Kukui Dyes Workshop Set For Saturday

Beautiful environment, cultural practices and a little history.

On Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Bernice Akamine will instruct and guide those who want to learn the process of making natural dyes using kukui.

At the Amy B.H. Greenwell Hawai’i Botanical Garden in Captain Cook, learn about the different cultural uses of the kukui nut, bark and its roots. Create dyes and make color swatches.

Tuition is $45 general, $30 for kama`aina, and $25 for Bishop Museum or Amy Greenwell Garden members. Advance registration is required. Call 808-323-3318 for more information.

Food and drink is not provided. It is recommended that participants brown bag it, and wear comfy old clothes.

The garden’s namesake, Amy Beatrice Holdsworth Greenwell, attended Stanford University in the 1940s, volunteered for the Red Cross in World War II and participated in plant expeditions.

When she returned to Hawai`i, she wrote many articles on native and tropical plants and worked closely with the Bishop Museum.

Upon her death in 1974, Greenwell left her 15-acre Kealakekua property to Bishop Museum. She had cultivated the land to reflect a “pre-Cookian,” or, pre-Captain Cook state in terms of plant life, and maintained native Hawaiian cultural formations.

Today, Bishop Museum cares for over 200 native plant species on the property. The Amy B.H. Greenwell Hawai’i Botanical Garden is located at 82-6160 Mamalahoa Hwy. in Captain Cook.