(Instrumental music) (Waves crashing) (Instrumental music) Narrator  The Windward side of Oʻahu is flanked by the majestic Koʻolau mountains and involved in verdant greenery.

While of the distance the town of Kāneʻohe here bustles with life, many of the valleys are silent and tranquil.

Graced with an untamed sweeping coastline, the overall composition stirs creativity in unique ways.

John Morgan Kualoa Ranch is indeed a nice and beautiful, prominent part of the windward side of this island.

And as far as my involvement and our family's involvement with this area, the ahupuaʻa of Kualoa was owned by the king, as was all the other land in Hawaiʻi.

And in the time of the Great Mahele, the king split all the land into a number of different, different areas and land divisions and therefore, subsequently ownership.

Some of it he kept for himself.

Some of it was Crown land, some he gave to the chief, some he gave to the makaʻāinana, or the common people.

The ahupuaʻa of Kualoa was, was his own personal land.

And in 1850, he sold it to Gerrit P. Judd, who was my great, great, great grandfather that started the the current history of Kualoa Ranch and everything that has happened since 1850.

So basically since that time, it's been primarily an agricultural operation.

From a land use perspective, it still is primarily an agricultural operation.

Since that time, reading through diaries of Gerrit P. Judd, and and other things, they tried squash and potatoes and taro and rice and, and all kinds of different things.

His son, Charles Hastings Judd bought the neighboring two ahupuaʻa of hakipuʻu and Kaʻaʻawa before the turn of the century.

But that's how Kualoa Ranch came to be the size and and the nature as it is right now is through Gerrit P. Judd and Charles Hastings Judd.

As I said, there was all kinds of different agricultural enterprises that were tried and some failed and some just passed on.

Sugar was one that, that was a short lived thing.

The first sugar mill on Oʻahu, as most people know, was built at Kualoa.

It was a real rough business.

It was started by Samuel Wilder, who was Charles Hastings Judd brother in law.

Wilder is another recognized name in Hawaiʻi.

After just growing sugar for a few years in the Kualoa area, there was a time of a drought and the production was not very, very high at that time.

I think they, they ground about 300 tons a year during their, their, their span of production.

Sugar plantations nowadays do that in a day.

And so that's a relative, you know, relative to the time and the technology and all that, but it puts things in perspective.

One of the things that kind of broke the the straw that broke the camel's back, was when Samuel Wilder's young son was walking across a vat of boiling massecuite or what's sugar juice -this is one of the processes they have - he was walking across a plank on top of this, and another guy was coming the other way.

And he stepped on the side to let that boy pass or the boy stepped aside, let the other guy pass.

And he was bumped and he fell into this thing.

And he was 12 years old, I think, his name was Willie Wilder.

And he, after some severe burns and everything and a courageous effort to, to keep his chin up, he died.

And that was the the thing that after a long struggle, helped contribute to shutting down the whole operation.

Carri Morgan The education program at the ranch started about five years ago.

And we started that because we felt that there was a need in the community for farm experience and an agricultural experience for school children.

And also it came about the time that many teachers started calling the ranch and asking, Gee, can we bring our kids out?

Right now we have about a thousand school children a month that come out and visit the ranch.

And they come Monday through Friday.

We average about 75 kids a day, 50 to 75 kids a day.

And they come out, we have a hands on petting zoo, where they get to feed and touch a variety of farm animals, goats and sheep and pigs, ducks and chickens.

We have heavy draft horses, quarter horses, ponies, donkeys.

And we have also an exhibit and our farm animal exhibit is partly made up of some of the animals that came from Meadow Gold Dairy when they shut down their education program.

And we're carrying on their tradition as well as our own with the help of some new animals.

So we have monkeys, spider monkeys as well.

And usually the kids go in and they get to feed and touch all the animals.

And then they also go on a horse drawn trolley ride or a tractor drawn trolley ride, depending on how much mud and rain we have on our road.

It is a real unique experience for most kids.

