hurled into the air, sometimes as high as 2,000 feet.
Then, through fissures and vents, rivers of lava cascade down the mountain.
In the case of the Hawaiian islands, this volcanic activity started to occur beneath
the ocean floor some 38 to 43 million years ago.
With each eruption, lava welled out from fissures and the mountains grew higher and higher.
Eventually, they emerged from the sea and created islands.
This process explains how an island is formed.
But what about the island chain?
Scientists believe that the earth's surface is composed of a series of movable slabs called
tectonic plates.
They average about 50 miles thick and float on the mantle.
These plates move very slowly.
The Pacific plate moves about 4 inches a year.
As the plate moves over hot spots in the mantle, lava erupts through it, eventually creating
a new island.
Since the plate is always moving, the process is repeated over and over.
Hawaii is the farthest east and the youngest of the Hawaiian islands.
It is still growing.
Since 1983, Kilauea has been in nearly continuous eruption.
And with each eruption, Hawaii grows slightly larger.
In 1960, lava flowing from Kilauea extended Hawaii some 1,500 feet closer to California.
Much of this expansion occurs when lava flows from land into the sea.
When it is first hurled to the surface, lava is smooth, ropey and fluid.
It is called Pahoehoe and can cause massive destruction.
As the lava moves farther from its source, it loses gases and heat.
It often becomes jagged and rough.
This form of lava is called A'a.
After an eruption, all is desolation.
But in time, from this destruction comes new life.
Because lava fields are rich in nutrients, as long as moisture is available, new life
begins to grow as soon as the lava has cooled.
Hawaii's black sand beaches are of volcanic origin.
This beach was created within four months as lava exploded into tiny fragments when
it met the water.
The waves washed the fragments ashore and pounded them into sand.
North of these ebony shores lies Hilo, the largest city on the Big Island, a cane field
town huddled around the crescent of Hilo Bay.
A major commercial area of Hilo is called Kaiko'o, or rough seas.
It is aptly named because giant waves have come roaring into Hilo.
Called tsunami, the waves are triggered by undersea earthquakes.
In 1960, one such giant wave, some 35 feet high, nearly destroyed the town.
Each morning in Hilo, at the Suisan Fish Market, fishermen auction off their catch of the day,
yellowfin tuna, aku, snapper, wahoho, mahi mahi, and other treasures of the sea.
The market supplies many local restaurants and groceries.
To the rhythmic chant of the auctioneer, some 6,000 pounds of fish are sold during the fishing
season.
By mid-morning, the catch of the day is ready to become that evening's blue plate special.
The moist tropical air around Hilo makes anthuriums and orchids flourish on flower farms.
Each week, a million blossoms are shipped to the Orient and to the U.S. mainland.
Orchids are the most popular of Hawaiian flowers because, when cut, they can live as long as
three weeks.
The colors of the heart-shaped blossoms range from white to orange to deep red.
Orchids grow in almost endless variety.
Since these remarkable plants have the unusual ability to cross with other orchids of a completely
different genera, there are some 25,000 species.
Heliconias belong to the banana family.
The showy parts are really modified leaves, inside them are the actual flowers.
Sloping to the sea in the hills above Hilo are orchids of macadamia trees.
The delicious nuts are an island specialty.
The first macadamia trees were brought to the Big Island from Australia in 1881.
The nuts, when covered with chocolate, make a candy of world renown.
North of Hilo, on the slopes of Mauna Kea, where the trade winds bring rain-filled clouds,
lies a wilderness garden of tropical splendor.
Here the tumbling waters of Akaka Falls plummet some 442 feet.
North of Akaka Falls, the rugged Hamakua coast is dotted with small towns bearing melodic
names such as Lapahoehoe, Honohina, and O'okala.
These communities offer a timeless tableau of rural life, people living much as their
forebears did generations ago.
But the remote coastal reaches, leading downward to the Waipio Valley, are home to only a few
people.
This is the Hawaii where time ticks slowly and passes with reluctance.
On the northern base of Mauna Kea are scenes that seem stolen from Texas, Arizona, or from
Wyoming.
