Kalamaku Namba: Making Lei Hulu to Pass Down for Generations to Come.
Mastering his family’s generational craft of Lei Making, Kalamaku Namba is carving a path to not only teach others how to make Lei, but to also fulfill his life’s mission in passing down this acclaimed cultural and personal tradition - For every generation to come...
Who are you?
Aloha, my name is Kalamaku, I am 19 years old and I’m from Mānoa.
And what is it that are we’re here to talk about today?
Lei Hulu, I do feather work. It stems from Hawaiian culture which I’m a part of.
How long have you been doing Lei Hulu for?
I’ve been doing Lei Hulu for I wanna say 3 or 4 years. I mean I thought about it my whole life but 3 or 4 years ago was when I actually started getting into Lei Hulu - getting the supplies and like actually doing it.
So you’ve always been a part of Lei Hulu even though you weren’t actually doing it?
My whole life I’ve seen Lei Hulu I’ve known about Lei Hulu, I’ve just never kind of had the passion for it or had the want to do it because I feel like being younger I didn’t really have a desire to learn about my Hawaiian culture or my culture period. I think as I got older, as I was kind of getting taught more things through life… the passion grew more and more as I got older.
And then about 3 years ago I was like “you know I wanna try doing Lei Hulu” because I’ve seen my Grandpa’s Lei Hulu, my Aunty’s Lei Hulu, ALL their Lei Hulu and it was just like, I really liked it.
“I don’t know what was drawing me to it but I’m just gonna try it” and then here we are, making Lei Hulu 4 years later *laughs*!
What do you think contributed to you actually falling in love with your culture and wanted to do something in it like Lei Hulu, you mentioned growing up it just kind of clicked. Was there a person that kind of helped influence you to try it out or did you just end up coming out of your shell in your own way?
I feel like my Aunty Kaui… she probably helped me learn a lot about my culture: how to be prideful but not BOASTFUL. To kind of love it in a way that I know how to love it and just to push me and to guide me on how to love my culture but then also push me to do the things I wanted to do for my culture.
Wow, what kind of stuff would she teach you?
So she has a non-profit herself. Hōʻola Music & Cultural Arts, and she teaches Hawaiian music, Hawaiian culture, Hawaiian language… She teaches how to play instruments and how to make their own music so that’s where I started cause we’re like a musically inclined family.
I would go with her to classes it started off with only like 5 or 10 kids. And I would go with her, I would be one of the students and I then I would just keep going and going and then I would just spend more time with her and with the rest of my family to kind of GET the Moʻolelo, GET the manaʻo, hearing all the stories and the family history you kind of have a certain pride of WHO you are, where you came from and the people that were doing all of this before you, and what they’re trying to do for you now.
Before Lei making, what did Kalamaku use to do as his main thing kind of in everyday life?
For a little while, I’d say for about 4 or 5 years I was really into my Japanese culture. Like VERY very into it. I did Nihon-Buyo (Kabuki dancing), I did bon dance, everything you could probably think of…
I have like hundreds of Kimonos and all that stuff, I had that part of it but I didn’t really want to learn more about my Hawaiian part of it, I don’t know why, it was just at the time but I think as I got older, we would watch Merrie Monarch every year and everything.
Do you still have an attachment to your Japanese Culture?
I do have an attachment to my Japanese Culture, I still have a knowledge that I was learning throughout that time like the kimonos and the culture and history and stuff and it’s still a part of me. Every culture that I have is a part of me, I just don’t practice the Kabuki and the Nihon-Buyo because I kinda got more into my Christian Religion and my relationship with The Lord. It has a lot of spiritual ties (all those things) so it’s either “that” or “that” you know what I mean?
I still have the little pieces of Manaʻo that I know about my culture, Hawaiian too. Some things I cannot do but there’s a lot of things that I CAN do for my Hawaiian Culture to keep it alive.
Why do you do Lei making now? What keeps you so attached to wanting to do it?
When I was growing up and I was first learning how to do Lei Hulu, there was nobody really that I was close to that could teach me how to do it and I kinda had to figure it out on my own. I had to go and get supplies, go and learn from different teachers and absorb the things that I kinda knew around them and then apply that manually.
And of course that didn’t work the first time and then I had to keep going, trying trying trying until it came out the right way. I just want to kind of have this gift but then pass it down to the next generations in my family. And then whoever would like to learn, even if they forget about it or don’t wanna do it at LEAST they have that knowledge.
Then also the people who want to learn but don’t know how to do it but have a desire (and a passion to do it) and they know me/ or of me, they know how to do it so they know how to teach others and they know the history and the culture so that it doesn’t die in this family, and then they can go and teach others so that this certain art form in Hawaiian culture does not die.
What’s the importance of not letting something die in your culture?
