Hawaiʻi Island · Agriculture · Culture

Kamaka Nakoa

Waipiʻo · 1940s

Kalo farmer who has worked the same loʻi for six decades and helped restore ʻauwai in the valley.

Conversations

1. The water tells you when to plant

   7/9/2026

   Kamaka Nakoa describes learning to read water flow from his grandfather, and what changed in Waipiʻo after the 1946 tsunami.

   Recording not yet released for this conversation.

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   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.

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