WALL 2: E OLA KA WAI OLA! O WAU KA WAI OLA!
LONG LIVE THE LIVING WATERS! I AM THE LIVING WATERS!
HANNAH KIHALANI SPRINGER is a beloved Keiki o ka‘aina of Kaʻūpūlehu, highly esteemed kupuna, cultural advisor, teacher, and wisdom carrier. Hannah is active guiding a nearly endless array of educational, cultural and conservation projects, such as the Kaʻūpūlehu Marine Life Advisory Committee, which successfully advocated for a ten year, all species rest period (No Take Zone), from the shore out to a depth of 120 feet at Kaʻūpūlehu and Kūkiʻo. The effort, is affectionately called, “TRY WAIT”. Now three years in, there are strong signs of increased fish populations and some coral regeneration.
KEKAULIKE PROSPER TOMICH, the son of Hannah Springer is an active dryland forester, cultural practitioner, and teacher, who successfully advocated with the Kaʻūpūlehu Marine Life Advisory Committee’s (KMLAC) for the TRY WAIT Marine Preserve at Kaʻūpūlehu. He shares that it was the families of the area who created this rest period to rejuvenate the health of the reefs and its species rich community. Kekaulike feels privileged to live and work in his ancestral homeland Kaʻūpūlehu.
BACKGROUND AND ESSENCE: While 70% of the world is covered with water, just 2.5% of the water is fresh. The rest is saline ocean water. Of the fresh water, just 1% of it is accessible to sustain human, plant and animal life. The rest is locked up in glaciers and ice fields. The kupuna share, above all, that we must take care of the living waters. Water and air are the most important elements. Water is life, precious in all forms ~ the waters of Kane, patron of fresh water. As Hannah shares, we must all become water conservers…water keepers.
Hannah and Kekaulike will stand with the water coming through their hands, sparking the sound of water in the viewers to communicate through their appreciation of water as life.
*AS WE ADD MORE GLASS ~ LIGHT AND COLOR HARMONIES, SPECIES DIVERSITY: For the artist, this is a prayer for the living waters. The hydrological cycle will be featured as a magnification ~ a circle of life. People will be able to see the connection of the trees and the clouds in the heaven, and the percolation down through the roots to the groundwater and how it all cycles together. The time is noon, when no shadows fall.
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Aloha is at the center. Without aloha, we wouldn’t malama. The dominant culture does not understand the value of water, although now there is a perceptible shift in consciousness happening. The mural has to create an indelible imprint on the people to conserve the land and water. One must slow down to feel this and be inspired to take care. First, come into peace. Realize that water is precious in all of its forms. Water is life. Waiwai (water twice) means wealth.
Hannah Kihalani Springer
Art and Soul for the Earth
Big Island of Hawai'i
