Her carefully crafted module exploring kalo (taro) offers educators a profound window into Hawaiian culture, guided by the Hawaiian principle “He aliʻi ka ʻāina, he kauwā ke kanaka” – Land is chief and man is its servant. This foundational concept shapes how Pua teaches about kalo, which represents far more than just sustenance—it embodies the deep connection between land, people, and tradition. 

As both an educator and the author of the children’s book “My Kalo Has Lau, Big and Green,” Pua weaves together the parts of a kalo with the symbolism within our ʻike Hawaiʻi (cultural wisdom). Her lesson plan reveals how the very structure of the Hawaiian word ʻohana (family) comes from ʻohā, the kalo’s offspring buds bundled with the mature hā (stalks), illustrating how deeply this plant is intertwined with Hawaiian cultural concepts of family and community. 

The module provides educators with rich, hands-on activities that help students explore these connections while learning about sustainable agricultural practices that have sustained Hawaiian communities for generations. Through Pua’s guidance, students discover how traditional Hawaiian farming systems maximized efficiency and minimized waste, offering valuable lessons for contemporary environmental stewardship. 

Pua’s kalo module is part of a broader educational resource titled “Celebrating Cultural Inclusion in the School Garden” available through Kids Gardening. This module is great for K-5 educators who are looking to effectively center cultural learning in their school garden program. Educators and parents can access this comprehensive teaching resource, along with other valuable garden-based learning materials, by visiting KidsGardening.org. As a nonprofit educational organization, KidsGardening.org relies on sponsors and donors to provide these free garden-based resources to parents and educators, ensuring that cultural knowledge and garden education remain accessible to all who wish to learn and teach. 

From the first year of the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards in 1978, recognition has been given to individuals whose lifetime achievements and contributions to Hawaiian music and Hawaiʻi’s recording industry set them apart from their peers and colleagues. Alongside Aaron Mahi who received the Lifetime Achievement Awards were Jeff Apaka, Patience Namaka Bacon, Jay Larrin, and Dr. Puakea Nogelmeir.

Throughout his time with PIDF, ʻAnakala Aaron is sure to be seen with his ukulele. He has produced music for read-along CDs in PIDF books like My Kalo has Lau, Big and Green and Noa the Puhi Learns to Let Go. His ʻike in Hawaiian culture during staff professional development trainings or program huakaʻi shares the charisma of people and place through mele, oli, and moʻolelo.

“Aaron Mahi is a man for all seasons and all reasons,” said Billy Richards, Hui Nohona Manager. “I have known him for more than a few years, but even before we made our acquaintance I knew “of him” as he rose to prominence in the early 1980’s as the Royal Hawaiian Band Master. We at Partners in Development Foundation have a living treasure in our midst; a talented individual in many aspects of music, theology, and Hawaiian Culture. We are blessed to have him as a part of our PIDF ‘Ohana.”

Congratulations Aaron! This latest of your many awards and recognitions is well deserved— Eo!

Read more about Aaron Mahi shared by the Hawaiʻi Academy of Recording Arts.

From a very humble beginning, a young Hawaiian rose to become a linguist, a composer, a kahu and one of Hawaiʻi’s foremost conductors.

Aaron David Mahi was born on July 9, 1953, and from early on gravitated to music. At age 14, Aaron was selected as one of only 37 students to receive a Honolulu Symphony Orchestra mentored scholarship. He graduated from Kamehameha Schools in 1971, and from Connecticut’s Hartt School of Music in 1975. He also studied at the Herbert Bloomsted Institute of Conducting in California.

By 1976 Aaron was headlining concert billings with the new Windward Symphony Orchestra and as a jazz and rock bass guitarist. But he also focused on cultural perspectives in music sparked by the Hawaiian Renaissance of the time. As a member of Hui Aloha ʻAina Tuahine, UH Mānoa’s Hawaiian club he appeared on the Nani Award winning album Ka Leo Hawaiʻi released in 1977. At that time he joined the group Kaimana – Haunani Apoliona, Haunani Bernadino, and Eldon Akamine – on their second album Nalani – Nālani Olds with Kaimana (Pumehana Records). In 1978 Aaron was commissioned to create string arrangements for Kanaka – Captain Cook, A Bicentennial Tribute 1778 – 1978 (Pumehana Records) a recording commemorating the bicentennial arrival of Captain Cook.

By 1979 Aaron joined the Honolulu Symphony Orchestra as a bassist and began a stint conducting. Newly elected Honolulu mayor Aileen Anderson appointed Aaron bandmaster of the Royal Hawaiian Band in 1981, the first native Hawaiian bandmaster since Charles E King in 1933. His tenure would continue for the next 24 years.

