Attwood Makanani
Name Attwood Makanani
Age 68
Town/Moku Ahupuaʻa-Puna, Moku-Wailua
Island Kauaʻi
Leadership Category culture
Nominated by Christopher Ikaika Nakahashi
Share with us a little about yourself and what you do.
- Born Manokalanipo, Kauaʻi and raised Puna Wailua
- Grandparents - worked for Grove Farm, Puhi in the sugar plantation camp
- Hawaiian grandfather drove the trains as an engineer
- Portuguese grandmother - Catholic church caregiver
- 6th grade worked building boats for Smith family below Wailua bell stone along the Wailua River; including night tours to Lonoʻs heiau which is the Fern Grotto
- Helped my mom as a single parent and 3 younger sisters to help out financially
- 10th grade attended Kamehameha Schools; 11th grade played on the Sr Varsity Football team and won ILH championship
- 1971 graduated Kamehameha Schools
- Returned to Kauaʻi working at Coco Palms as a bus boy and bell hop; did torch lighting ceremonies; blowing pū for ceremonies and assisted with weddings and special occasions; beating drums; and paddling canoes
1972 ~ 1st time paddling with 6-man canoe race from Kauaʻi through the Molokaʻi channel
1973 ~ Attended the Oahu meeting with PBS and met Herb Kane who shared about 3-yr Hokulea voyage
1974 ~ Helped to construct Hokulea
1975 ~ Sail, train and select Hokulea crew; Steersman on Hokulea leaving Hanalei ~ 10 miles off Nawiliwili and Hokulea swamps. Capt. Gordon Leslie of the Seaflight Ferry finds Hokulea and reports it to the coast guard and Hokulea crew is rescued
*My first daughter, Haleakala, is born - she is the youngest to set foot on Hokulea
*Hokulea barged to Oahu for dry dock where I meet Mau and Eddie Aikau for the first time. I worked with the Hokulea crew: Dukie, Clifford, John, Penny, Keane, Buff and Boogie.
1975 Pakuʻialua - completed training of traditional warriors that knows the protocols of voyaging; held in Waimea, Hawaiʻi
1976 ~ Voyage South Tahiti back north to Hawaii; Imaikalani, my oldest son, is born and
Hokulea leaves on voyage to Tahiti south and back to Kauaʻi north
1977 ~ Arrested on Kahoʻolawe; Kaunapo for 1-gallon opihi; Met Joyce Kainoa from Molokai; Sam Kealoha (Molokai), Buddy Peters, Meiling Chang, Todd Higashi
*Met George Helm on Oahu for the first and last time - shared opihi from Kaunapo. George was on his way to Gold Coin.
*Kimo Mitchell and George Helm lost at sea off Kahoʻolawe
*Fly to Maui kūpuna 81st la hanau for Sarah Akiu (Huelo) and able to give opihi from Kahoʻolawe.
*Cleaned opihi, Boogie Kalama & I killed pig to kalua; kūpuna heart attack and dies morning of birthday; all kūpuna from Kaupo to Huelo arrive celebrating la hanau
1978 ~ Met Soli Niheu, Hawaiian activist and he becomes my mentor
*Met Black Hoʻohuli, Bonnie Victor from Nanakuli Hawaiian Homes
*Met Keamoku Kapu from Hoala Kanawai
*I organized Kauaʻi Hoala Kanawai (later became Ka Lahuʻi through Mililani Trask)
*Participated in the ConCon (Constitutional Convention) lobbying
*Organized Kauaʻi Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana (PKO); Haunani K. Trask, PR and spokesperson for PKO
1979 ~ Working with statewide Legal Aid Society
*Represented Kauai on statewide PKO negotiation team with military lawyers
*Court allows 4 PKO volunteers to finish military EIS on Kahoʻolawe:
Richard Deleon ~ Kukailimoku Village - Kona airport (PKO Hawaii), Leslie Kuloloio, Makena ~ Honuaula (PKO Maui), Kawahine Kamakea, Waimanalo Hawaiian Homes (PKO Oahu) and myself representing PKO Kauaʻi
*We are the first 4 volunteers to begin archaeological data recovery for EIS (10 days per month)
1980 ~ Consent decree: 4 days for 10 months per year
*I was part of PKO negotiating team with military island commander
1981 ~ 1st Lonoikamakahiki Religious ceremony with 5yr commitment
*I help start Mokihana Aquatics Swim Team - Kapaa Swimming Pool; coaching and assisting swimming
*Certified WSI (Water Safety Instructor) - training & certifying summer life guard hires
Lifeguard teaching beginning, intermediate and advanced swimming
*Hired by City and Countyʻs Mayors after-school program as a recreational instructor ~ teaching how to make Hawaiian implements and providing makahiki games
*Tom Kaulukukui, Sr. from OHA hires me to represent and promote makahiki games at all Kauaʻi Neighborhood Centers