Well, you look at the history. There’s a lot of things that HAVE died or are endangered in our culture because when we were overthrown, we weren’t allowed to speak our language, and language is the most important part of Hawaiian culture because that connects almost every art form, every thing that we do, all of those things connect to language that’s the only thing they were talking with (Hawaiian language/ ʻŌlelo Hawai’i) and that’s why I also do that as well, so I gotta keep ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi alive and learn more about it so I can pass it down to my kids.
Lei Hulu’s not really dying because there’s a lot of people that do it but it is a thing that a lot of people don’t know about. Majority of the people don’t know the history: they know OF it but they don’t know more about it. That’s what I want people to know. Coming to class or coming to talk with me or whatever about it, that they leave with one piece of manaʻo that they know about now (that they didn’t know about when they came over to talk to me).
What is the routine like of making Lei?
Lucky thing I don’t have to gather anymore, I buy my leis online. Also like my feather leis (pheasant feather) when I started doing Lei Hulu, I was blessed with meeting- there was this guy that was selling like GIANT containers and tubs of pheasant pelts (which are just like the body of the pheasant) where there’s just like nothing inside of it, it’s just like a flat piece of pheasant skin with the feathers on it. He was selling it for like $25 per pelt and I was like “ah I’ll just buy two” or whatever, and I went there and told him my story and I told him like what I’m tryna do, what I’m starting to do, how it connects to my family and stuff cause he was asking, and then somehow he said “here”… He gave me ALL of his containers, everything for free.
He just said “Just take it.” And I was like ‘so that was a sign I’m supposed to be doing this’ and I was like “Wow that was amazing!” I’m probably not gonna be running out of feathers for a very long time, cause it was a lot of feathers, so I’m very blessed and glad about that.
WOW and you still have any of those feathers to this day?
*Points to a batch of feathers in the corner used to make leis earlier in the day*. There’s like GIANT tubs of it. That’s like a tiny amount of what I have that’s like not even 1/4th… I have containers. Full of Pheasant pelts.
And then whoever needs: I had an Aunty who taught me how to do it and she was getting kinda ‘along’ in her years. She wondered if she could have like 3 pelts or 2 pelts because she was looking for feathers and I was like “Yeah take them, I don’t care.” And then even like Family members that wanted to learn Lei Hulu and they’re like “I wanna try pheasant” I was like “here take a pelt how bout that?” I kinda just gotta remember that being generous and giving is a part of my culture as well.
It’s a part of me, if I was that person I don’t think that I would expect it but I-I think, that I would be the one to give it to them. And you know how much these pheasant pelts cost? They’re EXPENSIVE. Especially if you’re on a budget making Lei Hulu, it’s impossible. So, I just want to be a help to anybody who can, who needs it.
In Hawaiian Culture, it’s sort of protocol that when you go into making something/ anything that you only go into with positive energy and that you can’t have ANY negative energy when you’re making it right? Does it apply to Lei making for you?
Yes, definitely. When you make ANYTHING at all, it doesn’t have to be Hawaiian Art or… it doesn’t have to be ANY specific culture. In anything that you do, you cannot have bad feelings. You cannot have bad emotions or bad energy or whatever you wanna call it. That cannot be inside of you, because THAT is the product that you’re gonna produce.
When you make poi, they say when you make poi and you have ‘all that bad stuff held inside of you’ and you’re making it? The poi gon come out sour. And that’s true, I’ve DONE that before.
That goes with anything like when I make Lei and I start it off with bad feelings, and I start looking at the product I’ve been doing for like the past hour and it’s all hammajang and all that stuff, I have to restart I have to take all the feathers out, gotta kind of get yourself together, get yourself centered. I usually pray because the Lord helps me with everything.
And you walk into it KNOWING it’s gonna be good knowing the product you’re gonna make, and feeling good about it. And even when you do anything: You have to do everything with good intentions.
Otherwise, it’s not gonna come out how you want it to come out, it’s not gonna come out good either, so.
What are the different types of leis out there? And which one’s the most common one that you end up making?
My Family members ask me for Humu Papa (which is the hat bands), I don’t really like them cause I don’t wear hats, so if I’m making that it’s definitely for someone else not for me. But the ones that I love to wear are either Kamoe, Poepoe all that kine cause I can usually wear them on my neck.
There’s a lot of different ways that you can make Lei Hulu, but like the BASE line of all of them is the 3 main groups which is ‘Humu Papa’, ‘Kamoe’ and ‘Poepoe’ style:
Humu Papa is flat, and it goes on the hat. This more of a modern style because when you make Humu Papa you have to sew the feathers on (cause you can’t really wili it) so you have to use needles to sew it into the fabric. Hawaiians didn’t have metal, didn’t have needles back then. This was not gonna be a thing before metal came to the islands.
Kamoe style is traditional. I don’t have one on me right now but it’s a cylinderish kind of lei, it reminds me of a sausage… It’s a really bad way to put it but that’s what it reminds me of. And that’s more of a traditional style because when you make it, you wili it and you tie one feather at a time, and you layer it and it comes down.
