[bright Hawaiian music] [man] This whole entire rainforest
that we're driving into my place in grew after 1946. 1946, there was a tsunami. The highest point of the water
reached 111.6 feet tall in the valley. [Peter] Oh, wow. How long has your family been out here? -For a very, very, very long time. We're actually known…
or recorded to be right now the last original family
left in the valley. -The name of the valley is Halawa.
-Okay. Ha, meaning breath or life.
Lawa which means enough or sufficient. So the sufficient life, that is what
the Hawaiian people called this place. This is where old houses used to be
when my dad grew up. When I was a young boy
there used to be some houses left and some elders living here. Below us through the trees
you can see the old terracing. -Okay, yeah, right here?
-Through the trees. And the old irrigation ditch
and this, what we're driving on used to be a foot trail
but but now is a horse and buggy road. -It's a Toyota road.
-[both laugh] -This is your place?
-This is my place. -The waterfall is right behind.
-Yeah. So this is our place right here. All of these taro terraces
that you see right here are ancient fields that has been in my family
for generations. The irrigation ditch,
we just restored everything. My elders brought me here, taught me
everything, how to restore all this stuff. Came in with my brothers,
put this stuff back together. That was one of my dad's dreams to see this place functioning like when
he was a little boy and we got it. [Peter] This is amazing, Greg. Thank you for letting me come here.
It's a true honor. [Greg laughs] -You're a legend on the island. -Uh, maybe. [laughs] -The people I told
I was visiting you said so. -Oh yeah. -This your little guy here?
-Yeah, that's Putin. Putin. [kisses] -Putin?
-Yeah, this my baby. Hi Putin. This is my so-called security around here to help bark at all the deer
that come and eat my place out. -What do you got with the shell here? -This is a pu. In Hawaiian culture
this shell is called a pupu, in Hawaiian language it means shell. Basically this is my phone for the valley. This is how I talk to my boys. How I communicate back and forth How we start protocol. -Your boys are out
in the valley somewhere? -Right now boys are in the valley
doing a cultural hike with some visitors from different places. Some from England,
the outer islands, Oahu. The way we like to share culture
is a lot different than most people. We like to share culture
from our personal living spaces. The way I grew up and the way
my kapunas or elders would teach is you learn culture from the inside out. -Not the outside in.
-Okay. -Yeah? And you learn culture from
see, touch, hold, feel, taste. When my elders grew up…
or especially my dad, he had to learn how to speak English from the first American school
that was built in this valley in 1886. -Wow.
-Yeah. So until then,
a lot of the protocols that we have today was very different than the protocols
they practiced when they were growing up. So what I've learned
from my kapunas is in ancient times we never went onto another island. We never went into
another village or [Hawaiian]. We never went hunting, fishing,
harvesting, or touching any part of an island without asking the people
from that area permission first. -Okay. Did I ask for permission properly? -Well you asked permission
in the modern way that most people do. And what we're gonna do right now is we're gonna ask permission
in the traditional way. -Okay.
-We're gonna announce our arrival. So what we're gonna do is [Hawaiian],
we're gonna blow. -Okay. -Usually my elder or someone would be here
to blow back to us to welcome us but since you're already with me
and my boys are up on the hike we still go traditional. So asking our kapunas, or elders,
or even asking the valley permission to enter. [blows shell] [blows shell] [blows shell] [Greg sings in traditional Hawaiian] [singing continues] Welcome to my home. -Beautiful. Thank you. [Greg speaking Hawaiian] Welcome This Oreo right here,
my road security, my greeters. -This is nice.
-Yeah. -You've really built this up well. I mean this is just like
its own ecosystem, its own world back here. This is basically the [Hawaiian]. Basically what I did is I went back and I tried to put together
and restore a lot of the stuff that Hawaiian people used. -So you're totally off the grid?
-Totally off the grid. -Electricity, water, food,
you're getting all your food here? -Well bare necessities
come from the supermarket. -Beans, rice--
-Milk. -Milk, okay.
-You know, bare necessities. But my water comes from the stream,
I grow a lot of my own food. I got apple trees, orange trees,
grapefruits, taro, soursops, jackfruits, avocados, bananas, macadamia nuts. Summer months are really good for growing a lot of our vegetables
and lettuce down here because it's not so rainy. In our rainy season
everything gets over-flooded and swamp. We're slowly getting out of
our rainy season. as you can see our taro patches, the banks
are little bit high with water right now. So if the grid did go down,
the road did close down-- -I'm good. -You're good for years out here?
-[laughing] I'm good. I mean no milk but you're fine. -You can survive?
-I'm totally fine. -That's awesome. I've got big, deer, and goat here
in the valley that I can get meat from. I've got o'opu. Which is our native Hawaiian-- We nicknamed the native Hawaiian catfish. A lot of people get touchy
because they're actually a gobi. Shrimp, prawns,
crabs in our ocean, lobsters, fish. Fresh water. -You name it?
