A pair of Maui musicians, five-time Grammy Award winner George Kahumoku Jr. and KAOI radio host Cindy Paulos, a UNESCO Cross-Cultural and Peace Crafters Award winner, teamed with musician and filmmaker Rupam Sarmah to produce a special CD release titled Aum─Aloha Blessings. Kahumoku said, “Throughout the CD the aloha chant connects our ha (breath) with the aina (land) and the kai (ocean) creating lokahi (harmony) and peace between man, the creatures of the earth, the plants, and the fruits and vegetables that sustain us.”
Using music for uplifting, redirecting, and reflecting the emotions is vital to improve wellbeing during these challenging times. “The stress of Covid made me turn to the creative side within me to find something positive to do to counter the flood of bad news and fear that was present in the news,” said Paulos. “It felt so good creating this project in a time of such need. The results are direct and immediate.”
The new release, Aum─Aloha Blessings, is available in stereo and Dolby Atmos® on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Tidal, and other platforms. It has 154 minutes of eight tracks plus an additional eight instrumental tracks for meditation. “The divine sound is music for the soul,” Kahumoku emphasized. “The chanting and healing energies from around the world are over 7000 years old.”
Aum─Aloha Blessingswas inspired by Sarmah’s visit to Maui when he showed his film One LittleFinger at the McCoy theater. His feature film made history with a cast of over eighty persons with disabilities. “One Little Finger is not just a film,” said Kahumoku. “It’s a movement to promote inclusion and diversity to break the barriers of stigma in disability. I worked on the project long-distance during the pandemic with over 100 musicians to create the blending of Indian music with Hawaiian chant and spoken-word invocation.”
Sarmah reflected, “The aloha tradition combined with ancient mantras produces forward-thinking creations of sound. The music compositions will help in meditation, yoga, and healing our minds, with proceeds going to the nonprofit One Little Finger Global Foundation. Our work reflects the message of oneness, peace, and aloha.”
We get to know each other through music. It brings joy amid the pandemic and it is a wonderful way to connect us.
Maui resident Rinko Jeffers, a recipient of the Nihon Bunka Award in 2019, is a gifted haiku master poet. The Award recognizes individuals for their excellence and contributions to the Japanese arts and culture and for their unselfish willingness to share their talents with the community Jeffers aloha and knowledge have been key to her success in bringing the joy of haiku to so many poets writing in Japanese and English alike. In 1996, following her 14-year employment with the United Nations in Japan and Africa, Jeffers co-established the Maui Hototogisu Haiku-kai Club, which she continues to lead. In 2009, she started the Maui Haiku Poetry in English Club. Chancellor of UH, Emeritus, Dr. Clyde Sakamoto, is the honorable resident of both haiku groups.
To Jeffers, enjoying life with haiku is to consciously appreciate the energy in our natural environment. Haiku poetry, a type of short-form poetry originally from Japan, consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third. It is a unique form of art between the author and the readers.
“A haiku verse must be written about something that caught the author’s attention for a flash of a second, something that nature presents,” Jeffers explained. “The moon, the flowers, the birds, the wind, and mundane human activities are all there, all the time, around us. But at odd moments, something may hit us unexpectedly, leading us to an aha! moment, a re-recognition of self. To evoke such deep feelings is the essence of haiku writing, and we share that moment. It is a condensed form of a conversation between human souls, between the author and the readers, similar to the effect of emoji.”
Jeffers, a volunteer at the Maui Friends of the Library, also provides introductory haiku classes to third and fourth grade students at Paia, Waihee and Lihikai Elementary Schools. She reflected, “Sometimes, by invitation of the teachers, I introduce haiku to the children in their class as a community service. The students seem to enjoy trying to write haiku. They realize they too are great poets. I have received many thank-you letters from them.”
To write haiku, we just keep on trying to catch the moment and keep practicing, writing with our own language in this short and poetic form.
Today in Hawaii, science-minded students, like the ancient celestial navigators, look to the sky to understand what is going on in the cosmos. For over a decade, the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy’s (IfA) Hawaii Student Teacher Astronomy Research (HI STAR) program has attracted middle and high school students from across the state. Led by Dr. James “JD” Armstrong, IfA Maui Technology Education and Outreach Specialist, HI STAR introduces students to the basic practices of science – exploring, going out and discovering new things, and adding to humanity’s understanding of the universe.
Despite the pandemic, Dr. Armstrong and his team, interacting through online Zoom meetings, were able to run the 2021 HI STAR program. An advantage to holding the program online was that researchers from around the world were able to give instruction in their areas of expertise. While the group missed meeting together, the program was a great success.
“A highlight of my job is mentoring students and assisting them with their science projects,” said Armstrong. “Using Astrometrica, a software tool that calculates precise positions of the celestial bodies, students can remotely observe the sky as it is seen from different parts of the earth. They can analyze collected image data, as well as watch an asteroid make a fly-by of the earth. Fourteen students attended and worked on projects ranging from solar rotation to active galactic nuclei.”
