KAILUA-KONA — For years, 23-year-old Makaio Zwicker has come to give demonstrations at Puuhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park’s annual cultural festival.
KAILUA-KONA — For years, 23-year-old Makaio Zwicker has come to give demonstrations at Puuhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park’s annual cultural festival.
He follows in his father’s footsteps. His father had also been doing demonstrations since he was a teenager.
“This is actually his malo, too, that I’m wearing,” Zwicker said. “So you can tell everything passes down generation to generation.”
On Saturday, the first day of the two-day festival, Zwicker was preparing the hukilau, a net made from ti leaves used in a traditional form of reef fishing.
After the leaves are cut from the stalk, they’re soaked in water, he explained, to soften them up so they can be tied to the rope. The rope, he added, can be as long as is needed.
“As big as the bay,” he joked.
But part of the hukilau’s significance is the team effort that goes into fishing with the hukilau.
“And this fishing process wasn’t just for a few people, this was for the entire community — from alii royalty all the way to the lowest of the community,” he said. “And anyone could be a part of the hukilau. You see people walking down the road and you say, ‘Hey, come join the hukilau!”
The park plans to hold a hukilau of its own at 2:30 p.m. today. The free festival continues from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
“And anyone is welcome to come, everyone actually,” Zwicker said.
He was among many of the practitioners providing demonstrations to park guests Saturday.
At various stations, visitors had the opportunity to learn about poi, play a round of konane or throw a net in a bid to catch lauhala fish.
Rylee Galieto, 15, was demonstrating that activity for park guests on Saturday, teaching them about the traditional fishing practice.
And for Galieto, throw net fishing isn’t just a cultural demonstration, it’s also one of his key hobbies.
“It kinda makes me feel good inside because, to me, it feels like I’m connecting back to my roots,” he said. “Because I know that my dad them, grandpa them and all their dads before them all relate to this tradition way back — way, way back, into, I would say, like, the 1700s — and it was just a long line.
“And being able to experience and do this, personally, it makes me feel good inside.”
And he tells that to guests who ask him that same question, adding that he wants to be able to pass that tradition on.
One of the most popular events of the day offered canoe rides to park visitors.
“We just love sailing, so when we saw the double-hulled canoe, we just started helping and pulled them in the water, it was really fantastic,” said Alex Eichenberger who, with his family, is visiting from New York.
Eichenberger said they learned about the festival from members of one of the local canoe clubs, who tipped them off to the day’s event.
When the family travels, he said, they try to get in a mix of sporting activities and culture. The cultural presentations, he said, are great but his favorite thing is just having a chance to meet with the people who make this island their home.
“I’ll tell you, my favorite thing is to meet locals — the people that are really captivated and passionate about their heritage,” he said. “And I think meeting just these people is just the absolute best.”
His wife Regina Eichenberger made a similar point.
“It’s one thing to come to a place and see just the nature and the sites,” she said. “It’s another thing to understand the people and the culture and to learn about how they do things the way that they do. And it’s a beautiful thing, because you don’t understand a place until you understand the people.”