-Yeah. So this is what Halawa Valley used to
look like when my elders grew up. -Oh, wow.
-This is the road you drove in on. After the 1946 tsunami all these
buildings and homes all got wiped out. -So how many people
lived back here in the day? My dad says when
he were growing up here in the valley, less than 100 families. -How many now? -Um geez, there's maybe 8 to 12 people
that live in the valley at all times. -And how many at your place? At my pace it's myself
and my two boys right now. My dad just passed away
about nine months ago. -Okay, I'm sorry. Let's go take a walk up to the back. -We have the shoes on
which means we're up for something here. These are what we call tabis. Tabis were introduced
to the Hawaiian Islands. It's more like a Japanese shoe. Hawaiians have never had
tabis or water shoes. We like to use these with the felt bottoms to go walking
around the rivers and streams. We use them to go into the ocean
picking limpets off the rocks or what we call opihi. They're really good and prevents us
from slipping on the rocks. As you can see we have a few clogs
in the irrigation ditch right now. You see all the leaves are piled up here. So basically what we're gonna do
is start from the top and slowly work our way down. -Okay. -In this ancient irrigation ditch and it's
one of the normal things we do every day. Water's one of the most important things. These are old house sites. As we walk through you're gonna see
old rock walls and foundations. -Okay. -If you look through the trees here
you can still see the terracing. -Oh, yeah. So these are all old fields. -So the trees right now,
this was no trees at one time. These were all farming fields. So mother nature has
slowly grew over everything and this rainforest is
the leftovers of farmers who came back and reestablished
their farms after the 1946 tsunami. You can throw a seed pretty much
any place in this place and it grows. -So land is very interesting in Hawaii. I haven't connected all the dots
but I've heard things like someone can own some land
but in the middle of that land there's a taro patch-- -That belongs to somebody else.
-That belongs to someone else. -And that's like the land within the land
but they can access it through the other person's land and then
there's beef with that potentially. It's access to land like every place else. Kuleana land rights, yeah? -That's what it is, so if you have land
within someone else's land you can always access it? -Back in the old days
if you were a landowner or if you were kuleana land owner,
not everybody lived where their field was. Some people lived down here
and their field was up there. And since the way our place was,
it was a big family place, yeah? So we had pathways here in the valley that was like easements where people could
walk on to pass through peoples places to get to where they gotta go
in the valley. And a lot of people look that
as hiking trails today. These hiking trails
were never hiking trails at one times. These were easements or pathways
where everybody could come up. You see the old abandoned house? -Oh wow. -See it?
-Yeah. -That's my Uncle Lani's place, yeah? -Uncle Lani's place
is still livable though, yeah? -Kind of if you fix it up
a little bit, yeah. As you can see these are all the houses
and this is the stone but now here's the easement that we can walk on
so we don't bother everybody, and the irrigation ditch. It goes along the irrigation ditch because everybody's responsible
for the water. If you check the people in here they all
was all related at one time or another. So when my dad would
show me old family pictures I would say, "Who was who?
Who dated who?". He says, "No, we're all not dating,
nobody's married, we're all first and second cousins." So this place was one big family. My dad says, "Why you think
I married a girl from the States?". -"I lived in a place with only family."
-Yep. When my dad went to marry my mom
in the States I asked my dad, "Did grandma have a problem with you
marrying someone from the States?" and he says, "All grandma asked me is
if she can cook." and I told grandma I don't know,
and all grandmas said was, "Good luck." [Peter chuckles] -So… you know? -Number one is cooking skills? -That's all grandma asked my dad is,
"Can she cook?" What we found out is
my mom was the most amazing cook. -Where was your mom from? -My mom was Indianapolis, Indiana. -Oh, okay. -So this is an original irrigation ditch
from the first people that came in. What we did is we restored it. They say the oldest fire pit
that has been carbon dated in this valley dates back to 650 AD. So that's what they say has been
documented by Dr. Patrick Kirch. Yeah? Today we're going through and
re-carbon dating, and we're redoing stuff to double check
everything today because the machines and things we have
to do the work is a lot better. -Yeah. -So some place older coulda been found
yesterday, a month ago. I live in the middle of this valley.
I rarely ever leave. Who really knows. -How often do you leave?
-When I gotta go see my wife. -She's not here? -No, she lives on Oahu. -She's our Channel 2 news anchor.
-Okay. -For the 10:00 news. -Long distance relationship
requires a plane flight. -I live on Molokai, my wife lives on Oahu. -It's only a 30 minutes flight.
-Right, I know. It sounds further than it is. [Greg] We're not that bad today
with the dam and the clogging. We're gonna come back
and do a little work on this but I'll take you up
to look at some historical sights. -So Greg, this clothing you're wearing,
traditional Hawaiian? -Yes, it's what I was raised with. [Hawaiian] I asked my dad,
"Why do you always wear the color red?". My dad would says,
"Well, we come from the home of Moaula." I asked my dad, "What is Moaula?"
