Kamalani Hurley floral

Kamalani Hurley

ʻōiwi author and educator 

Kamalani Hurley florals

history

Ka Poʻe Kiaʻi, The Guardians of Mauna Kea, Photographs by Kai Markell

by
Carrying the future

Protests about the build­ing of huge astro­nom­i­cal tele­scopes at the sum­mit Mau­na Kea have been going on for decades. They’ve only recent­ly been brought into focus because of the planned Thir­ty Meter Tele­scope. As descen­dants of the ear­li­est Poly­ne­sian voy­agers, the kana­ka ʻoi­wi have always under­stood the impor­tance of astron­o­my. But for a peo­ple who have long suf­fered the loss of their coun­try and auton­o­my, des­e­cra­tion of their sacred moun­tain and the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment must end. 

As seen through the lens of Kai Markell, Native Hawai­ian activist, pho­tog­ra­ph­er, and attor­ney at the Office of Hawai­ian Affairs, this col­lec­tion of pho­tographs, Ka Poʻe Kiaʻi (the guardians and pro­tec­tors of Mau­na Kea), doc­u­ments one of the largest protests held at var­i­ous loca­tions in Hon­olu­lu. Whether  attend­ing a ral­ly at ʻIolani Palace with their fam­i­lies, meet­ing with offi­cials from the Office of Hawai­ian Affairs, or hold­ing a sign all alone at a street cor­ner, these poʻe kiaʻi feel deeply that their mes­sage must be heard.

Itʻs 2022 — sev­en years after this col­lec­tion was first pub­lished a Pūpū A ʻO Ewa — we are still fighting.

  • Carrying the future
    Car­ry­ing the future

Monday is National Spam Musubi Day (Thanks, L&L!)

by
Spam_musubi

Mon­day August 8 is the Sec­ond Annu­al L&L Hawaiʻi Nation­al Spam Musubi Day, and that means a free musubi from L&L Hawaiʻi. Launched by the ven­er­a­ble Hawaiʻi com­pa­ny and licensed by Hormel Foods, this it-should-be-a-hol­i­day is anoth­er quirky and fun Hawaiʻi thing. 

And because I love both spam and his­to­ry, letʻs have a lit­tle of both in todayʻs blog post. Spam_musubi

Spam musubi  is sticky white rice topped with a slice of sea­soned cooked spam, wrapped up in a piece of crunchy nori sea­weed. In my post on 12 Things Native Hawai­ian and Hawaiʻi Kids Like, — my addi­tion to chil­dren’s author Tara Lazar’s 500+ Things That Kids Like — spam musubi is right there near the top of the list. Thatʻs because itʻs a con­ve­nient, inex­pen­sive, pack­able lunch. 

Canned spam first became pop­u­lar in Hawaiʻi dur­ing WW II. Soon home cooks were cre­at­ing dish­es made from the salty canned meat. When I was grow­ing up, we ate spam all the time, includ­ing fried with eggs and rice (which is a favorite break­fast order at Hawaiʻi McDon­alds restau­rants.) The first time my col­lege room­mates saw me fry­ing up spam, they freaked out, that is, until they tast­ed it. 

Hawaiʻiʻs Bar­bara Funa­mu­ra is cred­it­ed with invent­ing spam musubi in the ear­ly 1980s for the Joni-Hana restau­rant on Kauaiʻi, accord­ing to the Gar­den Island news­pa­per. Mrs. Funa­mu­ra had no idea that her hum­ble recipe would, like many great inven­tions, become so popular.

My kids grew up pack­ing spam musubis to eat after hula and soc­cer prac­tice, and to this day, itʻs a sat­is­fy­ing treat. Our sim­ple method was sim­ply splash­ing a bit of shoyu into the pan as the spam cooked, but a search on the inter­net reveals lots of fan­cy recipes.

Oh, and did you get the August 8/8–08 shout-out to our area code? Hap­py Spam Musubi day! Pho­to cred­it: L&L Hawai­ian BBQ