Nohealani, "Gift from Heaven"

On our last day in Hawaii, we took an escorted tour of "Maui Tropical Plantation," to learn about the growing of macadamia nuts, taro, pineapple, bananas, sugar cane, coconuts, coffee, and a few other crops. Nohealani, who says her people have lived on the islands for as far back as memory goes, was our guide. It was the perfect way to end our time on the island because while the geography is stunning, it is the people who stir my soul.

Nohealani has worked on the plantation for six years, beginning as a field worker when she was nineteen. Now she's twenty-five and carrying her fourth child, and she drives the "train," (actually a chain of golf carts), narrates the tour and explains the social meaning of each crop in the past and now, includes stories about her grandparents, and opens a coconut (which is no small feat) with ease, explaining each step of the way. She says the workers on the farm are "like a family," but when I asked her if her family owns the plantation or owns an interest in it, she laughed, "No. We don't own much of anything. We just feel very lucky to have jobs."

Her carefully-prepared tour is politically neutral. She speaks with deep knowledge and respect for her "native culture," but she doesn't talk about exploitation, colonization, oppression, racism, or violence; nor does she "whitewash" the truth. She talks about which crops are indigenous and which were brought from outside. She explains why so-called Hawaiian pineapples are seldom grown in Hawaii now (because they are time- and land-intensive, and the land is more lucrative for tourism). She is warm, generous, good-humored and full of "aloha," and she's also competent and powerful, standing in the truth of what she loves.

We had the 4 p.m. tour to ourselves, and she explained that September is the slowest month for tourism. (Note to the universe: it's a great time to go, as the prices are lower, there are no crowds, and the weather is glorious.) Most of the time she smiled as she talked, but I'm choosing to blip this portrait of her with the coconut she has just opened because I love the quiet ease of her stance.

All over Maui there are T-shirts with the phrase "Hang Loose" on them. The gentle, pleasurable, friendly ease of polynesian culture has become a motto and a cliché, and it is grounded in the truth of polynesian culture, although of course the economic and political power in Hawaii is not polynesian. The plantation owners, the hotel and condo owners, and the business owners are almost never polynesian people. Polynesian "ease" is not very easy for polynesian people--has not been very easy since the islands were taken over by foreign missionaries and businessmen in the 19th century. And yet the people have preserved and are still working to preserve much of their pre-colonial culture.

I was moved to see a local woman doing what would have been a man's job in my adolescence--opening coconuts, driving the "train," telling the stories. I hope she makes a decent wage doing it.