Nature Conservancy to Give Away 10,000 Educational DVDs

Maoli Nô

Hawaii’s spectacular native wildlife provides the backdrop and inspiration for a new Hawaiian music and educational DVD released today by The Nature Conservancy and The Mountain Apple Company.

Maoli Nō – Truly Native, a tribute to the native plants and animals of Hawai‘i, takes viewers on a visual and musical journey through the islands’ forests, streams and reefs and the unique native life found in them.

Narrated by Robert Cazimero, and featuring songs by such beloved artists as Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole, Keola Beamer, the Brothers Cazimero, HAPA, and Genoa Keawe, Maoli Nō uses Hawaiian music as an educational tool to explore the intimate relationship between Hawaiian culture and the native Hawaiian environment.

."Hawaiian music, with its power to connect to what is truly native Hawaiian, inspires and teaches us about Hawaii’s native environment and culture," says Suzanne Case, the Hawai‘i Executive Director of The Nature Conservancy. "It reminds us that the survival of an authentic Hawaiian culture is closely tied to the preservation of the native environment in which its traditions evolved."

Maoli Nō is not for sale or profit but is being given away to schools, environmental education organizations, hula halau, cultural groups and other interested individuals for conservation education purposes. A total of 10,000 copies will be distributed. "Our hope is to reach as broad an audience as possible, but a special emphasis is being given to our keiki," says Case. "The hope is that all who listen to it will answer the call to mālama ‘āina, to care for the land."

Musicians, composers, chanters, kumu hula, photographers, scientists, and educators contributed their talents to the DVD, which features Hawaiian songs and chants celebrating Hawaii’s native species.

Keola Beamer performs “Kāhuli Aku,” a traditional chant about the islands’ native tree snails that was set to music by his mother, Nona Beamer. Genoa Keawe delivers a classic rendition of “Pua ‘Iliahi,” a tribute to the native sandalwood flower, while Richard Ho‘opi‘i sings “E Hīhīwai,” a Dennis Kamakahi composition about the freshwater snails that flourish in the mountain streams of Molokai’s Wailau Valley.

Other selections and the artists who perform them include “Waikā” (The Brothers Cazimero), “‘Ōpae Ē" (Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole), “‘I‘iwi Polena” (Kekuhi Kanahele), “Manu‘Ō‘ō," (Gary Haleamau) and "Ka Uluwehi O Ke Kai" (HAPA).

"Many of the songs will be familiar to lovers of Hawaiian music," says Jon de Mello of The Mountain Apple Company, which produced the DVD. "What may be new, however, is to learn the stories behind the songs. A lot of people will find themselves saying, ‘I love that song – I didn’t know that’s what it’s about!’ "

The idea for Maoli Nō originated with Case and Hawaiian singer Leokāne Pryor, who co-wrote and performs one of the songs that appears on the DVD, “Ke Ho‘olono Nei,” a tribute to extinct and endangered Hawaiian forest birds. Deeply inspired themselves by the connections between Hawaii’s unique native environment and culture, they created a website (www.hoolono.org) that features Hawaiian songs that honor Hawaii’s native plants and animals.

"Ke Ho‘olono Nei" led Case to seek out Jon de Mello at the Mountain Apple Company, to whom she proposed the idea of producing a Hawaiian music and educational CD. When an enthusiastic de Mello suggested that illustrating the songs with video would have far greater impact, the CD became a DVD and work on the project began.

In addition to the songs, Maoli Nō includes Hawaiian lyrics and translations, song notes exploring conservation and cultural connections, and narrated interludes by Robert Cazimero that serve as educational lessons in Hawaiian culture and ecology. Teachers, kumu hula and conservationists are currently developing lesson plans for the DVD which will be available as teaching tools this summer.

Fittingly, Maoli Nō opens with a traditional forest entry chant, “Kau ka Hāli‘a,” performed by Sam ‘Ohukani‘ōhi‘a Gon III, the Conservancy’s senior scientist and cultural advisor. It closes with a second chant composed specially for the project and performed by kumu hula John Keolamaka‘āinana Lake. Titled “Aloha Mai Au I Ku‘u ‘Āina” (The Love I Have for My Land), the chant is offered as a form of prayer.

Gon also contributes a verse that appears on the DVD jacket and eloquently captures the project’s underlying message. Translated into the English, it says:

Listen, attend

to the songs of the birds
to the voice of the wind
to the lyrics of the ancestors
The knowledge of Hawaiian nature
lives in song, chant, and dance

"There is an intimacy between Hawaiians and the natural world that has largely been lost, but maintained tenuously through hula and chant," Gon says. "Maoli Nō is a call to strengthen those connections so that an intimacy between people and land is rebuilt. When that strong relationship is in place, abuses of the land are not tolerated and caring for the land, mālama ‘āina, comes more readily."

For information on how to obtain a copy of Maoli Nō-Truly Native, visit The Nature Conservancy’s website at www.nature.org/hawaii. Or call a Conservancy office on your island: O‘ahu and Kaua‘i (808) 537-4508; Moloka‘i (808) 553-5236; Big Island (808) 885-1786; and Maui (808) 572-7849.