The Merrie Monarch 91直播an Arts and Crafts Fair kicked off Wednesday at the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo, giving shoppers their first chance to support new vendors making glass leis, fish jerky and hand-drawn-pattern clothes.
But for customers of Kathleen “Tita” Kaauwai’s traditional 91直播an ipu heke (double gourd drums), this fair will be their last chance.
Kaauwai passed away last May in Waialua, Oahu, after selling her handmade drums at the fair for more than two decades. For all those years, Tita supplied the hula festival’s kumu and dancers with her heke, which provide the rhythmic heartbeat for hula kahiko (ancient hula) performances and their associated chants.
Renee Rivera, who worked many past fairs with Tita, staffed her old booth on Thursday, which was stacked floor to ceiling with polished, golden-brown gourds.
“This was her passion,” Rivera said, describing Tita as a “legend.” “It’s a really hard process, so even if we decided to continue, there’s no way we’d be able to do the volume. Every year, she would make anywhere from 100 to 150 heke, and there’s no way we could do that.”
Watching her drums be played during the festival’s arena performances each year, Rivera said, brought the kupuna immeasurable joy.
“Her proudest moments are when she sees her heke on stage, on the Merrie Monarch stage, with the kumu, and she could pick them out, she’s like: ‘That’s mine! That’s mine!’” Rivera said.
Tita would travel to Temecula, Calif., every year after the festival to hand-pick the next batch of fresh gourds to ship home, meticulously cutting, cleaning and staining them, marking the bottom of each with her signature, batch number and location of where it was made.
“Each one really has her mana, and this is the last,” Rivera said. “This is it, this is the last of her legacy. That’s why it’s been really hard.”
Many returning customers have come to the booth in the past few days looking for Tita, only to learn the tragic news.
“A lot of people didn’t realize that when they bought their heke from her last year that that was the last year we would see her,” Rivera said. “So, it’s been a lot of tears because people who come and buy every year … they’re looking for her, and we have to tell them.”
The festival’s craft fair was the only venue where Tita would bring her heke. She declined selling them on the internet, viewing it as too impersonal a process for something so intimate.
“When you come in to choose your heke, it chooses you,” Rivera said. “It’s a personal thing, you can’t just go online and be like, ‘oh, okay, that one’s pretty.’ You have to come in and experience it — you have to try. And she would tell you to come in and be like, ‘which one is calling to you?’”
What’s new
First-time vendors at the fair include 91直播 Island-based clothing maker KoaMalu Collective, led by owner and designer Geoli Ng. Ng was inspired to start the company after working with Keauhou Bird Conservation Center and hearing its request to plant more native 91直播an trees to provide habitat for captive-bred birds released back into the wild.
“Because I was already drawing for other people making clothes, I thought why don’t I make my own clothes, sell them and then for every piece, I plant a tree?” she said, listing off the types of trees she donates: ohia, iliahi and koa.
She said she feels lucky that her new company was able to secure a highly coveted spot at the fair.
“I feel extremely blessed because I didn’t realize that it’s really hard to get in here, and I was blessed with the opportunity,” she said. “I feel extremely grateful. It’s only been one year since I’ve been here alive with KoaMalu. This is my anniversary. I’m really grateful because we get to plant more trees and save more birds.”
Other new vendors include glass lei maker Arlie Glass, fish jerky producer Punahele Jerky Company, ribbon lei maker Linomelia, and clothing brand Princess Kaiulani Fashions.
Arlie Glass owner and artist Arlie Pemberton, based on the North Shore of Oahu, worked her booth Thursday standing in front of a table strewn with glinting, delicate glass flowers.
“The aloha spirit is very alive in Hilo, and I feel lucky and honored to be here,” Pemberton said. “It’s really amazing because my work is — I’m not from 91直播; I’ve been here for ten years — it’s inspired very much by lei culture. This is just kind of all-encompassing for what I do. These are my people. They’re the people who appreciate it and understand the meaning behind it.”
She said she’s the only glass lei maker on Earth, and therefore some passersby are incredulous at first glance.
“If they haven’t seen it before, a lot of people do a double-take because some people actually think its plastic, and they realize it’s glass, and then their mind is blown. People are super stoked on it. I think it really resonates with people for graduations and special events because they love to give it for that and take pictures, and then the recipient will hang the lei on the wall forever to catch the light and remember the moment.”
The Merrie Monarch craft fair will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free.
Email Stefan Verbano at stefan.verbano@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
