Press release: 1995-09-20: Photos portray Hawaii tradition

This is an unaltered copy of a press release, for use as a primary source on Sega Retro. Please do not edit the contents below. Language: English Original source: www.sfgate.com (archived)

Annie Nakao, OF THE EXAMINER STAFF; Sep. 20, 1995

1995-09-20 04:00:00 PDT HAWAII 



For millions of Hawaii tourists at luau feasts - with bowls of strange, grayish paste in front of them - the notion that poi is the linchpin of native Hawaiian culture is hard to fathom.

That's not so for Scott Kamana Stewart, whose photographic exhibit on the cultivation of taro in Hawaii, "Malama Aina: Caring for the Land," runs through Sept. 29 at the Asian Resource Gallery in Oakland's Chinatown.

"Taro is the brother of the Hawaiian peoples," said Stewart, who lives in San Francisco. "It's part of a lot of old traditions. When the poi bowl is uncovered, no serious business is discussed, no arguments can occur, because this would be disrespectful."

Taro root, a starchy edible rhizome with the official name Colocasia esculenta, was grown by the ancient Hawaiians as a staple food. Along with other foods, it was brought by the Hawaiians when they voyaged from Southeast Asia around 500 A.D. aboard double-hulled canoes and settled the islands.

While taro was grown elsewhere, its cultivation reached new heights in Hawaii thanks to the Hawaiians' excellent farming abilities. More than 300 varieties of taro were developed in the islands.

Taro cultivation also was rooted in the Hawaiian tradition of caring for aina, or the land. Taro growers used only natural, organic methods, allowing their pond fields to lie fallow when necessary.

In the meandering gallery that serves as the lobby floor of the nonprofit East Bay Asian Local Development Corp. building, Stewart's exhibit of 19 photographs of taro cultivation gets somewhat lost. But the photos' message fascinates.

"Taro was central to their cultural beliefs," said Stewart, whose mother is a native Hawaiian.

According to ancient chants, the firstborn son of the Earth Mother, Wakea, and Sky Father, Papa, was stillborn. He was buried and became the first taro. A second son sprang from the plant, and from him descended the Hawaiian people.

Just a few years ago, Stewart, who was born in Honolulu in 1951 but left when he was a year old, was a world apart from these mythical beliefs.

Raised in Asia, Europe and Canada, Stewart was making a living in England as a paparazzi, photographing the British royal family, when he realized it wasn't the life he wanted. A subsequent visit to relatives in Las Vegas altered his life. There, he discovered a burgeoning community of native Hawaiians, part of a diaspora of islanders who have fled the costly islands for the mainland.

"I was trying to find out why Hawaiians would leave the islands and go live in the middle of a desert," he said.

"It got me interested in the islands again. As I started learning more, I got hooked back into things Hawaiian."

He has made several trips to Hawaii and photographed taro cultivation in Keanae on Maui and the Big Island's mystical Waipio Valley.

While there, he sees through the eyes of "an observer."

"I try to see what's happening, what's going on with the people," he said. "It's very important to have a record of what's going on because the Hawaiian culture is at a point where it's either going to disappear and become "Disney entertainment,' or there will be new life breathed back into it."

The Asian Resource Gallery is at 310 Eighth St. in Oakland. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.