Sammy Kuahine (top row with bass) poses with some of the Sisters of St. Francis serving at Kalaupapa: Sister Wilma Halmasy, Sister Carmelita Chmelewska and Sister Rosanne LaManche; and fellow Kalaupapa musicians, from left, Willie Kupele, Orson Gallero and Henry Hatori. (Photo courtesy of St. Marianne Cope Shrine & Museum)
By Valerie Monson
Special to the Herald
Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa will present a virtual concert, “The Music of Kalaupapa,” at 1 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, on the Ohana Facebook page and YouTube.
The concert features some of today’s musicians paying tribute to the often-forgotten musicians and composers of Kalaupapa by playing their songs.
Throughout the history of Kalaupapa, music had a healing effect on many of the nearly 8,000 men, women and children who were taken from their families and isolated on the peninsula because of government policies regarding leprosy.
In the early days, St. Damien formed choirs and bands to help people find joy and take their minds off of the hardships facing them. The Hawaiian royal family would be greeted at the Kalaupapa wharf by bands, banners and applause. In later years, residents formed ensembles or groups that played at community gatherings and parties.
Many songs were written by talented composers at Kalaupapa. A number of these songs will be sung at this concert. The performers are Brother Noland, Melveen Leed, Kevin Brown, Makana, Lopaka Hoopii and Stephen Inglis.
The Kalaupapa songwriters who will be honored are The Boys of Kalawao, The Aikala Brothers, George McLane, Ernest Kala, Sammy Kuahine, Helen Keao and Bernard K. Punikaia.
The concert is a fundraiser for The Kalaupapa Memorial which will list the names of everyone who was isolated there.
The oldest song in the concert is one of the most heartwarming. In the early 1880s, the boys of Kalawao wrote a song honoring Father Damien. This song, “Eia ea o Damiana, Ka Makua o Kakou” (“Here’s to Damien, the Father of Us All”), was almost lost to history. The song was not written down and it appeared that no one was aware of it until the unpublished memoirs of Ambrose Hutchison came to light in 2000.
Hutchison wrote about an occasion when the boys processed down the road to Damien’s house where Damien stood on his balcony as the boys sang. The lead singer was a 14-year-old named Pake whose voice, according to Hutchison, rang out like a “soaring lark songster.” Hutchison also wrote down the words of the song, but did not include the music.
Bernard Punikaia, possibly the most prolific songwriter in the history of Kalaupapa, was given Hutchison’s story and the words to the song — and was asked if he would put music to these words that had laid silent for more than a century.
Punikaia, who was taken from his mother when he was 6 and a half years old because he had leprosy and was sent to Kalaupapa in 1942, identified with Pake and the boys. He immediately agreed to compose music and produced a beautiful score on his autoharp. When Punikaia sang the song in St. Philomena Church for Damien Day in 2002, it might have been the first time in nearly 120 years that the song was sung.
The concert will not only feature the song to Father Damien and other songs by Kalaupapa musicians, but will feature information on the history of the music and the musicians. A series of historical and modern photos will accompany the narration and songs.
For more information, go to the Facebook page of Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa or the ‘Ohana website www.kalaupapaohana.org.
To view the concert, go to facebook.com/kalaupapaohana or the YouTube page of Stephen Inglis.
