Resources

Videos

TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN GOURD “Helmets”, Lono & Makahiki

Making traditional Hawaiian Fishhooks & Shark Hooks

The following two videos were taken of Kaʻimiloa at an annual cultural event at Puʻukohola Heiau National Historic Park on the Big Island of Hawai’i in 1994. This film “Traditional Hawaiian Material Culture” was thus produced by the Leeward Community College (University of Hawaiʻi system) for teaching use by the Anthropology Department.

(Part 1 and 2 seen here are both part of the same video.)

TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN MATERIAL CULTURE Part 1

traditional Hawaiian Material Culture Part 2

TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN STONEWORK ….And How To Do It

This hour-long video contains an outdoor presentation all about stones, how to choose and work with them. The video then goes indoors to discuss multiple, reproduced Hawaiian artifacts, just how they were made, and how long it took.

TRADITIONAL HAWAIIAN WEAPONS

This video goes through multiple weapons, some little known, discusses the materials & techniques, and how they were used.

Legacy of Excellence (circa 1991)

The following is a documentary film called “Legacy of Excellence”, which featured 6 Hawaii craftsmen. Ka’imiloa Chrisman, M.D. is one of them featuring working with Hawaiian gourds.

PODCASTS

Listen to Hawaiian Culture - short lectures

ʻŌlelo Hawaiian Lessons

Kumu Hula Kēhau Chrismanʻs Treasury of ʻŌlelo Hawaiian lessons

ARTICLES

May Day is Lei Day in Hawai’i by Kumu Hula Kēhau Chrisman

Coronavirus Perspective by B. Ka’imiloa Chrisman, MD

Coronavirus Update - June 4, 2020 by B. Kaʻimiloa Chrisman, MD

Dealing with COVID in Hawaiian Poetic Terms by B. Kaʻimiloa Chrisman, MD

ʻŌlelo Lesson 41 by Kumu Hula Kēhau Chrisman

ʻŌlelo Lesson 42 by Kumu Hula Kēhau Chrisman

ʻŌlelo Lesson 43 by Kumu Hula Kehau Chrisman

suggested reading

Arts and Crafts of Hawaii, 14-Vol. Set: Food, Houses, Plaiting, Twined Baskets, Clothing, Canoes, Fishing, Games and Recreation, Musical Instruments, War and Weapons, Religion, Ornaments/Personal Adornment, Death and Burial, Index

• This book “stands alone as the definitive resource on Hawaiian material culture.  Meticulously detailed and well-illustrated, former Bishop Museum director Te Rangi Hiroa (Sir Peter H. Buck) guides the reader through every major element of Hawaiian arts and crafts, providing detailed descriptions of traditional objects, methods of construction, and traditional use.”

  Bishop Museum Press 1964 ISBN: 1-58178-027-3

Journal of William Ellis: A Narrative of an 1823 Tour Through Hawaii or Owhyhee: With Remarks on the History, Traditions, Manners, Customs, and Language of the Inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands

• This Narrative of a Tour Through Hawaiʻi stands unrivalled as an account of Hawaiian life in the early nineteenth century. With his close interest in native life, his sympathy for a people undergoing vast social change and his keen eye for accurate detail, Ellis was not the typical missionary of Western visitor to the islands. Always the ethnologist, Ellis packs his narrative with vital information for students of traditional Hawaiʻi, and takes readers back in time to witness a vanished age.

Mutual Publishing 2004 488 pages ISBN: 1566476054 • ISBN: 9781566476058

Tales From the Night Rainbow, by Pali Jae Lee and Koko Willis.  Perspectives of old Hawai’i (Moloka’i) in the era of William Ellis, but as seen /experienced by Native Hawaiian eyes during Kahuna training and practice. 

Note: The information in this book is about old Hawaiʻi from the eyes of a highly trained Hawaiian person.

Night Rainbow Pub. Co., 1990 ISBN-10: 0962803006 |  ISBN-13: 9780962803000

Unwritten Literature of Hawaii: The Sacred Songs of the Hula, by Nathaniel B. Emerson

•  This book is a fascinating account of Hawaii's native dance and the sacred songs that accompanied it. The songs, and poems, presented both in the original Hawaiian and in English translation--a number of them with their music--constitute a ready-made anthology that includes every species of composition in the whole range of Hawaiian poetry.

Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1965 ISBN: 0-8048-1067-2

Hawaiian-English Dictionary by Mary Kawena Pukuʻi and Samuel Elbert.

• The definitive and authoritative work on the Hawaiian language, the largest and most complete Polynesian dictionary. 

  University of Hawaii Press 1986, ISBN: 0-8248-0703-0

The Polynesian Family System in Ka'u Hawaii, by E.S. Craighill Handy and Mary Kawena Pukuʻi

• The Polynesian Family System in Ka’u, Hawai'i is a collaboration of the distinguished scholars Dr. Mary Kawena Pukuʻi and Dr. E.S. Craighill Handy. It provides us with this fascinating review of traditional Hawaiian life. Manners and customs relating to birth, death, marriage, sexual practices, religious beliefs, and family relationship are all clearly described. The main sources of information were elderly Hawaiian informants of then remote Ka’u district of the island of Hawaii.

  Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1972, first printing 1958 ISBN: 0-8048-1031-1

Plants in Hawaiian Medicine, by Beatrice Krauss, Written by Hawaii's beloved Beatrice Krauss, an ethnobotanist who dedicated her life to the study of Hawaiian plants, this book covers the medicinal uses and preparation of 30 native plants. Beautiful artwork by Hawaiian illustrator Martha Noyes compliments the text. 

Publisher: Bess Pr Inc; 1St Edition edition (January 1, 2001)   Paperback 160 pages ISBN-10: 1573060348 ISBN-13: 978-1573060349

Plants in Hawaiian Culture, by Beatrice Krauss.  The first half is Hawaiian ethnobotany; the second half has full page photos of the plants or trees, plus descriptions.

University of Hawaii Press, 1993, Paperback 345 pages ISBN 0-8248-1225-5 

Native Planters of Old Hawaii—Their Life, Lores and Environment, by E.S.C. Handy and E.G. Handy, with the collaboration of Mary Kawena Pukuʻi.  Extremely thorough coverage of the history, geography, culture, ethnobotany, farming techniques, plants and trees of Hawaii.

Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 233, Bishop Museum Press 1978, Paperback, 641 pages ISBN 0-910240-11-6

La’au Hawai’i, Traditional Uses of Hawaiian Plants, by Isabella Aiona Abbott This classic, award-winning book provides the first comprehensive description of Hawaiian traditions of plant use. Topics include not only food, but clothing, cordage, shelter, canoes, tools, housewares, medicines, religious objects, weaponry, personal adornment, and recreation.

Bishop Museum Press (March 1, 1992) Paperback 163 pages ISBN-10: 0930897625   ISBN-13: 978-0930897628

Ancient Hawaiian Civilization, revised edition, by Handy, Emory, Bryon, Buck, Wise.

A good overview of Ancient Hawaiian Life and Culture, through a series of lectures delivered at The Kamehameha Schools in 1933.  Mutual Publishing 1999 ISBN-10: 1-56647-280-6 |  ISBN-13: 978-1-56647-280-7

Resource Units in Hawaiian Culture, by Dr. Donald D. Kilolani Mitchell.  A very good overview of Hawaiian culture and practices in textbook form with many valuable references for each chapter.  Kamehameha Schools Press 1992, 202 pages, softcover.  ISBN-10: 0873360168 | ISBN-13: 9780873360166