What to expect this Makahiki o ʻIhikapalaumāewa

In the month of Nowemapa students would usually expect a Pōʻalima ʻUlaʻula to celebrate the season of Makahiki; however, this year the organizers have decided against having one single day to celebrate, opting instead to incorporate makahiki activities throughout the month and all leading up to a championship tournament.

“K-12 leaders felt that the essence of promoting cultural practices and ideas should take place more often than once a semester,” academies principal Ms. Jay-R Kaʻawa said. Instead, “[the school] should be using E Ola! to create authentic experiences in the classroom that occur daily.”

E Ola! is a Kamehameha organization-wide set of learner outcomes based on a world class culture-based educational program.

To represent the Hawaiian makahiki tradition on a “daily” schedule, the student activities coordinator and hui of Hawaiian kumu have arranged a month filled with daily lunchtime activities for haumāna to both participate in and learn from.

Overall, the month will be like last year’s student-driven Pōʻalima ʻUlaʻula with divisions of ‘Ano Koa (overall), Nā Pāʻani Hoʻohui (group events), and Nā Pāʻani Kūkahi (individual events).

Each of the competition events falls into one of four categories:  precision, strength, strategy, and speed.

In the kūkahi events, you can participate in ʻōʻō ihe (spear throwing), ʻulu maika (stone rolling), moa paheʻe (dart sliding), kōnane (checkers), pōhaku hoʻoikaika (stone throwing), pā uma (standing arm wrestling), uma (arm wrestling), hākā moa (chicken fighting), lele pahū (biggest splash), heihei wāwae (100-meter sprint), and kūkini (400-meter dash).

In the hoʻohui events, teams can expect to participate in hoʻoili pōhaku (5 person 400-meter relay), ʻauʻau kāwili (6-person 150-meter swimming race), and pāʻumeʻume/hukihuki (tug of war).

For each kūkahi event there will be one kāne and one wahine winner and one group winner for each hoʻohui event.

Aside from these two categories, there will also be an ʻano koa category for individuals who sign up to compete in in 10 of the kūkahi events, like the decathlon competition in the Olympics. The individual kāne and wahine who does the best in total will be awarded the title of ʻAno Koa.

Competitions will begin Nowemapa 6 with each class competing within their own grade levels first. Once grade-level winners are determined, each class winner will compete against the other classes for an overall winner.

Like last year, students from other island schools have been invited to compete against the Kamehameha Maui champions on the final tournament day.

Unlike last year, the final competitions will be held during class time, but classes are invited to use their class time to attend. The overall winners will compete in the finals, an all-day event, Nowemapa 22.

Interested students should sign up to participate on a Google doc, which can be found here.

The calendar below shows what to expect daily during lunch:

Since Makahiki o ʻIhikapalaumāewa will be occurring daily, scheduling conflicts may arise. If you want to compete, make sure to clear your lunchtime calendar and stay up-to-date on your classwork so that you can compete in the finals on Nowemapa 22.

To stay up to date, tune in here at Ka Leo O Nā Koa.