PO‘IPU — Good fun is the way to describe Ho‘ohanohano Mo‘omeheu, or “Honoring our Hawaiian culture,” that was presented by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority and the Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau in partnership with the Grand Hyatt Kaua‘i Resort and Spa on Saturday.
“I never realized how much counting you need to do when weaving coconuts,” said Michelle Rego of the county’s Office of Economic Development. “That’s why the workshops are in a separate area from the vendors. People need to concentrate.”
Nalani Brun, the OED director, and her daughter Kamalani were volunteers with Onio Punzal of the Kaua‘i Museum in leading the workshop on coconut frond weaving. They had fun with the baskets they created at the workshop that was just like how Onio does it every week at the museum.
Workshops included Ni‘ihau shell earrings, coconut frond weaving, Lei hulu, Haku la‘i, lauhala weaving and more were sold out.
Sue Kanoho, of the Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau (KVB), and her husband Sol, retired from the Kaua‘i Fire Department and helping at the Kaua‘i Emergency Management Agency, took up a station offering information on the Kaua‘i Visitors Bureau and Destination Management Action Plan (DMAP).
The DMAP, as defined in the HTA Strategic Plan 2020-2025, includes attracting and educating responsible visitors; advocating for solutions to overcrowded attractions, overtaxed infrastructure and other tourism-related problems; and working with other responsible agencies to improve natural and cultural assets valued by both Hawai‘i residents and visitors.
Their KVB presence was enough to break down walls and get people being “local,” or the way we do things every day, like Pete and Aunty Kapu Alquiza of Na Hula o Kaohikukapulani and their musician crew that included Rhoda Libre, Steven Kaui, and Skippah Caycayon, who took the stage at the Seaview Terrace that prompted people to whip out their smart phones for video.
On the vendor strip that included about two dozen Kaua‘i Made vendors, the vendors exchanged with each other between the shoppers who appeared in surges.
