(Waves crashing) Narrator: When the first Polynesians reached Hawaiʻi,   they brought with them a rich belief in spirits and the supernatural.

Later, Asian immigrants brought their own beliefs and folklore.

This fusion created a type of ghost story that is unique to the islands Her sacred name , Kaʻulaokeʻahi, means the redness of fire.

But most know her as Pele - Goddess of Hawaiʻi's volcanoes.

In folklore, her spirit often takes the form of a beautiful girl or an old woman with a dog.

Glen Grant: I think that Pele, of course, is one of the most important and one of the most widely seen of the spirits, not only among Hawaiians, but among all people.

I remember one time having Japanese-American nisei a tell me that he and his friend were driving around the island coming through Sandy Beach one night, when they saw this old Hawaiian woman with their hands up like this in the middle of the road.

She was wearing a chinaman hat and a long muʻumuʻu on, barefoot.

They stopped the car even said to each other, ʻHey well, let's you know, let's leave her.'

She looked a little too frightening.

But she came over to the side of the car.

didn't wait to introduce herself, said she needed a ride.

And before they could tell her no, because they're gonna say no, she opened the door and got in their car with them, in the front seat.

Well she want, they got out and they let her sit in the front seat between the two of them.

So there's the driver, the passenger and this old woman sitting between them and off they take off going towards Kaimukī on that old road by blowhole while they're drunk, they're still laughing they're, you know, driving wildly.

When the old woman says to the passenger, 'Can I have a cigarette?'

because he's got them in his pocket?

Well, out comes a cigarette and she puts it in her mouth and he goes to get the match.

When she says, 'Oh, no, I no need.'

She cups her hand and in the palm of her hand, they told me, a fire, hot red glow appeared.

She reached up, touch the cigarette to her hand, puffed it, smoked it and leaned back in her seat with this devilish little smile.

Well, suddenly, these two guys are cold stone sober.

Not a word is said.

The guy driving just gets to Kaimukī as fast as he can.

The other guy has pushed his body against the car door as far as it'll go.

While is old woman just enjoying, smoking her cigarette.

Well they drive into Kaimukī pull up behind a taxi driver, jump out, get her out of the car and say 'No, wherever else you want to go.

He'll take you.'

They get back in the car and they're screaming their heads off.

"Did you see what she did with her hands?"

Well, the next night they went back to find from the taxi driver where they took that old woman and the taxi driver told them that when they pulled up last night to Kaimukī, they got out of the car, pointed at him, spoke to something that wasn't there, got back in the car and drove off.

There was no old woman in that car that night.

Well, when they told me that story several years ago, they were quite convinced that Pele appeared on the highway scared them just enough to sober them up and got them home safely.

And that's why she appeared on the highway.

(Ominous music) Think we're very familiar with the notion of ghost stories and ghost stories we usually think of in a Western sense.

That is – haunting, chain rattling, white sheet floating apparitions.

But in the islands I think we've, we've got a situation in which world cultures fused with the Polynesian foundation have a far different attitude about ghosts than just the haunting chain rattling one.

(Drums, flute music) Narrator: The obon festival, a tradition brought over by the Japanese, is a time when people dance and light lanterns to free the souls of dead ancestors.

This Asian notion of the soul and afterlife is the foundation for many ghost stories.

Michael Saso/University of Hawaii Prof. Of Asian Religions: The Japanese, Chinese and Korean notion of the soul and the afterlife is very similar.

The Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, as did the native Hawaiians, believed that when a person died, his or her soul descended into an underworld.

And while in the underworld, the living were required to pray for that soul so that it quickly passes out of the underworld punishments or purifications, into a heavenly place where it would no longer harm the living.

Chinese, Japanese and Korean ritual is geared towards freeing the soul from the underworld hell, and sending it off to heaven.

And from this originates many of the so called ghost stories.

Narrator: When Lee Chew died in 1924, his family packed his bones in a suitcase and planned to take him back to China.

But World War Two prevented that.

So for many years, his bones remained in a suitcase at the Manoa Chinese Cemetery, until he sent a message to his grandson's wife.

Teddi Ching/Lee Chew’s granddaughter in-law: A friend came back, and she and I were talking and she channels spirits, and she said that there was a message for me to give to my husband.

His grandfather wanted to ask for help.

And she could see him she said he was, he was so sad, and he was holding himself and he wanted help.

So I called Michael Saso, and he was my teacher, my religion teacher at the university.

And Michael said, we should go to the temple and see the monk whose name is Shen Hu and have him say a prayer to quiet the spirit.

So I called Popo Ching and I asked her for the name of her father, invited her to go with us.

