Aloha Alive: The Dawn O'Brien Podcast
Why Aloha? the whole world knows what aloha is--love in Hawai'i--but better to ask WHY ALOHA? the answer is as essential as breath & as fun as whistling, so LET'S GO!
Aloha Alive: The Dawn O'Brien Podcast
E16 Growing Aloha: Trash to Treasure ~ Scrappahz Union 96792
"Like Scrap?!" LET'S GOOOO! Out of Wesside O'ahu comes a grassroots Hawaiian innovation & youth movement that's award-winning & legacy building. Kumu Mikala Piper & student leader Jeremiah Magallones share how their high school is transforming waste into wealth while healing both land & lāhui (community).
What makes this conversation especially moving is hearing how personal transformation happens alongside environmental innovation. Jeremiah shares his journey from being "kolohe" (mischievous) after losing his father at age 11 to finding purpose thru cultural connection. Meanwhile, Kumu Piper reveals how her students--many lost parents & face significant hardship--have become her "aloha heroes" thru overcoming, resilience & service to others.
Discover how traditional Hawaiian wisdom offers solutions to modern environmental challenges, & how a group of determined Wesside teens are changing their community one cardboard box at a time. Visit hānaikaiāulu.org to support them or bring yr cardboard to their monthly collection on the first Saturday of each month. 'ĒŌ WAIANAE!
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Aloha and welcome to Aloha. Alive, the heartbeat of Hawaii. I'm extremely excited to have the guest that we have here today. I've known this lovely young lady since we were both at college together at University of Hawaii in Hilo, Hawaii. This is Kumu Mikala Piper. Welcome, Kumu Mikala. Aloha mahalo, thank you for having me. She is right to business. Aloha, mahalo, thank you for having me. I'm Dani Kaleikini, and over here we have a young warrior hammer, also from the West side. It is Jeremiah and Jeremiah, I'm sorry I didn't get your last name, sweetie.
Speaker 3:Jeremiah Megalones.
Speaker 1:Oh, now that's a name. It's kind of like an introductory chant right there Jeremiah Megalones. All right, welcome, jeremiah, to you as well. You're welcome. Thank you both for coming. They represent a wonderful Scrappas Union 96792, which is the zip code for the West Side, makaha and Waianae. They are part of a nonprofit known as Haanai Kaya'ulu, which is caring for the community, and this was started by Kumu Piper. She is also a teacher at Naana Kuli Hai, an intermediate school, and a Waianae native Hawaiian. Now, what I love about this is that we are Malama'aina, which is to care for the land, but I would like them to tell you what exactly is going on. Who is Scrapa's Union? Sorry, I was trying to be all local and get my pigeon in right there. Scrapa's Union, 96792. And what do you folks do?
Speaker 3:Scrapa's Union is basically a program that's underneath our nonprofit organization, Hanaikaya Ulu. To tell you about it, the name is Scrapples Union because we're trying to change the stereotypes of the white on 996792.
Speaker 1:Gee, what stereotype are you speaking of? Wherefore doth thou speaketh? A little birdie told me that everybody thinks the West Side just wants to fight, and just wants to violence, all of that.
Speaker 3:So we are changing the narrative by saying Scrappas Union 96792. Yeah, we like scrap. Yeah, we still like scrap. We like scrap your cardboard and your food waste.
Speaker 1:So you're taking the scraps and you're making something new. What exactly are you doing?
Speaker 3:so we do food composting, but our main thing that we do is we divert cardboard out of the landfills or we try to divert cardboard out of the landfills so we turn cardboard into um clean and fresh mulch for our farmers wow, how exactly do you do that?
Speaker 1:Because my one-time experience I was living on Molokai at the time and I was trying to do the mulching thing and then I had a sincere, severe smell and I had a lot of rat tribe joining my fale so how about you tell me how you guys do that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so first step is we usually go out into the community, or the community comes to us and we collect their cardboard, their everyday household cardboard. We also go to like small convenience stores, like the kind of stores that cannot afford the cardboard trash bins, right. So we go to their establishment and we collect their cardboard. Next step is we take off any plastic, we keloi any rubbish, any opala on top of the cardboard.
Speaker 1:The staples, right the staples, all of that.
Speaker 3:Because we don't want that going back into the aina.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 3:So we keloi all of that and then we do a double check, make sure we didn't miss anything, and then we send it through the shredder and it comes out shredded Nice. And then that's when we can use it for on any of our products or our farmers.
Speaker 1:Wow, Now that is doing and they come is it once a month to the school. If I wanted to come and donate some cardboard and all my extra Amazon boxes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so every first Saturday of every month.
Speaker 1:Wow, how did it get started, jeremiah, because I'm going to fast forward this videotape for all y'alls. In 2022, december, you folks won a $25,000 grant from American Savings Bank Thank you so much to ASB and their Cakey Co business and you guys got $25,000. What exactly did you do with that, and why was I not at that Maoli concert with you? No, I'm just kidding, they didn't use it at Maoli concert. What did you guys do with the $25,000?
Speaker 3:So with the $25,000, we actually bought a cardboard shredder for every single school on our Westside Moku. No you blessed it forward, yes, from elementary schools up to high school, and we also got a shredder for the hawaii deaf and blind school in town.
