Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 10, 1 October 2011 — Maui business fest connects commerce and culture [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Maui business fest connects commerce and culture

By Kekoa Enomoto WAILEA,Maui — A Labor Day weekend conference on the Valley Isle premiered a virtual tour of the planned worldwide voyage of the Hōkūle'a, promoted the integration of culture and eommerce, and featured the prestigious Ko'I Awards. The fifth annual Business Fest at the Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa showcased a bevy of Native Hawaiian leaders, including Kamehameha Schools Kapālama Headmaster Miehael Chun, Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chairperson Colette Machado and Hōkūle'a navigator Nainoa Thompson. An overriding conference theme projected Native Hawaiian culture as a dimension of business success. U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, in a videotaped greeting, told the Maui Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce gathering on Sept. 2, "I hope you will continue to strengthen the bonds between commerce and culture." A conference high point was

a presentation on the Hōkūle'a voyaging canoe's 2013-16 globecircling trip. Navigator Thompson introduced a virtual tour, whieh was made and presented by navigator trainees Lehua Kamalu and Jason Patterson. The voyage involves 18 crews making 27 crew changes while sailing 38,080 nautical miles over 37 months. They will be aeeompanied by a $3.5 million escortboat operation. Thompson said the goal is "to inspire, to help shift and grow better education in Hawai'i." "The worldwide voyage is about aloha and honoring, about thanking the Earth," he said. "It is a way to renew culture in a way that we ean be proud." The former Kamehameha Schools Trustee told conferees, who included a coterie of Kamehameha Maui students, that 75 percent of the youths training to become navigators are Kamehameha graduates. Headmaster Chun followed with a discussion of leadership as a relationship between mana, or power and stature; kūpono, or righteousness; and kūpa'a, or

loyalty. The veteran educational administrator, who will retire after this 2011-12 school year, said, "Preparing youth for leadership is a kapu (sacred) process; this is the sound of our power." Then, a panel on "Warrior Leadership Applied to Hawaiian Business" was facilitated by Dr. Kamana'opono Crabbe, OHA Research Director. He said warrior leadership includes aspects of being flexible, subtle, compassionate, responsible and obligated to the community, plus qualities of "the feminine side, to control the pa'akikl (stubbornness) of men." The conference culminated with the Ko'ī (adz) Awards recognizing the leadership of: » Howard Kihune, former Chairman and 12-year member of the Maui County Council and a community advocate for affordable housing. » The 85-year-old family firm of Akina Aloha Tours, Maui's oldest transportation company, cited for innovation and outstanding school-bus service. » Associate Professor Kauanoe Kamanā of the University of Hawai'i-Hilo's Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikōlani Hawaiian Language College. A founder of 'Aha Pūnana Leo, she also serves as Prineipal of UH-Hilo's Ke Kula 'O Nāwahīokalaniōpu'u Hawaiianmedium school. » Retired Army Col. David M. Peters, a 14-year Executive Assistant to U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye and Chairman and 29-year Trustee of the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center. The Maui Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce will meet at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 18 at the Maui Tropical Plantation to honor departing OHA Trustee Boyd Mossman, who leaves Nov. 1 for a Kona church assignment. Cost is $20 for a buffet dinner. RSVP by Oct. 14, (808) 594-1899 or email melissab@oha.org. ■ Kekoa Enomolo is a retired copy editor and Staff Writer with The Maui Nev,'s and former Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

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During morning ceremonies, Kai Pelayo, Director of Operations at Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa and President of the Maui Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce, left, accepts a ko'i from Keoni Woo, Treasurer for the Maui Native Hawaiian Chamber Foundation. For the event, Woo made four ko'i, or adz, whieh is the namesake of the chamber's annual awards. - Courtesy photo: Shane Tegarden