Hāmākua is the northeast section of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

Along Hāmākua’s 50 mile stretch of land between Hilo and Waipiʻo, the beauty of nature is everywhere.

Timeless are her rain forests and waterfalls that cling to emerald cliffs.

The rugged coastal terrain abruptly meets the sea.

Breathtaking Waipiʻo Valley is a northern most border of the Hāmākua district.

For six miles lush Waipiʻo stretches from the mountain to the sea, bounded by massive cliffs.

It is a secluded haven of taro farms and wildlife.

In the valley, the source of life freshwater overflows replenished by abundant rainfall.

Once the home of Hawaiian kings now Waipiʻo Valley is the home of Kia Fronda, and others, who like him, tenaciously strive to preserve the Hawaiian lifestyle and culture.

Waipiʻo was first settled around 1100 AD.

Shortly after the population exceeded 1,000 then 5,000 and some historians even say 10,000 people once lived in Waipiʻo Valley.

Waipiʻo is also known as the Valley of the Kings, some of the royalty and willing chiefs in Waipiʻo are Kihā, Līloa, Hakau, ʻUmi and of course, one of the most famous one was Kamehameha.

My grandfather, who lived here the latter 1930s, up to 1957, traveled this footpath, either by walking or riding his horse and mules.

The mules were the main vehicles to transport taro up the valley.

The valley floor is fairly flat.

And the valley floor is very verdant, rich in natural nutrients.

And this is why the Hawaiians wanted Waipiʻo Valley to raise taro.

Water was in abundance.

Waipiʻo was supplied by five major springs and the major springs and the tributaries converge into one river called the Wailoa River.

And the Wailoa river as it curves through the valley is where Waipiʻo gets its name.

For Waipiʻo means curving water.

In 1946, April 1, disaster struck Waipiʻo and with that came the tidal wave or tsunami.

That tsunami was estimated to be 50 feet high and it came into Waipiʻo by hitting the Z trail wall first, ricocheted off the Z trail wall, and came around towards the red house that is situated in the middle of the valley next to the river.

From there it came back out.

That was the third wave and the third wave was one of the highest waves.

Surprisingly, no one was killed.

A lot of people were thrown around, but by the third wave, they had enough time to settle their horses, mules, donkeys or whatever, and make it for high ground.

Waipiʻo is, you can't describe it.

I can tell you about it, but most people have to experience it.

It's a, it's a spiritual place, but if you come to terms with people that want to know exactly how it's like the only thing I can think of is stressless.

It is peace within the heart, especially, and the mind that make us remain here.

The reason why I am here is because I think of my background where I'm from and taro is a definite Hawaiian culture.

And that's what I'd like to continue to tell the children of Hawaiʻi, doesn't matter what kind, how, how the Hawaiians were brought up, about taro farming, what kind of taro and the importance of the water.

It's, it's like the vein that goes through the body.

If the blood stops, and then you have a heart attack.

That's the same way with taro, if they stop the water that goes into the taro patch, then your taro won't be as good.

A lot of them die.

And this is what I try to convey.

And that is my main reason why I keep the taro patch open for the children of tomorrow.

I like living here.

Mostly I clean taro patch and watch the water and you know?

Not too much job, you know this, you know, taro patch.

Because it's open already, somebody else opened this already see?

I just come down here and take care.

So, kind of easy already.

The first guys who did this before, yeah?

I rather stay on top.

When I come down here, I just like loaf.

This is where I was born in 1932.

This home here, but a little smaller house.

After I was eight years old, the house was built, this house here was built.

Then I was moved with my grandparents on the farther side of Waipiʻo Valley at the bottom of Nenewe Fall, which we call Nenewe.

This particular area has the name.

It's one village in Waipiʻo Valley, which we call Nāpōʻopoʻo and the waterfall on our right.

It's named after Hiʻi, a boy from this valley, this part of the valley.

The waterfall on our left is named after Lawe, this girl that came from Kaʻū, her name was Lawe.

So, this what both waterfall is named today Nani Hiʻilawe.

My grandfather's name was Sam Liʻa.

He grew up here in this valley.

And he was a composer that reads lotta, compose lotta Hawaiian music about the valley.

And then he composed this song.

Nani Hiʻilawe.

(music) In the 1800s, sugar was king, waves of immigrant laborers entered the Hāmākua district to work the fields.

Ethnic groups, such as the Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese and Filipinos.

With surges of unpredictable market demands and fluctuating world prices however, the sugar industry began to decline.

Sugar mills closed, leading laborers unemployed and nearby plantation towns abandoned.

Well, there's been tremendous changes in this, in this business since I've been associated with it.

Most of the cane was still cut by hand when I first came here.

And in a lot of the field operations was still by large hand gangs.

This has been completely changed and we're a highly mechanized operation.

I think that there's been tremendous technological, technological changes during this period.

And I think probably right now, where we're doing more, more in this area of improving operations, technological improvements, than at any time in my whole career.

I find it a most exciting time.