Speaker 1:Oh, because we love that we didn't want to like exclude them either yes, because I don't know.
Speaker 3:We had like some kind of relationship with them. So we we gave them a shredder and along with the shredder we actually do like a workshop safety protocol how we do the cardboard shredding and what can they do with their cardboard shredding.
Speaker 1:So you do the training for the schools. You not only gave them the shredder machine, which is, we'll talk about price, but you also train them which is the true essence and heart of Hanaikayaulu to care for your community, and you're not leaving out those who are hearing impaired or sight impaired as well. That's wonderful. Now, once you guys finish that processing, and where it comes out shredded, what then do you do with this cardboard now that it's clean?
Speaker 3:So well, we started off with giving it to our local farmers. So we get our cardboard from the community, we shred it and then the local farmers contact us because they want to use it, because it's very beneficial for their farms. There's multiple benefits with this shredded cardboard, just for the farms in general.
Speaker 1:Like talk about one benefit. Is it like with planting?
Speaker 3:One benefit like they use it for, like sheet mulching weed mat, like a natural weed mat, If you put enough layers onto it, it'll like help block out the oxygen for the weeds. So instead of using that black plastic weed mat, yes, which goes back into our aina and back into our food.
Speaker 1:And then we wonder why all these microplastics are in our body. Oh, I'm sorry I said that out loud. I kind of have this truth. Tourette's happen suddenly.
Speaker 3:The truth hurts, just strikes like lightning, but it sets you free.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Jeremiah. So they can use it for instead of that black sheet mulching. That's way better for our bodies. I've also seen that you guys do planters with it. Ecolomai, I know I have and see, this is what I'm talking about. I said sorry, Ecolomai, this is the green planter that most of us go to, let's say, any kind of home store and we're buying some plants and then it comes in these green things. You guys replace those with what?
Speaker 3:Shredded cardboard.
Speaker 1:That's amazing because, again. It's compostable and it can go back into the iron and it's got to be a lot better for the gut biodome of my plants.
Speaker 3:So one of our main objectives is to reduce the plastic usage. So we make products out of shredded cardboard to try to replace plastic usage. So one of the products that we do make out of shredded cardboard is the planter pot. We've also made oil change boxes. We've made oil change boxes for cars've made Oil change boxes for cars, for your automobiles, yes. That's genius we made oil change boxes for a more sustainable way of disposing of your oil. Yeah, you, and then we also made sleeping mats and pillowcases for our houses community.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, because, to be honest, they're often sleeping on the cardboard boxes, but this would be the softer, cleaner one, and it shows Malama that somebody loves them yeah, so we made them because we were thinking about, like the um, the rubbish that's left behind.
Speaker 3:You know when, when they get sweeped off the beach, everything is just left there. All of their opala just stays there. What does it end up going into in the ocean? Landfill so with our cardboard sleeping mats and pillowcases. If it goes into the the ocean it'll be fine, and if it get disposed you can just put it by a tree, put it by a plant.
Speaker 1:It'll help nourish that plant and it becomes again the sheet mulching that helps all of our native plants to grow. This is amazing to me, and I've been a lifetime member of the recycling club since before it was even a thing, even before we had recycling in the islands of Hawaii. But another thing that I often say when people say, oh, why are you picking up the extra napkins? Or why are you using reduce, reuse, recycle? And I say because Hawaii is small islands and we only have so much land to fill and therefore I don't want to fill the landfills, right? So if we, number one, you're making sure we don't have plastic by replacing it, and, number two, if we are using your planters and the recycled cardboard, it goes back into feeding the land and it teaches malama'aina. Now, this is a term that I've used a couple of times. May I ask you, kumu, what does that mean, malama'aina?
Speaker 2:Well taking care of our aina, and aina is people, aina is the ocean. Aina is the land. That's good, but we wanted to change the name. If you go back to Hanai, it means the same thing, right? But Hanai has the word ha in it and ha is the breath of life, right? So when you hanai something like your community, it's a forever kind of thing. I feel, like malama aina is, you know, like it's just. I mean, students will think of it. Oh, it's just a one-hour rubbish pickup.
Speaker 1:Or it's a two-hour.
Speaker 2:You know go clean the whatever you're cleaning. You know picking up trash on the beaches. Go clean the whatever you're cleaning. You know picking up trash on the beaches. But when you Hanai something, you take that in and it's. It's yours to Malama forever it's family, yeah. That's good. Kai'ulu is the name of community. It means community, but it also is the name of wind in Waianae.
Speaker 2:Oh, so, it's a nice circular, you know, and it's like the food system, it's the aloha system, it's the lei, it's a, you know, it's the recycle system. Like you give, you get, you go around and that's the kind of wind that's the kaya'ulu wind in Waianae.
Speaker 1:So it's a place name as well, and for those of you watching perhaps from the continent or from around the world, part of Hawaii's names are sacred. They're very meaningful. There's usually a kauna or a deeper meaning to it, and then there are place names, and so you have different rain for different parts of the island and different winds. So this one is for the. Waianae side, eo Waianae our Waianae native.
