Holo Mai Pele -- Hi‘iaka: Ka Wahinepo‘aimoku at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center

This Saturday, January 30, 2010, the Maui Arts and Cultural Center in Kahului is presenting a unique long-form "opera-length" hula: Holo Mai Pele -- Hi'iaka: Ka Wahinepo'aimoku.

Danced by Halau O Kekui, the work is a sequel to the groundbreaking Holo Mai Pele, first presented at the MACC in 1995. The evening will combine hula, chant, drama, and storytelling to recount the tales of Pana'ewa the lizard god from Hawai'i island, Kapo'ulakina'u from the island of Maui, and the forest goddesses Ko'iahi, Mailelauli'i and Kaiona of the Waianae mountain range.

For anyone interested in Hawai'ian storytelling and/or hula, this promises to be a great night. Last time we checked, tickets were still available at all price levels (including the $12 seats in the balcony); you can check for tickets and read more about the show at the MACC's website.

* * *

For more Maui events and history, follow us on Twitter.

Martin Luther King in Hawai'i

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Did you know that King visited Hawai'i in 1959? He came in September -- just a month after Hawai'i's admission into the Union -- at the invitation of Ellen Watumull and Shelton Bishop of the Honolulu Council of Churches. Bishop had only recently moved to Honolulu, having served for years as the pastor of St. Philip's Episcopal Church in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. (St. Philip's was both the oldest and largest black Episcopal church in America.)

According to The Papers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. King spoke first at the Honolulu Ministerial Association and then at McKinley High School. But King's biggest speech was to the State House of Representatives on September 17th at 'Iolani Palace (the new capitol would not open for another ten years).

King spoke eloquently about integration and civil rights and the address ended in sustained applause. It also sparked a fight on the floor of the House, with Representatives battling over Republican Senator Hiram Fong's conservative stance on immigration. For his part, King was also moved by his experience and later reported to his congregation: "As I looked at all of these various faces and various colors mingled together like the waters of the sea, I could see only one face -- the face of the future!"

Polynesian Voyaging Lecture at the Maui Ocean Center

On Tuesday, January 19, at 6:00 p.m., the Maui Ocean Center is hosting a free lecture about Polynesian sea voyaging with Kekai Kapu.

Kekai Kapu will speak about ancient Polynesian navigation as well as the upcoming voyage of the Mo'okiha O Pi'ilani, the sixty-two-foot double-hulled voyaging canoe that is going to circumnavigate the globe in 2012. Kapu is a board member of Hui O Wa'a Kaulua (the Assembly of the Double-hulled Canoe), a Hawai'ian cultural practioner, and an expert on Hawai'ian weaponry.

The doors open at 5:50 p.m. (enter through the Ocean Center's front gate). The lecture is slated to run about an hour.

The Maui Ocean Center is located in Ma'alaea, just off the highway. For more information about the center -- and directions -- please visit http://www.mauioceancenter.com/.

Wreck of World War II Dive Bomber Discovered off Maui

As reported in today's Maui News, Brad Varney, the owner of B&B Scuba Maui, has found the wreck of an SBD Dauntless dive bomber from World War II. As the paper notes, "Both canopies were open, with the plane's gauges clearly visible on the console, and the back flaps are down. The only part missing was the plane's top tail rudder, which Varney found resting on the sand not far from the wreck."

Maui's World War II history is often overshadowed by interest in the attack on Pearl Harbor, O'ahu. However, Maui was also attacked, first on December 15, 1941, when the pineapple cannery was shot at from a submarine deck gun. (No lives were lost, but the shelling inflicted about $700 in damage.) Two weeks later, on December 30, Kahului was bombarded again, also with little effect.

Toward the end of the war, the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions used Ma'alaea Harbor to stage amphibious landings and practiced assaulting the area that is now part of the Lahaina-Pali trail.