Life in North Kona Ahupua`a Subject of Lectures

Ku`ulei Keakealani will share stories of life and growing up in her North Kona homelands in next week’s installment of a lecture series.

“Na mo`olelo o na `aina aloha: Stories of Beloved Lands” will be presented Thursday, Sept. 26, at the University of Hawai`iat Hilo and Friday, Sept. 27, at the Sheraton Keauhou Resort and Spa in Kona.

Keakealani was raised in a family of cowboys and fishermen in Pu`u Anahulu where most of the residents were fluent speakers of the Hawaiian language.

Her presentation will feature that ahupua`a as well as the neighboring North Kona areas of Pu`u Wa`awa`a and Ka`ulupulehu, now known as Ka`upulehu.

Keakealani was part of the team of educators which opened Pūnana Leo o Waimea, a Hawaiian language immersion preschool, and later joined another group of educators in opening Kanu o ka ‘Aina New Century Public Charter School’s early childhood component, Malamapoki‘i.

After 12 years of classroom teaching, she took a position under the University of Hawai‘i’s Na Pua No‘eau Center for Gifted and Talented Native Hawaiian Children, where she created culturally rich programs for three Hawai`i Island districts.

Keakealani today is curator for the Kaupulehu Interpretive Center at Kalaemano, where she develops educational programs spanning the entire ahupua`a, or land division.

The presentations are part of the continuing Eia Hawai`i and Puana Ka `Ike lectures presented by Keauhou-Kahalu‘u Education Group, Kamehameha Schools, The Kohala Center, and University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, Kīpuka Native Hawaiian Student Center.

The lecture will be held in Hilo from 2 to 3:30 p.m. and in Kona from 5:30 to 7 p.m.

For more information, contact Joy Cunefare at 808-322-5340 or via email at info@kohalacenter.org.

Webcasts of previous lectures in the series are available at http://keauhouresort.com/learn-puanakaike.html.