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| Huana Ke Aloha won the Grammy for Best Hawaiian Music Album. |
DANIEL HO WON ANOTHER GRAMMY AWARD YESTERDAY for producing the album Huana Ke Aloha with the vocals of Tia Carrere and original Hawaiian lyrics by Amy Ku`uleialoha Stillman. Both Stillman and Ho have helped to lead music workshops at Pahala Plantation House, and Ho helped a group of local residents to compose the song Kaiholena, after local Nature Conservancy field director John Replogle took them to the mountain with a spring where early Polynesians are believed to have set up a nursery for the food plants they brought by canoe to Hawai`i.
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| Daniel Ho's Polani was also nominated for Best Hawaiian Music Album. |
Kaiholena was sung by Carrera on Ho’s album He Nani, which was nominated for a Grammy last year. The new Grammy-winning album features classic piano tunes by Brahms, Puccini and Beethoven with lyrics by Stillman and piano arrangements by Ho. Stillman, who grew up in Hawai`i, has a doctorate in music from Harvard and teaches at the University of Michigan. Tia Carrere grew up with Daniel Ho on O`ahu, where they were childhood friends and started out their music careers in Brown Bags to Stardom.
Jeff Peterson and Ledward Kaapana, who frequently teach at the Keoki Kahumoku music workshop each year in Pahala, were also nominated for Best Hawaiian Music Album. So was a compilation album called Amy Hanaiali`i and Slack Key Masters of Hawai`i, featuring workshop teachers Jeff Peterson, Sonny Lim and Dennis Kamakahi. Also on the album is Cyril Pahinui, who is currently teaching slack key weekly for students at Ka`u High School.
THE BILL CREATING THE PROGRAM for inmates to work on historical sites selected by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs comes up for hearings at state Legislature this Wednesday. Introduced by Sen. Gil Kahele and by Rep. Robert Herkes, the program would work with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and state Historic Preservation Office to design work projects for the prisoners. The bill has the support of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands. Its chair, Alapaki Nahale-A, wrote that the restoration of historic sites “has incredible potential to support the successful transition of inmates from prison to their communities while establishing a connection to Hawaiian culture.” The Office of Hawaiian Affairs said it supports cultural programming, pa‘ahao, for incarcerated individuals and encourages additional funding to support the program.
ALSO COMING UP FOR HEARINGS are bills that would: give a state lease preference to Hawaiian fishponds; require, where feasible, the use of native Hawaiian land plants for landscaping of public buildings; and a requirement for all environmental assessments and environmental impact statements to include a cultural impact statement with public and Office of Hawaiian Affairs review of the cultural impact statement.
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| KAHU, on Maile Street in Pahala, will host a fundraiser on Sunday, March 6 to send One Journey to Brown Bags to Stardom. |
BROWN BAGS TO STARDOM is a goal of a new band from Ka`u called One Journey. The group is made of some of the members of the Ka`u High ensemble class. They will have a CD release party and fundraiser for their journey to Brown Bags. The event will be held at KAHU Radio station on Sunday, March 6 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to raise money for their trip to O`ahu for the Brown Bags to Stardom contest. One Journey’s music video is already being shown on OC16 television.
THE BILL CREATING THE PROGRAM for inmates to work on historical sites selected by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs comes up for hearings at state Legislature this Wednesday. Introduced by Sen. Gil Kahele and by Rep. Robert Herkes, the program would work with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and state Historic Preservation Office to design work projects for the prisoners. The bill has the support of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands. Its chair, Alapaki Nahale-A, wrote that the restoration of historic sites “has incredible potential to support the successful transition of inmates from prison to their communities while establishing a connection to Hawaiian culture.” The Office of Hawaiian Affairs said it supports cultural programming, pa‘ahao, for incarcerated individuals and encourages additional funding to support the program.
ALSO COMING UP FOR HEARINGS are bills that would: give a state lease preference to Hawaiian fishponds; require, where feasible, the use of native Hawaiian land plants for landscaping of public buildings; and a requirement for all environmental assessments and environmental impact statements to include a cultural impact statement with public and Office of Hawaiian Affairs review of the cultural impact statement.
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| Sen. Gil Kahele hikes along the coast toward the four ahupua`a that could become the South Kona Wilderness Area. |
THE PRESERVATION OF 13 miles of coastline and lands extending 6,000 feet inland from Honomolino to Manuka as part of the South Kona Wilderness Area went to public hearing Saturday. The bills were sponsored by Rep. Bob Herkes and Sen. Gil Kahele. Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair William Aila testified that his agency supports the protection of the coast from urban/resort development and preservation of important historic, cultural, scenic, environmental and biological resources in the five ahupua`a, but would need additional funding to take care of the resources.
Attorney General David Louie asked that the bill be held back to deal with the issue of fair real estate values of some of the private lands that would be acquired. The bill would reclassify all the land to conservation and prohibit subdividing it, which would change its value. This could be considered as a “taking,” reducing the income of the private landowners whose land would be acquired for the South Kona Wilderness Area, said the attorney general.
The ahupua`a to be preserved would be: Honomolino, Okoe, Kapu`a, Kaulanamauna, and Manuka. Any existing homes would be exempt from the wilderness area, which would span across more than 7,780 acres.
ANYONE CAN TESTIFY ON BILLS before the Legislature by going to the Hawai`i state Legislature website and submitting testimony online. You can also search for subjects of your interest and read bills and testimony that have been submitted.
Attorney General David Louie asked that the bill be held back to deal with the issue of fair real estate values of some of the private lands that would be acquired. The bill would reclassify all the land to conservation and prohibit subdividing it, which would change its value. This could be considered as a “taking,” reducing the income of the private landowners whose land would be acquired for the South Kona Wilderness Area, said the attorney general.
The ahupua`a to be preserved would be: Honomolino, Okoe, Kapu`a, Kaulanamauna, and Manuka. Any existing homes would be exempt from the wilderness area, which would span across more than 7,780 acres.
ANYONE CAN TESTIFY ON BILLS before the Legislature by going to the Hawai`i state Legislature website and submitting testimony online. You can also search for subjects of your interest and read bills and testimony that have been submitted.