Moaula is the name of the waterfall. The home of the red dragon. In Hawaiian culture
we have what I like to say… titans. Just like in other cultures. Mythical creatures
or the Hawaiian version of Godzilla. -Okay.
-[Greg laughs] -Do you have like a Sasquatch equivalent? Like the forest monster guy. -I don't know if we have a Sasquatch
equivalent, we have an equivalent to leprechauns are menehune. Kind of like cave-dwellers
and leprechauns. -Oh, yeah? In these rocks up in these hillsides? -They were the rock stackers
and the rock builders, yeah. As you can see all ancient Hawaiian sites. We're gonna take a walk up here
in a little bit. I'm gonna show you a place, yeah? [Peter] There is definitely a very rich
intense feeling back here I'd say. -It's a very spiritual feeling back here.
-Yeah. You know whenever in very beautiful nature it commands respect. It makes you feel small. Yeah, goosebumps. -Still.
-Special place. -You're whole life and still getting that.
-I still get chicken skin. Goosebumps when I walk
through places like this. -Yeah. -'Cause it's not just walking
through places like this. It's about feeling places like this. -I just got 'em. -Yeah? That is how we know our ancestors… You know, my dad is with me today,
he's watching. This is where they used to live. This was a house site. Now this whole valley's
littered like this. Imagine stacking stones like this. How many people or how long did it take? Look at the size of the stones
these guys moved. The way the valley was broken up
is this was the ahupua system. And in the ahupua
you had different eelees. Eelees were like different districts
within that place. Each district was ran by a family and there was one person in charge
in each of these districts. -Would they trade amongst one another? -No me, no my, no I. My dad says when we grow up
there's no such thing me, my, I's, only us, ours, and we. How do you survive as a tribe
or even a village, if you you're practicing me, my, I? So was a lot trading,
and giving, and sharing. My dad always taught me
that my food was never my food. My food was everyone's food. -How do you carry that these days? -Well… -I mean you're bringing me in here
which is very cool. -What a lot of people don't know is
I'm a trade farm. I get people from different places,
they want venison. They want taro, hand-pounded paiai. They want whole eel ferns from me. They want bananas, papayas from me. We trade. You come from the town,
bring me something I cannot get down here. We trade, who says money? Now the reason I like to practice
the tradition of trading, now when there's money
put into the picture you have rich, medium, and poor. Take money out of the picture. Now you go to trading. What would you trade? A funny joke, I'll give you food. Help me at my house, I'll give you food. Who says it has to be money? Everybody's got a talent. Everybody's got a skill. Everybody's got something to trade. But not everybody has money. When you take money out of the picture
there's no rich, medium, or poor. Everyone is the same. -Have you lived off the island? -Yes, I have. I've lived in LA.
I've lived in the States. I've traveled, yeah? I lived in Oahu.
I lived in Maui for a while. I was always told
you need to go out and see the world. -Okay. -And if I never go out to see the world
you're never gonna appreciate what you have or what you've been taught. -What did LA teach you? -About the hustle and bustle. About me, my, I. About if you don't got this,
if you don't got that, if you don't got something, stuff,
you're basically nothing. When I was living in LA
it was about the nice car. Everybody was there to acting,
or to become a movie star, or rapper, to become a model. I was up there because my wife
was my girlfriend at my time and she was up there
chasing the acting dream. Because she was acting in movies,
and modeling, and taking acting classes in the States. How I met my wife is she was
the leading actress in independent film. I was the cultural adviser. -That is how I met my wife.
-That's cool. That's how I ended up in LA. Yes, a woman took me away from my home. Only girl to ever get me
to leave this place. I'm still with her today. -But it was a good experience, right? Because you never know something
until you leave it for a while, correct? -Never know until we leave it for a while.
-Right. So right now we're coming up
to a very unique and special place. This is the [Hawaiian]. and when we say [Hawaiian]
temple worship site. This platform you see in front of us,
this big rock wall platform. -Oh, yeah.
-That is the worship site. That is where people would come and pray -So Christianity is very strong
on this island, right? I met a lot of Mormons actually,
Seventh Day Adventists. -We're very religious people. -Yeah. -So we take to praying. We took to this stuff very easily, yeah? In Hawaiian culture what my dad says is, "We saw similarities in their belief
within our belief." This valley was
a huge agricultural valley and a lot of the worship sites
were to pray to our farming deities. -So there wasn't one god? Gods for everything? -Well… It's hard to say.
It depends how you look at it. Some people say there's many gods. Some people says
there's one guy with many names. [Peter laughs] But if you look at religion
that keeps you in the safe zone, right? -Oh, yeah.
-[Greg laughs heartily] I mean most of it's
pretty much the same thing. -And that pretty much gets me out of
many religious debates. [laughs] -I'm gonna use it. Thanks, Greg. Most of the major religions, there's
so much common ground, you know? -This is what my elders taught me. So this is the temple or the worship site
that we're on right now. As you can see it's been breaking apart.
