http://www.leimanu.com – Lighting the night with Aloha since 1967

Ka Lā – the Sun in Hawaiian culture

Soon we will enter the season of Kau, the hot dry days of summer. Kau begins with the Hilo moon of Ikiiki, which falls in 2023 on 19 May.

Lā is the Hawaiian word for both “sun” and for “day.” Ka Lā features prominently in stories of the akua Maui, one of which is told here:

There are many chants associated with the rising of the sun, and with awakening in the physical sense, as well as awakening spiritually and in knowledge and widom.

According to Nathaniel Emerson, who interviewed practitioners of the 19th Century,

Etiquette forbade anyone to wake the king by rude touch, but it was permissible for a near relative to touch his feet. When the exigencies of business made it necessary for a messenger, a herald, or a courtier to disturb the sleeping monarch, he took his station at the king’s feet and recited a serenade such as this:

Mele Koala (no ka Hula Pele)

E ala, e Kahiki-ku;
E ala, e Kahiki-moe;
E ala, e ke apapa nu’u:
E ala, e ke apapa lani.
5 Eia ka hoala nou, e ka lani la, e-e!
E ala oe!

E ala, ua ao, ua malamalama.
Aia o Kape’a ma, la, i-luna;
Ua hiki mai ka maka o Unulau:

Ke hoolale mai la ke kupa holowa’a o Ukumehame,
Ka lae makani kaohi-wa’a o Papawai,
Ka lae makani o Anahenahe la, e-e!
E ala oe!

E ala, ua no, ua malamalama;
Ke o a’e la ke kukuna o ka La i ka ili o ke kai;
Ke hahai a’e la, e like me Kumukahi
E hoaikane ana me Makanoni;
Ka papa o Apua, ua lohi i ka La.
E ala oe!

E ala, ua ao, ua malamalama;
Ke kau aku la ka La i Kawaihoa
Ke kolii aku la ka La i ka ili o ke kai;
Ke anai mai la ka iwa anai-maka o Lei-no-ai,
I ka luna o Maka-iki-olea,
I ka poli wale o Lehua la.
E ala oe!
Nathanial B. Emerson, Unwritten Literature of Hawaiʻi

Emerson’s translation follows:

Awake now, Kahiki-ku;
Awake now, Kahiki-moe;
Awake, ye gods of lower grade;
Awake, ye gods of heavenly rank.
A serenade to thee, O king.
Awake thee!

Awake, it is day, it is light;
The Day-god his arrows is shooting,
Unulau his eye far-flashing,
Canoe-men from Uku-me-hame
Are astir to weather the windy cape,
The boat-baffling cape, Papa-wai,
And the boisterous A-nahe-nahe.
Awake thee!

Awake, day is come and the light;
The sun-rays stab the skin of the deep;
It pursues, as did god Kumu-kahi
To companion with god Maka-noni;
The plain of Apua quivers with heat.
Awake thee!

Awake, ’tis day, ’tis light;
The sun stands over Waihoa,
Afloat on the breast of ocean;
The iwa of Leinoai is preening
On the cliff Maka-iki-olea,
On the breast of naked Lehua.
Awake thee! awake!
Translation by Nathaniel B. Emerson

For some brief information about the sun in many different cultures, enjoy reading this link to the Stanford Solar Center web page.

Two hand hammered copper suns crafted by Hawaii Island artist Leilehua Yuen — Two hand-hammered copper suns crafted by Hawaiʻi Island artist Leilehua Yuen.
Bottom left $250 plus shipping. Top right, $350 plus shipping.
Contact: Info @ LeiManu . com

hand-crafted copper sun by Hawaii Island artist Leilehua Yuen — A copper sun hand crafted by Hawaiʻi Island artist Leilehua Yuen

Interested in buying these or similar items? These hand-crafted copper suns will add a blaze of art to your décor!

Copper has been important to humans for over 10,000 years. It is one of the few metals that we find in nature in a directly usable metallic form. Because of this, humans have been using copper since before 8000BCE. Around 5000BCE, copper was the first metal to be smelted from sulfide ores. About 4000BCE copper was the first metal to be cast into a shape in a mold, and around 3500BCE, it was the first metal to be purposefully alloyed with another metal (tin) to create bronze.

Copper is antimicrobial, and ancient peoples noted that water stored in copper vessels did not develop slime.

Many spiritual properties also are claimed for copper, from calming to improved psychic and physical health.

When shopping for gifts, remember that copper is traditional for 7th anniversaries!

Our smaller individual pieces often are made from reclaimed copper. After collection, I clean and grade the copper, and sort it by shape and size, then decide how I will use it. Larger pieces may become lamps or other household items. Smaller pieces may become jewelry.