Under Aaron’s direction highlights of the Band included a seven-nation European tour in 1983. The Royal Hawaiian Band was presented a shellenbaum, a band instrument, and a replica of one presented to King Kalākaua in 1881. Aaron was awarded the Golden Ring of Honor by the Association of German Musicians. Another milestone was a Carnegie Hall concert in 1988. The Friends of the Royal Hawaiian Band released The Royal Hawaiian Band Live at Carnegie Hall to commemorate the concert Part I (FRB 002) and Part II (FRB 003).

Over the years Aaron has participated in more than 20 recording projects performing and contributing liner notes. He continues to chart new musical arrangements for the Royal Hawaiian Band and for the Kamehameha Schools annual song contests. Aaron was awarded the German Order of Merit in 2003 and given the title, “Bundesverdienstkreuz.”

His service to the community includes his work as a kahu. Aaron has served as the kahu of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs and currently serves as head kahu of the Makiki Community of Christ Church. From 2009 to present, Kahu Aaron Mahi is a part of the Hui Nohona culture team for Partners in Development Foundation.

One definition of mahi is to cultivate; Aaron Mahi has cultivated much in the music annals of Hawaiʻi. For his outstanding work as a maestro, for his contributions to Hawaiʻi’s recording arts industry and for his unwavering dedication in community service, the Hawaiʻi Academy of Recording Arts presents its Highest Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award to Maestro and Kahu Aaron David Mahi.

The trainings were with our Ka Paʻalana program, first piloting the lessons with our program caregivers at Ka Paʻalana’s parenting class. The next day the lessons were conducted with our Ka Paʻalana staff. The trainings involved our value of pono, or goodness, morality — the idea of doing the right thing at the right time and for the right reasons.

Each lesson is half storytelling or myth, and half hands-on activity, and embeds Hawaiian cultural traditions in modern-day practices. Hui Nohona is constantly striving to bring the best practices to our staff and program families. After each training or webinar, participants complete evaluation forms. Our culture team uses these to ensure that what they are teaching is interesting, practical, and fun!

One important element of Hui Nohona’s work is to ensure that the cultural lessons are transferable to keiki. “We make sure that caregivers and teachers can take our lessons and translate them down to keiki,” says Hawaiian Cultural Specialist Assistant Malia Scanlan. “These activities are made for them to use with the kids.”

Hui Nohona has also been working with our Tūtū and Me program staff developing a curriculum based on PIDF’s five core values: aloha, lōkahi, mālama, pono, and poʻokela. The curriculum is being presented in a series of webinars in order to reach our outer island

Besides the internal webinars and classes for program families, Hui Nohona frequently has a presence at different PIDF events. At Ka Paʻalana’s annual health fair in October, Malia discussed some traditional Hawaiian medicine through ʻhealingʻ herbal teas: māmaki (a nettle), ʻōlena (turmeric), and koʻokoʻolau, a critically endangered plant native only to the island of Molokaʻi.

Health Fair participants were invited to make their own juice from freshly pulled ʻōlena, and sample the different teas. The juice was so potent, many participants said it burned almost like alcohol! Malia explained how according to Hawaiian tradition, the best time to pick herbal medicines is when the moon is fullest.

The Hui Nohona team has been a vital resource for both the staff at PIDF and our program families, as we seek to further our mission of serving Hawaiian families through timeless Hawaiian values.

The foundation’s Hawaiian Culture Team, Hui Nohona, organized the in-service with lecture sessions from guest presenters Michael Kumukauoha Lee who talked about the importance of maintaining a healthy balance between meeting the needs of the growing population and protecting the delicate ecosystems that make ʻEwa unique; and Shad Kāne who talked about the symbolism and importance of the kāhili and how it relates to governance. See related links column for more info.

To wrap up the day, the staff participated in making their very own Kahili pa`alima, which is a smaller hand held version of the towering traditional and formal kāhili.

In Hawaiian culture, mana is a spiritual quality that is considered to have supernatural origin, a sacred force. It is a form of a spiritual energy in addition to healing power, which can be found in places, objects as well as within people. Mana can be found in just about everything in existence and may either be good or evil, beneficial or dangerous.

Our kūpuna have taught us that there is a chance for us to gain or lose mana in everything that we do. Hopefully for us who work at PIDF, mana is often possessed or gained through our pono thoughts, words and actions, respecting the balance that exists in our lives and our kuleana to find and maintain that balance, being mindful that there is a proper time and place for everything.

Historically in Hawai‘i, there have been two paths to mana. Some have found that delicate balance between Kū and Hina; others have found it between Kū and Lono.