Today, the Hamakua Sugar Company survives.

Owner Francis Morgan purchased the 35-mile plantation and the flailing sugar operation has been resurrected.

Well, it was a, it was a major gamble buying this thing.

A lot of people have wondered why I did it.

I was reaching retirement-age.

I developed enough assets to live easily and comfortably for the rest of my life.

And however, it appeared to me that if it stayed in the hands of, of the farm owners, that there was a sizable chance that within the near-term future it would be shut down because it really didn't fit their overall strategy.

So, I liquidated all the assets I developed.

I bought the place and in doing so incurred a major debt, which I am the sole guarantor.

And so, I've, I've really put everything I have into this thing and also committed my future to it.

A lot of people thought this was foolhardy, but I felt that this is a way I could make a major contribution not only to this company and the people that live here and work here and depend upon it, but the economy the of the state.

Enough, I felt I could make this kind of a contribution during my lifetime it would have been well worth it.

Hamakua Sugar Company like the rest of the domestic U.S. sugar producers has been set by a very difficult situation in the past decade.

We have been forced to compete with heavily subsidized foreign producers.

We have lacked an adequate price support mechanism and it's become necessary to reduce our costs.

We developed five years ago a very comprehensive program designed to get our costs down to a level where we could compete even with the lowest cost subsidized foreign producers.

Part of our program was diversifying our activities to generate revenue from other sources, which were synergistic with and compatible to the basic operation.

The most significant of these that has come on stream is our beef cattle operation.

There were some advantages we had which couldn't be duplicated by other processors of cattle in the state, the Hawaiʻi cattle industry has been in very difficult condition due to inadequate returns.

And we felt getting into the business would accomplish three things: we could increase the return paid to local ranchers for their cattle, thus assuring their viability, that we could produce a quality product, which would compete effectively with mainland beef, and that we could provide an adequate return to Hamakua Sugar Company.

As such, we invested four and a half million dollars in a cattle feedlot and a cattle slaughter processing plant.

We've got about 6,500 head of cattle in the feed yard now.

We bring 'em in weighing six and a half to 700 pounds and we'll take them up to around 1,100 pounds fat, and which is 120 to 150 days depending on what their weight is.

And from there, they'll go to slaughter down to packing house.

Some of the other things we're looking to in terms of future diversification is producing higher value products from molasses.

We have commissioned Mattel Pacific Northwest laboratories to examine possibilities for us.

They've identified several products which could be produced from molasses using fermentation and dehydration technology.

One in particular is very attractive, it's a high value industrial compound, which we are in the process of patenting.

And once we get a patent, I think that we can market this product through some of the large chemical companies and that could produce a lot of needed income for the company.

Well, the Hāmākua coast is I've been extremely familiar with it for oh 45 years.

And, and during this whole time, the general complexion has not changed much.

It's basically been sugar cane.

The method of doing the work has changed and all that.

And I visualize for the future, it'll continue to be basically a sugar cane operation.

We will continue to develop technology I think, in this process, the jobs the quality of the jobs you will have will continue to increase because some of these new projects we're doing require a higher and higher technical knowledge.

And, and it's a very diversified business in therefore there's a wide range of jobs and in the in the needing not only technology, but business judgment and acumen.

And so, as I as I see, basically will continue the same outward appearance and all that.

But with a gradually increasing technology and job satisfaction, satisfaction.

Many of the laborers retired to enjoy the good life in Hāmākua.

During his free time, retired sugar plantation worker Lody Reyno is a master weaver and instructor in the art of coconut leaf weaving.

Since I come over here in the year 1946, Hawaiʻi was still territory.

And then I work up at the Hakalau sugar plantations for around 29 years.

I like the Hāmākua Coast very much because it's different you can make also your garden or anything, you can make a chicken coop behind your house.

Now at this time I'm going to make, to show you how to make a coconut hatch with this leaves that I have over here.

(music) Okay that’s it.

Oh yeah, I’ll show you.

Is that nice?

Many talented artisans and musicians also live in the Hāmākua district.

Fueled by the beauty of Hāmākua's landscape creative expression thrives.

With a backdrop of a rain forest and a glimpse of the sea, local musicians of the group Jazz Arts stir the air with their music.

(Jazz music) Gordon Motta ceramist, craftsman and architect and Laura Lewis, a textile fabric art designer, create works of art in quiet Āhualoa where they live.

Before I started painting, I used to do sewing with all kinds of fabrics.

I used to do kind of a fabric collage and I became interested in the techniques used to decorate the fabrics, especially Japanese fabrics.

They're so beautiful in the way that they were decorated.

And at that time, there was very little information available about the techniques that were used.

So, I started to, to seek information about the different styles of painting that the Japanese used and the different techniques used in dyeing.

Working on silk is very much of a pleasure because it takes the dye so well and the colors are very, very true and shimmering.

It's very light to work with.

It only takes a light touch and sometimes it's like painting with a feather almost.

Well, this is my sketchbook and a lot of times when I'm doing the design, it's very improvised.

