Hoʻi I Ka Piko

Hoʻi i Ka Piko

2024, silver gelatin prints

Artist Statement

My tūtū was a Maui girl, born in the 1920s and raised in a house surrounded by loʻi kalo.  While she eventually came to live on Oʻahu where she raised her family, I have fond childhood memories of visiting Tūtū’s Maui House back when the loʻi was still full of both water and kalo.  Mud-streaked, my brother Alex and I would play hide-and-seek with our cousins, catch crayfish and bufo frogs, and hike up the hillside behind the house to visit the spot where my great-great grandmother was buried.  

Last year, Maui started calling my family back.  After the Maui fires, my cousins used Tūtū’s Maui House as a home base for several months as they volunteered and contributed to relief efforts on the island.  Then, my brother and his wife decided to move into the house full time.  And finally, in December, I had the chance to go back and visit Waiheʻe for the first time in over 20 years.

When I got there, I found our loʻi were dry and overgrown with invasive grass after years of water-rights issues and a damaged ʻauwai, or ditch system, that hindered the flow of water to farmlands in the area.  Thankfully, community members in recent years have come together to fix the ʻauwai.  Since returning to Maui, my brother and cousins have partnered with these neighboring farmers, putting in countless hours to restore the loʻi kalo on our family property.

While working on this photo project, I learned about the passing of my first photography teacher, Jan Becket.  Mr. Becket taught high school Photography, English, and Poetry classes at Kamehameha Schools, Kapālama for decades before retiring in 2014.  Mr. Becket was also passionate about archeology and much of his photographic work was dedicated to honoring and documenting wahi pana, or sacred sites around Hawaiʻi. Upon his retirement, Mr. Becket encouraged me to apply for his teaching position, and for the past 10 years, I’ve been teaching photography in the same classroom and darkroom where I was once a student.

Hoʻi i ka Piko is about legacy: returning to ancestral lands, reconnecting with kuleana, and revisiting those kumu and kūpuna who came before us.  Mahalo nui to those who showed us the way and welcomed us back home.