Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Hawaiians in the Pacific Northwest

HAWAIIANS IN THE PACIFIC NW

HOST INTRO:
Aloha, Oregon, Kanaka Bay, Washington and Kalama,Washington . These Hawaiian names are sprinkled up and down the coast of Northwest America. Kalama is named after one of the first Hawaiians who came to the Northwest 175 years ago. Producers Sara Caswell Kolbet of the Crossing East radio series has this profile of two women in the Pacific Northwest and their Hawaiian ancestry.

HOST OUTRO:
This piece was produced by Dmae Roberts and Sara Caswell Kolbet for the Crossing East Asian American history series. To find out more about the series, go to CrossingEast.org.

STORY SCRIPT

SOUND: KALAMA OUTSIDE & CHEERING

SARA: Mayor Pete Poulsen speaks to a crowd in Kalama, Washington.

PETE POULSEN, MAYOR OF KALAMA: This plaque is to honor John Kalama and other Hawaiians and the role they played, along with the Native American Indians, in developing the Pacific Northwest. The 175th Anniversary of John Kalama?s arrival to the Pacific Northwest?Kalama, the little town with the big Aloha Spirit.

SARA: John Kalama was a carpenter from Hawaii who came to the Northwest with the fur trade in the 1830?s. There were as many as 500 Hawaiian workers living at ft. Vancouver during that time and more throughout the Northwest coast. Hawaiians joined the fur trade to escape tribal conflict in Hawaii at the time and to explore the world. Many like John Kalama married into the Native American community. Today the town of Kalama celebrates its namesake with dozens of Hawaiians and Northwest sailors who brought their outrigger canoes.

SOUND: CHANTING & DRUMMING IN BOAT ON WATER

MARIE KALAMA: The majority of us live on the Nisqually Indian reservation.

SARA: Marie Kalama, a Nisqually Indian in Washington State is the great-granddaughter of John Kalama. Marie is one of 40 descendants here today -dozens more live around Washington State.

MARIE KALAMA: This is probably the first time I am aware of that his ancestors came and walked his path. All of us that came are doing that. We get a part of him by being here. We?ve got a 40-foot warrior canoe. All the pullers are the great-grandchildren or the great-great-grandchildren of John Kalama. Every one of them. It touches your heart, no matter where you?re from. When you walk where your grandfather, your great-grandfather was or see a home they lived in or see a monument of them, it kind of touches your heart. No matter if you?re Native American or Hawaiian or any other culture.

SOUND: CANOEING AND DRUMMING CROSSFADES TO CATHY ROLAND SINGING

SARA: Though miles apart, Marie Kalama shares a legacy with Cathy Roland, of Victoria, British Columbia. Her great-grandfather, William Naukana, also from Hawaii, was a guide and interpreter with the Hudson Bay Company in the mid 1800?s.

CATHY ROLAND: I grew up always knowing that we had a Hawaiian connection through my great-grandfather. My great-grandfather married into the native community. Mostly it was the men who came here to the coast for the fur trade. But there are so many people up and down this coast that are of Hawaiian descent as I am but they don?t know. We weren?t white enough to be white. We weren?t Indian enough to be Indian. It was the Hawaiians that embraced us. If you had an ounce of Hawaiian blood in you, you were family, and welcome back home. .

SOUND: CATHY ROLAND SINGING

SARA: Since she was a child, Cathy would sing songs in a language she didn?t know. Later she learned they were Hawaiian. After three generations, Cathy?s family history was all but forgotten except for the name Naukana. Then her Uncle Paul made contact with a Hawaiian journalist who took their story back to Hawaii and found hundreds of Naukanas.

CATHY ROLAND: Mom and Dad and I went down to Hawaii for the very first time. Every family that had the name Naukana it seems showed up. There was 350 Naukanas in the airport. Every one of them with a flower lei on their arm. And they had to greet you with this flower lei and a kiss. Every one has to go on. So they?d pile them on until you were just buried under them and then they?d take off the lump, pile them on the table, and along would come the next load. And just by being there you?d drink up this culture.

SARA: The Hawaiian songs Cathy learned as a child led to her becoming a professional singer. Today, she and her brother sing those same Hawaiian songs for her nieces and nephews every year at the family luau.

CATHY ROLAND: I remember my uncles especially singing. They sang beautifully. And they sang songs that were, they called them Hapa Haoli songs. Because they are often about Hawaii, like Beyond the Reef and Blue Hawaii. They weren?t in the Hawaiian language, but they were from Hawaii, these songs.

SOUND: CATHY SINGING ALOHA OI