I'm amazed at the number of children that never get to get their feet dirty.

And so that's one of their biggest stumbling blocks is walking across the pasture most of the time.

So they seem to enjoy themselves, we have a big picnic area.

So they spend about two and a half to three hours at the ranch in the morning.

We teach them about cattle ranching and the history of Kualoa Ranch.

And we talk about cowboys and what kinds of tools they need to get their job done.

We talk about diversification in order to survive in the cattle business.

And we educate the public as well as educating these kids because there are a lot of people that drive by Kualoa Ranch and they only see what's most visible.

And most of the time the cattle are in the valley.

So they don't see cattle, they see the recreation.

So this way the public also gets educated on why we do all these things.

Abraham Akau My name is Abraham Akau.

I work here for Mr. Morgan on Kualoa Ranch.

And I've been here for about going 37 years now.

And I like it, what I do, and it's interesting, what we have to do on the ranch, yes, a lot of things we have to diversify.

For me, it was hard at the beginning because I was here from from the start, you know, almost the start of the ranch.

And diversifying was hard.

But now I understand that we, we need to diversify.

I appreciate that my daughter was born here, one of my daughters was born here on the ranch.

And I have another daughter she, she manage the ranch now here with Don Morgan.

And she's, she's doing very well.

And I thankful for the opportunities that we have here on the ranch.

Sometimes in the future we look, what future do we have?

But I appreciate what I've learned here.

And the Morgan family has been really nice to me and my family taking care of us.

And it's wonderful.

John Morgan As I say, I think we're fortunate that we can we can receive this place the way it is today because of the attitudes of the people in the past and and present about what to do with this place.

The, the interest has never been only on how to maximize the bottom line profit.

And that's how bad land use decisions are made.

And we still maintain that and we're very, very concerned about the future of it and everything and so we want to keep it this way.

So that's why we've gone into the recreation and that's why it has worked for us so we want to continue that and we want to continue where it's applicable to, to do this kind of thing where we integrate recreation with with agriculture and open space because it really works for us and it's it's something that we see as continuing.

People get to get out into the nature which is good for people, you know, nature is good for people, and it's something that we see is, as beneficial to both our company and to the community as a whole.

And so we want to continue doing that.

Kawaikapuokalani K. Hewett  Working with the hālau, just the interpretation of the word hālau, we have hā and lau.

So properly translated it means continuity of knowledge, continuity of tradition.

And so the hālau as a whole, as a whole, excuse me, and all the kumu hula have a very important task, whether they realize it or not, and that is for the continuation of knowledge and tradition.

And I do, my teaching of knowledge and tradition, a very particular way, I think, I think, unlike any hālau and that is, through my music, through being able to compose and being able to take these traditions and put them in the music, and then teach them through the dance.

So they learn, they're learning Hawaiian, the language, the ʻōlelo through learning the words of the song.

Then they're learning their tradition, through its interpretation, and again, extended one more time through the dance.

The third thing comes when they actually begin to practice these traditions.

I feel the more they hear the words, the more they do the extension, which is a dance, the more they really practice it and apply it to situations at home or at work or whevever they may be applied.

I think, well, when I look at music today, and composing music, and listening to other songs, new songs that are being written, I often wonder if people have been really, really trained in proper poetry.

When you write a song, you know, the term that's used is called haku mele.

And the word haku comes from haku lei, which is to weave a lei.

And so just like weaving a lei, you know, you want your lei to be beautiful.

So you look for the choicest flowers that you can find, and you take them, you put them together, and very carefully, you begin to weave this lei.

It's the same with writing music, or writing a song, or writing a poetry.

In our language, there are many, many words.

And for one single word, they may be many meanings.

And again, they may be many words that have single meanings.

So in writing your music, you have to be aware of all of this, and also the symbolism of certain words, and the allusions of certain words, and the proper use of metaphor in your poetry.

