Trekking to Kamehameha Schools

My sister Dannette and I attended Kamehameha Schools, McNeil Campus off Dillingham Boulevard to start our education. We rode with our Dad from Kahana Valley to Honolulu, on his big Military Weapons Carrier through the Nu’uanu Pali Highway and back to Kahana Valley every day the same route. Many times it was cold and windy, but we had lots of blankets to keep us warm, lots of military blankets, bought at the Surplus Store on base at Pearl Harbor where Dad worked at Shop 08. It was in the year of 1943/1944 because she was 5 and I was 4 years old. Sometimes Dad was late to pick us kids up so we were late getting to Kahana Bay….

We lived across the beach area, right in the middle of the Bay. My sister Dannette was in the first Grade when I started in Kindergarten at 4 years old since school started in September and my birthday was in November, so I was still a baby, a real cry baby at that. As soon as she went to her class, I screamed so loud and not gracious at all till she had to leave her class to “malama” me. I was my sister’s shadow, followed her all over, and got to know all her friends.

Eventually, our Mama got really tired of us coming home so late getting up so early so she pulled us out of Kamehameha School and enrolled us in Ka’a’awa Elementary School, close to home. Sista, Dannette was in 4th Grade by then, and I was a Third Grader, so we had been trekking to Kamehameha School for a good four years or so….Ka’a’awa was great, it was close to Kahana Bay, close to the kahakai/beaches and close to our Mama too. And, yes our friends too because we had to walk to school from Kahana and we had to walk home from school from Ka’a’awa. There were no school buses, there was no such thing as 7 Eleven Store, only Anzai Store across Swanzy Park and Bonnie’s Store across Ka’a’awa Park. We had a treat once in a “blue moon” but mostly we learned real early how to husk a coconut for the coconut water to quench our thirst and how to pound kamani for its crunchy nuts. We learned early to be survivors.

Dad and Mom were very active in the P.T.A. and also the 4-H club with Edith Anzai as the leader. Sister Dannette and I had to join because we were farmers and we were taught how to raise and care for animals. We also entered the Hawai’I Farm Fair when we had a nice pig or cow to enter and took home many Blue Ribbons. We also learned how to scramble the best eggs, Japanese style, really “da best,” so light and fluffy, because Edith used the fork to beat the eggs in the frying pan as it cooked on medium heat, I’m sharing that because eggs never come out right if you use high fire and rush…I think she talked to her eggs because they were perfect and delicious!!!!

Our Dad really got involved with the community and the parents, joined the Lions Club and even the Hawaiian Civic Club, never knew that till I found his Certificates. Eventually, Ka’a’awa Elementary Schools had Bazaars and planned activities to include Canoe Races, (that is Tin Canoe Races) that my Dad made out of tin roof/piula and hau ama’s and iako’s. Then there were the bicycle races by the miles, and age groups and tug-a-wars, and swimming competitions, it was really fun living in the country, we all loved it!!!

On April 1st, 1946, the big TIDAL WAVE hit the Ko’olauloa coastline, and Kahana Valley was devasted with the loss of Mamo Ha’aheo Kanakanui’s three babies. Houses were lifted off its foundations and carried across the streets in Punalu’u and other areas along the coastline.

My sister Puanani attended school late, she remembers joining us in 2nd grade because she said Mama was lonely by herself. Then of course our Brother Francis Daniel Beirne joined us in 1947 and won all the canoe races, back then we had Tommy and Larry Price all paddling. They had a beautiful home up in the Ka’a’awa Hills, the mauka lands.

Dad hunted for pigs up mauka a lot so we had eight hunting dogs, chickens, ducks, geese and we raised pigs. I remember our dog “Palooka” was always chasing Tsuneo’s Gorai’s chicken so one day, he was so pissed, he shot our dog. Well, my Tutu Lady of Kahana, treated our ‘ilio with hawaiian herbs, gathering the “hauohi” plant and pounded it to a pulp, mixed with hawaiian salt/pa’akai and our mimi and used la’au lapa’au to treat Palooka. Our dog survived the bullet that went right through his head. He was a survivor, like us he was family/’ohana, love that dog. God is GOOD!!! Mahalo Ke Akua..

