My name is Russ Reina. I am now administrator of this Blog, whatever that means. Let’s find out, shall we? I’ll make no pretense of understanding how to best use the form, so I’ll be making mistakes as I go. Okay?
I like to be called “firetender”. Not MR. Firetender, or THE Firetender. I’m just a firetender. Someday, if, in the midst of a busy street someone calls out “firetender!” with urgency, my dream is people will respond from all four directions with “How can I help?”
That’s what I was taught to do while tending fire for sacred Lakota healing ceremonies during the 1990’s on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. I worked with the flames of spirit wherever and however they appeared. That’s not what I thought I signed up for, but it’s turned into a metaphor for who I wish to be.
When I’m at my best, that’s what I do. Refering to myself as a firetender, and hearing others refer to me in the same way, reminds me to keep an eye toward the spirit of things and people rather than get lost in their shells.
I’m here today because I saw a need that I have been prepared to help fill and then got the chance to do it. As is true with most of the best that has come to me, I didn’t ask for this.
I was part of the whole SOURCE ‘08 shebang. I was six months into my job as a tour guide on and around Haleakala and approaching my fifth year on the island. Though feeling bonded to the “‘aina” (the land…that which feeds) I was still a foreigner, a Haole. I don’t take offense at the term; only the tone.
I lived a year on Oahu in the most “challenged” neighborhood in the state. Amidst an 80% population of Pacific Islanders, I was the minority, and, like it or not, had to adopt to the host culture. After all, my ancestors bones are not part of the soil; I got to understand that on a visceral level.
My time on the rez taught me to honor the Spirit of the land and to pay respects to its caretakers. It is they who have preserved and prepared the land for you so that you can enjoy its bounty.
There was a “loose” connection with the local community in 2008, and I heard from many a desire for more connection. I was happy to re-encounter Nahi, a Maui Kahuna (teacher/expert, broadly; including canoe makers, healers, priest/esses, etc.) at Sara’s healer gathering, and find that she’d be sharing her blessings with us during the 2009 gathering. I wondered if there was a project for the community that we could get invoved with also. Is not part of artistry connection with the land you inhabit?
The ahupua’a (land division; usually in a triangle from the top of the volcano fanning down to the seashore) of which Keanae is a part is home to a very high proportion of native Hawaiian islanders who, linked by blood through many generations, choose to live like Hawaiians.
I’m not dissing those native to the land who embrace “Western” ways, But, the proportion of people choosing to live closer to the ways of their ancestors — close to kin spanning back for more than eight generations — is getting less each year, while their percentage of the population shrinks even more rapidly. Our gathering, culturally significant to us, was taking place at a location culturally significant to the WORLD.
How much longer will they be able to hold their integrity? How long will they be willing to have anything to do with us “outsiders”? Is there even an opening for that now, and maybe most importantly, should there be? Why do we always feel the drive to be included, to be accepted by indigenous cultures that our Western forebears have dominated if not devastated?
These are some of the questions that we can all look at
The more I absorb (usually a book a week on something to do with Hawaii), the more respect I have for what is actually going on in the area. For the last year I’ve been slowly getting to know the people along the Hana Highway as I drive the route.
Keoni, who we all met on Saturday of SOURCE ‘09, has been developing a taro demonstration site at the Keanae Arboretum for the past year. It has been his passion. He sells quality jewelry with his wife along the Hana Road. That’s where we met. I’ve been doing some photography with him as the patches have developed.
At the same time as SOURCE was coming up, Keoni, who has been mostly working on his own on this sizeable project (designed to expose those tourists really interested in the true culture to be involved a little rather than just used as an income source), got a bit bogged down and needed help.
So many of you really were interested in being a part of, rather than just being a recipient of the bounty of this land. We gambled that we could build a win-win. We get to learn a little about the ‘aina, what taro means to the people and the point of view of the last of 41 Grandchildren to take up the mantle of eight generations of taro farmers, and he gets to see his work come to fruition.
The mutual respect was wonderful, and in Keoni I think we found someone who can deliver straight talk as a Hawaiian, be a teacher, and also help create bridges between the cultures.
We, as artists on this island, can do nothing but benefit in our work by learning from our host culture. I get to learn how to best facilitate that, with the kokua (help) of you, Keoni and the ‘aina.
In Lakota it’d be Wopila Cepa (che-pah), for a fat thank you!
Here, my best would be,
Mahalo Nui!
Russ Reina,
a firetender
