March 18, 2024 • 14 mins
In our conversation with 2023 Community Spirit Award honoree Tom Pohaku Stone, we are embraced by the profound essence of Native Hawaiian culture. His voice carries the resilience of his people, the reverence for the land and the ocean that has nurtured them. As a guardian of tradition, Tom's story unfolds from the roots of his extended family upbringing, through the intricate crafts of woodworking and stone carving, and into his vital role in educating the young stewards of Hawaiian identity. The tapestry of his life is a testament to the enduring struggle for Indigenous sovereignty and the importance of maintaining a cultural legacy amidst the forces of colonization.
Tom Pohaku Stone is a beacon for Native Hawaiian craftsmanship and shares the lessons he imparts in Hawai'i, which are more than mere skills; they are threads in the fabric of identity under siege. In each crafted piece, whether shaped by hand from native wood or carved from ancestral stone, there is a story, a life, a connection to be made.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I don't just do my work and share it with people
with a specific purpose ofeconomic benefit or anything.
It's to allow them theopportunity to feel what it's
like to work on these projectsto carve wood, to carve stone,
to carve coal.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
The CollectivSpirit Podcast.
The CollectivSpirit moves eachof us to stand up and make a
difference, to pass on ancestralknowledge and simply extend a
hand of generosity.
The CollectivSpirit Podcastfeatures Native artists and
culture bearers who discuss thepower of Indigenous art and
(00:50):
culture.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
My name is Thomas Kelly Avunilie O'Kala, n'ana
O'Kalil, stone with dirt.
I go by ko'aku because myfather and my grandfather's name
.
Since we Hannai the name oradopted the name stone, they
preferred to be in Hawaiian, soko'aku just means stone, but it
(01:14):
has a deeper meaning in ourlanguage.
I am from Hawaii.
I'm a native Hawaiian, kahu'ulu, oahu, that's where I'm from.
Kahu'ulu is an alpua or adistrict of the island of Oahu,
so I live on the northeast side.
I'm an ocean person.
(01:34):
We come from the ocean.
I was born from the ocean tothe ocean.
My area of traditionalpractices is everything to do
with our survival as Nativepeoples in today's modern world.
So I do wood, stone, bone andthen l'al, which is plants,
(01:57):
always maintaining plants that'ssignificant to our survival and
health.
Hopefully pass it on to thenext generation.
I had a long road getting herein today's contemporary world or
modern world.
I was a professional server,professional wind server.
I was with Ocean Rescue for awhile, but before my father
(02:20):
passed away I wanted to honorhim.
I wanted him to know that I hadappreciated the knowledge that
he had provided to me.
My father and I weren't closeexcept for a minute or two years
, but he did show me how to maketraditional wood surfboards,
along with my uncles and mygreat uncles.
(02:42):
He taught me the other sides ofour cultural way of life.
I was raised outside what wewould call our core or immediate
family.
I was raised by my mom or mydad.
I was raised by the entirefamily that wanted me.
People say I was a verytroubled year, but I give
(03:05):
everything to my family forteaching me or at least
believing in me.
I didn't come to realize thatuntil quite late in my life,
when I was 42, I decided toleave my Ocean Rescue super body
position and go back to collegeand even finish high school.
I did the GED and as soon as Igot my graduate certificate from
(03:30):
high school I went to collegeand realized that the journey I
was on was all about my familybecause I had chosen my area of
studies in college.
It was the stories of growingup with my grandfather.
He spent a lot of time in myvery youthful years telling me
(03:50):
the stories of our people.
I embraced that and that becameour subject area of studies
ready to my graduate program,and I realized that my entire
family had provided thefoundational knowledge that I
needed to get through collegeand to establish new academic
(04:11):
courses that were focused ontraditional practices, because
for us in Hawaii, language wasalready in place.
We had fought long and hard toget a language mat.
Various subject matters of ourhistory were already in place in
the universities, but what welacked was the physical and
(04:33):
spiritual component of ourculture, and that was our
traditional practices thatdeveloped us physically to be
strong and to be able to live inan ocean environment and
survive.
So that was that's my journey,from 42 to 72.
(05:00):
It's my age now.
I saw it on the journey.
It's been 30 years of returning, putting it back in place, and
that's what I try to do with allthe younger generations that
I've had an opportunity to workwith over the past 30 years is
instilling that in them.
It's not what I have to offer.
It's what we as a people haveto offer, because it isn't like
(05:26):
the way Western society orAmerican society or Bokeh sees
it.
It's that you have to knoweverything.
We're all aware of the basis ofenvironmental life, but at the
same time we were practitionersof specific things, because not
(05:47):
one person could hold it all.
We shared our collectiveknowledge together.
