Maui Hale Symposium Photos

Quick selection of some photos from the past few days at the symposium are here. I haven't had time to properly process and organize. Scenes from the preparation and competition, some local sights, views along the Hana Road, and more.

Maui Hale Symposium Completion

The hale building symposium completed today with five teams building on five sites over three days. The photo at right shows what a completed hale looks like, made of wood, stone, and leaves, lashed together with nylon cord (a modern change obviously).

The judges have scored the competition with the results to be announced tomorrow at the Hana Taro Festival. My role in this was to observe and score each day's work (a different team each day). The principles of competition are:

• Laulima: everyone contributing effectively
• Lokahi: harmony, cooperation and teamwork
• Uʻi, Nani: aesthetics, beauty
• Maikaʻi, Pono: correctness
• Kawikiwiki: timeliness

I observed three different teams over three days and saw first hand their various ways of working and responding to challenges. Throughout the work was without exception remarkably amicable and focused on helping everyone grow their skills and learn both the construction details as well as the cultural aspects. 

One story from the symposium may convent a bit of the real meaning of this event. Going into the final day, the team I was observing still had none of the palm leaves used to thatch the roof, and was busy building with all hands and had no time to go foraging leaves. Finally mid-morning they sent two guys out to collect leaves and soon after they left a truck pulled up loaded with leaves - another team had finished early and brought their spare material, knowing the leaves were needed. And once they got there they all pitched in and helped prepare the leaves and pass them up to the team who were thatching in parallel to quickly wrap up the job to completion. They took the principles of Laulima and Lokahi to not just one team, but to all participants.

Houlani Hale

Awakening pre-dawn I opened my eyes to something akin to being in a large alien spaceship, very dim blinking lights intermittently revealed a high ceiling that looked organic. The sound of crashing waves confirmed where I was - inside a huge hale (Hawaiian style building) - the palm-leaf-thatched ceiling was organic, eerily lit by the glow of the blinking of a bank of charging cell phones. Permit the dramatic description: this place is really something, almost other-worldly.

This is Houlani Hale, a short distance south of Hana on the island of Maui, home to our host Palani, where most of the hale symposium participants are staying for the event. A few acres tucked in next to the cattle ranching fields right on the coast, with a series of buildings laid out around a big lawn area turned into a small scale golf course for practice. (Once a year our host deploys his riding lawn mower into the cattle pastures to create a cross-country style golf course for a local invitation-only tournament.)

The 100 foot hale dominates the buildings, a barn essentially, serves as the symposium meeting room and dorm. From there working toward the ocean: a bar hale, a pizza oven, wash basins, shower, and head. The photo is the kitchen/dining area where some great grinds have come from, a full spread at every meal.

The lawn ends abruptly at a rocky cliff perhaps 10 meters above the ocean. There's no beach but one of the guys is quite a diver and he gets down there and brings up fresh fish and shellfish.

It's almost 5:30 and biscuits just went into the pizza oven to bake. Here's the recipe: mix one box Bisquik with two cans coconut milk; bake.

Maui Hale Symposium preparation

First day on Maui, beautiful hot weather all day.
After breakfast kumu (the master hale builder leading the event) held a review session for participants brushing up on details of construction Hawaiian style. At right here we are inside the largest hale on the planet: 100 feet long, the size of a good sized barn.

In the morning we collected and distributed materials in preparation. Then after lunch kumu and I drove to Kuhului harbor to pick up the truck we shipped from Kaua'i loaded with wood for this event. I followed him back tailing him all the way down the Hana Road - some thirty miles of winding road through gorgeous tropical terrain leading south, abundant with waterfalls and view points overlooking the ocean to the east.

By dinner all the participants gathered and the event starts tomorrow 7AM. People are here from all the major islands, along with friends about forty people or more. Dinner featured fresh fish and shellfish caught right off the coast here and expertly prepared, and steamed ulu (breadfruit) which I had for the first time. Dessert was banana bread (several varieties including mac-nut & pineapple-coconut).

