[intro music] HIKI NŌ, Hawai‘i's New Wave of Storytellers.

Aloha.

Welcome to HIKI NŌ on PBS Hawai‘i.

I'm Sophia Santos, and I’m a freshman at Pearl City High School on O‘ahu.

This is the second HIKI NŌ show I've had the honor to host, and I'm so glad you're here with us to watch the work of Hawai‘i's New Wave of Storytellers.

In this episode, we're talking about the cultural currents that run through all of us.

We have stories of heritage that cover everything from a bat mitzvah celebration to the traditions of the Hawaiian Makahiki season.

There are local stories about communities coming together, whether by lending slippers or spearheading a family bake sale to raise funds for the survivors of the 2023 Maui wildfires.

We’ll go behind the scenes at the headquarters of two award winning school broadcast programs.

We'll also learn about a local nonprofit’s efforts to make the Ala Wai Canal swimmable again.

So, let's start the show, shall we?

Our first piece comes from students at McKinley High School on O‘ahu.

It's a new HIKI NŌ project genre called Did You Know.

Gavin Simon, a senior, shares an update on the health of the Ala Wai Canal here in Waikīkī.

Did you know that there is something that can eat up sludge?

Hi, my name is Gavin, a senior at McKinley High School.

The sludge in the Ala Wai Canal has become a big issue, building up over the years and creating a toxic environment.

However, there is a solution.

Packed with good effective microorganisms, Genki balls are filled with healthy microbes that love to eat sludge.

Through the Genki Ala Wai Project, a nonprofit group under the Hawai‘i Exemplary State Foundation, volunteers can help make the Ala Wai Canal swimmable and fishable again.

To make the Genki ball, a mixture of clay soil, rice bran, molasses, water, and EM1 solution of good microbes is molded into a tennis-sized mud ball.

After a couple of weeks, the Genki balls dry out and shrink in size until they are ready to be thrown into the canal.

The Genki balls gradually work their way to the bottom of the canal, breaking down the sludge.

Over the past four years, through Genki balls, 21 inches of sludge has been removed on the Kapahulu end of the canal.

The goal of the project is to make 300,000 Genki balls in order to make the Ala Wai Canal swimmable again by 2026.

So far, they have made 80,000.

They are diligent in their attempt to make the Ala Wai Canal and Hawai‘i more sustainable and clean.

Now you know.

This is Gavin Simon from President William McKinley High School for HIKI NŌ, on PBS Hawai‘i.

[ocean wave] Let's go now to Hawai‘i Island, where Liana Doppmann, an eighth grader at Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy has a story to share about learning more about her heritage.

She shares the challenges and rewards of preparing for a Jewish rite of passage.

This is Liana Doppmann, an eighth grader at Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy on the Big Island of Hawai‘i.

I am recording this on December 5, 2023.

A bat mitzvah is a cultural experience that a young Jewish person can complete in order to become an adult.

This ceremony takes more than a year to prepare for, as you must lead a service, read from the Old Testament, or the Torah, and do a mitzvah project, where you get back to your community.

My parents urged me to have a bat mitzvah, explaining why it was important.

I understood it would be a lot of work, but I agreed, jumping right into the process of having to learn a whole new language, Hebrew, which is the commonly spoken Jewish language.

However, it turned out to be a lot of stress on me, as I had never done anything like it before.

I was also working on multiple theater performances at the time, and school was a lot of work.

I found it hard to constantly practice and I often found myself procrastinating.

I started to wonder if it was too much for me.

I considered changing the date or even canceling the ceremony altogether.

Then, I talked to my mom, and she reminded me of all my relatives who had gone through this tradition before me and how my family would be there, supporting me throughout the entire way.

I felt more secure hearing this, and it helped push me to finish the experience.

I also thought about the Torah I’d be reading from and how it was saved from a concentration camp in Czechoslovakia and then brought into the congregation's possession.

This was inspiring for me to learn, as this torah was special compared to most others.

On July 22, 2023, I had my bat mitzvah with Kona Beth Shalom.

