“How do we help others see the value
in this type of education?”

The motor hums as wood particles are thrown into the air eventually settling onto a cluttered work surface.  Nainoa Reyes has been shaping wood products at Hoʻoulu ʻĀina for several years now.  His hands work vigorously as the scrap piece of monkeypod wood is repurposed into a beautiful hair pick.

 Nainoa is just 25-years-old but he reminds me of an old-school uncle – the one with a gruff exterior who has no problem scolding you if you mess up.  But keiki adore him.  He is always willing to teach anyone who is interested about fishing and hunting practices he learned as a youth while visiting his grandpa on Molokaʻi.    

 “My grandpa instilled this work ethic in me whether it’s getting up early or staying up late and doing what needs to get done,” he says.  “People looked up to my grandpa.  He had done so much for so many people on Molokaʻi whether it was feeding them or teaching them about hunting and fishing.”  

 Nainoa started off at Hoʻoulu ʻĀina as a young volunteer when he was just 12-years-old.  It was here where he honed practical ʻāina skills such as using and sharpening a machete, drilling with a power auger, and weeding.  “Every now and then Uncle Doug would let us ride around with him on the back hoe,” he chuckles.

 Eventually Nainoa was hired to work in the garden.  Nowadays he thrives wearing many different hats at Hoʻoulu ʻĀina from carving to cooking to maintaining building sites to managing the on-line market to cutting grass to being the on-air talent for the social media program MoʻoTales.  But the work he enjoys most is his kuleana as kumu for the summer youth program, Mai Uka Kuʻu Waʻa.

 “I want our kids to have the same kind of experiences I did as a kid,” Nainoa says.  “I am teaching kids how to fish, how to dive, how to lay net, how to clean fish.  Just as my grandpa taught me.” 

 Aloha ʻĀina education is about passing ʻike kūpuna on to the next generation.  “The families are really ʻono for the kind of work we do here,” Nainoa says.  “How do we help others see the value in this type of education?”