History & Culture

(December 1997)  Not even tucked in, blazing and bold, here's the aloha shirt!The missionaries might have denounced extravagance and nakedness, the craving for vivid colors, tropical textures, and sensual shapes couldn't...

(Spring/Summer 2000) For most of us, the annual Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo is a fantastic celebration of the Hawaiian culture, overflowing with pageantry and color, and spotlighting perhaps the most...

 (August 1997) Fishponds, loko i'a, encircle the shores of the Hawaiian Islands, their origins shrouded in legend and inconclusive carbon dating. Some, with walls of basalt and coral, rest like necklaces...

 (Spring/Summer 1999) Queen Kamamalu had a tattoo applied to her tongue as an expression of her deep grief when her mother-in-law died in the 1820s. Missionary William Ellis watched the procedure,...

(September 1997) At the time that turned the heat of the earth,At the time when the heavens turned and changed,At the time when the light of the sun was subdued

 (Spring/Summer 1996) Ki ho'alu, or Hawaiian slack key guitar, is an island tradition. It's more than that. It's the rich expression and reverence for all that life holds: Through its unique...

(Fall/Winter 1999-2000) The bay at Kealakekua is so translucent, so placid, that scores of novice snorkelers slip into the water daily, arriving by boats from Kailua-Kona, which anchor, bobbing peacefully,...

 (May 1997) An estimated 450,000 golden yellow feathers from more than 80,000 mamo birds were woven into King Kamehameha I's feather cloak, which is on display during special occasions at the...

 (Fall 1998) Being a fisherman, a poe lawaia, in old Hawai'i was an honorable profession, one that grandparents handed down to the boys in a family.

 (Spring/Summer 2006) Until the latter part of 1850, handling mail was strictly a private affair in Hawaii. There wasn’t much privacy, however – letters received from abroad often were spread across...

(Fall/Winter 1995-1996) 'I got leid in Hawaii', proclaims a favorite bumper sticker that many visitors take back to the mainland. What is it about those fragrant flower garlands and the sensual...

 (March 1998 ) In old Hawai'i, there was a time for work and a time for play. During the fall Makahiki season, war was suspended for three-to-four months, taxes were paid...

 (Spring/Summer 2001) In 1970, Herb Kawainui Kane left a successful career as a graphic artist in Chicago to begin a new life in the land of his ancestors. Within 14 years...

 (June 1997) Hina spreads out her kapa, her beaten cloth, white as snow, clear as a mountain stream. She places stones on them, to prevent the raging winds from blowing...

 (May 1993) From the Journal of Captain King, Cook's Voyages, March 1779, three months after the death of Captain Cook:

 (Spring/Summer 2002) An easy 3.6 mile hike off Route 11 in the barren Ka‘u Desert leads to sets of footprints imbedded in lava along the trail to Mauna Iki dome....

(1998) For the most part, surfing on the Big Island of Hawaii is an early morning experience. Ask anyone who knows and they'll tell you the same thing. As dawn's...

(December 1997) Under the shopping-bazaar facade of sun-dappled Kailua-Kona lies a legacy of events and historic locales that played a pivotal role in changing forever the lifestyle of the Hawaiian...

 (Fall/Winter 2000-2001) All along the Kona-Kohala Coast, ancient anchialine ponds reflect those long-ago days when thatched hales (houses) and shady shelter caves furnished homes for fishermen and their families.

 (June 1998) Kapa making is an art that once spanned the Pacific, but it reached perfection in Polynesia. The artistic beauty of the cloth made of pounded bark impressed Captain James...