MEDIA RELEASE

The 10th Annual Grow Hawaiian Weekend on Friday, Feb. 21 and Saturday, Feb. 22, is a celebration of Hawaiian cultural and natural history at Amy Greenwell Garden in Captain Cook.

Admission to the Garden will be free on those two days, and all of the activities are free.

On Friday, Feb. 21, between 1 p.m. and 4 pm., the public is invited to the Garden Visitor Center to join Greenwell Garden staff, taro experts Jerry Konanui and Keahi Tomas, and local school children in kui kalo — poi pounding.

Boards and stones and cooked taro will be available for everyone from beginners to experts to try their hand at this traditional culinary art.

Also Friday at 1 p.m., the Guided Hawaiian Plant Walk is a docent led tour of the Garden landscape of the plants of Hawaii in the 1600s.

The Grow Hawaiian festival takes place at the Garden 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 22.

Speakers will make presentations on taro cultivation, conservation, horticulture, and lauhala weaving, and artisans will demonstrate ipu gourd decorating, kapa making, weaving, woodworking, lei making, taro cultivation, and Hawaiian dyes.

There will be hands-on activities for the keiki and adults, plant and insect identification booths, displays, live entertainment, Hawaiian food, and much more.

Visitors can learn about the movement to provision Hawaiian voyaging canoes by using food grown in Hawaii so that the crews of the long distant canoes can eat healthy, sustainable, traditional foods as they travel across the Pacific and around the world. There will also be a presentation on olona cordage. The bark of olona has strong, durable fiber that was made into fishing line, nets, and other items for traditional life.

Some of the foremost experts in native plants and Hawaiian ethnobotany will lead tours of the Garden, and authors will be on hand to sign their books.

A silent auction will be held where visitors will have a chance to bid on poi boards, poi stones, and other traditional objects.

For more information call 323-3318 or email agg@bishopmuseum.org.

Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden is Bishop Museum’s native plant arboretum, located 12 miles south of Kailua-Kona on Highway 11, just south of mile marker 110.

The 10th Annual Grow Hawaiian Festival is, presented by Hawaii Forest and Trail.

Support for this event is also provided by Kukio, and Kealakekua Ranch, Ltd. An award from the county Department of Research and Development and the Hawaii Tourism Authority funds the Guided Native Plant Walks.

Anyone who requires an auxiliary aid or service for effective communication or a modification of policies and procedures to participate in the Hawaiian Plant Walks should contact Peter Van Dyke at 808-323-3318 at least two weeks before their planned visit.

— Find out more:
www.bishopmuseum.org/greenwell