Charmaine Woodward’s great grandparents, David and Alana Kamahana, at their wedding Jan. 1, 1911. (Photos courtesy of Charmaine Woodward)
By Anna Weaver
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The numbers of those logged on to the Zoom session quickly ticked upwards as the start time for a Damien and Marianne Catholic Conference webinar approached on Jan. 22. Attendees left notes in the chatbox introducing themselves.
“I am the adopted Daughter of the Late Laurenzio & Katherine Costales and the Biological Daughter of … Ivy Kahilihiwa who still lives between the Hale Mohalu Care home on Oahu and of course Kalaupapa,” wrote Ruth Kanani Edmund Costales.
“I am a descendant of Andrew and Kapiioho Poaha,” typed Kanoe Kahalewai, as she watched from Waimanalo.
“Aloha from Kapahi, Kauai,” said Beatrice Lemke-Newman. “Descendant of Nahuluwai, who died in Kalaupapa in 1893.”
In San Francisco and in Waianae, descendants of Malie Kauluwela and John Willie Solomon Kalama and their daughter Sarah Kalama said aloha.
The notes continued on with participants noting that they were watching from Oahu, Kauai Molokai and Maui. But also, Austin, Texas; Washington D.C.; Syracuse, New York; Foley, Alabama; Catasauqua, Pennsylvania; and Belgium.
By the time Deacon Modesto Cordero of the DMCC introduced the webinar’s host, Valerie Monson, 96 people from around the U.S. and the world were waiting to listen to the topic of “Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa: The Restoration of Family Ties.”
Monson is a longtime member of Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa, which is a nonprofit founded in 2003 to support Hansen’s disease patients sent to Kalaupapa, Molokai. It works to connect past and present residents, family and friends, and raise awareness about the peninsula’s history so that Kalaupapa “voices are always heard.”
When Monson first went to Kalaupapa in 1989, she said the story of its history was much different than what is told today. And that is in part because so much more research has been done and connections have been made about those who were forcibly sent to isolation on the small Molokai peninsula.
During the hourlong webinar, Monson vividly shared the stories of several families who have reconnected or learned for the first time about their ancestors who were sent to Kalaupapa. She talked about the “ripple effect of family’s pulled apart” when children born in Kalaupapa were taken away from their parents.
“Sometimes I help them find tombstones, sometimes the church where their relatives were married … where they lived … or fruit from a tree planted by their ancestors,” Monson said.
Monson said she often feels like she’s being “guided by the ancestors of Kalaupapa” who are trying to reconnect with their descendants. She will find a name on a headstone or come across the mention of a family name in her research, she said, and then not too long after a descendant of that patient shows up in Kalaupapa or reaches out to her.
“I love figuring out who these people in the cemeteries are and I always hope we meet their families,” she said. “We often do.”
When talking to the late Kuulei Bell, a Ka Ohana founding member and Kalaupapa resident, once, Monson told her that the nonprofit was gradually bringing deceased Kalaupapa residents “back into the history.”
“They are just waiting for us to find them,” Bell responded.
Charmaine Woodward’s Aunty Emma, the youngest daughter of her tutu, born in Kalaupapa and hanai’d by the Ahlo ohana, sitting in front of the Kamahana’s beach house. (Photos courtesy of Charmaine Woodward)
Learning about ancestors
One of the leaders of Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa, Charmaine Woodward, was able to learn more about her own Kalaupapa ancestors through the organization.
Woodward’s great-grandfather, David Kamahana, whom she calls Tutu, was sent to Kalaupapa when St. Damien was still alive and working in the settlement. Through Ka Ohana, she learned more about her family story, saw pictures of her Tutu and his store in Kalaupapa, and was able to visit the peninsula. She has gone back almost every year since she first went in 2009.
“Through Ka Ohana o Kalaupapa I was able to visit Kalaupapa and build meaningful lifelong relationships with several patients that I hold dear to my heart,” Woodward said.
One of the stories she was told by the late Kalaupapa resident Makia Malo was that he and Woodward’s Tutu were “brothers,” as David Kamahana was “hanai’d” or adopted by a Waipio Valley family with the same Malo name.
“Other patients would say when they were young my tutu would tell them to put their feet in the water to help it heal,” Woodward recalled. “To hear the stories, to know their [Kamahana] store started from a push cart in Kalaupapa town, was just beautiful.
“I see the strength of the people of Kalaupapa, of my own Ohana, the resilience, the community and aloha they have built within Kalaupapa — how much love they had for their Ohana and everyone else.”
Woodward says that her connection with Ka Ohana has been healing for herself. But it is also for her three sons.
“I want them to recognize their strength and resilience of their kupuna, their ancestors, where they came from so they understand and really internalize that we come from strong people,” she said.
The memorial
Ka Ohana O Kalaupapa has been working toward the creation of a Kalaupapa Memorial for many years now.
A formal campaign began in earnest in the last decade with the plan to build a wall and remembrance area near St. Philomena Church in Kalawao. On the wall will be the estimated 8,000 names of those sent to Kalaupapa from 1866 until the practice ended in 1969.
A bill that had been going proceeding through the Hawaii state legislature before the pandemic would have funded the building of the memorial. However, Monson said it stalled after COVID-19. Ka Ohana hopes the bill will gain momentum again.
In addition to the $5 million estimated cost for the memorial, Ka Ohana wants to establish a $5 million endowment for its maintenance. It is encouraging family members of patients sent to Kalaupapa to raise $1,300 within their family to symbolically cover the cost of their relative’s name on the memorial. Ka Ohana has also raised $500,000 to date toward the planning costs of the memorial including architectural sketches and plans.