It was exciting and nerve wracking, but I was relieved the entire time.

Standing in front of my family and my friends, I started to realize that all my hard work was finally paying off.

Looking back now I realized how before my bat mitzvah, I was disconnected from my religion and my ancestors.

I rarely practiced Jewish blessings and participated in holidays.

Now I go to synagogue as often as I can.

I know how to read Hebrew, and I have a deeper connection with my family, ancestors, and overall, my identity.

[ocean wave] Now, as we continue to ring in the new year of 2024, let's visit the HIKI NŌ archives to watch this memorable story about the tradition of mochi pounding.

It was produced by Maui Waena Intermediate School in 2017.

The process of making mochi consists of steaming and pounding sweetened rice to create a Japanese dessert that brings good luck to the new year.

But really, sharing this tradition creates something even sweeter: memories and community.

For the past 27 years, Carolyn and Tom Fujita have hosted the annual mochi pounding at their home in Kahului, Maui.

Okay, we, we started really small in 1985.

We pounded like 50 pounds, maybe a little less than 50 pounds of mochi, and now we pound a little over 200 pounds of mochi.

But this event does not plan itself.

Every single year we've been doing mochi pounding, um, grandpa spends maybe a lot of his time preparing for it with the mallets.

He puts up the tents.

He puts out all of the chairs.

He cleans the tables, he rearranges our house, um, he does all kinds of stuff just to prepare for this.

He does it every year.

This year's preparation has been more difficult because on November 28, Carolyn, Tom's wife, sadly passed away.

Mrs. Fujita was our matriarch.

I mean, she, she and her husband were pretty much the, uh, our, our group leaders.

Uh, they took the lead in getting, getting this together.

It's different because she's not here.

We miss her today, uh, this year because she used to do so much things.

Uh, helped me shop and helped me plan for wanting the menu, she, she has a lot of, a lot of input, uh, making the menu.

People come together from as far as the mainland to celebrate this tradition.

Everybody's not Buddhist, but you still have the tradition, and the tradition continues in the way of fellowship and continues in a way of, you know, giving some mochi that you've just pounded to your neighbors and have them share in that, in that joy of doing this, this kind of work.

It's more than tradition.

Uh, when I grew up, we used to pound mochi.

And mostly family.

So, that's carrying on the tradition, but for me it's getting together and a lot of friends, every relative.

I see it only once a year, and this is it over here.

This annual gathering to bring in the new year has shaped the younger generation.

Um, so when grandpa can't do, uh, mochi pounding anymore, I'm hoping that me and my brothers and my generation will be able to pursue our, you know, our goals and dreams, and then it'll be our turn.

Although Carolyn is not there to celebrate the annual mochi pounding, her spirit still lingers.

I'm sure she is looking down on us and maybe that’s why it’s clearing up.

And this morning the wind died down.

So, I'm sure she's helping us with that, too.

This is Hannah Okamoto from Maui Waena Intermediate School, for HIKI NŌ.

[ocean wave] Our next story comes from students at Wai‘anae High School on O‘ahu.

Many of these students have participated with HIKI NŌ throughout their school careers.

I'm excited to share that they, along with several other HIKI NŌ schools, received national recognition at the Student Television Network Challenge last November.

Their story about the traditions of the Hawaiian Makahiki season received first place in the feature story category.

Let's watch.

The holiday season always brings families together.

Here in Hawai‘i, the Makahiki season brings communities together.

Makahiki season is the first four months of the Hawaiian calendar.

The Makahiki season is actually marked by the rising of Makali‘i in the east at the same time that the sun is setting in the west.

For native Hawaiian astro photographer Davin Carvalho, this year marks a significant milestone.

And I feel like there's probably more Hawaiians that are celebrating it today than there was maybe 20 or 30 years ago.

Makahiki season was a time of peace in the Hawaiian Kingdom and honors the Hawaiian deity Lono.

This holiday is celebrated through harvest, games, hula, and offerings.

Today, the community of native Hawaiian youth is celebrating Makahiki and keeping its traditions alive.