This is one of the sites we documented. -So you only know about this
because of your father, right? -Yes. -That's the only way
these stories are carried down? -He's walked me around this whole valley. I'd sit and listen to stories. When I was a young kid
I didn't quite understand what my dad was doing with me. I used to think I was being tortured. I'd have to sit in room with elders
and he says, "This is your auntie." "Uncle's got some paperwork
for the family work." He would take me to places
I could never understand why he was taking me to these places. But today when I sit and people
ask me stories about things or if I ever heard this person
told a story I turned around… Before my dad passed away,
I turned around and my dad looked at me, "Son, you were there.
You heard them tell the story." "Now you get to share
the story of our elders." "If we never hear it from them
and only learn it from a book, is that our elder's story
or is that somebody else's story?" He's one of the most
documented people in Molokai but he was particular
about who filmed him. He says it's very important for the people
filming you and doing this stuff to keep your story. Remember there's always editors. There's always people who rewrite. People will say my readers
and watchers won't watch this. -So I have to do it in this way.
-Right. -It has to be told in the way the person--
-The editor has so much power. -More power than most people understand.
-Yes. I could even make this through an edit,
even make this look bad. -Exactly.
-I could do some voice over, dark music. -You could make this turn horrible. -This could be the worst thing ever.
-But I'm having faith in you. -Because I've seen your work
and believe in what you do. -The beauty of the world we're in now is actually a lot of people
like long form. They don't want a hyper-edited video all chopped up with music,
and flash, and dopamine hits. -So…
-So… -That's why we take a little stroll.
-Thank you, this is a true honor. -This is what I really do.
People don't really know what I do. This is the first time
somebody's following me around. Everybody see the small edited versions
of the people that come here. They did the [Hawaiian],
the fish, the duck, got edited, and that is all they saw. Now you're walking around.
This is what I do with my time. -So how often are you back here? -I walk this valley every day. -You get up in the morning, come out here?
-I walk some place every day. -My routine is tied in with nature.
-Okay. -It's raining you're not coming--
-It's a beautiful day at the ocean, that is where I go. It all depends on
what type of food I need to eat Every day is some type of gathering. -What are you eating today?
-Well, I've got you in today. So my people who just left,
they bought me some steak. So I got a trade. They took out the venison. They brought me… steak. Something that I do not have
in this valley. -So that's nice? -So now gonna take that steak
and I'm gonna go into the yard, pick some ferns, pick a little bit this,
chop it up, put it inside a pan, make a little something
and we got something to eat. [Peter] What does it mean to be Hawaiian?
Is that a loaded question? -Hawaiian culture
is made up of many different cultures. Yeah? If you think about it, Hawaii was a volcano that popped out
of the middle of the ocean scientifically. -Yeah?
-Right. -There are some ancient legends
that Maui pulled Hawaii out of the ocean. But today we all know that
islands are made from volcanoes. How did people get here? -Boats obviously.
-Boats. -Now when people got here did they leave their names, beliefs,
food, traditions, everything behind and start "Hawaiian culture"? Or did they bring
all of their stuff with them? Now if everybody
brought themselves with them that's mean we had
many different names of people here. Now if you came from Tahiti to here, you didn't change your name to Hawaiian
once you reached Hawaii. We got the name Hawaii
from King Kamehameha who came from the island called Hawaii. He conquered the rest of the islands. And since he practiced
British tradition kingdom… 'Cause king and queen
is not Hawaiian tradition. King and Queen is European tradition. King Kamehameha
had help from British officers. King Kamehameha, his armies
was given cannons and guns and we even have ancient legends
and stories of chiefs sending people out to different places
to learn techniques and to bring all those techniques back. So what is real Hawaiian
culture and tradition? What makes us Hawaiian? Why are we called Hawaiian? My elders asked me that question,
"Boy, what makes us Hawaiian?" I says because of all the things we do.
They says, "No, it's a name." My elders would always tell me if it was the chief from Molokai
who conquered Hawaii, today we would be the kingdom of Molokai
and we would be Molokains not Hawaiians. That is just what
my kapunas would tell me. Some people get upset with me saying that
but I'm just saying what they taught me. So when people says,
"You're wrong, you're this, you're that." "That's not right."
