Mele Murals
Aloha ‘Aina, meaning take care of our land, was the theme for this mural painted with the staff, teachers, students of Kanuikapono Charter School, and community of Anahola, Kauai.
The images outside of the lettering show images of modern Kauai and the images inside the lettering show what the ancient times of Anahola looked like. The embracing hands are Papa & Wakea, (representations of heaven and earth). Below the hands are the kalo farms of what Anahola used to look like. The mauka (mountains) of Kalalea are shown behind the school and ridge of the "sleeping giant" on the east coast of Kauai. A birthing stone was also painted based on the field trip that we took the 8th grade students on to a sacred female heiau. The Aliomanu River shows the story of a giant mano (shark) that used to swim up the river. A giant lei, made of all the pua (flowers) in the garden of the school, drapes across the mauka (mountain ridge line) of the sleeping giant.
In the modern section, I painted cars of the traffic jams driving through Kapaa and leaking oils and fluids that leak down to contaminate the rivers of Kauai. I also painted a cross section of a fresh water aquafer, showing how underground fresh water aquafers are ruined when developers drill down too far into them when they establish the foundations of new buildings and homes being built on along the coastline of Kauai.
