Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 10, Number 8, 1 August 1993 — Edith Kanaka ʻole Foundation: "I think the one thing that Mom and Dad tried to do was instili in us a strong cultural base upon whieh we as chil dren ean raise our own families." [ARTICLE]

Edith Kanaka ʻole Foundation: "I think the one thing that Mom and Dad tried to do was instili in us a strong cultural base upon whieh we as chil dren ean raise our own families."

by Jeff CIark The Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation's roots are in a scholarship that the hula master initiated back in 1972 "to help enhanee Hawaiian culture," said her son, Parley Kanaka'ole. Kanaka'ole said that in the late '80s he and his siblings had been off doing their own things, but after both their parents passed away, in order to ensure the scholarship's survivai, they got a nonprofit number and named their hui the Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation (EKF). The foundation gives workshops on hula and "other family values from my father's side that looked at the spiritual part of our connectedness," said Kanaka'ole. "We found out that people were hungry for cuhural things, and so we started to share with other people those values that we were raised with. ... And we're not trying to commercialize it, that's not the point: The foundation is there to help Hawaiians help themselves." The EKF dkf a Kamehameha Schools drug dependency

workshop and have worked with victims of broken homes and with Alcoholics Anonymous. They also have eonducted Alu Like and Kamehameha Schools workshops on values for high school students, The foundation conducted last year's healing ceremonies on Kaho'olawe and has eompleted a report on past and present cultural practices related to the island. Kanaka'ole stresses that he and his sisters "are not the experts," but ean help people to look at themselves. The EKF foundation is not necessarily the model of a eulturaily Hawaiian family. ... but if we ean help in any way a Hawaiian to understand who and what he is - and a lot of times it's to make a bridge between his Western self and his ancestral connection - we wouid certainly like to try and help in that way." For more information on the scholarship and the EKF in general or to make a donation, write: Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation, P.O. Box 5134 Hilo, HI 96720.