When we got to the temple we talked to to Shen Hu and he wants to know what we wanted.

And so we told him, we didn't know what to do about this grandfather in the suitcase.

Narrator: Using an ancient ritual Shen Hu talked to the spirit of the grandfather who said he would bring disaster on the family.

Teddi Ching/Lee Chew’s granddaughter in-law: Then he shook some yarrow sticks, and they'd come out of this little thing, and each stick would say something.

So he asked the question of the spirit, “Do you want to go back to China?” And the answer was no.

And then he asked, “Do you want to go back into the ground?” And the answer was no.

And then he asked, “Do you want to stay in the suitcase?” And the answer was no.

And if I do, I'll bring disaster to all the descendants.

So then the last question was, “Do you want to go to the temple?” And the answer was yes.

So we thank the priests and we left.

Narrator: But before Teddi Chang and her family could leave the temple Shen Hu’s prediction of disaster had already begun.

Teddi Ching/Lee Chew’s granddaughter in-law: And there were just two little steps and Popo Ching just, she just suddenly tumbled and fell really hard on the side.

And, and when we lifted her she was injured, who know really badly in her in her ribs and on the side of her legs.

And the priests came out and looked and, and Michael Saso came out and then they both went in and when we went back in, they said If we needed to take care of the spirit immediately, that things are already beginning to happen.

Narrator 10:05 To bring their grandfather to the temple, Teddi Ching and her husband had to ask permission from the rest of the family.

Teddi Ching/Lee Chew’s granddaughter in-law: And it was really amazing because someone had just had a bypass surgery and someone had had just had open heart surgery.

So there are already things that were happening to them.

And then everyone said yes.

And we went back to the priest and found an auspicious date.

And that was the date to go and pick up the suitcase with grandfather and take it to the temple where they cremated the bones.

And then they picked another auspicious date.

And we had this ritual that was really beautiful, and everyone is happy.

And I’ve, I've talked to - just two nights ago - I've talked to the aunts and uncles, and everyone is fine, and very healthy and Popo Ching is in her 80s and is very healthy.

So it's really a happy ending.

It's very nice.

Glen Grant: If you listen to a ghost story and feel something inside you going on, what that is going on inside you is the hope and the anticipation that the story is true.

The more uncanny it becomes, isn't when people turn away from them.

That's when their anticipations and their hopes become even more intense.

The ghost story provides that.

It is that vision of what goes on beyond death.

Narrator: Collections of valuable artifacts priceless treasures from our past have been in existence since man was around to collect and treasure them.

But only in the last 25 years has there been a rediscovery of the importance of those historical collections to future generations.

As time passes, however, museum curators and private collectors are beginning to see that you have to do more with history than hang it on a wall.

Time is telling the truth about the impact the environment is having on these artifacts that hold the secrets of civilizations and lifestyles gone by.

Time alone may take them too, unless the clock is stopped on their aging.

With a growing need to preserve these cultural resources, comes a new breed of scientists, a new breed of artists, that combine those two talents for the preservation of art and artifacts in museums and homes.

They are conservators.

Dale Kronkright/Senior Objects Conservator: Conservation is an incredibly fascinating profession, in which science is combined with artistic ability to determine the way art, artifacts, natural history specimens, age and deteriorate.

Narrator: Here, alongside one of Hawaii's most popular museums is at the Pacific Regional Conservation Center, where a team of eight conservators staff and technicians work to provide the highest quality museum conservation services to Hawaii and the Pacific.

The work begins with documentation.

Dale Kronkright/Senior Objects Conservator: Every object that comes into the laboratory has its own discrete number, and that number tracks it from the moment it enters the lab.

Through its photographic documentation, it's written documentation, goes into the computer database so that we know where the object is and what its status is at all times during the treatment.

Narrator: First, before treatment, photographs are taken and black and white and color.

This doll was owned by Cornelia Beckwith Damon, the daughter of a missionary family.

It was given to her in the 1860s and later passed on to Mary Beckwith who named it Alice.

Its present condition will be thoroughly examined and recorded before intensive testing begins.

Testing is imperative.

This canoe prow from the Trobriand Islands, dates to the early 20th century.

It's broken and appears to be a fairly simple repair, but not until much more is known about its makeup.

Dale Kronkright/Senior Objects Conservator: So what we were doing, in doing the analysis of the canoe prow, was finding out what made up the pigments that the prow was painted with.

And the reason why we do that is to avoid using adhesives when we make the repair that might confuse the information about the paint layers.

Narrator: The purple color indicates protein in the paint binder, perhaps from a fish skin glue.

