kualena: To stretch,as tapa to free from wrinkles; taut. Fig., to concentrate the thoughts. He manawa keia a kakou e kualena ai i ko kakou mau no’ono’o, this is the time to concentrate mentally (Pukui & Elbert, 1971).
‘u’u: To strip, as leaves or maile bark; to draw in, as a line on a ship; to draw out, unsheath, as a sword…(Pukui & Elbert, 1971).
‘u’u ka i’o o loko, strip the inner bark
mole: 1. Tap root, main root; bottom, as of a pit or of a glass; ancestral root; foundation, source, cause. 2. Smooth, round, bald. ho’o.mole. To smooth. 3. Name of the smooth, uncarved side of a tapa beater, as used at the end of the beating to smooth out the cloth. 4. To linger, loiter, lag; backward.
My goal in starting this blog is to learn all I can about Hawaiian kapa. From tools to processes, from designs to pigments and dyes… I hope to create a repository for my research and a journal that documents my journey. I hope that the knowledge shared here is of interest to others. Perhaps more importantly, I expect to be transformed as a person, as an artist, and as a Hawaiian… as my identity embraces the mana’o of my ancestors….
kapa kulture 