Makahiki games is always important to me because I grew up in a Hawaiian household.

My whole father's side of the family spoke Hawaiian, and naturally it just passed over to me.

Hawaiian was also my first spoken language as well.

So, Makahiki is basically a time to most likely be with your family, be with your family and friends, to spend quality time with your loved ones.

The growth and Makahiki celebrations rely solely on awareness and active participation.

It’s like a rise of people wanting to practice the Hawaiian culture because they're realizing, oh, we do live in Hawai‘i, and it'd be nice to remember the past.

So, I think a good way for Makahiki to be celebrated and brought more into the light of more community members is by maybe having public events where it's open to the public.

[Hawaiian chanting] For Cultural Education Coordinator Kaila Alva, she believes holding cultural events at Waimea Valley helps connect people of all backgrounds.

Waimea puts on a big festival or a traditional holiday like this.

A lot of communities from around the world will find things that are akin to them.

But this holiday is about more than just coming together.

It's also helping perpetuate Hawaiian culture.

Not only is it a sign to everybody that we're flourishing, but it's a point of security and pride for Hawaiian people to see that these things are continuing.

And there was a long period in Hawaiian history where these ceremonies weren't allowed to be practiced.

So, it's healing to see all of these things go on again.

This is Natasha Maafala from Wai‘anae High School for HIKI NŌ on PBS Hawai‘i.

[ocean wave] You might have heard about Wai‘anae High School's incredible student broadcast production program.

Here's a peek at what goes into making their videos and school broadcast shows.

Hey, guys, today we're going to give you a behind the scenes vlog of our broadcast program here at SP.

Yeah!

For starters, I think it's really important to understand where we work, because where we work is just as important as what we do.

[upbeat music] What's also really interesting about where we work is that if we were to go outside, there’s the beach.

Now that we kind of have an understanding of where we work, let's talk about the actual work.

Now, here's the list of things we do.

Hold on, it’s not done.

That's obviously a really long list.

So, we made a shortened list of what we do sectioned in things we do every day, every week, every month, and every year.

For starters, every day, we do the bulletin.

Okay, so, conveniently I have bulletin today.

So, we're gonna go film my bulletin on-cams, and then we're gonna get to editing.

I'll see you in a minute.

Hey, guys, I'm mic’d up right now.

And these are my people, my helpers.

And I’m Isabelle Gallardo, and here are your general announcements.

I just uploaded my bulletin.

Bye.

And every week we create content.

The content that we create varies due to how much creative freedom we have for our projects.

Sometimes we even put people in trees.

But every week we produce content, and they get published by our Social Media Head, Denise.

And every month we do see the news.

Hi, guys, it's Angela.

I'm here with the news crew.

Hi!

Oh my God, I hope it doesn’t fall.

We're gonna go to Waimea Valley.

We're in contact with one of them to film Makahiki games.

You can learn from our video.

Yeah.

Like Natasha was saying, news is very informational.

The production and publishing of the news show they curate is very educational.

Every year, we do yearbook.

And here's our wonderful yearbook staff.

Every year, the yearbook staff creates different unique ideas for the school's yearbook.

When the time comes around, it's super exciting to see the staff take on the yearbook that year.

But that concludes our behind-the-scenes vlog of our broadcast program here at SP.

Uh, I hope you guys enjoyed.

Uh, see you next time.

Bye.

This is Angela Dupa from Wai‘anae High School for HIKI NŌ, on PBS Hawai‘i.

[ocean wave] On Kaua‘i there's another HIKI NŌ school with an award-winning student broadcasting program.

In this next HIKI NŌ Did You Know video, students at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School on Kaua‘i share some history behind their longtime morning show.

Hi, I'm a student of the CKTV media class at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School.

Our advanced media class produces informational and entertaining morning announcements for the entire school to view each day.

The morning announcements are a huge, huge part of my morning routines because one thing I love about it is it answers all those frequently asked questions every single day.

What rotation is it?

What day of the week is it?

What's for lunch today?