Speaker 1:Now I love and I want to back up on one part that you said as well, which was Malama'aina, which normally many people here in Hawaii know as take care of the earth. Now I'm going to tell you a bit of a funny story, but I'm thankful you brought it up. Kumu, which means teacher, thank you for teaching us, because one of my sisters lives on Kauai and there were some tourists there. I'm going to keep this very clean on how I describe this. I'm not stating anything about any people group, but so there were some tourists who were abusing their privileges and my sister and I are not Hawaiian necessarily, though we grew up here all our lives and my sister felt like she had to get out and regulate and, um, she told these tourists who were not. She said, hey, malama aina, and then she called me up and she was upset that she had gotten upset, and she goes does that even? Is that the right usage of what I said? And I said, no, my understanding, as you just said, kumu, is it's not just the land, because they were trashing the earth, but she, I said, it's also treating the people who are waiting for that spot, which was her right like. Don't abuse your time here now.
Speaker 1:It also brings to mind and I saw this in an article that was written about you folks. Thank you both and all of the other students who are represented here who may not be here physically. Thank you to all of you for your hard work. You were also written up not just in the Ko'olina publication but you also recently were in the Hawaiian Airlines magazine Glossier bougie slay. But it was talking about in the Ko'olina publication that kuleana is another word and we've covered that just a little bit with Pastor Alan Cardenas, who's a good family member of the Nana Kuli High School in the Valley. But it said in the Ko'olina publication and I wanted to bring this up to you and ask you both it says kuleana. I normally thought of it as that's my responsibility, but it had an interesting word. It says it's a reciprocal responsibility. What does that mean?
Speaker 2:you know that is when I teach on kuleana. It is actually an expectation of our kupuna. Yeah, so it's expected, wow, it's expected for you to do kuleana. It's expected for you to hanaikayaulu. It's an expectation. Where did we lose that mana'o or that life? That's our native life ways is kuleana is reciprocal, right. That is part of the ahupua'a system and we talk about things are all in systems, right, but that, and if you go back, like the ahupua'a system, cannot even work properly Without the ohana system.
Speaker 2:So, you need the ohana system first. Yes, and it starts in the ohana Wow Right. Whatever your ohana is mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, uncle, auntie the ohana system, the home. The home has to work first in order for the macro to work Right. So that's the micro, is the ohana, the oha Right to work right.
Speaker 1:So that's the micro. Is the ohana, the oha, right? So much richness to what you're saying because it's on so many levels. Yes, you're talking about ahupua'a, which here in the islands that means it's like a slice of pie. It goes from the top of the mountain down to the ocean and that whole ahupua'a has to work together. So you would have taro farmers or wala sweet potato farmers working with the fishermen who are down in the ocean, who are also malama, all of the other people who are in the village, and it comes into an ohana, as you said. I was just speaking with the Pakele Ohana, right, it's another family that knows you and loves you, both Kumu and Jeremiah, and she's from Waimanalo, now living Kapoleolei, which is bougie west side.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, that's not west side, that's not west side, sis.
Speaker 1:No, I'm always instructing them. I'm like Kapolei, you guys, is bougie. They go no girl. You know we are, we're west side. I go no, you not. You have a CPK in a mall. That means you're bougie and they go no girl. We go no girl. We have farms. I go, it's a food land farms. You can't get more boujee than a food land farms. Okay, okay, anyway, back to our part now. But you're talking about Ohana and the Pakele.
Speaker 2:Ohana Kaulana Pakele was one of our great singers who sang and our classmate and our classmate, your classmate and our classmate and our classmate, your classmate.
Speaker 1:You're younger, but his last post before he died of a sudden heart attack was he was doing as you just said. He was instructing people to pick up the trash and Malama Aina, stop trashing this land. This is our home, and he took it personally. Pastor Allen said Kuleana is extreme ownership. We do took it personally. Pastor alan said kuleana is extreme ownership. We do take it personally. And even though kaulana was known for being mr aloha, always partying, always smiling, you know he still was laying down the law, because it's interesting to me that you just brought that up, kumu that it was from our ancestors or our predecessors, who had an expectation. Where did we lose it? And when we challenge the youth to rise up, that's when we get Hama warriors like Jeremiah.
Speaker 2:Amen, we lost it at. You know, there's so many changes in the Department of Education and there's standardized testing that is more prevalent then aloha, yeah, yeah. And if we go back and look at culture through and people, they understood that right. The land is chief and we are merely its servants. So we take care of the aina as our grandma as our grandpa right as our ancestor, and then, even further deeper, papahanaumoku and Wakea. And if you look at those concepts in life, they're people and they're our life ways they're living and breathing.
Speaker 1:The earth is a living, breathing thing, and once we lose sight of that, as you're bringing up so well thank you, kumu Once we lose sight of our connection to, the earth and we don't take care of her, she cannot take care of us, which is what we're beginning to see. Yes, how did you start doing the Hanaikaya Ulu Kumu?
Speaker 2:the Hanaikaya Ulu kumo Hanaikaya Ulu started in 2020. Like a lot of people, you know we were blessed with the time for Ohana. Yeah beaches was closed, parks were closed, and what do you do? And I saw my worms. They were trying to come out of the bucket.
Speaker 1:They were trying to break out, like the rest of us girl and I was like where are you guys going?