(Trophies for Tin canoe race; left to right Front Row, Tommy Price, Ululani, Puanani and Brada Beirne and Jonah Kekipi;  2nd Row two haole boys, I forgot their names; Third Row Third person Sista Beirne, 5th person, LARRY PRICE, FAMOUS TV SPORTS REPORTER and Raymond from Kualoa, forgot last name)

Kukulu Ma Ka Hale: KAHANA

The aftermath of the bombing of Pearl Harbor left our beaches and mauka lands in Kahana Valley with many military barracks and bunkers, still visible today. In those days there were military training camps, that were color coded set up in Waikane Valley, Kahana Valley and Punalu’u Valley, known as “Green Valley”. Some said that Kahana Valley was “Red Valley”, so I’m sure we have many in our communities that are remnants of the war that can remember the military coded colors for these three beautiful Ko’olauloa valleys. The military training camps in the valleys had many of our own Hawaiians that enlisted in the military, Japanese, Chinese, Filipinos and many other ethnic groups immigrating to Hawai’I from their own countries.
No laila, one of those military barracks, left after the war on our Kahana beaches was jacked up, moved and transported, I’m sure by a military trailor across the street to 210 Kamehameha Highway by my Dad and all his military buddies, and that barracks became “Our Home.” We also ended up with a trailer camper on property that lasted for years. Dad after all was supervisor and foreman as a structural engineer building docks and piers in Yokuska, Japan, and in Cubi Point, Philiphines laying out the airport mass landing, constructing and building the Theatres in Makalapa at Pearl Harbor and other areas for the U.S. Naval Projects he was assigned too. So it was one bedroom, one living room, one kitchen and one bathroom for all of us, Mom and Dad and us four, the Beirne’s.
After the clearing of the lands in Kahana, on or about 1943, we had a big military tent erected in Kahana in our move to Kahana from Maunalaha that we all occupied. My Grandpa Beirne always hung out with “us kids” back then…..we had lots of fun!!!! Playing “Hide and Seek”, and telling spooky stories or listening to our Mama serenade us with all Johnny Alameida songs. We had everything we needed, kerosene stoves to cook our food, outhouse lua for toilet, military generator for lights, mostly kukui elipo….pololei!!! That’s how I remember it ….And our Dad ran the water pipe line for us from the natural spring water well from Kahana Valley Roadway, where Brother Puuloa lived and the Irvine ‘Ohana, now long gone. He ran that pipeline over the Kahana Bridge to our home base…..he was a creative Hawaiian, a real Blala…yes he was….many Hawaiians in Kahana were envious of him, cussing him because he was haole, but Dad was only hapa Irish and hapa Hawaiian, but when he opened his mouth, he roared like a lion, with authority, Dad had Mana, he was after all a “Keaunui”. He was “He Hawai’i Au”……His Tutu was Helena Kekuaiwahia Keaunui from Hau’ula, who had 14 to 16 brothers and sisters, who married Daniel Kaaukai from Punalu’u. So Dad has good “mana” from Ke Akua…..
So our life began with Dad practicing the old traditional Hawaiian style of living, ke kukulu ma kauhale keia ma’anei, keia ma’o, for each one of us we got older and even got married. My kauhale became the water “pump house”….where the generator was placed to pump the water from Kahana Valley Road to our hale……then we had the “pidgeon house”, because it was elevated and the “trailor hale.” Fun memories, love it, picking my brain….

Grandpa Beirne at the campsite

“Us” keiki at the campsite

Building Bridges

Today, I am remembering my dearest Mama, born Mary Kaliko Kawaauhau Hart on September 9th, 1917 to Mary Kanihokui Duchalsky, (referred to as Tutu Makiki) and James Kawaauhau Hart Jr., both of Honolulu. My ‘Ohana need to memoralize her this year for her 100 birthday, how I love and miss my Mama passing March 15th, 1984. She attended Marynoll, a Catholic School and raised all us in her religion. Her grandmother was Tutu Meleanna Hanoa Kalalakoa of Maunalaha Valley, Makiki Round Top, who raised her and her grandfather was James Duchalsky of Poland…My Tutu Makiki was born September 13th, 1896 and devoted her life to the Star Bulletin and later the State Hospital for over thirty years in Kane’ohe. At one of our Kawaauhau reunion’s at Maile Beach Park, my youngest daughter did more geneology research and shared with us that our Papa Duchalsky was actually from Russia….Go Figure!!!!
My Mama was Mary, her Mama was Mary and her Tutu was Meleanna (Maryanne), how they all connect together. Pray for Mother Mary was definitely practiced in our ‘ohana. Where did all these people, our native Hawaiians come from anyway….The haole’s called them squatters, who was the squatters? Yup, you right, illegal overthrow, illegal squatters, displacing our native Hawaiians, all of that, but did they really relocate to Maunalaha Valley? Well, maybe they were all from the oceanfront areas that was built up for the “better or the richer”?