I grew up in a very harsh, verystrong Ohana on all sides, but
(06:10):
it taught me to be strong andsurvive and I realized over time
that that's the way they grewup and their parents grew up and
their parents before grew uptheir families, because we were
going through changes, not onlyphysically but mentally,
psychologically, because thetaking of our country.
(06:32):
There's a lot of anger and wehad to convert to colonialist
way of life and they're harmingus not to give up the struggle,
to fight on.
Let our warriors today butwe're after warriors that think
not just react and be angry butto focus on what the goal is.
(06:56):
As the elders, like my cocoon,we have to be focused and not be
emotional, because that's thereaction that colonists want,
because it justifies the reasonfor them to subjugate and to
maintain control over us.
And that's the harsh way oflife that I grew up in, not only
(07:21):
with my family but on thestreets, and I finally realized
that to be able to beprogressively moving forward as
native peoples, we have to havecontrol over ourselves first and
we have to have consensus.
When you fight a battle likethis, it's fought on many
(07:43):
different fronts, it's not justone front.
We're fighting a major battleand so we have to fight it from
within, from all sides, and ittakes a nation, people unifying
and understanding that thecommon goal is to gain our
(08:04):
freedom.
That's what my life was likeand that's where I am today.
I don't just do my work andshare it with people with a
specific purpose of economicbenefit or anything.
It's to allow them theopportunity to feel what it's
like to work on these projects,to carve wood, to carve stone,
(08:28):
to carve bone, to care for yourenvironment that you need.
That was all taught in a veryharsh way to me.
It took nearly half my life tocome to the realization of that.
We, me, us.
We hope to shorten that for ourchildren's children by showing
(08:51):
them that, hey, our traditionalway of life is not hard, it's
fun.
When everything else collapsesaround us, we'll be fine.
We learned how to preserve ourknowledge, to keep our knowledge
alive, and we can survive.
We can live off our land First.
(09:14):
People's fun provided for me,for us.
A lot of opportunities havegrown from that.
It helped our organizations'efforts educationally.
It provided opportunity for usto acquire materials that we
could give, because just gettinga piece of wood is difficult in
(09:38):
a way.
I'm sure it is every place else, but it afforded us an
opportunity to share with FirstPeoples on Vancouver Island.
That's what we did this pastsummer.
With some of that awards money,it went to sending them our
traditional surfboards.
It went off very nicely withthe First Nations people there.
(10:00):
We've had opportunities to giveaway a lot of our crafts that
are made Opportunities to sharethat knowledge by having
workshops and feeding people.
Not only knowledge but actuallyfeeding people.
That's what we did with thefarms, gave it all away.
That's what we did.
(10:22):
We gave it to other people thatwe don't need more than us in
different forms, even cash wise,there are families that need
the money more than we do.
I'm a fortunate person.
I'm a fortunate native.
I work for what I get, but it'snot work.
It's what I love to do.
It's what I was born to do.
Money is not our focus.
(10:46):
It's a necessity because of theCapitalistic Society we live in
.
Worldwide.
We understand that there are somany other people everywhere,
our people, that are struggling,that need more than we do.
We're gearing up again.
Whatever I made or is donatedto us, we are trying to figure
(11:07):
out how to do a celebration oflife for our people by feeding
them.
That's what the award allowedus to do.
I'm so appreciative of that andthe opportunity to give as much
as I can.
We gave not only gave.
We still are.
We're giving surfboards to kidsand skateboards whatever a
(11:33):
child wants.
If we can do it, we're going todo it for them and give it to
them and help them understandhow important it is to share the
along.
We have prided ourselves onbeing self-sufficient as an
organization and we've neversought grants or anything First.
(11:53):
People's fund award was thefirst time ever.
If we ever need stuff, I justmake it.
That's what I taught in school.
At the university, when I wasteaching my one-studies 210
class, I would take the studentsdown to Waikiki and spend a day
at Kuihio Beach and I wouldhave them work with me in
(12:17):
Carbostome into Ulumica, a blockof Kuihia, whatever it might be
.
Then all the tourists walkingby taking pictures.
They can't get that anywhereelse.
They start right here, at thismoment, where you're at.
You can go to ABC stores andbuy it from Korea, thailand,
(12:41):
wherever, china, but it's notthe actual date.
It's made in Hawaii, it's nativemade and it's made by hand,
right here on the streets.
That's what's valuable, so it'steaching our generations that
value you, which is your cell,your native cell.
(13:02):
That's my motto to allindigenous peoples, all native
peoples, however you come from.
If you don't make it, theycan't get it, and if you make it
and you have a production inmind, then you just sold out.
But if you make it just enoughto get by and take care of your
village family, whatever itmight be, that's what you're
(13:24):
doing.
You make it more valuable.
You make us more valuable.
My legacy is that we're stillalive as native peoples.
We're always going to be.