Speaker 2:Where I got food in there. I got newspaper in there, like where are you guys going? What's happening? Right, and then I you know, we had time it was the time right. That got me going on social media. And then your algorithm starts changing and all these composting videos popped up, and then I found out that they were hot. Yes, so they had to. They were coming out because they were.
Speaker 1:It's getting hot in here I'm getting, so I'm like.
Speaker 2:You know it's not as easy as people think it is, and really I, it's hard yeah, it's hard to compost. You know, and you specific items, specific foods, this you can't, that you can't. How do you guys do that? That's where I was leading. We learned about bokashi composting, thank you.
Speaker 1:There you go. I didn't know about it till.
Speaker 2:I read your article.
Speaker 2:Tell us yeah we learned about bokashi composting. So bokashi means to ferment and that came from japan. So when I saw these new um you know all my reels on social media that started changing my algorithm. Yes, I said, wow, this is easy, like versus the old school composting. It's, you know, aerobic you have to add water, turn every day, you have to do all of that. Anaerobic is bokashi composting you don't turn nothing, you don't add water in it, like you just set it and forget it. And when, when I was like, sit and forget, that's something my students can do for sure for sure, right.
Speaker 2:And then I got so interested and I found North Shore Community Compost Movement. I went out there and I said, hey, I am a teacher, I don't have school right now, but I got like five amazing kids and I started making like my own school. During COVID shutdown, you know, like five students that their parents allowed me to take them with me and learn and I was kind of having my own classes while I was learning. They were learning. So we went and we learned everything about Bokashi. We learned how to make it, we learned how it's processed, how you, you know, set up a bin and then from there, you know when it's, when you're not doing it right, it's out of sight, out of mind.
Speaker 2:And you almost you know, automatically think that, oh, the ag teacher is doing it, somebody else is doing it at my school, because that's not what I teach. I wasn't teaching Sustainability.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like I teach Hawaiian language and culture, but was really, I said our ag teacher probably is doing it.
Speaker 1:Guarantee, guarantee, no nobody's doing it and if I might interject Kumu, I was teaching at the same high school that you are still teaching at and I got promoted elsewhere through Choose Aloha program. But I was at Nanakuli High School and Intermediate.
Speaker 1:It shocked me to see how much food most of us were throwing away. I won't say it was just the kids, because you know it was everybody. I guess public school lunch is not that tasty at the time and this was pre 2020. And I would say it all the time. What can we do with this extra food? But there's a big difference from somebody who waha, who talks all the time, and somebody who walks it out Because you started as I was reading in the same place going what do we do with all this extra food?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like that is nutrient rich soil that can be created for our farmers, like it is such a waste and you did it, though To me it's such a waste. Yeah, I got a whole bunch of buckets. I applied for some small grants and I taught the students how to make bokashi. Made bokashi in class, went over the Hawaiian terms and we had a sign-up sheet, and whoever signed up, hey, you get community service hours. That had a sign-up sheet and whoever signed up, hey, you get community service hours.
Speaker 2:That's part of their personal transition plan, the PTP for high school diploma, which is required. It's required, but I must say the community service is not mandatory. It's not mandatory. So we're looking at some legislation change or even within our school to make community service mandatory. That's important to be of service to somebody Absolutely yes or the aina. You know like you have to be of service. That's where you learn life.
Speaker 1:And especially at a young age, right From usually people in high school, 13 through 18 years old, 14, 18. And, as you said, it's an expectation of our kupuna down to our kiki, but we're not challenging them and then we see a lot of the footlessness would be the proper Hawaiian word oh, I'm sorry pigeon word where you're just kind of wasting away with it. What I love when I come to campus now or when I see posting on social media is the students are pushing these little plastic right. Well, they're plastic, but maybe we'll make them out of cardboard from now on. Little trolleys.
Speaker 2:And you guys are collecting the buckets. Yep, I did a sign-up sheet and they started collecting the food waste at the cafeteria. You?
Speaker 1:know, and it was hard, Every day, every day.
Speaker 2:It was hard in the beginning. I mean, sometimes the schedule changed or students sign up and then they forgot that it was their day, or I was on a field trip and I wasn't able to, you know, call the classroom to look for the student, or they just forget to, you know. So it wasn't 100 percent, but we did the best that we could do. We took the data, and data is important. So for like, the first three years we took, we weighed all the buckets so that way we can say, like you know, you really can't go to legislation trying to walk with your chest out, trying to make change with no data.
Speaker 2:Empirical evidence you need the data right, so they weighed all the buckets. We've made a composting area in our school, mala. We partnered with our intermediate folks in Ho'oponopono Academy and we were doing it.
Speaker 1:You know we were doing it. The kids signed up. And you tracked for three years so that we can initiate some of this legislation. Yes, and you have powerful legislators on your side, like Senator Samantha Decourt, who's been a guest of ours here on Aloha Alive. So you guys were collecting all the buckets. You got all the data for three years.
Speaker 2:You collected the data turning this food waste into soil? Wow. In like six to eight weeks. That's how long it takes, and you don't have to Six to eight weeks, that's all. You don't have to turn it, you don't have to add water to it. It's not stinky it made zero sense for me that schools weren't doing it. You're teaching agriculture, we have students. We have over a thousand plate lunches. What are we doing with?
Speaker 1:it. Why are we?
