HANAPEPE — There are normally no tours, no guides and very little explanation at the Salt Pond salt pans on the Westside. All of that changed Tuesday morning when Aunty Janet Kahalekomo, a salt farmer, joined Stella Burgess, director of
HANAPEPE — There are normally no tours, no guides and very little explanation at the Salt Pond salt pans on the Westside.
All of that changed Tuesday morning when Aunty Janet Kahalekomo, a salt farmer, joined Stella Burgess, director of Hawaiian culture and community relations at the Grand Hyatt Kaua‘i Resort and Spa, to offer a tour and talk story session on the banks of the salt pans.
“Sure, we can do without all the hard work,” Kahalekomo said in answering one of her grandchild’s questions. “But I keep them close to the work so they learn. If we don’t, where will all the information go?”
That philosophical approach to life spiced the tour.
Responding to a visitor’s comment on the ash from burning cane, Kahalekomo said after this crop there will be no more sugar cane.
Gay & Robinson, the only remaining sugar plantation on the island, will be terminating its sugar cane cultivation operations as people know it today.
“When there’s no more cane, who’s going to remember with fondness, all the problems with the ash and smoke?” Kahalekomo said.
Similarly, as the tour group made its way through the now empty salt pans, Kahalekomo prepared for the presentation, noting that her grandson Ronson was leading the tour.
“You gotta let go the strings,” Kahalekomo said. “He’s been harvesting salt and now it’s his turn to explain how it’s done.”
The presentation by the cultural practitioner and kupuna, or elder, instructor at ‘Ele‘ele School was seasoned with anecdotes and lifestyle vignettes of the plantation era.
“We all work together,” Kahalekomo said. “Once upon a time, they grew rice in Hanapepe and I knew all about rice. The rice farmers helped the taro farmers when it was time to harvest and the taro farmers helped the rice farmers when it was time to pull in the rice. And everybody helped the salt farmers.”
Kahalekomo said her grandchildren constantly question her about why they need to do all the hard work involved in salt harvesting.
“Everybody needs salt,” Kahalekomo said. “You can get salt without all the hard work, but it’s the information about how it’s done that’s important.”
She noted that in the old days, fishermen used salt to dry their fish to preserve it, Japanese farmers used salt to make “koko,” or a daikon pickle that quickly became a staple in plantation camps.
These relationships demonstrated how groups worked together with each other, each group benefiting from the knowledge of each other.
“We do this so that information doesn’t get lost,” Kahalekomo said.
She and her family will be on hand Saturday at the Grand Hyatt where her instruction will shift to that of Ho‘oulana i ka lau niu, or coconut frond weaving. Her presentation is open to the public and items will be offered for sale between 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.
During this presentation, Kahalekomo and her ‘ohana will discuss the versatility of the coconut beyond it being a source of food. The trunk of the tree was used in creating pahu, or a Hawaiian drum, and bowls, fans and carrying baskets were fashioned from its leaves.
Kahalekomo will be just one of numerous vendors, crafters and entertainers that will wrap up a week-long series of cultural presentations celebrating the birth of Prince Jonah Kuhio.
