Board & Stone Class

Kamehameha Schools, in collaboration with Keiki O Ka ʻĀina, is hosting a board and stone class at Punaluʻu Ahupuaʻa Farms. This family-based cultural experience teaches the Hawaiian tradition of hand-carving a papa ku‘i ‘ai (poi board) and a pohaku ku‘i ‘ai (stone poi pounder) with natural materials gathered from the land.

The class is taught by Kumu Earl Kawa‘a, a revered cultural practitioner from Molokaʻi who teaches time-proven methodologies of sustainability that have served Hawaiians well throughout the ages. His dedication to share this knowledge came in an epiphany years ago when he returned to Kilohana, the town in East Molokaʻi where he attended school as a boy.

“I had to bring eighteen boards and eighteen stones with me because they didn’t have any,” Kawa‘a explains. “I was so hurt because I grew up on Molokaʻi where there was a board and stone in every home. It was a heart-breaking experience, and I said to myself the loss of these boards means the demise of Hawaiian culture as well.”

From this experience, he coined the phrase “one board, one stone in every home,” and in 2010, Kawa‘a began teaching families how to make them. Since then, in conjunction with Keiki O Ka ʻĀina, the kumu has taught many Board & Stone classes in Waimanalo, Waianae, Kalihi Valley, Papakolea and now, for the first time, Punaluʻu.

The class is about so much more than just making a board and stone. It’s a way of bringing families together in a safe environment for learning and empowerment. It’s an opportunity for parents and children, aunties and uncles, brothers and sisters to share a culturally profound and meaningful experience. And, it’s a lot of fun!

Some of the practices each family will learn include:

• Writing their own oli, or protocol, that asks the land to share its bounty and provide them with the materials needed for the class.
• Using hao tree branches to make koʻi, the adze used to carve their board.
• Choosing the raw slab of wood for their papa kuʻi ʻai (poi board).
• Walking the banks of Punaluʻu stream for the stone they will transform into their pohaku kuʻi ʻai (poi pounder).
• Learning the different strokes and carving techniques.
• Lu’ukai (purifying the papa kuʻi ʻai in the ocean) and Paʻakai (the importance of salt in culture, food and ceremony).
• Harvesting kalo from the Punalu’u lo’i.
• A celebratory hoʻike where families will name their board and stone, then use them to pound taro into paʻiʻai as part of a potluck lūʻau.