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Transcription: [00:26:34]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
[Speaking over Speaker 2]
But before that--

[00:26:34]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
So it takes hours and hours just to prepare your leaves.

[00:26:40]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
[Continuing from before]
--before knife came in, bamboo was used.

[00:26:43]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Mm hmm [affirmative]

[00:26:44]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
We didn't have any knife, we used the bamboo. We also used the seashells, for soften the leaves.

[00:26:50]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Something like what she has around her neck.

[00:26:53]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
This is what we used - the limpet shell. We didn't have any needles at that time. We used the fish hook, or the coconut shells, or sharp rocks in order to make strips. And it's one at a time.
[00:27:08]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
And what they use is just like what I see, uh, Ruth and her mother was using - scissors. We use your eyesight, just like that, one at a time, to cut it straight. And you wonder, how straight can they do it? But it's just like that, and
[00:27:25]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Nowadays, it's more modernized. We use needles, and we line up four or five of them, evenly, and we just go with the needle one time, and you get five [laughs], five strips!
[00:27:37]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
And last of all, to tell you, this is also, not only leaf you lookin at, it's just like a leaf. We back home, as Hawaiians, we use this for cramps. You know when you have tummy cramps, you roll? We use this as a medicinal pla--, uh, medicine.
[00:27:58]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
We wrap this around our tummy. In couple of hours, it relieves you from your pain. So you see, this isn't only a leaf that can be used to weave, but this is also a medicinal plant.
[00:28:13]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
And it works.

[Laughter from various voices]
[00:28:15]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
You know I think it's important to stress here, yesterday Valana Hyde from the Luiseño Tribe of, of Southern California, was talking with us about the oak tree, and the acorn. And then she was talking with us about another plant, each part of which is used. Nothing is gone to waste.
[00:28:31]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
There is no waste in a culture that has to rely on the natural substance for everything. And who goes out and collects it from beginning to end uses every part of it.
[00:28:44]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
We don't waste, uh we don't waste people either. We uh we uh keep our elders in business for life [[chuckles]] teaching our children and our grandchildren.
[00:28:54]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
I'd like to point out that for many Native North American people, too, the parents of, -- The practice of grandparents raising children is the common practice.
[00:29:04]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
I was raised by two different grandmothers, and we collect many grandmothers as we go along. I think I collected another one here.
[00:29:13]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
But, that is a very important area where we do not waste people, and people do not waste anything in the environment. One tree, one bush can provide so many things.
[00:29:25]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
And that's why certain plants have such importance in certain cultures. Valana Hyde from Luiseño, they revere the acorn tree - the oak tree, which produces acorns, and from which they make many, many, many things.
[00:29:37]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
And here the Pandanus, or what is the Hawaiian name for it?
[00:29:41]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Lauhala.
[00:29:43]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
Lauhala.
[00:29:43]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
"Lau" is your leaf, and "hala" is the tree itself, and also the fruit. We have two type of hala. One is the female, and one is the male.

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
Female produce the fruit; the male produce the flower, which come into, come in cluster, and has pollen. And that pollen is used for perfume. It has a very sweet fragrance.
[00:30:09]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
The fruit of the hala is use for leis, the string for leis. It's also edible, when it's dry. When it's dry, there's a small, slight kernel on the inside.
[00:30:19]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
You crack it open, it's just like pine nut, you eating pine nuts. And that's what we were taught to eat--
[00:30:26]

[[Cross Talk]]
{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
It looks sort of--

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 1"}
--not to eat candies.
[00:30:29]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
--yea, it looks sort of like the sunflower seed, you know, when you crack open the shell from the sunflower seed? It looks exactly like that.
[00:30:36]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
You said something I want to ask you about. She said everybody who comes to their festival goes away with a fan, a pandanas fan, to remind them that they'd been there.
[00:30:45]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
One of the things that I've noticed about native Hawaiian people again, like our, uh, my own Indian people here, is that [deep breath], the business of giving is very much important--

{UNKNOWN speaker}
[[a sneeze]]
[00:30:57]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}

--and we always look at other people and, where taking seems to be important. For example, on your birthday in North America, you get presents.
[00:31:08]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
But, in native cultures, you'd be more likely to give things away on your own feast day or ceremonial day. Giving is very important in your culture, the giving of lei and the giving of, of gifts, and--
[00:31:22]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 2"}
Bracelets
[All laugh]
[00:31:23]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
--We've all got--
[00:31:24]

{UNKNOWN speaker}
Yea
[Various laughter]
[00:31:25]

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
--everybody around here has bracelets from Auntie Minnie. Because, this business of sharing is so important; sharing knowledge.

{SPEAKER name="Speaker 3"}
Would you talk a little bit about that? What does it mean to give a lei to somebody when they come visiting you, or when, eh when you exchange them when you visit people?
[00:31:45]

Transcription Notes:
Speaker 1 - Minnie Kaawaloa Speaker 2 - Piee Speaker 3 - Rayna Green.