Many from Maunalaha Valley were leimakers, with plumeria trees flourishing, and many frequenting the waterfronts in Honolulu, waiting for the Long Liners like the Lurline to arrive on the docks, so they could share their “Aloha” and make some kala for kaukau….Many went just to dive for the coins that were tossed by visitors so they could kanikapila mahope!! Tutu Makiki had seven sisters, Nakai Ka’ai’ai, Carmela Spencer, Amelia Peterson(Kahana), my Tutu, Mary Duchalsky Lopez, Lucille Hollinger, Melanie (she was a hybrid to California). Kali, poina her new last name because she lived nearly 100 years….all my Californians as ‘ohana.
My parents raised all us kids up Maunalaha Valley first, with Sista, my eldest being born March 23rd, 1938, then me 1939, then sister Puanani, February 2nd 1941….then our only brother “Brada” was last, he arrived after the war, born October 1st, 1942, (this year he will be 75 years old). I was only two years old, and I do remember the December 7th, 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor because as a little keiki, Mom hurried all us into a “Bomb Shelter” Dad had built on the Maunalaha property…Dad was on duty at Pearl Harbor at that time…yes I was young, but God gave me wisdom, early too!!!

Dad graduated from Kalakaua Junior High School, June 1932 and Mckinley High School in 1933. Dad worked in Pearl Harbor as a Deckhand for the USA Quartermaster Corps from 1935-1937, then as Foreman for the Venetian Blind Works on Base for the USN shipyard and Housing areas, then a Police Sergeant in charge of 12 men from December 1941 to December 1943…at the USN Shipyard…..WOW!!! Dad was fully engaged during the War, and that’s why I remember the ‘Bomb Shelter”…we were home schooled!!!

(1st pic L-R back row: my dad, Dan Beirne third in row; 2nd pic L-R back row: my dad first in row)

Mahope, Dad was Supervisor for 12 men again for from 1944 to 1951. U.S.N. Public Works Dept. constructing and maintaining structural woodwork and equipment in the Naval Housing area. Thereafter, Dad joined the Navy as a Seabee in 1951, went to Yokuska, Japan to do structural work on the docks, then to the Philipines to build Cubi Bay Airport and also Port Hunene Bay in California…..

By the way, did you know that HONEY is all natural and better than sugar? Yes, all the time our Mama was teaching hula in Maunalaha in her own Hula Studio, Dad built one BEE HIVE after another, he was a BEE KEEPER. We always had our very own “organic” honey on the table, no sugar. And my Dad’s leisure time was spent in horticultre and fishing. Okay, how many in our ‘ohana doing that? Every one of us, plant and tend to our flowers and bananas, avocados, ulu and fishing for the younger ones, like my nephew Daniel Beirne with brothers, Donald and Clayton, you guys go, no scared um!!!! That was building the bridge for us to begin a life in beautiful Kahana Valley. I love you Dad!!!My parents were “Da Bomb.”

(L-R Dad as a police Sergeant and then as a Chief Petty Officer in Japan with his pua’a)

Malama ‘Aina Ko Kakou

(Left to Right: My Mother Mary Kaliko Kawaauhau Hart graduation from Rosalee Lokalia Montgomery, next 1941 family picture with Mom & Dad, Dannette left, Ululani right and baby Puanani in middle, next the four of us in 1942 with Ululani, Puanani, our Brother Francis Daniel Beirne and Dannette back right, and fourth picture, 1951 all four with our Mom preparing for trip to Japan to meet our Dad, Chief Petty Officer, Daniel Francis Beirne.   This is the “Hoe Hana Gang.”)

After all the clearing of the land, the ‘aina was planted with bluefield bananas and solo papayas, which were in great demand. My Dad also acquired twenty acres up mauka, traveling to and fro on his Military Weapons Carrier and tractor, best place for driving lessons, on the Farm. Therefore, we were the hana pau gang, like other farmers in Kahana, my ‘ohana, three daughters and one son working the land with our Mom and Dad. We were known as the “hoe hana” gang, making sure all the weeds between the planted squares of papayas and rows of bananas were dug out, and I mean it better be dugged out!!! There were many times I would be tired and molowa/lazy too and would cause a fuss by hoeing my feet or leg so I could yell and scream for attention, just so we kids could take a break and call it a day……

The soil was mixed and mostly sandy, but very rich with nutrients and fertile, everything grew and flourished…Everything my Dad planted grew well and the bananas were big and long, ono loa too. All the solo papayas were so sweet and could be peeled like a mango. His motto for us was “No Work, No Eat”!!!!! It was a way of life, a life of sustainability. It was work, work, and work so that we could swim, swim and swim in the clear, clean Kahana River and in the beautiful Kahana Bay, wading and walking out in a sandy beach, swimming till you could only see eyeballs because we were so papa’a/ burned…