We're not going to beaccultured, assimilating, we're
just not.
We're going to survive.
I hope our generations to comerealize the fact that, no matter
(13:46):
what they choose to do in theirlife, just don't forget who you
really are.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The Collective Spirit podcast is produced by First
Peoples Fund, whose mission isto honor and support indigenous
artists and culture bearersthrough grant making initiatives
, culturally rooted programming,and training and mentorship.
Learn more atFirstPeoplesFundorg.
I don't just do my work and share it with people
with a specific purpose ofeconomic benefit or anything.
It's to allow them theopportunity to feel what it's
like to work on these projectsto carve wood, to carve stone,
to carve coal.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
The CollectivSpirit Podcast.
The CollectivSpirit moves eachof us to stand up and make a
difference, to pass on ancestralknowledge and simply extend a
hand of generosity.
The CollectivSpirit Podcastfeatures Native artists and
culture bearers who discuss thepower of Indigenous art and
(00:50):
culture.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
My name is Thomas Kelly Avunilie O'Kala, n'ana
O'Kalil, stone with dirt.
I go by ko'aku because myfather and my grandfather's name
.
Since we Hannai the name oradopted the name stone, they
preferred to be in Hawaiian, soko'aku just means stone, but it
(01:14):
has a deeper meaning in ourlanguage.
I am from Hawaii.
I'm a native Hawaiian, kahu'ulu, oahu, that's where I'm from.
Kahu'ulu is an alpua or adistrict of the island of Oahu,
so I live on the northeast side.
I'm an ocean person.
(01:34):
We come from the ocean.
I was born from the ocean tothe ocean.
My area of traditionalpractices is everything to do
with our survival as Nativepeoples in today's modern world.
So I do wood, stone, bone andthen l'al, which is plants,
(01:57):
always maintaining plants that'ssignificant to our survival and
health.
Hopefully pass it on to thenext generation.
I had a long road getting herein today's contemporary world or
modern world.
I was a professional server,professional wind server.
I was with Ocean Rescue for awhile, but before my father
(02:20):
passed away I wanted to honorhim.
I wanted him to know that I hadappreciated the knowledge that
he had provided to me.
My father and I weren't closeexcept for a minute or two years
, but he did show me how to maketraditional wood surfboards,
along with my uncles and mygreat uncles.
(02:42):
He taught me the other sides ofour cultural way of life.
I was raised outside what wewould call our core or immediate
family.
I was raised by my mom or mydad.
I was raised by the entirefamily that wanted me.
People say I was a verytroubled year, but I give
(03:05):
everything to my family forteaching me or at least
believing in me.
I didn't come to realize thatuntil quite late in my life,
when I was 42, I decided toleave my Ocean Rescue super body
position and go back to collegeand even finish high school.
I did the GED and as soon as Igot my graduate certificate from
(03:30):
high school I went to collegeand realized that the journey I
was on was all about my familybecause I had chosen my area of
studies in college.
It was the stories of growingup with my grandfather.
He spent a lot of time in myvery youthful years telling me
(03:50):
the stories of our people.
I embraced that and that becameour subject area of studies
ready to my graduate program,and I realized that my entire
family had provided thefoundational knowledge that I
needed to get through collegeand to establish new academic
(04:11):
courses that were focused ontraditional practices, because
for us in Hawaii, language wasalready in place.
We had fought long and hard toget a language mat.
Various subject matters of ourhistory were already in place in
the universities, but what welacked was the physical and
(04:33):
spiritual component of ourculture, and that was our
traditional practices thatdeveloped us physically to be
strong and to be able to live inan ocean environment and
survive.
So that was that's my journey,from 42 to 72.
(05:00):
It's my age now.
I saw it on the journey.
It's been 30 years of returning, putting it back in place, and
that's what I try to do with allthe younger generations that
I've had an opportunity to workwith over the past 30 years is
instilling that in them.
It's not what I have to offer.
It's what we as a people haveto offer, because it isn't like
(05:26):
the way Western society orAmerican society or Bokeh sees
it.
It's that you have to knoweverything.
We're all aware of the basis ofenvironmental life, but at the
same time we were practitionersof specific things, because not
(05:47):
one person could hold it all.
We shared our collectiveknowledge together.
I grew up in a very harsh, verystrong Ohana on all sides, but
(06:10):
it taught me to be strong andsurvive and I realized over time
that that's the way they grewup and their parents grew up and
their parents before grew uptheir families, because we were
going through changes, not onlyphysically but mentally,
psychologically, because thetaking of our country.
(06:32):
There's a lot of anger and wehad to convert to colonialist
way of life and they're harmingus not to give up the struggle,
to fight on.
Let our warriors today butwe're after warriors that think
not just react and be angry butto focus on what the goal is.