Through our educational work in schools, museums, libraries, and public parks, my husband and I teach environmental and cultural awareness. We do our best to apply what we teach in all aspects of our lives. Our livelihood comes from manufacturing custom lighting. We encourage our customers to use light responsibly, and work with architects and landscape designers to create lighting that is beautiful and environmentally friendly.

Hawaiʻi is the most isolated landmass on Earth. Transporting materials to the island, and transporting waste off of the island create a huge carbon footprint. By using scrap copper, glass, and other materials right here, instead of shipping it off-island for recycling, reduces the transportation costs by 50%.

Your purchase of these items not only supports an artist and small business, but it helps to reduce the waste stream and carbon footprint in Hawaiʻi.

For your support, I offer my deepest “Mahalo,” my thanks. Have a beautiful and blessed day.
Leilehua Yuen

Mahalo for sticking with us!

Aloha kākou! Well, it’s been quite a ride the past couple of years. Supply lines have been challenged. Metal and consumables prices have been crazy. Tariffs, a pandemic, and another war – This second decade of the millennium has certainly had its challenges! But YOU, our friends and customers, have kept us going! Mahalo nui loa!

We are making headway on filling those backorders, and truly appreciate your patience.

A piece of good news! We got our “Registered Trademark” for Malama Torches! We now get to label our products with that cute little “®”! We have to do a bit of re-tooling, but it does make us feel a little like we are “running with the big dogs!”

Looking for holiday décor?

Check out our reclaimed copper pieces – look for Brazen Wench on Etsy! Do you have something else in mind? Perhaps we can make it for you!

Leilehua makes the holly wreaths in verious sizes. The leaves are individually made form copper scrap, and then brazed into a wreath. The colors are a result of the oxidation which takes place when the copper is heated to almost 2,000 degrees f. (1,000 C).
Copper coconut tree sconce with full moon can be custom fit for most standard wall lights.
Malama Torches®️ can be set up for electrical lighting, as well as natural gas or propane.
Whales carved into a monkeypod table swim in an illuminated blue ocean in this table crafted by Manu Josiah.
Add a touch of whimsey to your décor with this handcrafted copper pine tree made from reclaimed materials, handcrafted in Hawaiʻi by Leilehua Yuen.
Hāhālua (manta ray) table celebrates this unusual and majestic fish.
Textured copper bowl handcrafted by Leilehua Yuen.
ʻOhe Hano Ihu, Hawaiian bamboo flutes made by Manu Josiah, are an idea gift.
Add a touch of whimsey to your décor with these handcrafted copper pine trees made from reclaimed materials, handcrafted in Hawaiʻi by Leilehua Yuen.
Any of the Malama Torche®️ designs can be made into pendant lights, torchère lamps, or wall sconces.

Living on a Warming Planet – Our sinking cities

Island and coastal communities are especially vulnerable to climate change. How can we work with nature, instead of at cross-purposes to it?

Parks and greenspaces can be created to help communities work with weather systems, instead of fight them. In Hilo, Hawaiʻi, the floodplain is a soccer field when not acting as a drain field. Here, Kotchakorn Voraakhom discusses her inspiring work in Bangkok, Thailand.

Living on a Warming Planet – Lessons from Indigenous Cultures

Indigenous cultures evolved within their environments. What they learned was built on generation after generation, shaping their environment as the environment shaped them.

As a child educated in the American public school system, I was taught that North America had been a vast untamed wilderness, through which small bands of primitive people roamed, and that the White Man had brought culture and civilization to that wilderness. Among the things that the White Man brought was fire suppression. Fire was seen as an evil enemy of the forest, one which must be stopped at all costs. With the Forest Fires Emergency Act in 1908, which authorized limitless spending on fire suppression, the U.S. Forest Service focused its firefighting efforts on ensuring that no wildfire be allowed to burn.

Unfortunately, this response was based on a misinterpretation of the land. Prior to their removal by the United States government from the landscapes in which their cultures evolved, many of the Native Americans practiced controlled cultural burns to manage the forests and prairies, encouraging the growth of specific flora they found useful, reducing pest populations, and providing increased growth of fodder for the animals they hunted.

The federally implemented fire suppression practices prevented traditional land management by cultural practitioners. This allowed over a century of overgrowth of tinder-production which, combined with global warming, has created the literal firestorm of deadly burns we see in so much of the western USA today.

What can we, as individuals and small business owners do to make positive change? We can start by taking lessons from the past. A first step: Support our cultural practitioners who still retain the traditional knowledge of how to manage landscapes in a way that benefits both the environment and the people within it.

How can we support them?

Source our materials / products from local indigenous practitioners
Push for legislation to include indigenous practice in land management
Spread awareness through our communities with our activities and websites
Review our own business practices to be sure they are in alignment with our heart-values and culture

Living on a Warming Planet – Using Astrophysics to study Earthbound Problems

Innovation thrives in multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary environments.

