Updated: 9-27-03.............................................................70.

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Artmail 70

September 24, 2003

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Aloha all...

I did end up going to Polihale a week ago and I put the photos online last week. Between then and the 21st, the only photos I took were of progress painting palm fronds. Just about every day, I go to the post office for my mail then go to Tashi's for a swim and to talk story. Pat was there on the 21st and a lot of wind sailers were where we usually swim. I took one photo from Tashi's of two sails.

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That's where we hang out...in the shade.

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Pat and Tashi.

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A few weeks ago I had photos of Polihale Greg and Clifford making crab nets. Here are some photos of one of the many Kona Crabs they caught...it was ono.

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Farmer Tom, when he lived in 15B, had some kind of plant growing that will be perfect for 15B's little garden area...the whole area except for some islands. It's perfect for someone who may be doing extensive traveling periodically...it requires virtually no maintainence. Heh, heh. I don't know it's name, yet, but I'll find out. There will be progress photos through time of this project.

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In 1819, the year before the missionaries arrived in Hawaii, and after King Kamehameha died, there was a great removal of kapus (taboos). Also, all images of Hawaiian gods were ordered destroyed except those for Kamehameha's battle standard...Ku-ka'ili-moku..."Ku, snatcher of islands." Only about 150 carvings of Hawaiian gods created before that time remain.

Kamehameha's Ku images were originally carved on the Kona side of the Big Island. The style of the images is now known as Kona-style and is found in modern Hawaiian tikis. No one knows what most of the other older Ku carvings looked like because they were destroyed. I have talked with some carvers who do not consider Ku images correct if they are not "exactly" as one of the surviving Kona-style ones. I also know other Hawaiian wood carvers who say that it doesn't matter...the spirits will guide the artist in his creation. But, carvings that I have seen are mostly done Kona-style. When I created a Ku image, I made it Kona-style, but of my own design. Several Hawaiian wood carvers have told me that my Ku is a correct Ku even with my design.

Anyway, in the 90s, I started this unfinished painting of Ku at Polihale. I wanted to picture Ku as a carving. It is Kona-style.

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Ku at Polihale

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I made quite a few palm frond Ku images in the past, but they were sold. I have only this old, torn photo of the first ones:

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My second through eighth Makaweli (glaring eyes) masks.

I made the Ku below out of the center of a split palm frond. He now belongs to Tashi.

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Palm Frond Ku

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The four main Hawaiian (Polynesian) gods are Kane (Tane), Ku (Tu), Kanaloa (Tangaroa), and Lono (Rongo). Other Polynesian representations of the gods may be found elsewhere. I could find only one photograph of a carving of Kanaloa. I do not know if this carving was done before 1819, but the web site where I found it is dedicated to Kanaloa.

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Kanaloa

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In ancient times the Hawaiian island of Kaho'olawe was called Kanaloa. The name was changed after the coming of the missionaries probably because it was honoring a Hawaiian god.

In the South Pacific, Tangaroa is much better known. Tangaroa is the national symbol of the Cook Islands and is found on the one dollar coin. There are many Tangaroa carvings around the Cook Islands and many being carved for sale to tourists. Here are some photos from my Rarotonga 2000 trips' visits the the carving factory of Rarotonga.

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In 1985, during one of the two times I visited Rarotonga, I went into a shop and bought a chief's talking stick. When I was talking story with the owner and mentioned that I was from the island of Kauai in Hawaii. She kind of made fun of the carvings of Hawaiian gods. She said that Tangaroa is the god of fertility as well as the sea. In the Cook Islands, Tangaroa and other gods are carved with manhood prominent, but in Hawaii and the other Polynesian islands they are ashamed and the gods are lacking their manhood...therefore, lacking power. She gave examples such as in the Cook Islands, the people still have their land and language and their traditions are still alive and strong.

So, I decided that the palm frond carving I'm working on is a Kona-style carving of Kanaloa. His manhood is strong and powerful, but now discreetly hidden behind a malo.

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