And again, aware of all of this, you take these words, like these beautiful flowers, you will be weaving a lei with and you weave the poetry for that song.

Today, when I listen to some of the new music, I ask myself, "Gee, I wonder how much training this particular person had?"

Because it seems as though sometimes it's a literal translation of an English poem.

And not too much thought was given to proper Hawaiian context.

I like to think, you know, as far as I'm concerned, when I write music, that my music is spirit inspired music.

And I say that because many times people ask me to give a lecture on composing Hawaiian music, and I really cannot say exactly how to do it.

All I can say is when I'm in the mood, the music will come to me.

And I'll pick up this ukulele.

This ukulele is maybe about eight years old.

You can see all the tape here that I'm holding it together with.

There's a big crack.

There it is right here.

But I've composed all of my music on this.

And what's funny about the whole thing is that I don't even know how to tune my ukulele.

So if it's not tuned, somebody has to, I have to call somebody and they tune for me.

And then you know, I work on my music.

And of course, I like to think the final product is a good product filled with these metaphors, illusion and kaona, the hidden meaning of the song, in my compositions.

And this song I'm going to do for you is my first composition and it talks about the rain and you know I hear people today saying things like, "Oh, it's raining again.

Or what a junk day, this is an awful day, it's raining."

And I think to myself how could they say such a thing?

You know?

Don't they realize the rain is a symbol of life.

It tells you then that we need water.

And here we have, you know, there eight islands that need to exist in all the water.

So the rain falls and people get all irritated, "Here comes the rain.

Oh, it's going to spoil my day."

But imagine if there was a drought now.

They want to talk about spoiling their day, I really think they should think twice about saying things like that because I believe in my heart that one day that great spirit will say, "Alright, you don't want the rain.

Let's stop all the rain."

And then what?

So I thought if one person, mainly me, would write a nice song about the rain and try to sing it as often as I could then I could you know kind of block the message, that negative message that the rain is not good when the rain is really, really good.

So I wrote this song Ka Wai Lehua ʻAʻala Ka Honua.

(Ukulele strums) Ke iho la ka ua Halihali nā lehua o luna E, e, e E, e, e Ke iho la ka ua Halihali nā lehua o luna E, e, e E, e, e Heleleʻi pua i ke kai Hula leʻa nā lehua i ka moana E, e, e E, e, e Heleleʻi ... ka ua i ke kai Ke hoʻi hou e aloha mai E, e, e E, e, e Kawaikapuokalani K.   Hewett  This particular verse is really talking about the cycle of the way we get rain, water from the ocean is evaporated up into the sky.

Then they formed rain clouds and the rain falls down to the earthor to our islands, filtered back through the land, goes into the ocean again.

And then the whole process is repeated.

And what we're doing here is forming a lei.

The lei is of course a symbol of the word aloha, but also a symbol of life.

Like the encirclement, you know, the beginning of the end that's what it's talking about.

And that, all of that, again through the use of symbolic words, allusion and metaphor is written in that one verse.

(Ukulele strums) He mele nou e kuʻu lani Ka wai lehua ʻaʻala ka honua E, e, e E, e, e Kawaikapuokalani K. Hewett  And this is where I say that "He mele nou e kuʻu lani" that this is a song for you.

My Heavenly one.

And I'm speaking about the rain.

Ka wai lehua - it's the lehua waters.

ʻAʻala ka honua - that fragrant the land.

Nice yeah?

Peter Hayward See, I paint from nature.

I don't, I don't rely on myself to imitate nature and create pictures that I call great pictures.

I can't do that because nature is more surprising than, than the person.

I, I - people wonder wha - how I paint.

Well, I don't look for a subject.

I don't care whether it's a house or a tree, or the ocean, or whatever it is.

I look for patterns of light.

And these patterns are more important than the subject.

They make the difference, whether it's beautiful picture or just ordinary.

So I sit by the ocean with my, I put up my easel and I get out my palettes and put the paint on the palette.

And then I sit and I watch the ocean.

