E Hoʻi i ka Piko    Hoʻi hou i ka iwi kuamoʻo | Return to the backbone. Return to the homeland or family after being away. -Mary Kawena Pukui, ʻŌlelo Noʻeau #1024  

My tūtū was a Maui girl, born in the 1920s and raised in a house surrounded by loʻi kalo that was watered by the Waiheʻe river, one of the Nā Wai ʻEhā or four great rivers of Maui.  While she eventually came to live in Oʻahu and raise her family, I have fond memories of visiting TūTūʻs Maui House when I was younger and the loʻi was still full of both water and kalo: mud-streaked and playing hide-and-seek with my cousins, catching crayfish and bufo frogs, and hiking up the hillside behind the house to visit the spot where my great-great grandmother is buried.    

Last year, Maui started calling my family back.  My brother and his wife decided to move to Waiheʻe to live in the house thatʻs been in our family for over 5 generations.  Then, after the Maui fires, my cousins stayed in the house as they volunteered and contributed to Lahaina relief efforts.  And finally, in December, I had the chance to go back for the first time in over 20 years.  

While working on this project, I learned about the passing of my first photography teacher, Jan Becket.  Mr. Becket taught high school Photography, English, and Poetry classes at Kamehameha Schools, Kapālama for several decades before retiring in 2014.  Mr. Becket was also passionate about archeology and much of his photographic work was dedicated to honoring and documenting wahi pana, or sacred sites around Hawaiʻi. Upon his retirement, Mr. Becket encouraged me to apply for his teaching position, and for over 10 years now, Iʻve been teaching photography in the same classroom and darkroom that I originally learned in.  

E Hoʻi i ka Piko is about legacy: returning to ancestral lands and reconnecting with those kumu and kūpuna who came before us.  Mahalo nui to all those who showed us the way and welcomed us back home.