Dale Kronkright/Senior Objects Conservator: Tells us that we should be very cautious not to use a protein based glue when we make the repairs.

Narrator: Each artifact is unique, requiring its own careful research.

Each object - like this Chinese high tin bronze mirror - a lesson in history.

Jane Bassett/Object Conservator: The pices dates to the Warring States period which is 500 to about 200 BCE.

It's in the lab right now because it has broken along this old repair line.

Narrator: The mirror was covered with raised corrosion when it was excavated from a tomb and repaired.

Jane Bassett/Object Conservator: A previous restorer, to remove that corrosion product because it obscured the details in the mirror, used an acid to remove that corrosion product and it's deposited copper all over the surface.

Narrator: It appears at first that removing the copper and repairing the breaks will be fairly routine.

But the discovery of old ways of doing things brings on new challenges.

Jane Bassett/Object Conservator: Well, after examining it more closely, it seems that the adhesive that was used to - in the old restoration is filled with a very fine steel shavings or steel powder.

We took little fragments of the fill material and put them under the microscope to see what solvents would dissolve the resin.

I think that it's probably a synthetic resin.

It's seems to be quite old, and has aged and crosslinked, which is why it's so difficult to, to dissolve.

Narrator: To dissolve the old repair could take days maybe even weeks before proper repair and care can continue.

Jane Bassett/Object Conservator: Through all the frustrations of treatments like this one with the unexpected, comes incredible learning and the really the joy of working with artifacts more intimately.

Narrator: Much work is done here in the painting lab of PRCC to preserve the valuable artwork of the Pacific, like this portrait of Charles R. Bishop captured on canvas in 1896.

He appears to be aging beautifully, but a test under ultraviolet lights tells a different story.

Downey Manoukian/Paper Conservator: You're seeing areas which had been previously damaged and repaired.

And the areas which are not fluorescing are overpaint, which a former restorer or conservator has applied to cover damage.

The painting will undergo a whole process where the repairs will be redone and then filled and in painted so that only the damage is covered not the original paint.

Janice Schopfer/Senior Paper Conservator: We're working on a John Young painting here.

There's a window mat and a backing stuck to this watercolor.

And in order to repair it, we have to remove the window mat and the backing.

And often in Hawaii, framing and the environmental conditions, temperature and humidity, cause problems.

Narrator: Conditions in Hawaii are either a conservators dream or nightmare for all the elements that accelerate the deterioration of works of art exist here.

Salt ever present from the sea, architectures that lend themselves to dust, direct light, humidity and high temperatures that bring an abundance of insects.

And a very typical problem in Hawaii - mold.

Janice Schopfer/Senior Paper Conservator: On the surface of the artwork, you can see little white tufts, which are the active mold growth.

In order to reduce this we need to sweep away and suck up as much of the mold and the mold bearing spores as possible.

Narrator: These are the challenges facing conservators at the Pacific Regional Conservation Center who are dedicated to preserving the irreplaceable collections in homes and museums of the Pacific for generations to come.

Laura Word/PRCC Chairman: And really one of the most important parts of our job is the conservation survey work that we do on site for museums.

We send a team of conservators to a museum and we do surveys of the condition of their buildings, the condition of their storage areas, the types of storage facilities that they have, the way they display artifacts, the way they handle artifacts, the level of their staff training in collections care.

What we're trying to do now is to do conservation surveys for all of these collections.

It would be wonderful if the Statestate of Hawaii could end up with a collection preservation plan.

Something that would allow the museums here to approach in a systematic way, the preservation of their collections.

Narrator: Almost any Sunday, this is a familiar scene.

Harley Davidson motorcycles cruising down the highway.

Have you ever wondered who these people are or where they're going?

There’s a big meeting at Moanalua Gardens and over 300 bikers have gathered.

The bikers, in small groups, will ride 100 miles around Oʻahu.

This particular Sunday was a fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Each of the riders had already collected cash donations and pledges and $28,000 was donated to MDA.

The media, and especially Hollywood, a stereotyped an outlaw biker image.

But things are different in Hawaii.

Del Hanna: My impression, I've been here 10 years, and I found that the biking scene here is much more mellow than it is in the mainland.

The mainland is highly structured clubs that are very territorial.

And in the last 10 years, I think there's been big changes here on the islands, where most of the clubs here are just trying to get a togetherness thing it's, it's just the sheer fun of riding.

Narrator: Cindy shares her husband's enthusiasm.

Cindy Hanna: Being a biker lady is being a biker lady.

Just   getting out there and riding and enjoying myself and being among a group of people that are very friendly, very helpful, very loyal.