*Volunteered in elementary schools to provide Hawaiian games
1980-1990 Worked with Hui Kalo to help with opening communities for kalo that needed water
*Joined carpenters, labor union and IATSE (movie union) and Teamsters union
*Received US Coast Guard certified Captainʻs license
*Became Sr Kua - Certified Access Guide Ordinance Recognition trainer; trained PKO Zodiac crew; training and maintaining trails on Kahoʻolawe
*Training and building crews to maintain archaeological, burial and religious sites
*Helped build Wailuna water tank and implement the water delivery pipe system for native plants and removal, including water catchments, drip systems to manage erosion by tracking the volume of soil, building check dams to catch the soil and catching the soil sediment run off into the ocean shoreline; checking and measuring mud settlement of coral
*Help build 1st hale halawai - Kahoolawe, Hakioawa with ohia from Hawaii
*Help build the trail system for Nahalahele with crews
*Worked with Randall Tong who did water study on the island
*Built 1st ahu in halawai for Kawaipuna Prejean; interred with sons
*I constructed 20ʻ x 40ʻ x 6ʻ Kahualele (stone platform) for repatriation of Hakioawa iwi kūpuna from Bishop Museum to be reinterred into mua haʻi kūpuna named Kahualele
*Included an ʻawa ceremony for Governor Waihee, politicians and kūpuna from every island
*Restoration of Kamohio burial and fishing shrine after desecrated, dug up and artifacts taken; Michael Graves and Kehau Abahd, archaeologist present
*Helped construct rain koa ~ Ulupalakua Ranch, Haleakala to send rain to rain koa at Lua Makika, Kahoʻolawe
*Lae o Kealaikaiki ~ constructed kahua with stone platform and capped with coral for ʻawa ceremony by canoe voyagers and navigators including sacred ceremonies
*Constructed burial shrine for koa canoe, Kealaikaiki at the compass stone, Lae o Kealaikaiki
*Constructed ahu at Puʻu Moiwi adz quarry totally desecrated during 10-year ordinance removal from Kahoʻolawe (1993-2003)
*Helped document and finish the Puʻu Moiwi adz quarry archaeology report with Pat McCoy and Aki Sunuto for Kahoʻolawe
*Help construct ahu at Iolani Palace for 100yr celebration and Stopping the Bombing of Kahoolawe ~ Return Ceremony
*Built and constructed ahu at Bishop Museum for the Kahoʻolawe exhibit after the bombing stopped
*Cultural monitors trained Naʻa lapa implenting cultural protocols (Aha Pawalu); setting and lifting kapu; monitoring burial and sacred archeological sites during 10yr clean up
*Helped organize Malama Ina Kūpuna Kauaʻi Burial program
*Send each island kauila for kua and kuku to make tapa with lauhala for repatriation and reinterment of iwi kūpuna
*1st trip to Smithsonian ~ repatriate all iwi Kupuna with ʻohana from all islands except Kauaʻi
*2nd trip to Smithsonian ~ all Kauaʻi iwi kupuna for repatriation and reinterment
*Repatriate iwi kupuna burials and reinter on Moku Manamana - Necker Island
*Also worked as cultural burial monitor on south shore, Poipu, Kauaʻi next to Coast Guard Loran Station during Embassy Suite project “The Pointe” development on burial sand dunes; disinterred and reinterred burials
2003 on ~ implemented the Cultural Use Plan
*Worked on Hokulea voyaging canoe then Hawaiʻiloa (1995)
*Helped build Makaliʻi voyaging canoe (1995)
*Helped build Hōkūalakaʻi (Hilo) voyaging canoe
*Helped build Namahoe (Kauaʻi) voyaging canoe (2000)
*Helped build Moʻo Kiha O Piʻilani (Maui) voyaging canoe
*Worked at Puʻukukui Water Shed - Maui Land & Pine; also making Malama Honolua, aʻaliʻi reforestation program
*Currently still involved with PKO
* Helped work with Maui Community College
*Helped Kalekoa Kaeo and Kahele Dukelow make cultural implements as part of their program on Maui
*Helped Archie Kalepa open all family kuleana loʻi in Lahaina
*Helped build and sail Hikianalea back to Tahiti then to Hawaiʻi
*I am on voyaging trip to Japan, Alegano Maisu stays with Mau where navigatorʻs ceremony is officiated by Mau before he dies; Hokulea sails to Japan after ceremony is done
*I am currently using all the skills I acquired from all the kūpuna from my past and present at Waipā Foundation and with any organization or people that continues to need assistance in all these areas that I have been trained in.
Why is the work that you do important to you? The community?
