Cultural Icon to be Honored with Concert and Dinner

Kumu Kimokeo Kapahulehua will be honored with the Legacy Award by the Hui o Wa’a Kaulua.

Local cultural icon Kumu Kimokeo Kapahulehua will be honored this weekend, in what singer Amy Hānaialiʻi Gilliom says is sure to be a “magical evening.” The dinner is set for Saturday, Oct. 3 at 6 p.m.

Nonprofit Hui o Waʻa Kaulua (“Assembly of the Double-Hull Canoe”) is presenting the Legacy Award to Kapahulehua, describing him as “a cultural icon dedicated to his family and the world Ohana he embraces each day with Aloha.”

On the heels of the Hui O Waʻa Kaulua Golf Tournament, The King Kamehameha Golf Club in Wailuku will host the inaugural fundraising dinner, which will also feature a fashion show with Wahine Toa and Nā Mākua Designs, polynesian crafters and a musical performance by Amy Hānaialiʻi Gilliom, Willie K and Steve Grimes.

Tickets for the dinner, fashion show and concert start at $140. To purchase tickets by telephone, please call (808) 283-0628 and speak with Anela, or click here to order tickets online.

Event honoring Kumu Kimokeo Kapahulehua that includes dinner, fashion show, crafts and concert.

The Hui o Waʻa Kaulua was formed on Maui in 1975 to practice, perpetuate and educate the community on Hawaiian canoe building, wayfinding and voyaging arts. In 1976 the Hui launched Mo’olele (The Leaping Lizard), a solid wood hull 42-foot waʻa kaulua (Hawaiian double-hull canoe) with single mast and traditional crab claw sail.

The nonprofit now uses Mo’olele as a living classroom to teach keiki and adults about traditional Polynesian wayfinding and voyaging. The group helps to teach our island community using hands-on experience and a traditional system of mentoring.

The organization is the only non-profit on Maui that uses a traditional sailing waʻa kaulua for educational purposes, and says the canoe Mo’okiha o Pi’ilani will join Mo’olele in the role of “living classroom.” A Maiden Voyage Project will take Hui o Waʻa education to seven ports-of-call throughout the Hawaiian Islands, to bring voyaging arts education to our communities. The group says the canoe has been touched by thousands and represents the hard work and aloha of the whole Maui community. Mo’okiha o Pi’ilani is the newest sister of the great voyaging canoes of Hawai’i that began with Hokule’a on O’ahu.