Limahuli Hale 2 construction: O'a

Hale work continued here at Limahuli Garden with a smaller crew. The rain and wind continued, making the work difficult: much of Hawaii got hit today we later learned.

Before planting the roof beam support posts there was a simple ceremony to provide mana (hard to translate ... "good vibrations" perhaps) by placing a lehua (sacrifice: in modern times, a fish) under each of the two posts.

The roof ridge went up and we cut and placed several of the o'a that run up from the outside posts to the roof ridge.

With intermittent wind gusts and rain squalls sweeping through all day long the tarp tent that had been set up was threatening to blow away. Instead of that we tied the tarp up under the olokea (the scaffolding) and everyone ducked under there when the weather was too intense to work safely. Nonetheless, everyone got quite wet and muddy.

Limahuli Hale 1 construction: Olokea

The Limahuli hale project continued today with the construction of the olokea, the ladder system that functions as scaffolding for the construction of the roof.

You will see the hale just above the taro (kalo) paddies (lo'i) at the NTBG Limahuli Garden.

Before starting today the rock work foundation and perimeter posts were already completed from work started here last November. Reusing pieces from the Lawai hale olokea, so little cutting was needed, plus with the crew having experience of building that one, the work went smoothly and quickly.

The photo to the left shows the olokea as of the end of work today. After two roof support posts go in (one is in position ready to set, the other yet to be cut) tomorrow morning, the end supports that comprise the rest of the olokea will be added to complete it. From there the roof structure will go up, working on the olokea.

Today heavy rain interrupted work a few times and made the work site a fairly miserable mud hole. The olokea gets very slippery when wet so for safety work stops when a squall rolls through. Rain was frequent enough that we moved our tent for breaks up next to the hale so we can quickly step out of the rainfall as needed.

As always, the local staff took great care of us including a nice hot lunch of curry rice with a kale salad and a ginger-garlic dressing that was delicious, and Sugarloaf pineapple for dessert. Mahalo!

Hale construction 4

Let me add some additional notes on the hale project summarizing as best I can. The design and construction are informed by traditional practice but modernized for various reasons.

• Chainsaw is much faster and easier than cutting by hand.
• Traditional materials have become endangered or rare or not locally available.
• Nylon cord is easier to work with and last longer.
• Some building code requirements apply.

There is a recognized exam to become certified to build a hale which includes knowledge of Hawaiian, suitable materials, construction techniques, and so forth. The modern methodology is based on research into extant old hale - one from Kauai was dismantled in the 1970's and reconstructed in the Bishop Museum on Oahu, providing much of the details. Many newer innovations were developed - better lashings, adapting techniques to modern materials and tools - with an eye to maintaining the original intentions.

The hale construction began in December (had I known about I would have been there). The structure is 30 feet long and 20 feet wide and over 20 feet high at the roof peak I would estimate.

The base is made of igneous stones collected in the Lawai valley where the hale is located. At this stage is surface is quite uneven. Exactly how the floor will be finished is still to be determined - they may put in some cement to afford handicapped access, or it may be finished with gravel to make it easier to walk on a safe.

All the wood is ironwood also from the valley. I helped de-bark it which can be done by scraping it with a garden scythe or (my preference) beaten with a hammer, splitting the bark and separating it from the hard light-colored wood and peeling it back.

Roughly, here is the sequence of building:

1. Rock foundation, rough
2. Vertical pillars (with notched joints cut) are planted and secured
3. Scaffolding is secured to central pillars and braced forming a 45 degree pyramid
4. Scaffolding rungs are tied at "knee hight" interfaces with a few vertical purlins
5. Roof framing with jointed ends are lifted and lashed onto the pillars
6. A top piece is joined running lengthwise along the roof ridge line
7. Roof subframe and purlins are lashed to form a lattice
8. Long ends jutting out are cut and ground smooth, extra lashings are cut off at one inch
9. Dried fan palm leaves are laced onto the purlins overlapping 50%, bottom row working up
10. A special horizontal cross piece is lashed across the end near the roof peak
11. Two long wood poles are tied on top of this running just below the ridge line on either side
12. Green fan palm leaves are folded in half widthwise and tucked under the two poles to cap roof
13. Scaffolding is dismantled in opposite order of its construction
14. After a few days the roof tightens up and needs some patching to make it watertight
15. Rock foundation finish

Currently we have the scaffolding dismantled on one side (step 13) and I suspect there are more steps yet to come. Work continues on Thursday and should be done within a day.

