Lono Ikuwa, who is originally from Kalaoa, Kona, Hawaii, has just brought out a new book — TuTu Hamana: The Shaka Sign Story, which will be sold at the Koolauloa Children’s Chorus annual Christmas concert on Dec. 20 in the BYU-Hawaii Auditorium as part of the group’s fundraising efforts.

Ikuwa, a 2003 BYUH International Cultural Studies graduate who went on to earn an MPA degree from BYU in Provo and teach at various locations, including the Hawaiian Language Immersion Program at Hauula Elementary, now describes himself as a “publisher, author, writer, translator, editor — everything.”

“When I was at Hauula, I taught third and fourth grades,” he said. “We had a lot of picture books, but I thought they should be reading mainly text. I couldn’t find anything, or if they had, it was too over their heads; so I created a fictional story about a dog.”

“Her name is Nanea, and I wrote a chapter a week. Then we would go over the chapter, read it, and do some activities. It came out to 11 chapters and about 70 pages long. What I wanted to do is have students learn about the traditions and values of Hawaii in a fictional setting,” Ikuwa continued, but pointing out he uses various places from Koolauloa in the story.

“Right now I’m working with Kamehameha, translating it into English and creating curriculum as well,”

From that effort, Ikuwa got contracted by Na Kamalei-KEEP, the early education program headquartered in Punaluu, as a translator-editor. “I got to work on four books, and they actually published one of mine, The Face of Her King, which hasn’t come out yet. That was my first experience going through the whole process.”

With that experience as background, Ikuwa created his own publishing company, Na Puke Hawaii, which means “Hawaiian Books,” and started his shaka sign book: “In this story, you have a tutu and her moopuna [grandchild]. She’s just telling a story and singing a song about fingers.” He added that Aunty Kela Miller is the tütü and Kaimipono Te‘o-Tafiti is the grandson.

“She asks him what would happen if he lost his fingers. I don’t know, Tutu.” Then she tells him the story about the late Hamana Kalili of Laie, who is credited for creating the shaka sign and also participated in the Hukilau for many years. “In years past Hukilau Beach was known as Hamana’s Beach,” he added.

Ikuwa is taking a grass roots approach to marketing the book, which costs $15, “but I’ve been selling it two-for-$20. We’ve already sold about 1,000.”

Asked about his next book, Ikuwa replied, “We’ve already got Hauula done. We were doing it simultaneously with this book, but we had some graphic difficulties, so we had to wait on that project. It should be coming out in February.”

He explained it’s a fictional story about four sisters — Niu, Puhala, Lehua and Hau. “All of the sisters were pretty, except for Hau, because the hau tree is real ugly.”

“They bragged about how pretty they were, and she thought she was ugly until she found her talent; then the people of the community used the hau for different purposes — to make fire, skirts and rope.” Ikuwa added the new book is illustrated by Rena Thompson and Malia Andrus.

When he’s not publishing, Ikuwa teaches a women’s hula halau, directs the Laie Hawaiian Choir “and I also work with Esther Macy and the Koolauloa Children’s Chorus as the assistant director.”

To order, go to www.napuke.com, or call Ikuwa at 808-936-5217.

A similar story on Ikuwa can be found at http://newsroom.byuh.edu/node/1506

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