One student reflected, “The HI STAR program felt like somewhere I truly belonged. It was a pleasure meeting new people that had my same interests and discovering extraordinary objects in space together. Dr. Armstrong helped me with sorting out how the physics works which brought me a step closer to my dream of becoming a professional astronomer. I am so thankful for this opportunity!”
Another student added, “Dr. Armstrong has encouraged my interest in hypervelocity stars; stars thought to originate when a binary system encounters the supermassive black holes in our Milky Way. He has motivated me to better understand the age and classification of these stars and has given me the confidence to think that I could actually discover something new about the universe!”
Since the end of the 2021 HI STAR session, several of the students have received high honors at science fairs and their work has been in the press.
Dr. JD Armstrong, UH IfA Technology Education and Outreach Specialist
Since 1996, Hawaii Wildlife Fund (HWF) has actively protected native wildlife. The nonprofit is dedicated to the conservation of Hawaii’s marine wildlife including monk seals, turtles, and dolphins, as well as cleaning the marine debris off our beaches. “Our mission is to engage communities and volunteers in educational outreach, marine debris removal, conservation, research and advocacy,” said Hannah Bernard, HWF Executive Director. “We believe that restoring the health of our natural world is essential.”
Currently, the main focus of HWF is on coastal and marine wildlife species such as the hawksbill sea turtle (honu’ea) and the Hawaiian green sea turtle (honu). “We are passionate about protecting our beloved honu and honu’ea,” Bernard explained. “All monitoring and excavation activities are carried out by trained HWF biologists and volunteers operating under endangered species permits with state and federal agency partners. We encourage those who want to help with our work to let us train them to do it properly. Going strong for over 20 years, we have protected more than 10,300 hatchlings and the reward never gets old!”
Throughout the years, HWF staff and volunteers have hauled over 360 tons of debris off beaches and surrounding coastline, including fishing nets so heavy that they needed a winch placed on a truck to lug the material from the shore. Bernard noted, “The plastic in the ocean is a global threat to the health of our oceans. Our main concern is that beaches be safe for both our community and wildlife. We can do something about plastics by reducing our consumption of plastic products, recycling and disposing them in landfills.”
During the Covid pandemic, HWFs environmental education mentors worked hard to convert all their hands-on youth programs to virtual platforms. Funded by a NOAA grant, they introduced topics such as Hawaiian coastal ecosystems, biology, and marine debris impact and solutions. Bernard said, “Teaching our next generation to protect our environment is vital. Students often find new ways to make a difference. Our education programs are available free to all community members. We need unified island communities that really want to help protect Hawaii’s wildlife.”
By volunteering, interning, and donating, the community can help keep Hawaii’s wildlife free and healthy for generations to come.
With beans grown on Maui, the owners of Akamai Coffee Company, Kimberly and Byron Brown, have perfected the cup of coffee from start to finish. In business since 2007, with a drive-thru in Kahului adjacent to Home Depot, the Browns have also opened fashionable Kihei and Wailea cafes. As Akamai dealt with the Covid-19 global impact, they realized the importance of being creative to make the business work through this challenging time. The drive-thru Kahului and Kihei locations with grab-and-go choices were a big help. Once allowed to reopen, they were ready to resume in-person business, with Covid restrictions.
“We have been blessed,” said Sarah Strubhar, Akamai store manager. “We are so grateful for our customers and we work hard to offer them a great product. Akamai coffee beans are 100-percent locally grown on the West Side in Kaanapali. From the farm, our beans go to a private upcountry roaster in Haiku. The brewed coffee, americanos, lattes, frappes, mocha, seasonal roasts, and more, are all local flavors. We roast two to three times a week so everything we make is super fresh. Roasting is an essential part of the seed-to-serving process to get the finest tasting coffee into your cup. The roasters at Akamai have spent countless hours fine-tuning the Maui coffees to get the highest quality flavor notes and profiles in each and every batch.”
The high caffeine content in Akamai coffee is due to the way they roast. Their medium roasting technique ensures the natural caffeine is not burned off. “Once the beans come to us, we make sure everything works to perfection,” Strubhar noted. “Plus, because great coffee starts with good water; we use a filtration system at each location.”
The food menu at Akamai also consists of local Maui ingredients. With their pastries and other dishes, such as avocado toast, and their specialized coffees including Maui Peaberry, Maui Mokka, Makawao Avenue Roast, Yellow Brick Road Roast and their Akamai Signature Roast, customers are returning daily. Strubhar emphasized, “Our goal is to provide the best we can for our clientele. It is time for Made on Maui to shine!”
Maui produces some of the most delicious coffees in the world. It means a great deal to share a piece of Maui with the people in the community.
