Aunty Maile Mauhili serves as a living timeline for all the monumental events in the Big Island’s canoe paddling history. ADVERTISING Aunty Maile Mauhili serves as a living timeline for all the monumental events in the Big Island’s canoe paddling
Aunty Maile Mauhili serves as a living timeline for all the monumental events in the Big Island’s canoe paddling history.
She’s seen the sport grow when there were two canoe clubs — Kai Opua and Prince David Kawananakoa — in 1970 under the Big Island Canoe Association that later transformed into the Moku O Hawaii Outrigger Canoe Racing Association.
There were a lot of significant people, other than Aunty Maile, who helped canoe paddling find its footing, and she remembers all of them.
She is Hilo’s version of Kevin Bacon, connecting to someone in canoe paddling in less than six degrees of separation, and knowing their place in history.
But beyond that, it is Aunty Maile’s aloha spirit that endures with Moku O Hawaii. She served 38 years as the race secretary, a thankless job to check the registration cards of over a thousand paddlers.
It has little reward other than the self-satisfaction that a tedious job was done right, and all the paddlers can go to bed at night without worry that their times and races were officially confirmed.
Much like a baseball umpire, the best ones go unnoticed. That’s been Aunty Maile’s style.
And the thing is she’s still in the scoring stand, helping her daughter Aloha Mauhili, who’s been the Moku O Hawaii race secretary the last six years.
Aunty Maile is 81 years old. She graduated from Hilo High in 1953. She worked in security for the school, and also coached the school’s paddling team.
She is one of 16 children of Henry Auwae and Agnes Kela, the second oldest, and one of 10 still alive.
Aunty Maile points to her maternal grandmother Tutu Malia Kela as her biggest influence.
“The thing she taught us first and foremost was respect,” she said. “We were always told to respect people no matter where they came from and who they are.
“What I’m most proud of is always giving back. If can, can. If no can, then try. There’s no such thing as cannot. My grandma used to tell us that.”
Her first paddling coach in 1946 was Isaac Keliipio, who used to live on Coconut Island with his family. Back then, there wasn’t a bridge, and the family was the caretaker of the island.
There were two sisters Helen Bond and Bella Cann, the grandmother of Stan Cann, now the coach at Kamehameha Canoe Club.
Keliipio, Daniel Nathaniel and John Kekua Sr. were all instrumental in the foundation of Kamehameha, where Kawaihae chief Manny Veincent was once a coach.
After the Hilo tsunami in 1946, Aunty Maile was one of the paddlers who helped revive canoe paddling seven years later, and she noted that Nathaniel spearheaded the efforts.
She was with Kamehameha from 1953 to ’68, then with Keaukaha from 1973 to ’85, and went to Wailani in 1985. In 1995, the club’s name was changed to Kailana. (Wailani was formed in 1973.)
Billy Kailimai was the founder of Keaukaha along with his high school friends. The club was named after the area, a place where Aunty Maile still lives.
The late Dottie Thompson, the matriarch of the Merrie Monarch, used to work in parks and recreation in Keaukaha, and was a scorekeeper at Moku O Hawaii.
One day in 1972, a young Mauhili was at Hilo Bay minding her own business when suddenly an influential aunty gave her the best job of her life.
“Aunty Dottie flagged us down and told us to get over there and do something. I had come down to just watch the races,” Aunty Maile said.
Then one day at Hilo High, Charles Rose, who was a police officer and Moku O Hawaii’s first president, found Mauhili on campus and pronounced her the race secretary.
Rose, who was later a police captain, also helped start Kawaihae, along with Veincent. Under Rose, Mary Jane Kahanamoku, from Kai Opua, was the first race secretary.
Kahanamoku, who died in 2001 at age 81, helped start Keauhou Canoe Club, and her late husband was Louie Kahanamoku, a brother of three-time Olympian Duke Kahanamoku.
For more than a half-century, Aunty Maile has shared her love for canoe paddling as a paddler, coach and official.
Back when airline fares were affordable, she was able to take paddlers to other islands for a weekend to learn about Hawaiian culture. She also took her Kailana paddlers to the World Sprints in New Zealand.
For so long, Aunty Maile’s life has been about paddling. And once she found the best volunteer job, it’s been about helping others as well.
When she retired from Hilo High in 1984, she and her daughter Aloha were called to a Moku O Hawaii board meeting.
Of all the significant people in the long history of canoe paddling, the Moku O Hawaii board renamed the championships, and recognized her outstanding leadership and commitment.
No other island carries someone’s name for a regatta championship. The 10th annual Aunty Maile Mauhili/Moku O Hawaii championships were held July 18.
“I was wondering what was going on when I was asked to leave the room. Aloha knew about it,” Aunty Maile said. “I told her I didn’t want a retirement party. When I came back in, they announced it. I thanked them for it. I was honored. I’ve learned so much from so many people. We all learn.
“I love canoe paddling and everything about it, the people, the paddlers, the culture. When I don’t come down to the beach, I don’t feel right.”