It's just a super way to spend a day together.

Narrator: Del and Cindy operate a custom hair replacement center in downtown Honolulu.

Del Hanna: The term hog is a term that we affectionately call our Harley Davidsons because since way back they've been known as big fat hogs.

But the acronym H O G serves to be Harley Owners Group which is a factory sponsored owners club with Harley Davidson motorcycles.

They do a lot of rides.

Sunday rides, just about every single day.

And then once a month we do something crazy like some kind of a Spuds Mackenzie ride, Halloween ride or July 4 ride or a birthday ride or something unique and fun and rock and roll, have some chow and go for a long spin on our Harley Davidson motorcycles.

Narrator: The Paniolo Cafe on the Windward side of Oʻahu is a popular restaurant for bikers and tourists.

Jetan Allen, Paniolo Cafe.

Oh, this is great.

It's a good bunch of hard work and people are gonna get the ride on the Sundays and stop here and we have a lot of fun.

We play horseshoes, and it's good times.

You don't have any problems.

We have good fun with our biker friends that come out here and we've, we've had 950 at one time.

So you're talking about some serious partying and no problems.

It's great.

It's good fun.

It's a different image on the mainland.

Hawaiʻi, it's more local kind and the bikers over here take care of themselves really well.

And they did like I say it's working people and you live on an island, different type of island attitude.

It's good.

It's good fun.

Narrator: It's been said that on a Harley Davidson you don't show up, you arrive.

It definitely has a presence of blend of heritage and tradition that's respected throughout the world.

The Harley Davidson Motorcycle Company began in 1903.

It was the same year that the Wright brothers built their flying machine and Henry Ford designed the Model T. To this day, Harley Davidson is the only existing American manufacturer of motorcycles.

And along with that is a loyalty among the owners.

They swear they wouldn't ride anything else.

Ron Wallwork I bought my first Harley in 1952 when I came back from Korea, so I'm probably been riding more years and most guys are of age on his island.

The reason I drive a Harley it's because it's the only motorcycle made in my opinion.

I think most Japanese bikes are accidents looking for a place to happen.

Phil McKee: I'm a computer electronics technician for the army.

For years I own Japanese bikes.

And I was just just another rider.

You're an individualist.

When you buy a Harley you become part of a family.

And this is my family here on the island.

They'll always help you out and do things for you.

You know, I can always count on these people because they are part of my family here on this island.

My home away from home.

That's basically why I ride a Harley.

A different breed.

Llyod Eggstaff: All my life I figured if I bought a bike it had to be a Harley.

It's an American made machine.

It's, it's just the only thing I'll ride Candy Young: I wear black leather, Levi's, and boots especially in the in the unlikely event that something happens and you go down, the material leather jackets and and Levi's is heavy material.

It'll guard you against abraisions.

I mean, most of us wear protective clothing, it's functional clothing, we wear wallets with chains on them because when we're riding down the road if the wallet comes out of your pocket, you lose it.

Mostly most of us you'll find wear black leathers, we spend a lot of time on the road.

There's a lot of dirt, a lot of grease.

Narrator: The Sugar Bar was originally a bank serving the sugar industry and Waialua.

On the weekends, it has become a gathering place for motorcyclists from all over the island.

Peter Birnbaum: And these people they come in, they're changing my whole seating arrangements, everything around.

As soon as they are leaving, they bring all the empty bottles, all the empty glasses and put all the tables and chairs back.

They’re just some of the most wonderful people I can have coming in here.

We do have lawyers and policemen, doctors in the club and everybody feels the freedom, the outside, especially here and likes to sit outside and we cater to them.

They're just wonderful people.

We have never had any incident no problem.

We just tell them what to do and they know what to do and it's a beautiful marriage.

Really enjoy having them.

Narrator: Motorcycle clubs have fundraisers for charitable organizations throughout the year.

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the oldest club on the island, the Sons of Hawaiʻi, volunteered as carriers for the civil service.

Many women have moved from the backseat to the front and have organized their own clubs.

Sylvia Respicio: Well, first of all, you gotta have a Hawaiʻi driver's license.

You must be a female.

You got to go on three rides with the club members, and that's when the rest of the members get to know you get to meet you.

After your three rides, then you voted unanimous me into the club.

Narrator : During the week Sylvia works with children at the Beretania Community Center.

Ernie White is a developer-builder of designer homes on the North Shore and a patron of the arts.

What he discovered is a long way from the biker myth.

Ernie White: They seem to be pretty damn genuine.

They really are.

I don't find the phoniness and in them that you do a little more in the so called business world.

Pretty damn straight guys, I enjoy them.

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