Speaker 2:putting it into the landfill one. You talk about environmental injustices right of the west side. Right, that's legacy pollution. Yep, legacy pollution on our side.
Speaker 1:And then I, at first, like I was mad yeah, no I got so mad at like what is why, why, why is no one doing anything.
Speaker 2:Why aren't we doing it? Right and okay, if you're not gonna do it, then we're gonna do it. That's amazing.
Speaker 1:We're gonna do it, I'm gonna get the students to do it and we'll do it and she started with, I think, 10 plumeria pots outside of our classrooms, right there in the e-building right that everybody would over water it's so difficult though in the deal in the department of education.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, but it is like you can't put plants that has thorns, uh sap or fruits, because it endangers the children. Yeah, I'm like, well, why are you?
Speaker 1:going to go over there and as if they don't have brains to plug in right, right, so on. This is so powerful, kumu, thank you that you got righteously upset and and you took kuleana and said it's not going to be the ag teacher, it's not going to be DOE, it's me and it's us. Now I'm going to ask you, jeremiah, you've been a part of this program for how long?
Speaker 3:I've been a part of this program going on three to four years. I started my freshman year and I'm starting my senior year this year. Congratulations, thank you, oh my kai, Senior Hama.
Speaker 1:So you've been doing it for this many years. You've been almost one of Kumu's right-hand guys, right, and how does it feel to be part of this program? I mean honest question, I'm not leading you. How do you feel when you're trucking those buckets of slop and doing all these recycling things with the cardboard? I?
Speaker 3:feel like I'm doing what I need to do. Wow, as a resident of Hawaii, as a resident of Nanakuli and as a resident of this aina, that I need to be doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of mo'olelo, but there's a lot of things that saying, like one of the things she taught me was hoi, hoi was returning aina back to aina. Wow, so that's why, um, that's why we did like the food, food composting, that's why we do the cardboard, because cardboard is aina yeah so we are returning aina back to aina it's amazing, absolutely amazing.
Speaker 1:I, jeremiah, have to to say you are a striking superhero for our land. And I must be getting old because now I'm a kupuna status where somebody this young is speaking and I just want to burst out crying because he's speaking goodness and truth and it gives us faith for this upcoming generation. Faith for this upcoming generation. I know that there are many things that responsibilities. That's probably on your shoulders, jeremiah, but I just want to tell you that I've seen you in a few instances. One of them, we were out doing a community concert with the Samoan brothers, the Katinas, and it was out at the Nanakuli Beach and you were also there helping to sign wave for Senator Samantha Decourt and just watching you and some of your classmates, some of the other young ladies and the young men coming and standing in your own mana, in your own power and strength, standing solidly on your own two feet.
Speaker 1:And one more thing, and I'm going to take you down a road that's not necessarily on our question list, but I said this to another guest, lisa Pakele, whom you know and love there's been trauma. When I look at you, jeremiah, I don't know you much at all. I probably have seen the after picture, not the before. But may I ask you a question? Did you go through childhood trauma?
Speaker 3:Yeah, honestly, yes, I did, because, um, the way I grew up, I wasn't really as fortunate as other kids. I, we didn't have much financial help, um, a lot of my family was leaving and, like in different ways, one of the ways of my father, my father passed away, um, when I was about 11, and that was right before my high school life. But then I just took life as what life gave me, as what God gave me, and I saw that as a plan and yeah. So basically I just took whatever life was giving me and I used it to pick myself up more. I used it to join more organizations. I took it to take all my opportunities that was given to me and was offered. So I use my problems as a stepping stone for my life, because I had a lot of ups and downs, not to get into too much detail, but throughout my lifeline.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that trust to even share what you just did, that courage. Thank you for that trust to even share what you just did, that courage, thank you. I believe that trust is a foundation of a relationship. And then when you speak, truth and trust, and we are transparent, we are, ohana, right. And so the reason why I asked you is I know you also have, I think, a younger sister, right, we all met at the prayer breakfast this past year. But, jeremiah, when I think people can take it way too easy to look at a young man like you who doesn't have his face buried down into your digital device, that you're articulate, you're a man of vision, and we think, well, there's this great kid over at Nanakuli High School. Look, they're going to turn out just fine. But in what you just shared, there was a moment when you said your dad passed away when you were 11 years old, and it really was. Life handed you things and you had to take it and and make a choice. Is that a fair?
Speaker 1:statement yeah and you had to choose aloha, choose community or hanai kayaulu, and who were some of the people who helped you walk that through Last question.
Speaker 3:Some of the main people was my grandfather, my mom, because they always was there for me, no matter what, no matter what life throws at me. They was there. But as I started to start my high school life, I didn't have my dad. I was really in a bad state. Let me tell you, I was a bad kid. From intermediate to my freshman year. I was kolohe. I was one of them on my digital, as you said. I was one of them out at night doing what nowadays kids do. But then I started my high school life and then I finally met Kumbh Piper.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And then she invited me to one of the programs or projects that she was doing, and that's a prime example of what I said earlier about you take, you take whatever God's plan is.
