Looking back at Mother

Looking towards Makuahine

7x10in. Transparent watercolor. $200
The huaka’i with Marae Ha’a Koa last year was an eye opener. I had never gone inside the Makua cave, only driven past the gaping hole on my way to Kaena Point. The cave of the first Mother of the fern people. After we were instructed in protocol and the story of the cave, by Kumu Glen Kila, both its origin story as well as modern history during WWII, changed my perception of this landscape, now whenever I am in the area, I see the Mother, and the Father in the slopes and in the cave.

A question was asked by one of the artists on the huaka’i if it was more respectful to leave an offering or to not leave something. Kumu Kila, after a thoughtful pause replied, ‘Since it is a cave and we want to come here and feel comfortable here, and if a lot of people come and leave things, after a while, it will be a lot of stuff and fresh fruit and flowers become rotten fruit and dried flowers that can attract rats and insects. Leaving it clean when you go is probably the best thing, so we don’t have to deal with it when we come to clean and care for the cave.’ Whenever I am at the cave, I pick up dried flowers, fruit, candy wrappers, etc and toss it.

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