Season two of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park cultural videos debuts with ‘Hoʻokupu’

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park has announced season two of the “‘Ike Hana Noʻeau”(Experience the Skillful Work) video series launched today, April 5, a few days ahead of the 2023 Merrie Monarch Festival.

Two new “talk story” documentaries enable a friendly connection to Hawaiian culture and share insights unknown to many.

The first episode, “Hoʻokupu,” features Hawaiʻi Island Kumu Hula and Executive Director of the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation, Huihui Kanahele-Mossman. She explains how the Hawaiian practice of hoʻokupu is not just an offering of gratitude or thanks, but an intimate practice of creating growth and recognition between an individual and place.

All too often, visitors to Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park unknowingly leave offerings at the crater’s edge that can degrade the environment and threaten native species. She suggests that people who do not know the cultural protocols of hoʻokupu should not do it. Respecting traditional practices is an easy and powerful way to support the indigenous people of Hawaiʻi.

Lava tubes, their importance to Hawaiian people and their role in native ecosystems are featured in the second episode, “ʻOhi Wai.” Former park ranger and naturalist Bobby Camara shares how Hawaiians gathered wai (water) in ipu (gourds) as it dripped through lava tube ceilings, making life sustainable in the most arid of environments. Park archeologist Summer Roper-Todd is also interviewed in this documentary that will be released in May.

Season two of “ʻIke Hana Noʻeau” was produced by Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park rangers and filmed on location in the park. The videos are about 12 minutes in duration and are accessible for everyone with audio description and closed captions in English and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language).

The videos will be shared for free on the park website and YouTube starting April 5 (season one episodes can be viewed on the same webpage). Big Island Television, which airs in more than 6,000 hotel rooms on the island of Hawaiʻi and on Spectrum Channel 130, will also broadcast the Season Two ʻIke Hana Noʻeau videos to a wide audience.

The park’s non-profit partners, the Friends of Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and the Hawaiʻi Pacific Parks Association, helped support and fund the ʻIke Hana Noʻeau video project.

The park created the videos for everyone, including kānaka maʻoli wanting to learn or reconnect to their culture, park visitors, local residents, educators and students.