Speaker 1:And she was one of God's plan for me. Wow, thank you for saying that, and I will say that one of the things that Kumu and I learn is that you know there's a lot of hardship. For a lot of kids, it doesn't matter if you're from the West side or from the East side anymore, it's everyone. But one thing that helps our kids to find their footing and to stand on their own two feet is an m-a-m-a, which does spell mama meaningful adult, meaningful activity. And you just said that meaningful adult, meaningful activity was kumu piper at the hanai kaya ulu, and so this isn't just some philosophy or some business statement or the mission. This is real life. For Because did I hear that you're crashing out at Kumu Piper's house Like you have grandpa and your mom?
Speaker 1:God bless them for being there for you, for being the steady straight line, but you also have a place to go and find out who the man that, jeremiah, is a place to grow right and that's an extra space where people can be. Thank you for being super honest.
Speaker 3:That's how I felt when I first moved here, because I'm not originally from Nanakuli, I am from Milani. So before I moved to Nanakuli I was very like a silent kid quiet kid, didn't really want to interact with anything. But then when I moved to Nanakuli I really felt like myself, like I found who I was supposed to be. Yes, because then I made more friends, I had more opportunities, I met a lot of good people. Yeah, I just knew I belonged here. And that's why I'm so encouraged to take care of this land.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 3:By Hanaikayaulu, wow, by hanay kayo. And the way I think of it is me as a youth, um in nanakuli. I think that I'm setting an example for all the the youth or the appeal that are having a struggle that that had the same struggle as me or even harder.
Speaker 3:Yes, because what we do a lot, what our main thing that we do is culture connection. That's our main thing that we try to focus on, because we need to get back to our way, the Native Hawaiian way. So what we really think of it is, or my favorite saying is culture connection is addiction prevention and culture connection is suicide prevention.
Speaker 1:Whoa say it again, sweetie, that was so good.
Speaker 3:Thank you. Culture connection is addiction prevention and culture connection is suicidal prevention, because when you have your hands in the aina you don't have time to be thinking about any violence or anything bad to happen, or you don't have time to be going out and choosing violence, time to be going out and choosing violence. So that's why it really like sinks into me, because if I wasn't be doing this, I would have been out doing bad stuff. I would have been still outside three o'clock in the morning just doing what I want to do, letting my life flow away.
Speaker 1:Spinning your wheels and stuff. That's not really productive. When I hear you say that, Jeremiah, I hear the three Ps coming up for me, which is a sense of place. Right, you have also a purpose. And then you find your personhood.
Speaker 1:You came from Mililani. I'm sure there's goodness in Mililani. I know a lot of wonderful things there. But the wonderful thing that I connected on the West side is I too, and that's not my onehanau, it's my onehanai. I wasn't born there but I hanai'd myself in. I'm half Polynesian, from South Pacific, and you feed one of us once. We're like stray cats. We will be back every day with our whole tribe behind this, my village, Yup, we all coming to eat, Right.
Speaker 1:So I came out to the West side and I honed myself in, because people like Kumu Piper, whom I knew from when I was still in my twenties, they absolutely love you. I said and this goes back to what you were saying about West side and the stereotype that they're all scrappers, they're all violent. We always hear about the shootings, the stabbings, this and that, but here's the thing I always tell my family from Nanakuli you guys are fierce, but you love fierce, right. So once I'm in and once I came in and there were a number of suicides in the valley, and I got a call from Alan Cardenas, who is still a kahu there, a pastor, and he said this this can stop not on my watch and not in his house. And so I came in to teach in 2017.
Speaker 1:And that's where I fell in love with Westside and there was my old college buddy in the classroom right next door her and her little pots of plumeria trees, and that's what God brought to me, and he works all things together for good, so congratulations. But it gives us purpose and a sense of place and personhood. I'm going to. I was thinking of a question, but I'm going to stick with what's on my docket here. Is there a way to duplicate? Duplicate Hanai Kayaulu, and it sounds like you've started because you bought a number of machines for other schools. Everybody on the West Side's covered. But I heard a rumor or trumer. Is it a rumor, false, or is it a trumer truth that it started on the Big Island too?
Speaker 2:It did. We did start a little cohort there on the Big Island at Waiakea High School, Wrong high school but that's totally fine.
Speaker 1:That was the first one. Arch rivals yes, she went for the other warriors has been inquiring about it.
Speaker 2:Thank, you, they're inquiring and, uh, we're looking to get a shirt over on kona kona side yeah. So you know, networking over the years, you, you find the right organizations that love what you do, and a lot of my projects are based on community service and I connected that to the rotary clubs. So you know, in the back I'm like the rotary club, okay right, they work on service, they got funding and they want to help. They want to help.
Speaker 1:So we're going to get a shredder out there to kona I love it, and we also have the principal from y and I, which is Amy. Akeo, she's at Kona Waena High School, so that's another connect. The ag teacher actually yeah.
Speaker 2:So there was, like you know, and then I've been to a couple of workshops teaching teachers as well, and they want to adopt a program, the Sustainable Saturday program. So that's the bringing the cardboard in right. It turn it into mulch for farmers, but you also go home with a csa box. Yeah, community supported ag talk about the box.
Speaker 1:So that's how we feed our.
Speaker 2:That's how we hanai our kaya uno. We take care of our community, so it is win-win all over. Right, you're diverting that cardboard, we're shredding it, giving it to the farmers. The farmers are giving us fresh produce. We got eggs. We got shakamoa, wailua eggs, shakamoa, I love you they love, that's all right there. And then other farmers are giving you other produce years, three years in and they're like whatever you need through egg mageddon, when eggs were like a dollar, an arm and a leg and a firstborn child each. They still sponsored girl.
