Kahoʻolawe, The Dream of an Island

The resulting songs were so inspiring that the entire 4th grade teachers and students collaborated and created a play that included all the songs and music the students wrote and recorded along with their own visual art. They also added additional Hawaiian songs and hula, and presented their production at the newly built, King Kekaulike high school auditorium in May of 2019. The play was seen through the eyes of the 500-year-old Wiliwili Tree that is still standing on Kahoʻolawe.

In solidarity with the Kahoʻolawe 9, the protectors and defenders of Kahoʻolawe, along with the lovely ukulele music stylings of Neal Chin woven throughout, the students, in their own words, tell the story of the island of Kahoʻolawe: a tale of love, loss and healing. The history of this small, yet very significant island in the Hawaiian Archipelago holds many ancient secrets and tales of survival, resilience and rebirth of Hawaiian culture, plants, animals and people.

Legends abound, and it was at onetime in the history of Hawaiian people, a center of learning celestial navigation. Artifacts there show that there may have been thousands of polynesian people who visited the island. They arrived on its shores to study the sky map of stars to guide their sea-worthy canoes or waʻa to even more distant lands.

 In Hawaiian culture, the island itself was considered to be the piko of the piko of the piko, the center of the Hawaiian islands, in the center of our planet, in the center of the universe. For those who have had the rare opportunity to step onto the shores of Kahoʻolawe, all agree that the power of place can be felt and experienced while there. It truly is the Heart and Soul of Hawaiʻi.

To listen to this album in full on Spotify, CLICK HERE.

 For more information regarding
Kahoʻolawe, go to https://www.kahoolawe.hawaii.gov/home.php