Maui, surprise, surprise

Mon Feb 2 - Wed Feb 4

So we arrived in Maui. I had no idea where we were going and who exactly would be there to meet us. All i knew is that there will be a presentation at 4:30 in the afternoon in Lahaina, that somebody builds replica hawaiian canoes, and that there is much interest in Princess Taiping.

 

The woman who picked us up from the airport wasn't of much help, she was visiting from alaska and didn't really know much. she had just offered to be the driver to pick us up...

We pull up to a house, it is a private house in a small side road in Lahaina, it is gorgeous, like an old chief's house, hawaiian style, like a church in the jungle, like a temple, but with a good size woodshop behind the car park. it's getting more and more mysterious. The driver says: "We're here." and "Keola built this house."

an african american woman appears, says hi - bye and is off to the beach. then a philippino american comes out to greet us and lead us into the house through a back room. she's apologizing, everybody is busy, you can put your stuff here, we're so happy you came! Someone will get you in a second. I still don't understand...

Then we get  ushered into the ceremonial room. A round of backrests on a woven matt, a fur in the center with smudgings and obviously ceremonial stuff. walls lined with wooden tikis, models, altars of different religions. where are we!? Apela the hostess greets us, thanks us for coming, says something about "indigenous mind" and "PhD class" and we get let into the circle to sit. All women, different ages and races, one man who needs translation into spanish, Nelson, Angela and i as guests. I wonder if they knew where we were going to and just didn't ell me or if they were just as surprised.

i feel great, i am surrounded by sisters it feels, everybody in the room is a healer of some sort, researching and upkeeping indiginous traditions. Apela is telling the story of her life journey and how - even though she is native american - it keeps connecting with China. that's why we're here, we're a manifestation! This is a class she is teaching for the wisdom university. we get lei-ed and greeted with a prayer, then a lady of chinese descent tells her story, how she found her indigenous mind, her ancestors, and through that herself. it was very powerful. Busaba Yip, PhD is now the steward of the Wo Hing Temple in Lahaina where we'll go in the afternoon for the presentation. things start making sense...

We go for lunch to a chinese restaurant where angela finds a painting of the 8 fairies crossing an ocean. she feels connected to this old story because amongst the 8 fairies was one woman, just like she is the only woman of 8 crew on the princess taiping... Also at lunch is Keola, Apela's husband, the builder of the house, the creator of the beautiful wood carvings and paddles that are all over the house, and: the master kahuna for hawaiian canoe building. i am stoked!

After lunch we have time for Keola to show us his shop and some of his models. we discuss canoe building and things that he came up with. He tells us how back in the 70s when he was one of the first people to "revive" hawaiian traditions, he would go to secret sacret burial caves to find leftovers of a canoe some chief was buried in to figure out how the lashings were done, how the wood got connected, which direction the adze would be struck against the hull. He explained to us the evolution that happend from the marquesan voyaging canoes to the hawaiian ones due to the rough conditions in the cannels between the islands.

even though he made the masts for Hokule'a he prefers to build more traditional canoes, he is more into the boatbuilding and the design aspects than the wayfinding which was what the first Hokule'a trips focussed on.

After the presentation at the temple we went back home and had good conversations, about boats and design, sacret geometry and the formula of phi, and other conversations about sacret white lions, indigenous fires, the travels our ancestors have undertaken and how we are all related. i feel very special, and of course i was landing here, a healer amongst healers, a boatbuilder amongst boatbuilders, a student amongst students, a seeker amongst seekers... 

i get to sleep on a futon in the ceremonial room. special...

On the following day i take the bus across island and go and visit my ohana, Malia, Dee and Jenna, and Lesbian, we have a great time and it is so good to see tham and catch up that i forget to take pictures... then i catch the last bus back and arrive in time for the awa (kava kava) ceremony, just in a familiar circle with our hosts, their friends and helpers, not all students. then dinner followed by more discussions and drawings and connecting on many levels. i feel very happy.

The rest of the time is spent walking around, shopping some souvenirs and learning about the land, all important fresh water, the lizard (dragon) myths and truths, white lions, white tigers,  i run into a white cat who accompanies me for a bit in an outdoor market. women, female powers, blood. the first canoe Keola built is named Mo'o lele, lizard/dragon. hmm it all makes sense now... this is what i came here for. this is a spiritual retreat, a door opened that no money can buy. i get invited to stay, i get fed, i am welcomed back. i feel the power, and Apela felt it too, and even Kim at home... pretty cool!