Kanaka Networking

What is your name? Where do you come from? What are the names of your parents? Are you related to ___________?

In the islands, relationships are built on family or community ties. Who are you related to? Who are your people? Complete strangers who find a common relative or acquaintance become fast friends by the binding thread of love. Listen to someone long enough and you will discover the commonality. That is the Hawaiian style.

So many things are based on relationships between people: 'olua, maua, kaua, 'oukou, makou, kakou, lakou. How do we fit into the conversation? Is it a kako'o thing? or are we part of the "other guys?"

There is some wisdom in knowing our place, finding linkages, and building new relationships. Some malihini catch on quickly to this phenomenon and become infused in the culture. Some kama'aina forget the old ways and relate on a Western basis and wonder why they are often referred to with the lakou pronoun. Hawaiian thinking is not based on quantum but rather want-um. Wanting to know the ways of the people...the unsaid, the unspoken, but loudly evident Hawaiian perspective for those willing to listen and observe.