The origins of this cattle ranch go back to Captain Vancouver.
He brought the first cattle to the islands in 1793.
Within 20 years, cattle roamed over northern Hawaii, threatening crops and lives.
In 1815, John Parker, a New England seaman, was hired to round up the cattle.
The reward for his efforts?
Two acres of land, the modest beginning of what is today the largest privately owned
cattle ranch in America, 250,000 acres.
Members of the Parker family have owned the ranch for six generations.
The grandfathers of many of today's ranch hands learned their trade from Spanish-speaking
Mexican cowboys brought to Hawaii to teach their skills.
The Hawaiian cowboys nicknamed themselves Paniolos after the Espanyols.
To this day, cowboys of the islands are called Paniolos.
Life on this ranch is much like life on a ranch on the U.S. mainland.
There are more than 50,000 cattle and some 600 horses to attend to.
Work begins before dawn.
At branding time, 500 calves will have been marked by 8 a.m.
The Espanyols who taught the Hawaiians to rope and brand the wild cattle of the ranch are
long gone, but they left something important, they left their guitars.
As the Hawaiians adapted the instrument for their own music, they developed a system of
tuning down or slackening the strings.
One of the masters of slack key guitar is Raymond Kane.
Slack key enables the guitars to play both the melody line and bass line on the same
instrument.
It is very personal and distinctly Hawaiian, one of the best expressions of the aloha spirit.
The aloha Nauke is a time and age full of language and a song.
On the Kona, or western coast of Hawaii, ranch land gives way to the only place in the United
States where coffee is grown commercially.
The first seeds for coffee trees were brought to Kona by missionaries in 1828.
Hawaii's soil and climate proved ideal, and coffee soon became an important commercial
crop.
Today coffee is grown on the other islands as well, but the coffee of Kona ranks among
the finest in the world.
The port of Kailua is the starting point for some of the world's most exciting deep-sea
fishing.
The most sensational catch is the Pacific blue marlin.
It can weigh in at well over half a ton.
It was on the nearby beach at Kealakekua Bay that Captain Cook, the most famous explorer
of his time, landed in 1779 on a return voyage to Hawaii.
The Englishmen had discovered the isles the year before, naming them the Sandwich Islands,
in honor of the Earl of Sandwich.
These specks of land in the vast Pacific would be among the last significant discoveries
by western explorers.
During the return visit, Captain Cook and a local chief had a tragic disagreement over
a missing longboat.
A skirmish ensued, and a number of Hawaiians and English sailors were killed.
Among the dead was Captain Cook, the man who had opened the Hawaiian islands to European
settlement.
North of Kealakekua Bay, a tongue of land points towards Hawaiki, the legendary motherland.
Here is the largest of the places of refuge, a vital part of ancient Hawaiian culture.
The early Hawaiians governed themselves by a set of sacred rules called kapu.
Women were forbidden to eat with men.
The shadow of a commoner could not fall across the house of a chief.
A penalty for breaking a kapu was death.
The only way to escape punishment for such crimes was to flee and seek sanctuary in a
place of refuge.
Some fugitives had to swim miles to escape their adventures.
When the fugitives were inside the gates, the kahuna, or ruling priests, would absolve
them of their crimes.
Nearby but a culture away is St. Benedict's Catholic Church, a temple for the new religion
brought by the missionaries.
Built by a Belgian priest in the late 19th century, the church continues its ministry
here today.
The first missionaries to Hawai'i arrived on the Kona Coast in 1820.
They had traveled thousands of miles by sea from Boston to convert the Hawaiians to their
Protestant beliefs.
The missionaries brought a new religion and way of life, often alien to the islanders.
Lacking a common language with their hosts, the missionaries often painted images of the
new faith on church walls.
As you said to your apostles, I give you peace.
My peace I always leave you.
Do not look on our sins, only look on the faith of all your people.
And you give us the peace and the unity of your kingdom, where you live forever and ever.
Amen.
And may the peace of our Lord Jesus be with you.