I says "You go tell my elders that." Because they're the one who taught me and if my elders were born in the '30s, graduated school in 1954,
Hawaii didn't become a state till 1959, my elder's first language is Hawaiian. He had to learn English
from the first American school that was built in Halawa Valley. He graduated from that school in 1954. He says the islands the kids call
Turtle Island in the water today is called Molokini and Kanaha. He says, "We used to paddle canoes
to those islands for sacred sea cave burials." "You kids would know nothing
about those sea cave burials because when I was a young boy the military would use that island
for target practice." So since the island got bombed the sea caves collapsed and today
nobody knows about the ancient sea caves that they used to do sea cave burials
with at the island. He says,
"And these are stuff that are being lost because they're not
being practiced anymore." If the old timers don't tell these stories or if we don't ask the old timers
about these things, what is the real story? Even though the overthrow of Hawaii
was bad and the banding… America… taking over Hawaii
and overthrowing Hawaii, they don't agree with any of that -Mm-hmm. -But my elders always told me, "Now if… American didn't do that to us,
who would have?". Because in the world today,
military and in power. people who want to control, Hawaii was too important of a pawn piece
that anybody would let go What a lot of people don't know
and what I've heard… You know, from other teachers
in schools and universities that if America didn't take us over Japan, Korea, I believe China and Russia
was all looking to take Hawaii. -Yeah. -America, I believe…
If I'm telling the story correct, Which I'm not exactly sure. I just believe that America moved first. -Yeah? -So the way my dad said it is,
"I don't agree with what's happening, but it could be a lot worse." He says, "Today, you kids
have your freedom to practice culture
any which way you want." "When I grew up I could not
practice culture any which way we wanted." "I grew up in the time
of banning of cultures and traditions." He says, "We went to American school." "They taught us how to speak English." "We got in trouble
if we wear traditional dress." Yeah, he says "Our taro fields
got changed to rice fields." So he says,
"It was us who grew up… in the time." He says,
"Today, nothing's no longer banned." "Yeah, so if anybody should be upset,
it should be us." "Because it was taken from us." "Today you kids have everything
right in front your face." "It's up to you to share." "If you don't share… it's you
who prevents your culture from growing." -Yeah, but isn't it fair to say that that way of sharing right now… This is coveted land. People want this real estate, right? -Yes.
-It's so beautiful, the climate's amazing. It's Hawaii, right? So do you worry about… I mean it's already happened
in many places. Not on Molokai it feels like but on the other islands,
like, big money interests come in… -Big money always comes in no matter what. The unique thing about this island
is we have a community that will fight for what they want. What I've learned from my kapunas is
you're never ever gonna stop development, but if you work together as a people
you can control everything in moderation. The visitor comes to our islands
not knowing what's going on. They only see what's in media,
social, and all this stuff. If we don't take the time
to educate these visitors that come then it's us who prevents all of this
stuff from being done in the right way. Technology can be used to save our culture
or destroy our culture. -Yeah?
-Right. So when I work with a lot of kids I tell them you can be an influencer
by influencing this way or you can be an influencer
by influencing that way. Right? Which way do you want to influence? -That way has an expiration date. [both laughing] [water flowing] My pipe is to the stream. So this pipe right here is river water. That is what feeds my home. -No filters?
-No filters. So if the water is brown in the river, the water comes out brown
in my water pipe still yet today. And a lot of people look at me, goes, "Oh my God, it's gross.
You drink that water?" I work with schools and universities, I get educated
just like I educate them. So they do soil samples,
water samples for me, and what a lot of people don't know is
my stream is perfectly clean. My water has perfect PH
and that is why my farming is awesome. All my native life
in my stream is still alive I got no giardia,
no lepto when they tested the water. I drink river water. -But you look so unhealthy, Greg,
for 48 years old. -I know. [both laughing] River water man, if you think about it, where does all our vitamins
and nutrients come from? The earth. -Gatorade, no? [both laughing] -What kids would say today, Powerade. -Monster Energy. -But… now if the water has calcium, iron, and all of this stuff inside, now basically I'm just drinking
real mineral water. [Peter] That's a cool shot, look at that.
Wow. This place is great for the camera. -This separates me from
all the craziness out there in the world. Nobody's controlling me
over food, over water. I have the say over my every day life. I have the say over my food. I have the say over
what I practice and what I do. -There's nobody down here…
-[dog barking] Except for this guy. Shh, hey. [clicks tongue] Yeah, I have nobody down here
really telling me what to do. I'll go pick some ferns real quick. -Why all the no trespassing signs?
You worried about people coming up here? -Because we used to leave the place
open to the public at one time and then people started walking here,
and falling down, and suing all the property owners. -Oh my God, really? -So that is why now,
everything here is private property. And we close everything… All the landowners got together
and shut everything down because people were getting sued
for falling down on our trails. They were saying, "You don't got a sign
that says no trespassing." You didn't have a private property,
danger sign, beware of dog sign. So this is America, what do people do? Blame somebody else. -Rookie question, what's the brown here?
What is that on top? -This is what we grow it's kinda like a…
water grass, yeah? Almost like a miniature lily pads,
you see it? -Okay. -And it grows on top of the water,
I can't remember the name for this. I'm having a brain fart right now. But what we use this for is we grow over
to help weeds from preventing. When we harvest our taro patches
and we drain the water this will sit and dry up,
I can roll it, and it's good fertilizer. It's high in nitrogen. -Are you fully natural here? No chemicals? -No chemicals, no fertilizers. -No fertilizers? Wow.
