I watched a very large full moon rise through the clouds over Haleakala last night as I listened to Hawaiian songs and ancient tales about Kaho`olawe, the island floating a few miles behind us on the western horizon. The occasion was the Kaho`olawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC) Mahina`ai Night, an event that’s been going on…
Monthly Archives: September 2015
Maui Fair Almost a Century Old
It’s Maui Fair time, a tradition that goes back to 1916. The whole community pitched in to make the first Maui County Fair a success. Plans included a “department of domestic arts” that would show home products, including cookery, household decoration, and fancy work; commercial exhibits from Honolulu houses of business; and the foremost…
Finding Echoes of the Past
One of my favorite things is to take a research trip to Honolulu and spend days delving into original documents from Hawaii’s past. It’s one of those needle-in-a-haystack deals. Somewhere in the thousands of files stored in the State Archives or the Mission Houses library are fascinating nuggets of information about places and people, but…
Labor Actions Changed Hawai`i Work Life
Before World War II, Hawaii was run by an oligarchy for the benefit of the plantations which had brought in thousands of workers and created a unique multicultural social structure. Workers were housed in plantation villages called “camps,” and many of their needs, from medical care to kerosene for the stove, were provided by the…