I worked on all the islands going by canoes, living by canoes ~ how ʻohana survives today. Is hana kapoe kahiko practical and functional? It is, to the community, if it worked for kūpuna, it can work for families and for me. It can work for you ~ hoʻoku o koa paʻa pono. Help building voyaging canoes in Hawaiʻi and Pacific, allows community and moʻopuna genealogy first time to sail inter island, cross channels, bring plants by restoring an island back to life.
* Because building canoes, Kahoʻolawe allows the communities with a genealogy especially moʻopuna and families to sail across from their island and communities for the first time to bring plants and restore Kahoʻolawe forest and cultural resources.
* Because there are needs for skills that creates the motivation to support and build self confidence and stronger families with their communities.
Being Hawaiian with a history, again I ask the question, what cultural values, family traditions, religion and beliefs and practices, genealogy, voyaging canoes and Kahoʻolawe have to offer for moʻopuna and the generations to come?
The community - what is needed today, practical and functional, sustainability of their identity to place, islands, oceans to survive as the host in their home and not as guests; managing cultural / natural resources.
Identifying and locating what is available and the quality for Hawaiian families to survive. The constant change, increasing erosion, as bigger waves of invasive continue washing away on our shores. The work I do is different from most. My work, I need to do to see what I cannot see, go where I have never gone, do what I have never done; only then can we understand.
He waʻa, he mokupuni, he kanaka. He kanaka, he mokupuni, he waʻa - Like a canoe is the island is a man; like a man who is an island is a canoe.
Share with us the qualities of leadership you admire and how you express those in your life.
*Provides hands on examples, experiences with answers to questions explaining mistakes and problems are haʻawina, lessons. Kūpuna awakensHawaiian critical thinking. Learning skills, interpreting kauna, producing more with less with available resources, managing risks, preventing emergencies and ultimatum by examples of preparation and homework.
*Provide examples of time management; doing right things at the right times in right places.
*Providing understanding of choices you have, choices you donʻt; difference of wants and needs, give and take, too much and not enough, building trust and respect by your actions louder than words.
*Understanding needs of others, ʻohana and community through kokua~working with them; observe skills and physical conditions with different roles; help organize task plan with goals and objectives from start to finish producing best results with intended outcomes while learning and sharing different skills needed including building self confidence.
*Accepting responsibility for safety and lives of everyone whenever teaching offered; open to learning needed. Three pikos: Umblical cord~your naʻau or feelings / Poʻo~inspired and creating thoughts and dreams / Maʻi~produced physical change, an extension of yourself; not a figment of your imagination. Every Hawaiian is born with this sacred gift called mana; a feeling creating thoughts manifesting instant reality.
Who has inspired you to do the work that you are doing?
Na ʻōiwi, kanaka maoli, Hunamoku, village of kūpuna who fed, raised me and taught me and continue to teach me or provide me critical Hawaiian thinking finding answers to questions interpreting information, making decisions, navigating constant change to produce Pono intended results and outcomes needed to provide a puʻuhonua, safe homes for families and ʻohana and the communities, especially moʻopuna as next generation of kūpuna~
My grandparents, Margaret Kupihea~kumu, Ivy Hashimoto-ʻawa aumakua, Kaleihua Ham Young-ahupuaʻa Waipa, Elwood and Catherine Kia-Loʻi ʻAi, Kekuni Blasidell~kauka, Soli Niheu-mentor, Wrighto Bowman Sr and Jr-waʻa kaulua, Herb Kane-Hokulea, Mau Piailug-Hokulea and Makaliʻi, George Helm, Joyce Kainoa, Uncle Harry Kunihi Mitchell-Kahoolawe, Professor Haunani K. Trask~PKO and PR Spokeperson, sister Mililani Trask~Ka Lahui, Mary Lee~Molokaʻi, Clara Ku~Molokaʻi, Alice Kuloloio~Makena Honuaula, Maui, Uncle Bobby Luʻuwai~Pualele at Makena Honuaula, Uncle Harry Kunihi Mitchell, John Lind~Kipahulu National Park, Maui, Kalekoa Kaeo & Kahele Dukelow~Hamoa, Maui, Keamoku Kapu~Moku Ulu / Lahaina, Maui, Archie Kalepa~Hokulea, Lahaina, Bruce Blankenfeld~Hokulea, Navigator Captain, Luther Makekau~Paniolo / Kahoʻolawe, Edith Kanakaole~Hilo, Big Island, Jimmy Naniole~At Risk High School students, Skippy Ioane~Kingʻs Landing, Hilo, Imaikalani Kalahele~artist, Queen Liliʻuokalani Childrenʻs Center, and Shorty and Clay Bertelman~Makaliʻi.
What is one word that describes something you are excited about for the lāhui?
Sovereignty
What is one word that describes a pressing issue that is facing our lāhui?
Kuleana