-No. All of this is… My whole place
is only fed by river water. -So this land has never been tainted
in that way? -It's as natural as it gets? -I don't use no fertilizers
or nothing that's… Or that stuff inside of here. Then this is a fern that we eat. Which I like to cook, yeah? We call ho io. Or some people call them o io. Some people call them poholai. These make a good salad or I like to chop them up
and use them in my stir fries, or when I steam. How our family has kept the culture
for so long is we'll pick a child at five years old and train them. My dad says the military was always here and they were always watching
about cultures and traditions. We'd pick one child. That child do everything with the elders,
and learn, and they let all the other kids that wasn't interested in the cultures
and traditions do the American thing. So when they came down here
to check on the people they saw kids speaking English,
learning the things, but not knowing behind closed doors there's a child
that is learning language. -Learning history, learning tradition.
-That's interesting. My dad was that child that was taken
at five years old, and just like my dad, he started teaching me at five years old. And he would share that story, "Son,
why I started you at five years old." But since today culture
and traditions are not banned I started all my three sons
at five years old. So all my sons
can do exactly what I do today. Everything I'm showing you
walking around, my boys know. Second oldest church
built here on the island of Molokai. 1852, United Church of Christ. So built in the 1800s. A lot of people think this church
got destroyed from the 1946 tsunami but this building survived
the 1946 tsunami. What happened to this church
is it actually caught on fire. -Okay.
-Yeah. So if you actually look at the wood…
it's charred. -Okay, yeah. -Can I go in?
-Yeah. You're with me, you can go in. -This is great. -Yep, and this is the church that my dad
would come to when he was a young boy. If you look right through the old
broken church wall… a graveyard. So I actually have my grandma buried here,
my dad's mom. Helen Kavaha is actually buried here
in the back in the old cemetery. [Peter] "W.B. Upah?". -Upah, that's the family name.
-Upah? [Greg] So these are all graves right here. You can see little squares,
one square with the rock. There's another square. So grave, grave, grave, grave, grave,
grave, grave, all graves. All graves, some had headstones,
some didn't have headstones. Some of the headstones were actually
removed and destroyed back in the day. All the way up through this whole place is all grave sites
which a lot of people don't know. My grandma's is right here. This is where my dad's mom is buried.
This is where he'd bring me. He'd walk me behind before
trees were growing through. Hopefully I can get permission
from the people that has this church. 'Cause they still own this place,
and I can maybe restore the old cemetery. Part of the old stories
of the history of the valley. -You can hear the ocean just roaring.
-The ocean is right here. [Peter] It's hard to imagine
church services back here. -Oh, yeah. There used to be a tower
they would ring the church bell in. This is where the women came
to warn the people in the 1946 tsunami. My dad says when he was a young boy
they were all walking out to the beach and the women noticed the water receding. They ran into this church
and started ringing the church bell and at the top of their lungs
started screaming [Hawaiian]. Yeah? Which was waring the people
of the tsunami in the valley. -And then how long did it come afterwards? -Well they had enough time to get
everybody out of the valley in safety. My dad says not one person died that day. The women took the children
behind the church to mile marker 27 is. He says men in the fields
came up to the homes and grab elders teenagers released animals
and let animals go. Everybody met
where mile marker 27 is today. -And they lost everything? -Pretty much everything in this whole…
All those homes, schools, car bridges. I showed you in all those pictures
all got destroyed from the 1946 tsunami. And today nobody even knew
this place was developed or was a full-functioning community
at one time. Swinging bridge,
post office, general store, harbor, poi factory, all in this place. Fish pond. All no longer exists today. -So only a few people came back? -And today we're the only original family
left that never left the place. Still here today. I should say came back to the place. -How doe that make you feel? -'Cause my dad did go into the military
and he came back but our elders were still here
when my dad came back too. -How does that make you feel
being the only original family? -Kinda good and kinda sad. I'm glad that there's original people left but I wish there was more of
the original people around. -Yeah. -Stories and the histories
that we could learn about this place that was never handed down. -Look at that. -This is where the bell tower
used to sit, right here. The bell tower would go straight up
and this is where they would ring the church bell every day.
♪ dong dong ♪ They'd ring the church bell. [Greg] This park used to be
my dad's schoolyard growing up. So this is where the first
American school was built. My dad would say, "Son this is where
the flag pole used to be." "This is where I learned how
to say the Pledge of Allegience." "Standing right here every morning." Yeah? He says this was the water fountain. Where they washed their hands
and taught the kids hygiene. Scrub your nails,
clean up before going into the classroom. Yeah? This right here was a pathway. See, you can see the walkway? Would come to the fountain
and the flag pole, and he says this pathway, right here, and this little cement square was the steps to go into his classroom. This is where
his school building sat right here. One building,
kindergarten through the eighth grade. That's what we do.
