- [Narrator] The beauty of Kauai just fills my soul.
There are places of extreme beauty.
And that for me is the Nā Pali Coast
where there is a hidden gem.
An old village site called Niihau Kauai.
It is an absolutely ideal place
to perpetuate Hawaiian culture.
(reflective music)
(Hawaiian music)
I teach Hawaiian studies here in Kauai,
and the children call me Cuomo Kauka.
(Hawaiian music)
I teach Hula, which is Hawaiian dance,
Ōlelo Hawaii, which is Hawaiian language,
and Kapa, which is Hawaiian barkcloth.
- Oh my God, it's so beautiful.
- [Narrator] In Hawaii, we did not have loomed material.
We made our clothing and our blankets
from the bark of a tree.
Kapa is made first by growing the plant
and then harvesting it.
Scraping off the outer bark.
Removing the inner bark
and pounding it out.
You got to pound, and pound, and pound and pound
and then you need many, many strips and you fold them
together and pound them all out as one.
(pounding sound)
But you've got to have the materials to teach Hawaiian arts.
And those materials are very much based on plants.
(Helicopter sounds)
We have to grow the Wauke in order to make Kapa.
That's why we have been return to Niihau Kauai for 27 year.
There are no roads in there.
It is only accessible by boat or by air.
(helicopter sound)
You feel the sense of place when you land.
When you walk along the little trail.
And when you look out at the ocean
and you see the turtles that are resting on the beach.
They have been on that beach for centuries.
We've only been on that beach more recently.
(uplifting music)
Our first trip into Niihau Kauai
was to return ancestral remains or K..puna iwi,
and, ever since that trip,
we have been going back to take care this old village site.
And we have also planted Wauke there to make Kapa.
And I am still trying to figure out my K..puna,
how my ancestors made as beautifully as they have.
It's a process.
We have to relearn these things.
- Voila
- [Narrator] So it's a place of old Hawaii
that brings much to our understanding
of perhaps how life used to be.
- Come in right here and you gotta cut it at the bottom.
- [Narrator] I like to teach my children about Kapa
because first of all they have to learn
how to take care of the plants
and then they have to learn how to harvest them
and how to clean them
and how to pound them.
(pounding sounds)
They know who they are.
They know where they live.
They know why they live here
and what they can do to help.
How do Hawaiians see the land,
that the land is the chief and that people are its servants.
(reflective music)