Lashings are mostly "U-joint" securing poles together, with a pueo (owl) variation that has an aesthetic chevron design in the cord, and combinations of half-hitch knots for tying. Most lashing is done with nylon cord tied into shakas (I learned how to tie shakas but won't attempt to describe it in words.) In Hawaii you see the shaka hand-sign -- closed fist with thumb and little finger extended -- as a visual "aloha" exchanged for example, when someone pulls aside to let you pass on a narrow road. Lashing shakas are cord tied "figure eight" on your hand making the sign, finished up by winding around the middle of the "eight". You leave the starting end long so the lasher knows to start there and then as they work they can tug cord out one loop at a time making it easy to pass the cord through when needed (without having to deal with long pieces to repeatedly pull through). Roofing is lashed with cheaper plastic twisted cord.

Messing up the shaka is a dreaded error - making it too tight, tangling, or knotting up - as it breaks the flow of work. For instance, building the roof you have people on the ground sorting and checking the leaves, passing them "bucket brigade style" up for a holder to pre-position and a lasher to tie them in. Obviously, holding up the process idles a lot of people and slows things down considerably.

There is much more to it of course, but this gives an idea of the steps in the process.

You can see the hale now on the NTBG McBryde Garden tour beyond the Canoe Garden to the back of the valley away from the ocean on the east side of the stream.

Hale construction 3

Friday we completed (97%) the hale after five days work. The construction process included many processes and stages, more than I can begin to detail here. The following are just a few photos from throughout the day.

Rough ends before trimming

Tommy trimming & grinding ends

Attaching subframe to the purlins on the end

Hale construction 2

Work continues on the hale with the main structural frame complete and most of the roof subframe is in place.

A few photos of the work show the progress. Children from a nearby Hawaiian school visited yesterday: they sang to us and also helped organize the palm leaves that will form the thatched roof.

Hale construction 1

This week at the NTBG [ ntbg.org ] is a special project to construct a "hale" - a Hawaiian style house. Specifically, it will be an open building set in the McBryde garden.

Building with unmilled wood instead of lumber, the structure incorporates all the curves and branches at times of the natural wood. Lengths are measured by string for the most part. Joints are cut mostly by eyeballing the angles, orienting the wood according to its bent shape. Then the pieces are lashed together with nylon cord pieces tied in "shakas" - a kind of figure-8 wrapping on the hand that I learned how to do.

The "hale" is based on traditional designs but we use modern tools and materials: chainsaw, grinder, and nylon cord for lashing. No nails, no level.

The structure is made from ironwood which also isn't traditional, but was brought here by Westerners from Australia. It's like pine but harder and tends to grow fairly straight. The wood is placed on the beach so the saltwater treats it to resist bugs and as fire retardant.

Structural pieces are cut by chainsaw, fitted into place, marked, and adjusted to fit snuggly before lashing them. Working with a large group we have people up in the structure and more on the ground, passing the large pieces of wood up and down. standing on the temporary scaffolding already built in that will be disassembled eventually as the structure is completed.

The work is led by a rambunctious fellow from Maui (brandishing the chainsaw in the photos) with each work day starting with Hawaiian chanting and I believe hula based warmup. The NTBG garden staff turns out along with volunteers; today we had military folks from the PMRF (in Kekaha to the west) facility helping out.

Here are a few photos from Monday that should be self-explanatory from the text above. It's fascinating to work on and watch it come together, but also hard work at times. Today we had hot weather and mid-afternoon a downpour suspended work early.