Our ‘ohana also planted a variety of vegetables, lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, okra, long beans, string beans, long squashes, egg plants, cucumbers, corn and peanuts. The corn was boiled and rolled in butter and the peanuts were boiled with hawaiian salt/pa’akai in the hot water. Both the corn and peanuts were packaged to be sold at the Kahana Horse Races on the sandy beach. During the races, I was the “chosen one” to run up and down the beach shouting, “CORN & PEANUTS FOR SALE” until all were sold. That was the start of my sales career, because Dad erected a fruit stand to sell our bananas and papayas. That’s where I picked up speed and now worked with the locals and tourist doing the same exercise, “BANANA’S & PAPAYA’S FOR SALE.” I had so much fun because my sister, Sista and Puanani and Brada hid from the people, and I would let them know, I was going to the movie at Ka’a’awa Elementary School, and so it was….

The Filipino farmers also worked the land, planted all their own vegetables to eat. They also fished with throw nets like our Hawaiians, and fished in the river too. They also harvested the limu and hihiwai and ‘o’opu for their meals. That was their lifestlye. I remember that the Kamake’aina family of Laie Malo’o were the taro farmers in the swampy areas, mawaena in Kahana. Now they were the pure blooded Hawaiians working the ‘aina and working real closely with my Uncle Nick Peterson, caretaker under Mary E. Foster.

The Japanese farmers also worked the ‘aina planting all sorts of vegetables too…..they were really hard workers. Tommy and Tokiko Nakamura with their baby Linda, the Sakamoto families, two brothers, there were many that eventually moved to Ka’a’awa. Most of our produce was on consignment to Rancho Produce at the Ala Moana Market, selling all our bananas and papayas too. It was hard work!!! Talking about hard work, all of us were the first environmentalist in Kahana Valley as well.  Dad saved all the burlap bags from chicken and pig feed he bought for our farm and we frequented the beach area picking up all the cans and bottles that people passing would toss out their car windows….shame, shame. Bridges were also built and repaired often due to heavy rains in the mauka uplands. There were many of his friends and others that helped to secure the way for safe passage.

Traditional Knowledge

(Back row L-R Kumu Hula Sam Pua Ha’aheo,  including my Mama, Mary Kaliko Kawaauhau Hart third from left, now also Nahinu Kaaukai from Kahana Valley and on first row, Mamo Ha’aheo Kanakanui in the middle and Hattie Nuhi Au last on right, kuleana land owner, Kahana Valley)

The Kahana Valley uplands was always the mauka lands abundantly blessed with beautiful foliage, giant koa trees, big haupu’u ferns, awapuhi plants used for shampoo, bamboo groves, breadfruit groves, mountain apple groves, hala groves, kukui nut groves and many more varieties of ti-leaves and maile vines on steeper cliffs.

My Dad would hike the mauka areas with many people and for special species needed for perpetuating the traditional culture of hula. He hiked on many occasions with Timothy Montgomery to cut and haul to the makai areas for crafting of the hula instrument, “pu’ili” for my Mom’s hula halau with Rosalee Montgomery. Both were craftsmen in the art of creating not only the pu’ili, but other ohe implements as the ohe hanu ihu, the Hawaiian nose flute. They would cut the huge bamboo/ohe and haul them out of the Kahana Valley for the project. Then the crafting to perpetuate the traditional knowledge was shared with all the halau students.

Dad also had many uli’uli plants and harvested them and cleaned and polished and created the uli’uli implement and another product was prepared for the hula halau. All the ‘ili’’ili needed was gathered during low tides on the lihikai, mostly in Punalu’u on the beach front from the river waters at the bridge. Everything in Kahana Valley that was cut, hauled, carried, gathered, harvested, picked was crafted into an art work for perpetuation of our Hawaiian culture, thinking back….just awesome….My Dad, Dan Beirne, was an important mentor to his ‘ohana and his community and to the traditional culture of hula.

In the early 40’s, my parents were able to secure an agricultural lease from the Mary E. Foster Estate, by then, the estate had accumulated many acres of land-base in Kahana Valley, purchased from Kuleana land owners as well as Royal Patent land owners. Our family was in possession of nearly five acres from bridge to bridge for many years. The lands were cleared with a cane knife cutting all the twisted and twining hau trees.  Using traditional knowledge, they would soak the cut hau in the ocean water to clean and soften for lashings, for making of the ama for canoes and for building a canoe halau and even fishing halau.