Speaker 1:I called them. They're like there's a long list on, but here's hanai kaya ulu um so you have farmers and, of course, the eggs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a couple eggs there's like, you know, we have a ulu farmer, melon, um mango, you know, whatever the farmer. That's what a csa is too. Yeah, it's like whatever's happening that week and we just put that in the box and we give that to the community. So now you're going home with fresh produce healthy produce, you know and students go away with four hours of community service and really not really. Oh, we didn't wipe the bleachers down. Oh, we was painting or picking up, I don't know gum or something.
Speaker 1:It's like, like it's really which is also valuable, but this is it's really meaningful. This is Super Bowl level MVP.
Speaker 2:It's really meaningful, like they are literally like walking to the car, hi auntie unloading her things. You know, Relationship.
Speaker 3:Coming getting that is culture connection. Wow, Because See, I didn't even need to bring me in this podcast.
Speaker 2:I told you, just have him.
Speaker 3:You're not just giving them the box and collecting. You're actually having a conversation with them while they're waiting and stuff, so you're actually exchanging. Ha, that's a culture connection right there. When you're communicating and talking face to face, that's expressing ha. You're not on the phone or texting oh, come, pick up your CSA box, you're actually having a conversation.
Speaker 1:And if you notice right now, those of you who are watching, tuning in and getting excited about this, this is not the normal, typical teenager that we often run into at the mall, at the grocery store, who, again, is heads down in a digit device or distracted on social media of some sort. But this is like you said, jeremiah, exchanging ha and building relationship. I actually got a call a few weeks ago from a key leader in our community who said my grandson goes to a certain private school and I need you to be a speech teacher. I said no problem, I can come in. You know, that's been my trade. And she goes no, girl, he doesn't need like speech help, like persuasive speech, informative. He needs to learn how to have a conversation.
Speaker 1:And I said but he's at the highest, the princess paid for his education public, private school. She goes yeah, they don't know how to have a conversation. And you are. That's why you're sitting at this microphone. Thank you, jeremiah. It can happen, there's hope and it's culture connection, culture connection. Okay, let me go to our next question. Thank you so much. Hanai Kayaulu and you folks are on Instagram, right, that's where we can look all of this up.
Speaker 2:We got a website too. You can check us on our website, hanaikayauluorg. Oh hey, who's?
Speaker 1:Kapolei today. Buje Look at you. She's slaying it. They have a website, which is what Hanaikayauluorg. Okay, so it is a nonprofitorg not com.
Speaker 1:All right, am I missing anything that you would like to share from your heart with the Ohana today? We'll bring this in for a landing. I'm going to talk a little bit more culture, but more on Aloha, but anything you want else. The last question I'm going to ask Kumu and then we'll come back to you also. Jeremiah, thank you also for being here. It took a lot of courage and I highly admire that. Kumu, please define. We always ask at the end of Aloha Alive, what is Aloha? And you teach not only the Oleloha Bai'i, which is the language of our land, but also culture. Can you tell us what is aloha?
Speaker 2:Aloha is kuleana. Yeah, aloha is understanding the words. You know the wise words of our kupuna and our ancestors from olelo no ea. Like we don't have to recreate the circle right, one of our ali'i liho liho. He said and I still have to memorize the Hawaiian one. But the English part of the Olelo No'eau said how can you not be successful if you don't follow the footsteps of our kupuna?
Speaker 1:Wow, that's good.
Speaker 2:Liholiho said that you know, so that's all we have to do you know, if you think about what our ali'i did, what our ancestors did, just follow what they did. You know, work on that ohana system.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:So for the greater good, the ahupua'a system right we have to work on that and really like I mean I could care less about standardized tests. I really can you know, but really what kind of? What is the profile of a graduate, you know?
Speaker 1:come on.
Speaker 2:Is this A, b and C what you want it to be, like grades and scores and all of that, or you want them to have compassion. You want them to have aloha. You know, part of our purpose here in life is to really find your gift Right. You know, find your gift first. Right is to really find your gift right. You have to find your gift first right and then, when you find your gift, the purpose of life is to give it away.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we're helping them find their gifts and all the activities that I do. Find your gift, find your passion, and when you do, then you give it away. Wow, then you give it away. I got a quick story and this is probably one of my favorites, one of the students. He came up to me and he said Kumu, I want to do a Christmas, give back a haircut, haircut, give back for Christmas. And I said okay. He said I need help from the Scrapers Union because I can't do this by myself. I said okay, what are you thinking? He said I want to cut hair, I want to cut the hair for the homeless or houseless residents. I said, okay, where? Across the bakery, across Farrington Highway, by the bakery, by Hakeem Road. I said okay, why over there? You know there's plenty other encampments. He said because my mom lives there. Yeah, my mom lives there and you know that is what we want students to find. Is their gift. He going to be the best hair cutter. You know what is this? Faded, are you shaved? Whatever they?
Speaker 3:get Barber.