We educate people. If you come here to buy land,
that's not what we're looking for. We only have so much space on an island. Now if everybody come to this island what do the local people
have for themselves? It's like any state or town. A lot of states and towns
are getting overpopulated from people buying real estate
and everything. Now the States,
a lot more land for everybody. Here, us Hawaiian people
only get limited resources. -Yeah, and I'm not gonna turn the camera
'cause awesome friends you have don't want to be on camera but what he was saying was deer outfitters,
to do hunting here, right? -A lot of mainland people coming,
big outfitters. So they'll come in and buy up all the land and then places where us used to hunt,
take people or what we used to use now we cannot go anymore because
they fence off the whole thing. -Okay. -They don't see it
how Hawaiian people see it. -'Member I told you
the concept of sharing. -Right, so there's tension right now. It's not mine, his,
that person, it's for everybody. -Okay. So your friend is a local
that's gonna set up an operation? -No, he's already doing it.
That's why I said thank you. [laughs] I believe in what he's doing. -Trav's link is down below. -So if someone goes on--
-Hey boy. -How's the waves?
-Good. [Greg giggles] [both laughing] -What you just did there,
forehead to forehead… That's what we call the honi,
Hawaiian handshake. -The exchange of ha.
-Okay. In Hawaiian culture we go
forehead to forehead, nose to nose. -We exchange the breath of life.
-Okay. [Peter] So your place is basically
behind this two miles? -Yeah, up in the valley. And where we're at right now,
this is my dad. This is where we did
the ceremony for my dad. This is where we did the ceremony
for the bringing home of the elders. We created a place
where people can practice, chant. Practice their
cultural traditions out here. Anyone who wants to
come practice and share or they want to get connected,
this is a place they can come. [Peter] This is great. What a place. What a place to grow up. -Can't complain. The children, the kids,
the families get to enjoy. -It feels so detached
from the mainland out here. -Feels like you're in another place, huh?
-Another world. You're in your own world
on an island with 7,000 people. Which is its own world. On a chain of islands
which is its own world. [Greg laughs] -Removed from the world. That's wild. -Oh, yeah. -I mean the fact that
it takes me more time to get here from my home than for me to
get to Europe or the Middle East is pretty mind boggling
when you think about it -It is pretty crazy. -Technically we're in
the same country, right? And I could get to Cairo, Egypt quicker. [Greg laughing] That's pretty amazing. [waves crashing] [jungle birds calling] This is my hideout spot, my man cave. -The man cave. -This is where I do my work with
my rifles for my hunting and my guides. I got my velvet collection. All these velvets. -Is this where you sleep?
-This is for my wife. My wife says "If I'm gonna come visit you
I better have a bed." I've been sleeping in a tent for 10 years I built this
so my wife can be comfortable. -No way, you sleep in a tent?
-I slept in a tent for 10 years. This is the first building I had
besides a tent. -Now you sleep here?
-Yeah. So I used to sleep right here. -See that platform?
-Yeah. Right on that platform, my tent sat there. [Peter] So you guys are out here
full-time, part-time? -Full-time.
-They're full-time with me. -How is it being out here? -We grew up on Oahu
so it's very different from city life. We're used to city life,
this is us taking a break. -Okay, is it hard adjustment or… -We also grew up down here.
This is like a home away from home. -Do you miss Oahu at all?
-Yeah, sometimes. -People, but at the same time living
out here in peace and quiet is nice too. -I really enjoy living here. Especially with what I do being that
I work with people every day. It helps with the social factor
because I'm a very social person, but at points I do miss home just because that is where mom,
that is where little brother is. -Okay, in Oahu.
-So I miss it more for family reasons. I don't miss the craziness
of the rat race. -You don't feel the rat race
out here at all obviously? -Yeah, don't feel it at all
which is quite nice. [Peter] Greg,
what are you cooking up here? -Just a fast, quick meal. I'm gonna make a little stir fry with some ho io ferns,
and some steak, and some onions. -Awesome. -I'm a quick cook. Devit, could you hand me
the onions please? Or is there still onions? -Yeah.
-Okay, there we go. [Peter] I like you have scopes
and guns everywhere. -Oh yes, that's a .223
with my night vision scope. -So you're mainly shooting deer, right? -Yes. The deer come into my farm at night
and eats all my plants. So I just don't shoot 'em. I give away a lot of the meat and a lot gets shipped
to people on other islands. [chopping] [Peter] Does it say,
"Never trust a skinny cook.", Greg? -Oh, yes. -But you don't have much fat on you. -Well, that was my mom. -This was my mom's kitchen.
-Okay. Now that they have passed
I'm still taking care of the place and I try to keep mom's kitchen
still looking like mom's kitchen. My mom passed away a couple years ago,
My dad just passed away nine months ago, and to me they're still here. [chopping] [Peter] I can't even tell you
what ferns taste like. -You're gonna find out today. Basically we just blanch them
in hot water to soften them a little bit. And then I'll throw it into the stir fry
with everything else that's cooking. [Greg] C'mon man,
make you something to eat. -I got an onion ho io salad, stir fry.