The area also had many kamani trees, many were saved for shade from the hot weather and from the sun….Dad used the old method of “slash and burn” that most third world countries practiced. My Dad was a “one man” army, very rare in today’s society, he was a work horse, at 6’2” and had a good weight, slim and trim….

(L-R Third row, third personTimothy Montgomery, eighth person my Mama, Mary Kaliko Kawaauhau Hart Beirne; Second Row Left Kumu Hula Rosalee Montgomery, fourth Maiki Aiu and last on row, my Tutu Makiki, Mary Duchalsky Lopez; bottom row last person, my Tutu Lady  Nancy Lokalia Kaaukai Nuhi, Kahana Valley)

Historical Memories

Memories, lots of memories, historical memories of Beautiful Kahana, land that I was raised on, land that I love.  I was raised in Kahana in the 40’s when Hawai’i was a territory and not a State of the Union. Born Danielle Ululani Beirne on November 3rd, 1939 to Daniel Francis Beirne and Mary Kaliko Kawaauhau Hart, who resided in Kahana Valley with her Aunt Amelia Duchalsky Peterson and Uncle Nickolas Petersen.  Uncle Nick as he was referred to was the caretaker for Mary E. Foster, acquired heir of many land titles of our native Hawaiians.

(from left to right: Joseph Beirne, Nancy Lokalia Kaaukai, Daniel Francis Beirne & Mary Kaliko Kawaauhau Hart.)
My Dad, was born to Nancy Lokalia Kaaukai of Punalu’u and Joseph Beirne of Roscommon, Ireland on December 9th, 1915. My Tutu Lady as we called her, was a big framed pure Hawaiian woman, and my Papa or Grandpa Beirne as we called him was pure Irish, moved from Ireland to New York, raised in an orphanage and sailed to Hawai’i on the Merchant Seaship named the “Cutty Sark”, met my Tutu Lady and married. He became a street car conductor for many years and my Tutu Lady worked the loi lands, making poi and fishing and evenually both went their own ways.
My Tutu Lady and her sisters, Lilly Woodward, Agnes Pa’akaula and Elena Rowland had much land in Punalu’u from Leleiohoku, much of it lost due to being in arrears, later married Sam Nuhi, a widower living in the Ahupua’a O Kahana. Papa Sam as we called him, was married to a kuleana land owner, Ida Ka’aikaula Kaiapa, who had passed away, and he became the Patriarch of his ‘ohana, securing the kuleana lands for his eldest daughter, Hattie Au.
In the 1930’s, my Dad, who loved the ‘aina and the waterways lived on a boat and fished and caught a lot of green frogs to sell so he could pay his taxi fare to Honolulu with his cousin Edmund Hiram of Hau’ula to attend McKinley High School. He joined the National Guards and became an active member for many years.
My mother was raised in Maunalaha Valley, Makiki Round Top. She moved to Kahana with her Aunt in the 1930’s and was haumana with Kumu Hula Pua Ha’aheo, Huilua Fishpond caretaker, Konohiki for Kahana and Sheriff for Ko’olauloa moku. She graduated with many other Hawaiian women of those times in the ancient traditional dances, that are encouraged and practiced to this day. My mother later was a haumana with Auntie Maiki Aiu her hula sister under the tutelage of Rosale Montgomery in Kapahulu. She began her own hula halau after her second graduation, refered to as “uniki”, teaching in Kahana Valley, in her own Hula Studio in Maunalaha and in many of the military bases as Pearl Harbor, Makalapa, and the EM Clubs.
My Tutu Lady was a good fisherwoman and she taught me and my two sisters and brother about fishing, how to go squiding with the torch light and glass box and made sure we were at every “hukilau” in Kahana. Our Tutu always had something on the stove, a big pot of stew, pot of salt beef with cabbage, raw fish, dry fish, cooked fish, dry ‘opae, raw ‘opae, hihiwai, ‘o’opu from the streams too. Our Papa Sam as we called him was a great fisherman as well, always busy mending his fishing nets in his “net house,” always with a smile, something that all his children inherited, beautiful loving ‘ohana.
I remember the hikes in Kahana Valley with my Dad. He knew the mauka area well, where the maile grew, the ulu groves, the ‘ohe groves, the mountain apples and its seasons, the hala seasons when it was ready to bring home lobsters and when the mullets were visible in the rivers, especially when the akule was running in the Bay.

 

Welcome to my blog

O Ululani Beirne-Keawe keia, mawaho iho nei ma Kahana Valley, O’ahu.  Makemake wau e kaukau ana keia blog e  ha’awi mai ‘oia e piliana, nani loa  Ahupua’a ‘O Kahana.