In their zeal, the missionaries tried to eradicate many elements of traditional Hawaiian culture.
But today, churches recognize the importance of blending the old and the new.
Once a month, some churches celebrate Sunday Mass with traditional Hawaiian music and the
sacred hula.
Ay, ay, e ha'abi ko kako'u maukino, e ha'abi, e ha'abi ko kako'u maukino, i mo ha'ai ola,
e mo lele ho'olu'olu i ke'akua, kakako'u ho'o manana'a au'au, e a'a, e ha'abi ko kako'u
maukino, i mo ha'ai ola, e mo lele ho'olu'olu i ke'akua, kakako'u ho'o manana'a au'au,
e ha'abi ko kako'u maukino, i mo ha'ai ola, e ha'abi ko kako'u maukino, i mo ha'ai ola,
i mo lele ho'olu'olu i ke'akua, kakako'u ho'o manana'a au'au, e ha'abi ko kako'u maukino,
These two sanctuaries, the Painted Church and the Place of Refuge, close together in
miles yet so distant in spirit.
Here is the blending of cultures that has shaped these islands.
Two holy places, the new and the old, the west and the east.
From the first Polynesian navigator to the most recent sunset.
According to our legends, Lana'i was once inhabited only by ghosts and evil spirits,
and so for many years, after the people settled other islands, Lana'i remained deserted.
Then Kaulula'au, nephew of the King of Maui was sent to Lana'i to drive the ghosts from
the island.
At night, he hid from the evil spirits in caves, and during the day, he hunted them
down.
Soon, with the evil spirits gone, it was safe for the living to make their home on Lana'i.
Lana'i is still sparsely populated.
What the island lacks in population, however, is more than made up for by the number of
pineapples.
Fields of the fruit are everywhere.
Pineapples were brought to the islands from South America and the West Indies, and at
least one variety was reportedly growing in Hawaii as early as 1813.
When James Dole, a descendant of a missionary family, began to market pineapples to the
U.S. mainland in 1903, few realized that the cultivation of the fruit would become one
of Hawaii's primary sources of income.
In 1922, Dole's Hawaiian Pineapple Company purchased the Lana'i Ranch Company for a
little more than one million dollars.
This would seem to be a bargain, for the Lana'i Ranch Company encompassed the entire island
of Lana'i.
Today, Little Lana'i, only 18 miles long and 13 miles wide, is the home of what may be
the largest pineapple plantation in the world.
Pineapples grow slowly.
A new crop needs almost two years from planting to harvest.
The ripe fruit must be picked by hand.
Most of the crop is then shipped to Oahu for canning.
An early Spanish explorer named this new world fruit, pina, because of its resemblance to
the pinecone.
Although pineapple is king on Lana'i, another pina, the Norfolk Island pine, has also become
a trademark of the island.
In the early 1900s, the New Zealand naturalist, George C. Monroe, was manager of the old Lana'i
Ranch.
As he rode horseback through the mountains, he often sowed seed from his saddlebags, hoping
to create windbreaks and to extend Lana'i's natural forests.
On the eastern shore of Lana'i lie Hulopoe Beach and Manalay Bay.
The quiet waters of Manalay Bay provide a calm anchorage for pleasure craft.
Hulopoe Beach is the most beautiful of the beaches on Lana'i.
Since few tourists visit Lana'i, it remains a favorite recreation spot for the local people.
From Lana'i on a clear day, you can see many of the other Hawaiian islands.
To the north is the sleepy little island of Molokai.
Molokai remains one of the least spoiled of the islands.
Through the centuries, the island has always been a sanctuary, a haven for the training
of Hawaiian kahuna, or wise ones.
The Pali Coast on the northern shore is as rugged a coastline as can be found anywhere
on earth.
The misty Halawa Valley on the eastern tip of Molokai is thought to have been the site
of one of Hawaii's earliest settlements, about 650 A.D.
The Fertile Valley once supported a thriving community of taro farmers, but in 1946, a
31-foot tidal wave swept into the mouth of the valley, leaving a salty residue that put
an end to agriculture.
