- Family.
- Ohana means family.
(giggling)
(upbeat Hawai'ian music)
- Maybe you would be better off in New York.
You could get around easier-
- This is my kuleana.
This is our Ohana's land.
Not like you, I want to die before I leave.
- [Man] I think Kuleana to me is
deeper than just what we translate it as,
which is responsibility.
- As Hawaiians, we know that it's so much more than that.
It's not only a responsibility
but a privilege. Yeah. We have kuleana.
Our kuleana here is to our Aina. To protect our land.
Kuleana to our Ohana.
And our community is uplifted and doing well.
- [Woman] It's spiritual and it manifests
physically, emotionally, socially,
and it's all encompassing, really.
- [Man] Here we go, man. Woo hoo!
(guitar music)
- [Woman] I love the ocean in general,
coming from an Island nation the ocean is our aina.
And where we get our food,
and how we meet our cousins, and other places.
It's that which connects us.
- [Man] I spent my life being a competitive surfer.
I never really wanted my children
to be professional athletes in surfing,
but I did want them to be ocean people.
- [Girl 1] One of my favorite boards has a pin tail,
so it's good for like barrels and stuff.
- [Girl 2] So when there's a set coming
and we don't want everyone to know,
I'll just yell e waho, which means outside.
And then all three of us will start paddling out.
Everybody's like, Ooh, what's going on?
- [Girl 2] ] It's weird because a lot of people
don't think about surfing as a cultural practice.
- [Girl 1] It's actually been a cultural practice
way longer than it's been a sport.
- [Girl 2] Really, the ocean is our source of happiness
and grounding. And a lot of things that we have.
- [Woman] The next generation of ocean stewards
are going to be these keike that
have confidence within themselves.
And because of that self-confidence and that manao-ness
will also recognize their responsibility to the ocean.
- [Man] Food is such a vehicle for conveying your feelings,
you know conveying your aloha for somebody.
- Taste testing.
The best food to me is the food
that makes you want to eat it with others.
Yeah, because really no matter how good your stew is,
if it doesn't remind you of something comforting or home
it's not really that good, right?
- [Man] You're not just hitting something with a stone.
You know, you're connecting yourself back to your ancestors,
to your kupuna, to the families before you to your Ohana.
You're connecting to your very existence.
I wasn't fortunate enough to grow up seeing my ancestors
(unintelligible) but, you know I'm just really happy
that I have that ability to have my children grow up,
see me (unintelligible).
Almost magical the way that their hands move
and the way the stone hits the food.
I'm not sure if they totally understand at this point
in life, but I hope that as they become adults themselves
they understand I have a kuleana.
I have a sense of responsibility to represent it properly.
We always feel the need to feed people.
- [Child 1] What is that?
- [Child 2] Hawai'i?
- [Man] 'Ōlelo Hawai'i (unintelligible).
'Ōlelo really is the language of this place.
That deep connection from our land, from our stories,
from our songs, from our chant, from our hula.
(Speaks in Hawai'ian)
In many ways, our 'Ōlelo was under attack,
was almost completely obliterated.
- [Woman] Three of my grandparents are Hawai'ian.
As adults, none of them spoke Hawai'ian.
I grew up with this kaumaha, this sadness.
That 'Ōlelo was something that was within our reach
but lost in my family.
- [Man] Even today, there's-
I would have expected there to be a bigger community
of Hawaiian language speakers
than there actually is right now.
(Children speaking Hawai'ian quietly)
- [Woman] English shouldn't be
the main language of the world.
We should value the thousands of indigenous languages
around or native languages that we have.
And we really should bring that back
because so much is lost.
So much culture is lost when we lose the language.
- [Man] There needs to be a treasure that we take care
of and we help to grow.
- [Woman] There's so much more for us to learn
about our language and our culture.
And only by understanding 'Ōlelo, will we be
able to access the information that our kūpana left for us?
(Ukulele music)
(singing in Hawai'ian)
- [Woman] It's so cool to look at how they communicated
with people from island to island,
by writing mele, by writing songs.
They tracked the times of events
like significant times by writing the song.
And if they didn't, we wouldn't know.
- [Woman 2] I like to imagine myself at the place
or whatever the mele is talking about,
I like to be in the mele.
- I think about getting famous.
(laughing)
- [Woman] My great grandfather was a musician
and a composer, and arranger, and he read music.
It ended there, because my father
didn't learn that knowledge.
And so I like, wow.
In two generations, we're- It's done.
So even in music and songwriting or in, and lei making
and all the things that we do as an Ohana, if we
if we don't do it, then it could end with my generation,
If I don't pass it onto my Keiki.
If my Keiki choose not to do that.
It could end in their generation.
I always acknowledge that, you know, this is our time.
- We have added kuleana and responsibility
to be the best ancestors for our descendants to come.
- [Woman] We have kuleana to thrive here,
to make sure that our children thrive here.
- [Man] Yeah. We have all the tools it takes
and we have the knowledge.
We have the resources.
- You're part of the model though.
The story, that story is being written
as we, as we breathe and live.
- [Woman 2] That's what we want our Keiki to know,
that they have a responsibility to lift up their community,
but it's going to be a generations
and generations and generations of work.
- So we got to work to do.
(upbeat outro music)
(speaking Hawai'ian)