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As told by LeRoy “Braddah” Hokoana, Facilities Maintenance Technician

2024-09-04

Uncle Braddah Shares His Inspiration Behind ‘Kalonary’ Classes       

Ask LeRoy “Uncle Braddah” Hokoana why he has been with Liliʻuokalani Trust for over 30 years, and he’ll enthusiastically tell you, “I love what I do. I always look forward to seeing our kamaliʻi. They get excited when they see Uncle Braddah, and I let them know they inspire me.”

Uncle Braddah is the Facilities Maintenance Technician for LT’s Maui operations, overseeing the safety and upkeep of Kīpuka Maui, the Colonel David Peters Building, and LT Pukalani in upcountry Maui.

By trade, he is a journeyman carpenter. By family legacy, a taro farmer.

Uncle Braddah is the creator of “Kalonary” classes, a culinary program for LT’s youth focused on taro farming, harvesting, and recipes using the whole plant. What inspired Kalonary’s launch was a program at the Trust many years ago called “Taropy,” a playful portmanteau of “taro” and “therapy.”

We talked story with Uncle Braddah in the summer of 2024 to learn about his passion for taro and its positive impact on LT’s kamaliʻi.

Below are excerpts from the conversation:

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Imagine the peace and tranquil ambiance of Waiheʻe Valley. Kick back. Relax. Please, brah, don’t get kanak attack! Go into therapy meditation mode, and join me on an exciting, fun, therapeutic expedition featuring our very own LT kamaliʻi.

Their journey begins with a brief walk down to the loʻi kalo. We stop at the main auwai to understand responsibility, kuleana, and the importance of managing and protecting our kuleana water rights, the Hawaiʻi system that was designed, maintained, and dedicated specifically for kalo cultivation.

After a safety debrief, the kamaliʻi engage in mālama ʻāina to care for the land, the spiritual connection with our kupuna who once farmed and preserved this ʻāina, and for generations, taught us to aloha ʻāina, to respect the land. The kamaliʻi get to see, touch, now hear, and immerse themselves within the loʻi kalo.

Through hands-on training, they learn how to pull kalo, huki kalo, and experience practicing Hawaiian values of kokua (helping), and laulima (working together). They learn the different parts and uses of the kalo plant and understand the farm-to-table concept. They learn how to clean and prepare kalo and get to experience, pound kao, make poi, and learn of its nutritional value.

We end our journey with aerobics, physical therapy, by pulling the invasive weeds. Exercise that is excellent for cardiovascular conditioning.

This is what happens in “Taropy.” I’ve got to pay tribute to those who paved the pathway for me to do Taropy.

I create my own “tarobic” exercises, where I get everybody to stand up. Then I get everybody to bend down, breathe in, breathe out, and do three reps of therapeutic exercises.

I am grateful that LT supported this kalo initiative, the community building, way back when the Trust had the Onipaʻa Kalo Hui that entailed taking the kamaliʻi out to different islands. We’ve been to Waipio Valley, Waimea Valley, Waiāhole Waikāne, and to who I called ʻTaropy practitioners,” who instilled in me their practices and programs to connect kamaliʻi and youth. They were very knowledgeable and a great resource.

This was how Taropy came about. I got hooked on Taropy — because those guys before me paved the pathway.

In 2022, LT had a learning journey as part of an ʻāina cohort. We were all about sustainability, farming, and how our work impacted the organization, the youth, and the families we served.

At first, we used to pound kalo. I showed the kamaliʻi how to clean and cook it up. Then we would do paʻi ʻai, kuʻi ʻai kalo, where we pounded poi. We would take the kalo and pound them out in the valley right after, in the loʻi.

That’s all we used to do. I was like, boring! I gotta start kind of being a little creative!

And that’s how Kalonary came about. My Kalonary classes are an offshoot of Taropy.

Kalonary came about after I shared with the kamaliʻi that we can eat the whole plant. We can eat the leaf. We can eat the hard stem. We can eat the korm, we can prepare the kalo, lots of different ways.  

I took ideas from the kamaliʻi and developed lesson plans, all designed by kamaliʻi. What I love about Kalonary is listening to the creativity that our kamaliʻi have and making that happen. There’s a difference I think, when it comes from them, the dynamics and everything changes.

That is why I always remind my kamaliʻi, and say, “Thank you very much.”

In the last Kalonary class that I did, we had a parent night, one of the parent gatherings. One kamaliʻi said, “Braddah, we need to make poi mochi.” I said, “Of course, we can do that!”

Taropy sounds like ʻtherapy.’ I wasn't the guy who created Taropy. No, I’m the guy who created Kalonary. If you ever hear anybody say Kalonary, you’re talking to the very one that created Kalonary. Taking the kalo, utilizing its purposes, and eating everything from the plant.

I feel like I got the greatest job in this whole wide world because I get this opportunity to work, engage, and provide opportunities to work with kamaliʻi to promote Hawaiian culture, Hawaiian values, Hawaiian traditions. That is something dear to me.

Way back when, I was always like, ʻAll I need to do is impact one, and I’m happy, I served my purpose.’ I enjoy serving the mission of our Queen and passing that down in perpetuity to our kamaliʻi to serve and give them that kind of ‘ike, that knowledge about the mission of our understanding about our Queen, and the kind of person the Queen was.

At this organization, LT, we are always growing. We are always learning. And to this very day, I’m still learning. I’m always hungry for that. My mana becomes stronger because I develop and grow with this organization. You got to get that kind of willingness to serve the mission and the vision of our Queen when you put those two things together.

I look around me and look around in the kīpuka. How lucky we are to be working alongside teammates that share that same kind of passion that we have as a team. It’s not about me.

Now, please remember, this is LT. This is not about, me, this, that. There is always the team concept or the team effort, the lōkahi, the laulima, together. If we all pull together and build our strengths together, we can be stronger to represent the mission of our Queen.