On the southern shore is Kapua'iwa, one of the last remaining royal coconut groves.
Planted in the mid-19th century, the grove once contained a thousand trees and was reserved
for the king.
The grove is very stately and serene, but when the wind blows, it's risky to walk beneath
these trees.
Nearby, tiny St. Joseph's Church was built by the Belgian priest who became a living
legend in Hawaii, Father Damien.
He came to Molokai to care for the island's lepers.
No one knows when the dreaded disease first came to the islands, but by the mid-1800s,
leprosy was an epidemic.
The government decided to quarantine all lepers.
The afflicted were shipped to Kalaupapa, an isolated peninsula on Molokai's northern coast.
Death was the only escape.
Dwelling in caves or makeshift huts with no medical care and meager food, the patients
lived in unspeakable sorrow until the arrival of Father Damien in 1873.
Not only did Father Damien provide for the lepers' physical needs, he gave them hope.
Today visitors are permitted at Kalaupapa.
Although it can be reached by small plane, the most memorable route is a two-and-a-half-mile
mule ride down fortress-like cliffs that once enforced the banishment.
Okay, good morning, folks, I want to welcome you to the island of Molokai and to the Molokai
mule ride.
My name is Iupo.
I'll be one of the muleskinners going down with you today.
I'm going to tell you a little something about the trail and about the company and what to
expect down in the settlement.
Kalaupapa is about two-and-a-half miles wide and about two-and-a-quarter mile long.
Population down there is about 130 people.
Out of that 130, there's 93 patients left in the settlement.
The rest are state and federal workers and the hospital staff.
That's the only people allowed to live in the settlement, no one else.
The most visited site at Kalaupapa is St. Philomino's Church, built by Father Damien.
It has become a lasting monument to his life, his work, and his sacrifice.
For in 1889, Father Damien died of the disease that had brought him to Kalaupapa and he was
buried beside the church.
Richard Marks is Kalaupapa's honorary sheriff and tour guide.
He is also the third generation of his family to suffer from leprosy and live in Kalaupapa.
Father Damien came here after he found out about the leprosy problem in Hawaii because
he had a big parish on the big island of Hawaii.
And over the years, they were taking some of his people away as lepers and bringing
them here.
And somebody asked him once, what do you bother with lepers?
And he had the perfect answer, why did our Lord bother with lepers?
And to him, that was the only answer he ever needed.
Despite all the grim reminders of death, the story of Kalaupapa is more triumph than tragedy.
Today, leprosy can be controlled with multi-drug therapy, making quarantine unnecessary.
New patients now remain in the colony.
Well, Kalaupapa is a dying community.
No new patients have been brought in since 1969.
Our children are not allowed to live here.
So we've got an aging population.
There are no more active cases here.
The visitor's program has increased public awareness of leprosy, now called Hansen's disease.
But Richard Marks would rather change attitudes than names.
I don't mind being called a leper, but a lot of our people get very angry when you use
the word leper.
And they don't like the idea of leprosy, they come with the deal of Hansen's disease.
I for one don't think you change anything by changing the name.
So I'm a holdout for the word leprosy.
Residents of the colony can remain until the end of their lives.
Eventually, the peninsula will become a national park, a poignant tribute to Father Damien
and to the patients.
On Molokai, a large percentage of the residents are of Hawaiian ancestry.
More than 3,000 in a population of 6,700.
Today in East Molokai, there's a wedding, and preparations are underway for a luau.
A luau is the perfect occasion for the community to renew its ties.
Most people on Molokai know each other, and many are related.
It takes an event such as a birth or a wedding to bring them all together.
One thousand guests are expected to show up for this celebration.
Luaus are staged daily for visitors to Hawaii, but it is rare to experience a community luau.
Cooking begins days in advance.
The most traditional Hawaiian dish is kalua pig.
It's cooked in an imu, an earthen pit lined with kiawe wood.
Heated lava rocks are placed in the pit along with the whole pig.
The pig steams slowly in the moist oven.
When it is dug up several hours later, it is a succulent delicacy.
Cooking in an imu is a family affair.
