Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 5, 1 May 2017 — Malo panel at Hawaiʻi Book & Music Festival [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Malo panel at Hawaiʻi Book & Music Festival

By Lisa Asato n the 1840s when David Malo started writing his book Ka Mo 'olelo Hawaii, he was a living link to a time in Hawaiian

history that was quickly fading away. "There is no one quite like him," said Kapali Lyon, associate professor and chair of the University of Hawai'i Religion Department. "He knew the old chants, could compose highly sophisticated classical poetry, knew the old prayers and religious rites, and the genealogies of the ali'i, but at the same time was the first Minister of Puhlie Education, assisted in the Bible translation, was one of the first licensed

preachers and ministers, and a trusted councillor to both chiefs and missionaries." Lyon, a co-author of a yet-to-be-published translation

and critical text of Malo's seminal work, continued: "A few other Hawaiians grew up as experts in the old culture and then wrote about what they knew, particularly John Papa 'Ī'I, but Malo's treatment of classical Hawaiian culture is the most detailed and systematic. His book is, I believe, the single most important eyewitness to Hawaiian life and traditions prior to the coming of Christianity." People interested in learning more about Malo and the 12 years of work behind the forthcoming book The Mo'olelo Hawai'i of Davida

Malo, should join Lyon and his co-author Kale Langlas, lecturer at UH-Hilo's Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikolani, for a panel discussion at the Hawai'i Book & Music Lestival, 11 a.m. Sunday, May 7 at the Lrank L. Lasi Civic

Grounds by Honolulu Hale. The panel is part of the festival's popular Alana Pavilion Hawaiian culture program for whieh OHA is a sponsor. (See sidebar for more information.) Malo is mainly known to modern audiences as a Hawaiian historian, because of the English translations of his Mo 'olelo Hawaii, but his contemporaries didn't see him solely through that lens, says Noelani Arista, an assistant professor in the UH History Department, who

contributed an autobiography of Malo to the forthcoming book and will also participate in the panel. A fuller picture of Malo would emphasize his

service to the Hawaiian government and as chiefly counsel, she said. In Ka Mo 'olelo Hawaii, Malo, who was born in 1795, wrote down what he was taught before the arrival of the missionaries. "That's why people keep going back to that book because he talks about certain kind of ceremonies in detail, in depth that other writers didn't touch upon," Arista said, adding, "(Samuel) Kamakau was not trained the XI MALO ON PAGE 25

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GULTURE

ALANA HAWAIIAN CULTURE PR0GRAM This OHA-sponsored programming begins with a look ahead. Former Gov. John Waihee will moderate a panel discussion on the Native Hawaiian Constitution passed at the recent 'Aha. The panelists will be OHA Trustee Peter Apo, Oolin Kippen and Zuri Aki, the constitution's chief drafter. > Saturday, May 6 10 a.m.: A New Hawaiian Constitutiom What is it? How ean it be implemented? 11 a.m.: In Haste with Aloha: Letters and Diaries of Oueen Emma Noon: Yoshiko Sinoto - Curve of the Hook 1 p.m.: The Works of Eddie Kamae 2 p.m.: Finding Meaning: Kaona and Contemporary Hawaiian Literature 3 p.m.: The Essential Hawaiiana Library forthe 20th Century 4 p.m.: Underthe Volcano > Sunday, May 7 10 a.m.: A History of Hawai'i, 3rd edition 11 a.m.: David Malo: Mo'olelo Hawai'i Noon: Hawaiian Language Research and Translation lnstitute 1 p.m.: Palapala Journal 2 p.m.: Kika Kila: Howthe Hawaiian Steel Guitar Changed the Sound of Modern Music 3 p.m.: Moana and Maui: Polynesian Superheroes for All Tīme 4 p.m.: One plaee, two stories

Kapali Lyon, associate professor and chair of the University of Hawai'i Religion Department, will be a panelist for the David Malo and Palapala Journal discussions. - Photo: Courtesy Kapali Lyon

MALO Continued from page 4

way Malo was. (John Papa) 'Ī'I was not trained the way Malo was." The publication date for the two volumes of Tlie Mo'olelo Hawai'i of Dcmda Malo has not yet been set, however, University of Hawai'i Press expects it will be sometime in 2019. Besides an English translation, the book will include pictures of every page of the best manuscript of the work, Hawaiian language transcriptions and a critical text. Lyon, the co-author, said the critical text aims to restore Malo's original intention based on "bits and pieces of Mo'olelo Hawaii wherever they are found," in this case the two eomplete manuscripts of Ka Mo 'olelo Hawaii, some of whieh is in Malo's own hand, and Hawaiian language newspapers, among other sources. This critical text treatment is applied to handwritten manuscripts, including the Bible and Shakespeare,

where misspellings, omissions and errors ean occur, he said. Asked what insight he will share with people at the festival, Lyon said, "that if they want to know what Hawai'i was like through all those centuries when Hawai'i was its own world, you have to read David Malo." Roger Jellinek, executive director of the 12th annual Hawaii Book & Music Lestival, said it's important to spotlight scholarly works on Hawaiian history and culture and make them accessible to a wider audience. "It's as mueh a teaching event as it is an entertaining event," he said. "To me one important thing about the Alana program, in addition to giving a puhlie airing to these books whieh otherwise never get it, is by having their authors and their eolleagues present them in panels. Over the years we help to create a cadre of puhlie intellectuals who ean address a general audience, not just an academic audience." ■