-Oh, that's great, nice stir fry. -Yeah, got some rice over here. -Sorry I don't got any taro right now.
-Oh, that's fine. Yeah, so help yourself. -You guys are eating, right?
-Yep, they are. -Let them go first. -No, guests always go first. -Okay. Awesome. -[Greg] Some stir fry right there.
-[Peter] Smells great, there we go. [Greg] Oh, yeah. -So even though you live
in a super remote place, Greg, you love the social time, the interaction? -Oh, yeah. I might live away from everybody
but I really like talking to people and really like being around people. What I do, it brings people into my home
every day where I get to talk story. Even though I live in one of
the most remote places on the island, I… People tell me, "Don't you get lonely
living in middle of nowhere?" No I don't get lonely,
people come and visit me every day. So I get company all the time. [Greg] So that's a fern
that we'd pick from the forest. That's a native that we'll eat. Yeah? Took the food that we traded out,
chopped it up, and made us a meal. -Great. -When visitors come to Hawaii
one question my dad would ask is, "How many times have you been to Hawaii
or is this your first time?" The next question
my dad would ask them is, "How many of you
have ever really seen Hawaii?". Most people only see what is on the beach, what is on the sunset mai tai canoe ride. What is in the great Hawaiian luau. What culture are you seeing? Are you seeing the culture
they had planned and scripted for you before you came in? Or are you seeing the culture
that just happens every day? Today with you walking around with me… -Yeah. -This is not the hotel or the beach.
-No. -We saw the beach but… -To be fair, most tourists
aren't gonna be able to access it. You know what I mean? -It would be hard. I had a contact of a contact hook us up. You know what I mean? But it would be hard for someone
to come here and have that access. -It would be hard for someone
to come here and ask but there are people who are still willing
to share if you know where to look. You found me through a contact. What a lot of people don't know is
there's many different ways and I'm not just
the only one who does this. Now as me as a Hawaiian, if I know that a lot of the culture
is not done in the correct way when doing the shows
or all of these things for the visitors in the hotel industry, what is my job as a Hawaiian? Do I get mad at the visitor
because they don't know? Or now do I have to step up to the plate
and now step out of my safety zone and says, "This is what we really do." -So I think there
are two types of travel though. One is the tourist,
they get a limited amount of time. They have a chaotic crazy life. -They're here for weather and a beach.
-Yeah, true. -And then the other type of tourist
like what I'm doing… -It does really matter
what you're coming to the islands for. -Two types, right?
-Mm-hmm. -And I don't blame… Like I'm not saying
one's better than the other or anything. I'm coming 'cause I want to learn. You know what I mean? I can take these lessons I've learned
through you and show many people. -That is true. All depends what the person comes for. -Yeah.
-Some people don't care about the culture. I have experienced that before. -They're just… they get…
like their life is hectic. They have no time
where the pressure is off and for five days,
pressure off, beach and a mai tai. -I can understand that point
-But you don't learn about Hawaii at all. -Obviously that way.
-Exactly. And for us, as local people, we want
the visitors really who wants to learn. -The tourists need to know that?
The locals really do want that. -A lot of visitors go,
"How do I get to have that experience?". You gotta be willing to open up
and when you come here what type of aloha do you come with? -Yeah, and I was told that Molokai
was very closed off. As far as the hospitality of the people. Totally wrong. Everyone's been super cool. Like beyond friendly. This is the type of place you talk to
someone at the supermarket for 30 minutes, and then you go to the store
and talk for another 30. That's how you learn about a place, yeah. -Everybody meets, everybody hugs.
-Yeah. -You know? -Yeah, auntie, uncle… -Everybody's auntie, everybody's uncle.
-That's pretty cool to see. You got something special. -I was always told by my kapunas, yeah,
Hawaiian culture is sacred, not secret. What happens with things
when it becomes secret? -Things die when they become secret.
-Exactly, son. When it's sacred
we want everybody to learn about it. We want everybody to love it
just like we do. Yeah? Sacred, not secret. My kuleana or my responsibility
that was left to me by my dad is now my responsibility is to educate
and to share about this place. -So you feel that responsibility
from your father? -Oh yeah, I take that very seriously. -[hands clap]
-Thanks, Greg. 'Preciate it. I want to send the right people your way. If someone wants to learn
about the culture, the lifestyle, how do they find you? -Well, you can look us up at
www.halawavalleymolokai.com -I'll put that link down below
in the description. -Anything else you want to say?
-Don't forget to check out my buddy. -Travis. -The guy we met down at the water?
-Yep. www.greenleafoutfitters.com -Okay, so if hunters want to come
and get a unique experience. -Come check my buddy out.
-Meet with Travis. -Come and check me out, any which one
of us guys, we'll take care of 'em. -Thanks so much for that one
and thanks guys, for coming along. -Until the next one.
-Right on. [bright Hawaiian music]