Even though I have drawings to work from, it becomes very different when you're dealing with a large scale of two or three yards of fabric.

I keep in mind certain elements that I like to use, certain design elements and I improvise from there as to what other lines I'll be using in the design.

My work is quite recognizable by the, what might be called a flamboyant glaze style.

It's a combination of scenic painting and Japanese brush painting.

And it's, you don't find a true image there as you would painting on canvas.

The glazes, of course, are not the accurate color that that you see before they're fired.

So, like I say it's more of an impression, or a dream or a reflection or an imagination, or a thought that comes through in the imagery.

Hāmākua, you know, is a real quiet, remote out of the way, peaceful place.

And that allows an artist to develop his own style without the trappings of the competition.

The environment here is so inspiring.

You wake up every day and depending on the weather, you do what you have to do.

If it's time to surf - that's what you do that day.

If it's rainy and cloudy, and you can't do anything else, go to work in the studio.

Or years ago, you know, I was just 11 I took art lessons from a lady in Hilo named Kay Yamamoto.

Her influence as is one of the more lasting influences in my artistic endeavors.

When I went to California and I studied architecture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and that's an experience that I really cherish.

I'll never forget.

And of course, I'll carry with me all my life.

A few miles upland are neighbors Erik and Hillery Gunther, who are successful orchid growers and wood creators.

We call ourselves Cloud Forest Orchids and the reason we call that, call ourselves that is because we're up here at about 2,500 feet elevation and we get lots of afternoons with a cloud coming in.

Clouds come in and it does, there's a type of orchid terrain in South and Central America, it's called Cloud Forest conditions, which is what we have, and that enables us to grow a complete variety of these orchids.

These are all hybrids, these have been hybridized from the original species.

Starting in about 1850 people from England went to Central and South America and brought back the orchids.

And then they started making hybrids between the different plants and these are maybe 20 or 30 generations later.

There are approximately 25,000 naturally occurring orchid species in the world.

They are, I believe, are one of the largest plant families in the world.

And from those 25,000 species, the hybridizers have created probably a quarter of a million man-made hybrids which have actually been registered through the Royal Horticultural Society in London.

And that's the fun of orchid growing is to raise them up and see what you're gonna get.

With different types of wood gathered from nearby forests, the Gunthers perfect the art of wooden bracelet making, a process passed on to them by Hillery's father.

What makes these bracelets special is that we are making them in a laminated process, which is, that it's similar to plywood and that it has three layers that we glue together with epoxy and that makes it possible to make these bracelets very thin and very strong.

That's different from the usual wooden bracelet that you see because usually, a wooden bracelet is carved on a lathe out of a solid piece of wood, and therefore it has inherent weaknesses.

But when you laminate the wood, you can cut it down to an extremely thin bracelet which makes it real pretty and fine.

My father who lived in Waimea discovered and worked through this process himself over a period of years and was very proud of the fact that he had invented this process.

And we were very fortunate that he passed this on to us and now we're carrying on for him.

Honokaʻa town was actually began to get active when the plantations come in.

And it was when the when the Haina mill was put in that the town was or was, I guess structured around that.

And at that time, of course, like all the plantations, all the immigrants were brought in.

The Portuguese, the Japanese, the Filipinos, and it was predominantly or Portuguese give us a large population of Portuguese.

So, within the area we had lots of the Portuguese culture.

In this community the cachi cachi, as they call it, it's really the samba, the, it's very popular like to go to a public function say, a wedding or something like that.

There's any type of dancing, you're going to come around to some samba music and everybody gets into the act and really have a good time.

(music) That nobody else has done.

So don’t make me spend all my money, You have taught me (inaudible) But I’m telling you baby, I’m through with you Because (inaudible) Now there will come a time when you’ll be lonely And there will come a time when you’ll be blue (inaudible) Restoration actually is something that's dear to my heart because I was quite involved with it.

And here at the Honokaʻa Credit Union, we had a splendid opportunity to take a 100 year old department store and just strip it down to basics and to do what you see right now.

We, we did a historical preservation on the outside and inside it’s adaptively used.

So, we picked up some of the items from the periods.

We have the old floors, if you'll notice that and the teller windows have the grates on it, it's just to kind of give it a period.

After that everything is functional.

Everything is done to make it very functional for us.

But on the outside, we're very, very concerned about retaining the integrity of the building.

Oh, it's a great town to live in.

It's very active, there's an awful lot of activities that go on.

Like you know, with me with my family, there's never a dull moment.

We're always involved with one thing or the other.

There's lots of activities in the community.

There's a real cohesiveness amongst the people here and just recently we had a group that began to have classes and training with girls had gone to Portugal and came back with costumes and things and revive the (inaudible) dances.

(Traditional music) In the district of Hāmākua change is slow.

Places like Honokaʻa and Waipiʻo Valley look and feel much as they have for generations as the people of Hāmākua continue to blend the rich traditions of their past with the future.

(Chanting in Hawaiian)