Living on a Warming Planet

Usually, when lighting designers and manufacturers talk about security, we are talking about someone breaking into your home or business. Today, I want to talk about another kind of security.

Climate change is affecting global security, creating climate refugees as people leave areas afflicted by massive droughts and rising sea level. Competition for resources, and the growing disparity between those most at risk and those least at risk destabilizes communities, countries, and entire regions, putting populations at risk of war. Loss of our glaciated areas can release pathogens for which we have neither immunity nor cure.

Human activity is driving the gradual warming of our planet, changing the cycles of rains, winds, and currents. Satellite imaginary has shown a 3.1 cm sea-level rise between 1993 and 2003. The intensity and frequency of hurricanes and cyclones has increased. Heat waves in Europe and North America have become more frequent. This summer’s fires in California have dramatically shown the effect of climate change.

What can we small businesses and individuals do?

Reduce energy and resource consumption
Explore different forms of energy production and distribution
Assist at-risk communities
Support partnering with indigenous peoples in tradition and innovation
Support multi-faceted integrated solutions
Support environmental rehabilitation

But how? We are tiny, we don’t have a lot of money. A lot of us are “mom and pop shops.” What can we do that will affect a global problem?

Let’s take this “to do” list one at a time. They are in no particular order, just in the order in which they came to my mind. So, they are not “do one after the other,” but need to be addressed simultaneously. And we can do it!

Let’s start with an easy one:

Reduce energy and resource consumption.

We all know by now to turn off our lights and other power-eaters when they are not in use. Covid-19 has taught us that we don’t need to drive nearly as much as we thought. Telecommuting is a good thing. We can save that fuel for the people who really NEED to travel to their worksites, like farmers, doctors, and others whose work is not portable or digital.

In addition to switching off unused lights, we also can avoid lights in the first place, if we are working with the sun is up. Natural light is healthier for us, so not only will we save money on energy, but we possibly save money on medical treatments for depression and other illnesses associated with insufficient sunlight.

This innovative idea is one of my favorites for lighting indoor spaces with solar power — no batteries needed! Brazilian mechanic Alfredo Moser developed a method for using easily available water bottles and a splash of chlorine bleach to make ceiling lights, allowing people to work indoors in sheltered areas.

Reduce the use of heaters and air conditioners. The problem with air conditioners is that while they are cooling your personal air, they are warming the planet for all of us. We can turn to nature for effective and more closely carbon-neutral solutions.

Maintaining a comfortable temperature has been a goal of human civilizations for millennia. In ancient Rome, cold water from the viaducts was piped through the house walls of affluent citizens. In India, baoli (stepwells) have been revived for cooling structures.

Cooling through natural evaporation has been used for centuries. It is most effective, however, in a dry climate. But in such areas, evaporative refrigeration for food storage is making a comeback. Just a few generations ago, a large earthenware pot set in an open window and filled with water provided cooling for rooms. A large-scale cooler based on this traditional technology was developed by New Delhi based Ant Studio.

If we can learn to work with our climate, instead of fighting against it, we have a change to make our live more comfortable, take steps to mitigate climate change, and make ourselves and our communities more secure.

A fun up-cycle!

We all are looking for ways to shrink our carbon footprint, and up-cycling is a fun way to do it!

I thought I would post an easy bit of up-cycled metalwork. All you need is an aluminum tray the right size, the old switch plate, a cold chisel or big old flathead screwdriver (that you don’t mind kind of messing up), a hammer, drill and bit, sandpaper or a file.

Use the old switch plate as a template to mark where you want to cut the holes. Set the tray on an old piece of plywood or a stack of cardboard. While wearing safety glasses, place the business edge of the chisel on the lines and gently tap in grooves on the lines. Double check with your template. Then just keep going over the lines again and again, deepening them each time until you cut all the way through. File the cut edges smooth. Drill holes as per the template. Give it a final polish and install your new switchplate!

I inherited my Nana’s collection of aluminum trays – probably 15 or 20. Some I use regularly, others I enjoy looking at, but how many aluminum trays can you hang on your walls? So, since we were remodeling the kitchen anyway, and I needed new switchplates, 💁‍♀️

Oh! The wall paneling is deconstructed pallets, stained. The shelves are original wood from the house (1932 Craftsman).

Recycling and Upcycling

Aloha kākou!

Many people do not realize that in addition to manufacturing new lighting, we also recycle and upcycle interesting things that come our way. Recycling and upcycling are great ways to reduce environmental impact – they keep stuff out of landfills, and reduce the need for new raw materials.

I belong to a number of pages and forums on the topic.

Something I have noticed lately is that with increasing frequency, when people post that they want to paint a vintage or antique piece, other members go ballistic! There are those who respectfully suggest keeping it all original to preserve the historic value, and then the spectrum continues through those who engage in shaming and belittling the owner for even thinking of such a thing.