Everyone's help is needed.
No luau is complete without poi, Hawaii's fluid bread.
Traditionally, it is made by pounding cooked taro root, but modern know-how has given Hawaii
instant poi, just mixed with water.
The eating of poi is a kind of folk ballet, accompanied by strict etiquette.
Dip the fingers to the first joint.
Never pull the hand roughly through poi.
Rotate the fingers and wave gracefully to keep the poi from falling off.
And remember to smack the lips gently.
Once the bridal couple and their entourage arrive, there's a brief blessing of the food,
then the feasting begins.
Like weddings everywhere, sharing food with family and friends is an important tradition,
a way of sharing the promise of a new life and of new beginnings.
Molokai has always been a tranquil haven of spectacular natural beauty, where family ties
and old ways are cherished.
Today, it is a place where the visitor may experience the unspoiled dream of Hawaii.
Nine miles southeast of Molokai is Maui.
The second largest of the Hawaiian islands, Maui encompasses more than 728 square miles.
Dominating the island is the now dormant volcano Haleakala, meaning the house of the sun.
The Hawaiians believe that the Polynesian god, Maui, dwelled here.
Maui was a trickster hero in Polynesia.
When he came to these seas, he accomplished three remarkable feats.
His first was to fish up the islands from the ocean floor.
On another occasion, Maui was thirsty.
He told a woman that if she would give him a drink from her gourd, he would push up the
sky for her.
She complied, and he thrust the sky upward, where it has remained to this day.
But his greatest feat was accomplished from the rim of Haleakala.
Maui noticed that because the sun moved so quickly across the sky, his mother was having
trouble drying her strips of bark cloth.
Men had too little time to harvest their crops, so Maui wove a strong cord of coconut fiber.
He then snared the sun and made it promised to move more slowly across the sky so there
would be more daylight hours on Earth.
At sunrise, as you stand on the rim of Haleakala crater, staring down into its dark abyss,
it is not difficult to understand why the ancients believed that the gods dwelled here.
Each morning, when the seven and a half mile long crater fills with clouds, you feel you
are experiencing the dawn of creation.
As the morning progresses and sunlight dips into the crater, rivers of frozen lava
and ancient cinder cones emerge from the purple shadows.
After a visit to Haleakala, Mark Twain wrote that he felt like the last man, neglected
of the judgment, left pinnacled in mid-heaven, a forgotten relic of a vanished world.
On the heights of the volcano is a plant that grows nowhere else in the world except on
Maui and on the big island Hawaii. The silver sword is a member of the sunflower family.
It blooms only once during its lifetime of between four and twenty-five years.
Then having produced the seeds of a new generation, the silver sword dies.
Haleakala is also the home of the nene, the Hawaiian state bird. Because it lived for
centuries without natural predators, it is fearless. Its daring attitude led the birds
to the brink of extinction. But through conservation efforts, there are now more than a hundred
and fifty nene living on the volcano.
Along the eastern skirts of Haleakala, a narrow road winds through green-cloaked cliffs and
groves of tropical trees. A three-hour drive leads to the small settlement of Hana Town.
Clustered around a perfect bay, Hana has managed to retain much of its rural quality. Despite
the town's growing popularity, life here still reflects the grace and warmth of the local
people.
A short distance south of Hana lies one of the most beautiful spots on Maui, the Pools
of Ohe'o. Those who explore this natural garden, sometimes referred to as the Seven Pools, discover
there are actually more than thirty pristine pools that cascade to the sea.
Each winter, as they have long before recorded time, the great humpback whales return to
their calving grounds in the seas of Maui. After a journey of 2,800 miles from Alaska,
they arrive in the crystalline waters off Maui's western coast, where they will remain
until May.
The 40-ton Leviathans were once masters of the sea, but in time they would meet their
match, the whaling ships of Lahaina. In the early to mid-19th century, this former capital
of the Hawaiian Islands became an important anchorage for the Pacific whaling fleet. After
their long voyages, crews swarmed ashore in pursuit of rum, women, and other earthly pleasures.