And those questions are answered throughout the whole video.

So, I make it a huge part of my morning.

We know the morning announcements are very tech savvy and up to date, but what were they like before this modern day of technology?

So, we started with live morning announcements shows.

And we did that for about 19 years, actually.

I always felt that I wanted to– our students to have that live television production, and that's why we kept with it for so long.

But once we made that switch into doing a taped show, what it did for our students was it forced them to shoot and edit every single day.

And so, their skills got really, really good.

And the students in that first group that did our initial taped versions, um, got so good that they were just winning all the contests, and, uh, we've stuck with it since.

That's why the morning announcements are so unique and individual to our school, and CKMS is very proud to have them.

This is Stella Fornari reporting for HIKI NŌ on PBS Hawai‘i.

[ocean wave] On Maui, there's a unique community library that can come in handy for certain kinds of footwear emergencies.

It's a truly local kind of neighborhood gesture, captured in this next story produced by ‘Īao school HIKI NŌ’s 2021 Spring Challenge.

Last year, Maui resident Kimberly Thayer decided to make the most of quarantine by creating a library that gives back to the community in a different way.

Da Slippah Library is, uh, I guess a public service of sorts where, uh, people can drop off slippers, either a single slipper or a pair of slippers that would otherwise be thrown away, can come here and then whoever is in need of one or two slippers can come and pick it up.

I had noticed around town the little free libraries with books where you can come pick up a book and take a book.

So, I figured, eh, maybe we could do the same thing with the slippers.

Although small in scale, Kimberly's unique creation represents a heroic gesture that brings happiness to the Maui community.

I have gotten feedback about the library, and it's all been very positive.

Uh, it ranges from people saying oh my god, what a good idea, to oh, we should put one of these in our neighborhood.

There's people on Facebook and Instagram who, um, say like, oh, what a good community project, or, um, and some people get really excited when they drop off slippers.

They'll, like, post it on their own Instagram and tag us and say, ʻI finally did it.ʻ And, ʻHere I am.ʻ So, in that sense, it's spread a lot of joy, I think.

And then for a lot of people, um, like there was one guy who stopped by and said he was going to the grocery store, and one of his slippers broke, and he was with his son, and he told his son, oh my god, I know exactly what to do.

And the son didn't believe him.

And he pulled up here and was like, see, I got a new slipper now.

Although small in scale, Kimberly's unique creation represents a heroic gesture that brings happiness to the Maui community.

It makes me feel really good and gratified and happy that, um, this simple little library is giving people, um, some joy, and that it really is saving some people's day.

Like, there's been a bunch of slippers that have come through that have obviously found new feet to go home with.

Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and the library has not only brought footwear to people's feet, but positivity and cheer to its small community during these challenging times.

It's something fun every day, like when I come outside and I look, like, what new slippers are here and what stuff has gone away, and it's always, like, fun to see.

But hopefully, this brings inspiration and good feelings to others.

And if it saves people's day, then that's the best thing that could come out of it.

This is Emma Jane Roy from ‘Īao School for HIKI NŌ.

[ocean wave] Many people are still recovering after the horrendous fires on Maui last August.

This next story produced by students at Wai‘anae Intermediate School includes interviews with a mother and daughter on O‘ahu, who teamed up and put on their baking gloves to raise funds for Maui.

A person may bake cookies for friends, others may bake for personal gain.

But for one person in particular, she baked cookies for a cause.

My daughter was in Lahaina on the day of the fire.

She was with a friend on her last day of vacation.

And fortunately, they were able to make it out before all of those fires started.

On August 8, 2023, a fire spread in Lahaina on the island of Maui.

Strong winds from Hurricane Dora had helped spread the fire rapidly.

The fire killed at least 100 people, making this a deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century, according to the Associated Press.

It was very shocking because I was there on the day of the fire.

We just didn't know that it was going to turn into something so massive.

I flew out of Maui about maybe two hours or an hour before the fire got on the news, uh, to be as crazy as it was.

So, we had no idea what we were just missing when I got back to O‘ahu.