Figuratively speaking in English, using “kai nō” in this manner can be seen as a colloquial way of saying something like, “I thought we were supposed to work on Friday, but it was a holiday,” as compared to the more formal example, “I had no prior knowledge that there was a holiday last week.”

Our kūpuna had a way with words and idioms. If you looked deep enough, you could find a response, which created balance in such a conversation in Hawaiian. An appropriate response to “kai nō” would be “eia kā” (“At last!” or “There it is!”). These phrases may also present themselves in situations other than verbally. You might even see it in action at work with keiki or caregivers. There may be some times that they don’t quite give a correct answer to a question or they thought they found the right solution but didn’t succeed, you know that they’re still trying to figure it out. That can be seen as an example of the term, “kai nō.”

When they do finally figure it out and that ‘light bulb’ goes on, that could be seen as an example of “eia kā.”

In the time of our kūpuna (ancestors), their only source of communication was through the oral language. There was no written language in Hawaiʻi prior to the 1800ʻs. All our moʻolelo (stories), genealogies, commemoration of births or deaths, remembrance of historical events and all-important information was shared through the ʻōlelo, the oral language.

With this in mind we need to understand how important their chosen words were for our ancestors when they were communicating. A genealogical chant or the history of an important event could be altered if the ʻōlelo was misunderstood, misinterpreted or spoken (or chanted) incorrectly.

If a piece of information was to be passed on to ten people separately, it would not be uncommon to have the original message change at least five times if it went to ten different people on separate occasions (depending on each individual’s interpretation of what was heard). In today’s society, when a piece of information is passed verbally to someone, who passes it on to another, who then passes it on to someone else, it may possibly be referred to as gossip.

Although we may have many forms of communication in addition to oral language, such as text and email, which is very common now, the principle of ʻōlelo still remains the same. We must choose our words carefully whether spoken or written because misinterpretation, misunderstanding and incorrectly passing on information (written or oral) could “make or break” a situation.

Honi ihu (the touching of nose to nose) is a traditional form of greeting one another. It is the practice of hanu, taking in the essence of another, and respectfully acknowledging the presence of his/her ancestors.

Hanu can also be used as a technique to calm one self. Inhale and take in the “great breath,” then exhale. Practicing this can help us to become grounded and to center ourselves in times of adversity, aggravation, impatience and intolerance; especially those times when things just aren’t going your way.

When we hear the word patience we tend to think of situations in which we are actually impatient; having to stand in long lines, waiting for someone to finish eating so we can all leave the table after dinner or literally sitting at a stop light for five minutes watching all the cars go in the opposite direction.

Much more than merely being patient, ahonui literally means “great breath.” If we can just pause sometimes and take a “deep breath,” we would actually have the time to take a step back and reflect upon what’s happening around us. It is a reflection of our ability to practice endurance, tolerance and acceptance in situations that we find challenging. Practicing ahonui builds character.

Hold the breath! Be patient; persist!

This ʻōlelo noʻeau was traditionally a war cry to encourage the warriors to continue on, even when times were hard and it seemed like a never-ending struggle. There are days when our lives seem so full of trials and tribulations that we seemingly cannot overcome. If we heed to the words of our kūpuna and be diligent and press on, we will soon see the results of our endurance.

The message of Lili‘uokalani below is placed before us as a significant challenge, in the waning days of her life. Like the ʻōlelo noʻeau, it reminds us to be courageous in the face of change and uncertainty, to be discerning in the face of trials and tribulation, to stay committed in the face of circumstances and obstacles nearly insurmountable, and to remain clear thinking and focused for the long term with humble spirit and keen sensitivity and perspective.

“I could not turn back the time for the political change, but there is still time to save our heritage. You must remember never to cease to act because you fear you may fail. The way to lose any earthly kingdom is to be inflexible, intolerant and prejudicial. Another way is to be too flexible, tolerant of too many wrongs and without judgment at all. It is a razor’s edge. It is the width of a blade of pili grass. To gain the kingdom of heaven is to hear what is not said, to see what cannot be seen, and to know the unknowable, that is Aloha. All things in this world are two; in heaven there is but one.” –– Lili‘uokalani 1917

Defined as character and being, ‘ano is the essence of a person. Our ‘ano is influenced by the values that have been instilled in us by our kūpuna (elders). It is the core of who we are and that guiding force that is reflected through our individual thoughts, attitudes and actions.

We are often challenged to make the right decisions and best choices based on what we know. We need to be purposeful and conscientious when faced with such challenges or at times, temptations. There are times when we make decisions and choices according to what we want, not what we need, and the result of those choices and decisions may not be what is best for our ʻohana, our organization or our community as a whole.