When Protestant missionaries in Lahaina prevented women from swimming out to the whaling ships,
the angry sailors rioted and fired cannonballs on the town. So the chiefs of Maui built a
fort to protect Lahaina. Its ruins are still here today.
Built at the turn of the century, the Pioneer Inn is a Lahaina landmark. The original house
rules reflect its honky-tonk past. Only on Sunday can you sleep all day. The discovery
of oil in Pennsylvania in 1859 signaled the end of the great whaling era. Whale oil yielded
to petroleum. Lahaina had already given way to Honolulu as the kingdom's new capital.
Just west of Lahaina are the verdant walls of the Iao Valley, a place of pilgrimage since
ancient times. The soaring 2,250-foot Iao Needle was created by rainwater as it eroded
the weaker stone away from the core of basalt. Beyond the needle, on the windward side of
the West Maui Mountains, lie inviting beaches strung like pearls upon the shore.
Ho'okipa Beach is a haven for surfing. Nobody knows for sure when the Polynesians first
rowed the seas on their wave-sliding boards, but it's an ancient sport, and Hawaiian chance
suggests that it was practiced as early as the 15th century. The first surfboards, crafted
from koa wood, weighed as much as 150 pounds, a formidable burden by today's standards but
not for the 300-pound surfing champions of ancient Hawaii. Wind surfing is a more recent
development, the marriage of the sail and the surfboard. As fine as the surf is on Maui,
it is unsurpassed on the island of Oahu, places such as Banzai Pipeline, Waimea Bay live on
Oahu is said to mean the gathering place in the Hawaiian language. Although this translation
is sometimes challenged, no more appropriate name could exist, especially for Hawaii's
grandest city, Honolulu. Spreading its skirts over 25 miles of Oahu's leeward shore and
inland to the Ko'olau Mountain Range, the city is a gracious host to visitors from around
the world. In downtown Honolulu, Iolani Palace, completed in 1882, is the only official royal
residence in America. It was the home of King Kalaakaua and later of his sister Queen Lilio
Kalani, the last reigning monarch in a long dynasty. In 1893, a group of American and
European businessmen, backed by American marines, abolished the monarchy. Most of the palace
furniture was sold at auction and the building fell into disrepair for nearly a century.
When it was opened to visitors in 1978, most of the palace had been restored to its original
splendor. Every Friday at noon, the Royal Hawaiian Band performs in the old coronation
stand on the palace grounds. The band was organized in 1836 and has performed regularly
ever since. Monarchies may fade away, but the band plays on.
The Royal Hawaiian Band performs in the old coronation stand on the palace grounds.
Across the street from the palace is the Kauaiaha'o Church, an enduring symbol of Hawaii's missionary
past. Malii Kalama, a lay minister of the church, is also an accomplished quilt maker.
Sewing is a legacy left by the missionaries. With scraps of fabric, they taught Hawaiian
women how to stitch quilts. The sewing sessions became social occasions. Soon, the skillful
Hawaiians were creating their own unique designs.
Just happened that at twilight one evening, as the sun was setting, it threw a shadow
of a coconut tree on the sand. And there was a woman in the group that saw it, and she
felt now that would make a very interesting coverlet. And so she began to cut out material
that was given to her by the missionary women, and she cut out the first pattern. From then
on, all of the women began to create in their own way, different designs, taking nature
into consideration. The leaves, the flowers, the fruit, and things of that sort. And that's
how it became quite popular in the islands.
Recently there has been a resurgence of interest in this beautiful art form, an art form inspired
by the natural world of the islands.
One of the most photographed natural wonders on Oahu is Diamond Head, a remnant of an extinct
volcano. British sailors named this headland for the stones they found that resembled diamonds.
Though the diamonds proved to be only calcite crystals, the name Diamond Head lives on today.
At Waikiki, nature has conspired to create the playground of the Pacific. At the foot
of Diamond Head lies a golden crescent of beach that was once a retreat for Hawaii's
kings. But Waikiki is more than one of the world's most famous beaches. At night, Waikiki
is an exuberant world of shops and galleries, neon and gardens and beast trails, a sophisticated
carousel of pleasures alive with music and people from all corners of the globe.