Speaker 2:Barber, see, whatever it is, and when you want to give that away, that's winning, that's winning. And just at 17, he's winning. You know, and that's what I expect and that's what I want to come out of my classroom or, and, and really I want that to come out of my school, you know. But you know we live in a state where that's the system again that we got to work on is some standardized tests. But really having aloha, having um, you know, alo is your face and ha is the breath of life, and and really to be in the presence of ha, right, the energy that is transferred between me and you right now is way more powerful than Zoom, right, Absolutely Than Zoom, than where everybody got all you know, all ha-lu-lu, like we got all you know, we got all screwed up during COVID.
Speaker 2:Right, we need to come back open up the classrooms, open up the Zooms, open up everything and be in the presence of Ha, because Aloha is where we're going to have find compassion for each other and the aina and just be in righteousness and be in pono yeah, culture connection versus isolation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's good. Who is your Alohaoha hero? I'm gonna ask both of you and we'll land on this who is the person who lives pure aloha, past or present, and how did they do that in your life? Who is somebody you know as like?
Speaker 3:when you just look at them, they're the embodiment of aloha jeremiah top of my head I would say coon piper, because she just, she's just straight on. She walks aloha the way she carries herself, no matter what kind of predicament that she's in, no matter position that she's in, she's always walking with her head high, she's always uplifting everybody around her, no matter what is going on. She's just, she is the person to punch through anything that is thrown at her. She is a Hawaiian warrior.
Speaker 1:She's a Hamahine. Thank you for that. Uh, kumu, piper, piper. Same question who is?
Speaker 2:your. I'm gonna get right in there because I'm looking at you tearing up girl. We're not doing that no we're not doing that.
Speaker 2:We're, um, the youth, the youth of the west side. You know, they keep me coming back to school every day. Yeah, they're my heroes, you know, and that's the kuleana, that's the reciprocal right, that's the reciprocal energy to what I give them, I get back. Wow, right, what you shed out to them, they're gonna shed back to you big time. So when you give aloha, you get aloha. Right, yeah and yeah. And it's the youth. My core group, like I know Jeremiah shared that he had passed, his dad passed, but my core group of there's like five kids, each of them already lost one or two.
Speaker 1:Parents.
Speaker 2:Parents, just my core group, one or two. Those are my heroes. I'm 52 years old. I can never imagine going through life without my parents. And how are they coming to school every day? How are they coming to school every day? How are they coming to these workshops and events and doing what I expect them to do without the celebration or the success group around them, which would be your parents. Like I know, when I come home or I'm on the news, my parents would come over and walk over and say give me a hug, kid. You know, my dad is like 70. And they're like we're so proud of you, we saw you on the news and you know. And how can they go without that? Their support system? Yeah, so that truly is. And that's just these five, six kids.
Speaker 1:Who's in your core?
Speaker 2:leadership group. Yes, absolutely. How many other kids on the West?
Speaker 1:right. How many other kids?
Speaker 2:are going through what they're going through. So those are my heroes the kids, the students, the youth.
Speaker 1:And I want to interject something that supports exactly what you're saying and that was part of why Choose Aloha chose Nanakuli High School first, not just because of Alan Cardenas and the call, but also because when I looked at the statistics for our islands, I saw that the average family income in about 2016, 2017, when I started teaching, there was $16,000 for a family of four. And then you look at all the other markers which CDC looked at childhood trauma and there's 10 key traumas and Nanakuli had rocked probably eight or 10 out of the 10. I would test them every year that I was there for the three, four years and give them the 10 question questionnaire of what are your childhood rights. So there's different types of abuse, different types of neglect. Then there's the household dysfunction, like divorce, loss of a parent, someone's in prison, and once again, nanakuli was number one in the areas we should be last on.
Speaker 2:Right, and we're not. When I teach or I talk or I speak, we're not going to focus on generational trauma, right? Everybody has the oh generational trauma. No, but we also have generational Ike, thank you.
Speaker 1:We also have generational strength.
Speaker 2:Come on, we have that as well, so get in there. Yes, get in there. So pick which one, because you have that strength as well and you have that knowledge, you have generational Ike to get up and rise above. And you know get up, get up and it wasn't fancy.
Speaker 1:You used a bucket, you use a piece of cardboard, you use food that was thrown away. These are all trash items or cheap items. You didn't need something fancy. Yes, now we have the machines. Thank you for that.
Speaker 1:Kumu that you said it was your youth and, of course, your youth said no, it's Kumu. I love that that. It is the reciprocal responsibility, and this is a perfect picture and snapshot of what Kumu was talking about with Hanai Kayaulu, so Rich. I want to thank you, and there are so many other people's life stories that has been woven into this tapestry. It is like the top of cloth that is of our people in Polynesia, the cloth that you see here on this planter. I know one day I'm going to score a planter from my Hanai Kayaulu Ohana, but right now I use a little piece of tapa cloth and part of that is the many people that gets wili, wili or woven into a tapestry.
Speaker 1:We want to dedicate this show to a very special human being who is here in spirit, and that is Yosua Stephen, stephen's Ohana. We love you and we thank God for the gift that we had for the short time that we had Sua, and so thank you, family, for being here with us on Aloha. Alive the heartbeat of Hawaii. We hope that you take away many things that it means to be and to live Aloha, aloha, aloha.
Speaker 2:Aloha, thank you.