The Kahawaii family orchestrated a hukilau at Hukilau Beach in celebration of Laie Days on Saturday, July 18. More than 100 people participated in the wet and sandy team activity of pulling in a fishing net - creating an overall happy, exciting and easygoing atmosphere, as one participant described.
Robert Kahawaii said his family does hukilaus for special occasions, like Memorial Day, funerals and Laie Days. “We do it for the community in July. We are the only ones who still practice it. This is a good thing for us to do as a family.”
When everyone was gathered around at the beach, Kahawaii gave an introduction about the hukilau. He said, “In the old days, when the community needed food, they would gather families together because you need a lot of people.” He explained what the “lau” is in “hukilau.”
“The lau—it’s a piece of rope with dried ti leaves tied to it. It scares the fish into the net.” He said in the old days, the Hawaiians only had a small net because they were poor. They would use the lau to extend their fishing area. The net used on Saturday was roughly 80 feet long, he said, but they still used lau.
Kahawaii’s brother-in-law, Robert Ah Puck, announced to the novice helpers, “This net is like gold to us. It is how we feed our family. There are plenty rocks and trees in the water and they’ll rip and tear the net. It’s not a race to pull it in. So when the captain says, ‘Stop!’ You stop. The biggest thing with hukilau is it’s a team effort.”
The hukilau began as three men pushed a small wooden boat filled with net into the ocean. Kahawaii rowed the boat in a large curve until he reached the shore far down the beach, creating a semicircle where the fish were trapped by the lead-weighted net. Another man acted as an anchor, holding the end of the long net as it unfolded.
Divers were around the net, and Kahawaii’s son, Kaleo Kahawaii explained why. “As divers, we have to surround the net so we can lift it over debris … so it doesn’t rip the net and the fish doesn’t escape.”
Zane Clark acted as the anchor at this hukilau. He helped organize hukilaus 50 years ago, “and it’s pretty much the same,” he said, laughing. “We’d come down every Friday—it was a church assignment. We had to gather 80 to 100 coconuts and make the haupia. I learned to husk them, but I was never as good as the Polynesians.”
50 years ago, he said he was a librarian at BYUH, and returned to that position as a senior missionary 18 years ago. He said he and his wife visit Laie every summer.
Senior missionary Sister Mary Robinson, said, “We sang the song as kids, and now we are going to the hukilau!”
Clark held on as the rest of the participants pulled the lau on the other end, bringing the net in from the ocean under the direction of the Kahawaiis.
Once the net reached the beach, the long lau ropes were untied and people began to pull directly on the net. The top and bottom of the net were brought together to keep any fish securely caught as more and more net was brought up to the beach and closer to where Clark was holding the end.
Emi Miskin and Alina Allen came to their first hukilau in conjunction with a Young Single Adult conference that was happening the same day. Miskin, a sophomore at BYUH from California studying graphic design, said, “It’s way fun. I would totally come again.” She said it is a great community-strengthening activity.
Allen drove from her home near UH-Manoa, where she studies marine biology. She said, “It’s really cool how all these people are together just to do this.”
That community aspect of the hukilau is what makes it special, as Kaleo Kahawaii said. “One big thing I like about hukilau is everyone coming together for a cause. Just with it being a community activity and with all the help from everyone, it’s a good place to be at. The size of the community was a big factor in helping. As Hawaiians, we say ‘laulima’: many hands make the workload less.”
Once the net had been gathered in to the beach, children and adults detangled the fish and carried them around in their hands. Some posed for photographs with the fish dangling from their mouths to the laughter of those present. Bags of cut oranges were passed around for the refreshment of those on the beach.
Sina Fonoimoana, an alumna in ICS - communications from California and Laie said her family was eager to eat the fish. “We are not going to cook them. We are going to eat them raw.” They planned on removing the scales cutting up the meat. “Just salt is good. Nothing fancy. We just like fish.”
Kaleo Kahawaii said he had expected a larger catch, “but with it being a hukilau, it doesn’t really matter. I remember growing up we’d always catch loads and loads of fish. We’d have coolers here filled of fish. Now with the ocean kind of changing and things happening in the world, global warming, stuff like that, there’s not that much fish now. But we are always happy with what we catch.”
He said his family will eat some and they’ll give the rest “out to people who need food, like the old kupunas of Laie.” The Kahawaiis also do a hukilau every Memorial day and have partnered with Hawaiian Electric to bus homeless youth to Laie. “The majority of those kids have never been on this side of the island.”