Off the eastern shore of Oahu are the waters of Hanauma Bay. It was formed when the sea
eroded the crater of an extinct volcano, creating a great tropical aquarium. Among the species
in this gallery of living art are the milletseed, butterfly, raccoon butterfly, and the parrotfish.
Most of the fish seem unafraid, even curious as they approach these blue-clad visitors.
North of Hanauma Bay can be found the masters of the winds that sweep the windward cliffs
of Makapu'u Point. There are trade winds in Hawaii so powerful and consistent that flights
of more than 25 miles have been recorded.
One daring soul remained aloft for 34 hours. Honolulu is a city of many moods. Here at
Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona Memorial rises above the battleship in which more than 1,000
people live.
Above Honolulu, in a former volcanic crater, is the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
Also known as Punch Bowl, it is the resting place for more than 34,000 servicemen and
women who sacrificed their lives in America's wars. On Memorial Day, families come to honor
their loved ones.
The Hawaiians call this crater Huawaina. It means Hill of Sacrifice. It was an appropriate
name then, and it is certainly an appropriate name now. For this Hill of Sacrifice has become
an altar where we may forever keep alive the deepest and most sacred hopes of mankind.
It is a place where we come to renew our commitment to a just and good environment for all of
mankind. Great Marcus here in Puawaina, the names etched in the marble walls all give
testimony to the precious price that has been paid by Americans for more than 200 years
to secure the blessings we enjoy today in a land of freedom, a land of liberty, a land
of equality.
Amen.
Amen, amen, amen.
Amen.
The mountains of the Ko'olao Range divide Honolulu and Windward Oahu. Here along the
cliffs of Nuuanupali, there are stories of fallen warriors from an earlier time. Legends
tell of night marches, spirits of a great army that once met defeat here. The victor
was Hawaii's greatest king, Kamehameha I. In 1795, Kamehameha forced some 800 warriors
of Oahu to the edge of the cliff where they fell to their deaths on the rocks below.
The memory of Kamehameha is still revered by the people of Hawaii nearly 200 years later.
Today, legends about the great king are still told, old stories sung in a contemporary Hawaiian
style.
Kamehameha was born in a small village on the big island of Hawaii. It was a stormy
night, and there was a strange white star with a tale of white fire in the heavens to
the west. Priests prophesied that the child would grow up to defeat the established order,
so secret plans were made to have the infant killed. But like Moses, Kamehameha was hidden
in a basket, covered with black cloth, and his life was spared.
Like most legends, there is a great deal of truth in the song, for it is possible that
Kamehameha was born in 1759, and that the white star in the legend could have been Halley's
Comet, which was visible in Hawaii that year. Kamehameha was to unite the islands under
one rule, and reign over a long period of peace.
Each year in June, Honolulu holds a festival to honor the great warrior king, who brought
unity and peace to the islands. Huge garlands of tea leaves, plumeria, orchids, and other
flowers from all of the islands are draped over the king's statue. More than 20,000
flowers are woven into these memorial lays.
King Kamehameha Day was first celebrated in 1872, and a parade has been held regularly
since 1916. The festival is a powerful example of how the past remains alive in contemporary
Hawaii. The monarchy is gone, but the people remember their royal heritage. Kamehameha
Day is more than a parade. It is the story of a remarkable people who dwell at the center
of the sea, a celebration of their art and song, legend and music. Here are the Hawaiians
themselves and their marvelous diversity. The heroes who have lived the legends of these
islands, and the young who will live their future. Each of these islands is a separate
stone in a beautiful mosaic. Together they form something larger and finer still. Hawaii,
the realm of Pele.
Maui, place of the house of the sun.
Oahu, the gathering place.
The night of Pineapple Isle.
Molokaiti, the friendly isle.
Hawaii, the garden isle.
When the first navigators left their homes in Polynesia, could they have imagined where
their voyage would lead? That the stars they followed across the trackless tides would
take them to Hawaii, to America's state of paradise.