Luane Higuchi is a teacher at Wai‘anae Intermediate School who has been fundraising on our campus for 30 years.

With her experience, she helped her daughter raise money for her friends who are affected by the Lahaina fires.

S'mores cookies, orange popsicle cookies, lemon bars, lilikoi butter, and banana bread were the items that they made to raise money.

We were just getting a ton of orders, people texting us or, um, placing the orders on social media.

And then on top of that, we had people saying, you know, how can I donate?

And so, um, money started just coming in through Venmo or Paypal or Apple Pay.

It was really heartwarming that we got as many orders as we did.

It was very surprising because I thought it would be a lot of, um, how do I put this, like parents that we knew or, you know, adults, but it was a lot of my old high school classmates who are, you know, still students themselves in college, or, uh, people that I haven't talked to in years.

So, it was really nice to see that, uh, it kind of brought a lot of uh back together, in a way.

As of now, we've raised $8,000.

Um, you know, in the beginning, we were like, we're praying for $1,000, and then it became $2,000, and then she did a post, like we’re at $5,000, help us get to $6,000.

And then the money kept coming in, and so now we're at $8,000 and we're super grateful to our friends and our families who really, um, like, jumped in and supported us through this, we feel is a very important cause.

Because of the support they received, Karissa was able to help five of her friends.

I have to say, I am so proud of my daughter because it really was her idea.

And, um, it just makes my heart warm to know that she understands responsibility and kuleana, giving back to other people.

Smells good.

This is Cassandra Jones for HIKI NŌ on PBS Hawai‘i.

[ocean wave] This next story comes from students at H.P.

Baldwin High School on Maui who tell a story of a family baking tradition that turned into a business.

It was first published in 2018.

Take a look.

Among the many vendors at the weekly Maui Swap Meet, there's a friendly yellow stand called Aunty Lia’s Baked Goods.

Malia Webber, the owner and head baker at Aunty Lia’s, is a mother of six and used her love of food to create her family-run business.

I started thinking what, what can I do?

I can bake.

And so, I started baking.

I stay up all night on Friday, I bake all day, all night, I come straight here.

But the creation of Auntie Leah's came not only from her love of baking, but Malia’s need to sustain her family.

I can honestly say that when I got into it, I didn't think it was going to be a business.

I literally fell into it because I had no other means to be able to take care of all of our children.

Um, I had cancer, and I was huge pregnant with our sixth child, and I thought if something happens to me, my husband, he's gonna need help.

So, we moved home.

And while I was here to get medical help, he got hurt.

And I thought, nobody's gonna hire this huge pregnant, sick person.

So, I realized I can bake.

I had my 16-year-old daughter, who was not happy about it, go walk around door to door and just sell banana bread and see if people even like it.

And within 15 minutes, she came home and she was sold out with orders.

But I find it interesting that food is what ended up saving us.

In order to provide for her children, Malia started baking banana bread using her grandmother's over 100-year-old family recipe.

My grandmother, who passed on, I know it's kind of eerie, but I feel like she's still with me and that she tells me things.

Like, sometimes I’m measuring things and I'll hear, “No, add one more.” Food has always been a huge part in my life.

I mean, our family would always get together.

Like I said, my grandmother had 14 children.

Malia’s grandmother, who she was named after, taught her to bake and sparked her passion in food.

She would have me like hey, Malia, go get me this and measure this and you know.

And so she taught me how to bake in that way.

And I could see that she loved it so much that I loved it.

Looking into the future with hope, Malia and her family continue their daily lives not letting a little rain stop them.

This is Skylar Masuda from H.P.

Baldwin High School for HIKI NŌ.

[ocean wave] Well, that's it for this episode.

Mahalo for taking the time to enjoy these stories with me.

You can keep up with Hawai‘i's New Wave of Storytellers by subscribing to PBS Hawai‘i on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

Find this HIKI NŌ episode and more at pbshawaii.org.

And of course, please tune in next week for more proof the Hawai‘i students HIKI NŌ, can do.

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