(06:56):
As the elders, like my cocoon,we have to be focused and not be
emotional, because that's thereaction that colonists want,
because it justifies the reasonfor them to subjugate and to
maintain control over us.
And that's the harsh way oflife that I grew up in, not only
(07:21):
with my family but on thestreets, and I finally realized
that to be able to beprogressively moving forward as
native peoples, we have to havecontrol over ourselves first and
we have to have consensus.
When you fight a battle likethis, it's fought on many
(07:43):
different fronts, it's not justone front.
We're fighting a major battleand so we have to fight it from
within, from all sides, and ittakes a nation, people unifying
and understanding that thecommon goal is to gain our
(08:04):
freedom.
That's what my life was likeand that's where I am today.
I don't just do my work andshare it with people with a
specific purpose of economicbenefit or anything.
It's to allow them theopportunity to feel what it's
like to work on these projects,to carve wood, to carve stone,
(08:28):
to carve bone, to care for yourenvironment that you need.
That was all taught in a veryharsh way to me.
It took nearly half my life tocome to the realization of that.
We, me, us.
We hope to shorten that for ourchildren's children by showing
(08:51):
them that, hey, our traditionalway of life is not hard, it's
fun.
When everything else collapsesaround us, we'll be fine.
We learned how to preserve ourknowledge, to keep our knowledge
alive, and we can survive.
We can live off our land First.
(09:14):
People's fun provided for me,for us.
A lot of opportunities havegrown from that.
It helped our organizations'efforts educationally.
It provided opportunity for usto acquire materials that we
could give, because just gettinga piece of wood is difficult in
(09:38):
a way.
I'm sure it is every place else, but it afforded us an
opportunity to share with FirstPeoples on Vancouver Island.
That's what we did this pastsummer.
With some of that awards money,it went to sending them our
traditional surfboards.
It went off very nicely withthe First Nations people there.
(10:00):
We've had opportunities to giveaway a lot of our crafts that
are made Opportunities to sharethat knowledge by having
workshops and feeding people.
Not only knowledge but actuallyfeeding people.
That's what we did with thefarms, gave it all away.
That's what we did.
(10:22):
We gave it to other people thatwe don't need more than us in
different forms, even cash wise,there are families that need
the money more than we do.
I'm a fortunate person.
I'm a fortunate native.
I work for what I get, but it'snot work.
It's what I love to do.
It's what I was born to do.
Money is not our focus.
(10:46):
It's a necessity because of theCapitalistic Society we live in
.
Worldwide.
We understand that there are somany other people everywhere,
our people, that are struggling,that need more than we do.
We're gearing up again.
Whatever I made or is donatedto us, we are trying to figure
(11:07):
out how to do a celebration oflife for our people by feeding
them.
That's what the award allowedus to do.
I'm so appreciative of that andthe opportunity to give as much
as I can.
We gave not only gave.
We still are.
We're giving surfboards to kidsand skateboards whatever a
(11:33):
child wants.
If we can do it, we're going todo it for them and give it to
them and help them understandhow important it is to share the
along.
We have prided ourselves onbeing self-sufficient as an
organization and we've neversought grants or anything First.
(11:53):
People's fund award was thefirst time ever.
If we ever need stuff, I justmake it.
That's what I taught in school.
At the university, when I wasteaching my one-studies 210
class, I would take the studentsdown to Waikiki and spend a day
at Kuihio Beach and I wouldhave them work with me in
(12:17):
Carbostome into Ulumica, a blockof Kuihia, whatever it might be
.
Then all the tourists walkingby taking pictures.
They can't get that anywhereelse.
They start right here, at thismoment, where you're at.
You can go to ABC stores andbuy it from Korea, thailand,
(12:41):
wherever, china, but it's notthe actual date.
It's made in Hawaii, it's nativemade and it's made by hand,
right here on the streets.
That's what's valuable, so it'steaching our generations that
value you, which is your cell,your native cell.
(13:02):
That's my motto to allindigenous peoples, all native
peoples, however you come from.
If you don't make it, theycan't get it, and if you make it
and you have a production inmind, then you just sold out.
But if you make it just enoughto get by and take care of your
village family, whatever itmight be, that's what you're
(13:24):
doing.
You make it more valuable.
You make us more valuable.
My legacy is that we're stillalive as native peoples.
We're always going to be.
We're not going to beaccultured, assimilating, we're
just not.
We're going to survive.
I hope our generations to comerealize the fact that, no matter
(13:46):
what they choose to do in theirlife, just don't forget who you
really are.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
The Collective Spirit podcast is produced by First
Peoples Fund, whose mission isto honor and support indigenous
artists and culture bearersthrough grant making initiatives
, culturally rooted programming,and training and mentorship.
Learn more atFirstPeoplesFundorg.
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