So, I thought I would post my perspective on the topic here.

Personally, the first thing I look at is historic value. Then I look at the value to me and my family. Does the value of the piece to me and my family outweigh the historic value? Often, the answer is a resounding “YES!”

I have antiques in my home that have been with us for five generations and more. Their importance to our family is not in their value as pristine antiques, but in their value as records of our family’s lived experience.

Sure, it would be nice if my grandmother had not painted the dining room furniture white, then red, then black as she went though her various decorating phases. I love, love, love the look of wood. It was dark wood recalling her mother’s Victorian upbringing when my great grandmother stayed with her one summer. It was whitewashed into memories of Cape Cod beach homes when my uncle married. It was red during her lush Chinese decor phase when she had fabulous parties, the house and yard filled with paper lanterns, and I as a small child met fascinating people from around the world. In the later 60s, it was lacquer-black with red upholstery; it kept the Chinese opium den esthetic with a more sophisticated vibe. (Somewhere, I have photos of the phases. When I find them, I will add them here)

I still have a chair from that time, and now I am sanding it down to reveal the multiple layers of my Nana’s life. I’ll re-upholster the seat to add something of my own personality. When my daughter someday owns it, I hope she does not treat it as an antique, but enjoys it, uses it, makes it her own. And if that includes painting it, that is fine.

There is no quantifiable “right” or “wrong” way to live with our things. It is entirely subjective. What may be right for one person may be utterly wrong for someone else.

Someday, I will upcycle the sofa, too.

Hawaiian Summer

While looks like the hottest days of Kau (Hawaiian summer season) are behind us, it is still muggy. Fortunately, evenings are cooling, and the day does not start to get hot until somewhat after dawn.

We are still in hurricane season, however, so it is not yet time to relax.

Hurricane Season is June through November, so we are currently mid-season. This means it is a good time to check on your supplies of non-perishable foods:

According to the FDA, non-perishable foods—foods that are shelf-stable, and don’t need to be refrigerated or cooked—should be kept on-hand throughout hurricane season.

1. Bottled water.

If a major hurricane hits, the water pumping stations may not work, and the municipal water supply may be contaminated. Now is the time to lay in a supply of water. We don’t get the little bottles, we have the big 5-gallon jugs and fill them ourselves right here at the house. Lot’s cheaper, and more environmentally friendly. If you are worried about plastics, use glass or stainless steel containers. We sterilize after use with a little Clorox, then rinse well and re-fill. Be sure to have at least one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days. (For a family of three, that’s nine gallons of water.) If you have pets, you’ll need water for them, too. Personally, I keep double the recommended amount.

2. Canned foods such as tuna, salmon, vegetables, or fruits.

Spam, spam, spam, spam ? yeah, we Hawaiʻi peeps are good at canned food. Do what you usually do, you don’t need my advice. ? Canned products are ready to eat—no cooking required. Canned foods should stay safe in the storm, but the FDA says you can pack them in plastic bags for added security. Just be sure to check the cans haven’t bulged before you open them up.

3. Instant soup mixes.

Saimin / ramen. Yes, we island peeps are good at that! If your camping/pot luck gear is handy, you can cook even if the power is out. If you already cook on propane, you have your own gas supply, so you’re good, there!

4. Other shelf-stable foods.

They will go bad eventually, but should last until things settle down. Peanut butter, cold cereal, apples, potatoes, onions, pilot crackers/saloon pilots, – the normal stuff your tūtū kept in bins instead of the fridge.

Whatever you buy, buy it early and have it ready. If the hurricanes hit hard, you don’t want to be scrambling at the last minute. If we have a calm season, you’ll have less shopping to do the rest of the year!

Other things to have on-hand:

Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert
Flashlight
First aid kit
Extra batteries
Whistle (to signal for help)
Dust masks (to help filter contaminated air)
Moist towelettes, garbage bags and plastic ties (for personal sanitation. You can store all of these in a 5 gallon paint bucket, and if needed the lined bucket will be your commode. For comfort, you can even keep an inexpensive toilet seat to place on it, though a hole pre-cut in the lid is just as effective)
Wrench or pliers (to turn off utilities—ahead of time, make sure it fits and you know how to use it!)
Manual can opener (for food)
Local maps with tsunami zones
Cell phone with chargers and a backup battery
Download the Recommended Supplies List (PDF)
Spare lighters
candles/lanterns
mosquito punk or spray (after the storm, these guys get vicious!)
small tarp and big tarp, duct tape (for emergency shelter/repairs)
line and bungees (for attaching the tarp if it is needed)

If you are interested in Hawaiian astronomical perspectives, which includes discussions of weather and natural history, check out Leilehua’s Patreon blog, Hawaiian Stars—Nānā i nā Hōkū.