Hawaiʻi Island · Agriculture · Culture
The water tells you when to plant
Kamaka Nakoa describes learning to read water flow from his grandfather, and what changed in Waipiʻo after the 1946 tsunami.
Storyteller
Kamaka Nakoa
Waipiʻo · 1940s
Kalo farmer who has worked the same loʻi for six decades and helped restore ʻauwai in the valley.
Transcript
My grandfather never used a calendar. He would stand at the ʻauwai in the morning and put his hand in the water. If it was cold at the top of your wrist, it was time. People laugh when I say that, but the water has been keeping time here a lot longer than we have.
Themes
- Land and water
- Family knowledge
- Resilience
Shared publicly with the storyteller's written permission. Read our kuleana.