I watch for something that happens, it will happen, something will happen.

Waves will cross.

When something happens that said - now that's a picture.

I register where is the lights.

As I say, that happens very fast, it's gone.

I put down where the lights were, what, where, was light here?

Is the light here?

And a light in the sky.

And the the arrangement of those lights in a triangle or a in some arrangement, whether interesting.

So I take the white and I boom, boom, boom, and I put those three spots right now.

And in relation to those three spots, there was some darks.

So I put where are the darks?

I don't care.

I don't care what the subject is.

It's where is the light?

And where are the darks?

And those things produce what we call a composition.

I always say well, now, if you paint a picture, I don't - everybody does this.

They think the hand of God goes down their coat sleeves and does something.

And they think well, I can't touch this.

Well, it's always, it's pretty bad.

They don't touch it.

They say oh, I did this, I'm an artist.

If they would look at that picture and notice whether or not it was described, the beauty that they were painting.

See the beauty is always out there.

It's not on the picture.

If you want to find the beauty that I paint, look at what I'm painting, don't look at the picture.

That's the real beauty.

I'm trying to describe it.

So that's all I do.

I just describe what I find is beautiful.

I got in painting, I got into painting as - by accident.

I was a sculptor which I also got into by accident.

In the first act - to begin with, I had an accident in 1935.

I broke my neck and back in fifth and sixth cervical and fourth lumbar.

And I didn't walk without crutches for three years.

I was partly paralyzed.

So the hospital gave me some clay, soft plasticine.

It's clay that is softened with oil instead of water.

And it doesn't dry out.

So I started doing ashtrays.

I lasted about two days I did ash trays.

And then I started doing caricatures of the nurses and the other patients and visitors and friends and whoever was around.

And I did little portraits every day, sometimes two or three.

And I got sort of interested, I realized that I could do pretty good little heads.

And I practiced doing little heads until I could do better heads.

And after three years of playing around with these little heads, and I learned to cast them in plaster and to make molds and so on.

And I went to New York and became a portrait sculptor.

When my students would come to me and I used to do tricks to get students.

I always explained to them that I never took any lessons.

And...when people....I just go and paint things that I find beautiful.

And I always ask them why they want to study with me.

Well, they think that painting with a student, with a professor or somebody, that's helpful.

That they'll paint better.

Well, what they do is copy the teacher.

And what they do, what they learn to do is to depend on the teacher to tell him what that, what's wrong.

And the thing that always bothered me is that they don't pay attention to these lights.

Where are the lights and where the dark?

They don't, they don't balance.

And I always explain that after they take lessons, they're going to be able to copy the teacher.

Not very well, but they'll copy the teacher.

And from then on, they won't be able to find their own mistakes.

They depend on somebody to tell them what's wrong.

Teaching helps the teacher, it gives them some kind of an income.

The - a lot of people teach who can't paint.

But that's all right, they get an income.

And there are lots of people who like to be artists because they like to look like artists.

They like to be seen out there with an easel painting.

And they'd like to talk art.

Talking art is sort of a habit, they have to talk about it.

Why it's beautiful.

I don't think art is for talking about.

It's for looking at.

And it's for enjoying if you enjoy compositions, and the compositions are interesting and you respond to them, then you enjoy them.

And that is the function of art.

The conversation of art is for critics.

And I don't like critics.

That is - I don't care.

I don't think they know much about art.

There's a lot of, a lot of nonsense that you read.

And you say, "Well, I don't understand this stuff on the canvas.

These abstractions.

I don't like abstractions."

But there was some times, sometimes you'll see something that's good composition.

Whether the artist did it by accident or not, you will never know because he's takes paint and slobs it on the canvas.

And if the composition is very good, well you take that art and say well this is art.

Well he's seen some beauty in in the in the arrangement of light and dark.

That's the only beauty there is.

Art is like playing baseball.

I hit quite a few homeruns, but not all the time.

(Instrumental music)