And the last one is Poepoe style which looks like a Kahili. Poepoe you face the feathers outward, and you kind of put it down. Almost like a Kahili like you’re WEARING a Kahili. It also takes more… You have to have that eye. You don’t want to tell when the feathers are placed too far apart cause then you see the spacing of the feathers, but when you make Kamoe (or any Lei Hulu) you need it to look like one piece. You don’t want to see any of the lines that go around it so you have to really put it close but not TOO close where it gets too thick, there’s a spot that you can find and it’ll lay right on there - flat… And then you tie and go down.
It’s not as hard as I’m saying it is, but starting off it’s kind of hard.
How many feathers do you need to make a Lei?
I think it’s like millions but it’s not *laughs*. I don’t know, I really don’t… It does depend. It depends on the width of a lei, if you’re making Humu Papa (the length) for sure, I don’t know, I really don’t.
What is the full routine like of making a Lei?
So, when I get the feathers in, what I have to do is start preparing them which is my LEAST favorite part. People say that when you make the Lei Hulu, the making of your Lei Hulu IS your prize. Because the preparing takes up most of your time and you have to be very meticulous with every cut of the feather because every feather has to be the same exact cut when making one lei.
So you have to take one feather at a time, place it on the measuring thing, cut the boning and then you have to save the 2nd cut because you don’t throw away ANY extra feathers because you can use it for another lei. Put that, separate it and then you go again with one feather, separate it, separate it etc. I would hire someone to cut my feathers, and I would just go ahead and do it because I-
I don’t wanna say I hate it because hate is bad, but I DO NOT like preparing it cause it takes up so much of the time. Sometimes I just do like 10 of em and then I start the lei (which is bad) because it takes more time to do it instead of cutting and then doing it.
Then after that, you have to do the base of the lei. For Humu Papa you use felt, whatever you measure, whatever you want the width of the lei to be, you’re gonna have to have that width and then a half more of that, cause then you gotta put it together and sew it together so it has like that foundation.
And then you fold it into the middle and then you sew the middle up just like regular base stitch.
For Poepoe and Kamoe style I usually use yarn, I see a lot of people using Kaula (rope/ yarn/ string) now like one GIANT Kaula (which is how the Hawaiians did it) and then you tie it, almost like making regular lei like wili’ing lei, I just use little tiny pieces of yarn cause I like to sew the ribbon on the top (I like the ribbon) but I usually do 10-15 strings of yarn like you gotta measure.
For Kamoe, I usually start with one side, so: I put one feather down, wili it, tie.
And then I’ll do the OPPOSITE side so I’ll do north, south and then I’ll put a feather on there, and then wili, tie. And then go to the next side, do that, next side, do that and I’ll do maybe like 2 (or) 3 layers on the first one.
When you are making Humu Papa, it’s gonna sound weird but you kind of place the feather ‘where it looks good’. Like it’ll lay there and not move or not go up. Then I’ll use a clip and I would just place it on the feather (just so it doesn’t move) and then I’ll sew about 2-3 stitches on the boning. And then I’ll usually go to the opposite side: right then left, do the left side then do the same thing and then I’ll go to the middle). And then I’ll do the same thing because I was taught to never go one two three’ (which is like left, middle, right), you have to have to go: ‘one on the outside, one on the outside and then last is the middle’.
And then you just do that over and over again?
Yup, until you get to the end.
And at the end of the lei, there’s some extra piece of fabric (at the end), I’ll usually just flip it up, tie, do like a basing stitch around the edges (it looks like a square), that'll be like where you pin your pin into there, to hold the lei on your hand.
How do you usually feel when you’re pau making a lei?
OH my God I’m like thank you Jesus I’m done. *Sighs*, then I'm like welp… onto the next one!
“What have I not done next?” Cause I usually have like 3 projects that I haven’t finished. I don’t think I’ll ever be FULLY done with any of my projects and then start a new one. I’ll probably like be just starting a new one while I’m in the middle of another one. So that’ll be my entire life, forever *laughs*.
How many leis do you usually make within a week or a month etc?
Now that I’m like in school (I have like college and work and stuff) I don’t really have enough free time TO do it until I get breaks and stuff, but I’ll make like little portions of time in my day or the week to kinda get a little bit done. So before, when I was on breaks or when I was not in college (yet), I used to get a lei done in like a month or LESS than a month like 3 weeks - Get time out of my day, do-do-do-do-do, done! I probably could’ve done it faster, but I just didn’t want to.
But now, I kinda just have to balance school and work and stuff, but I also have to balance the Lei Hulu so I don’t forget about it because if I forget about it then I’m NEVER gonna do it…
There was a time where I just paused doing it for so long, and then I didn’t like that. I didn’t like pausing for a really long time so I got back into it. And of course, you feel so much better finishing projects and stuff!
Give us a crazy or most memorable time you have while making lei! Any memories that stick out?
There was this one time my Aunty gave me all of her supplies (she used to make Lei Hulu), she gave me like this unfinished lei that she was making I was like “oh yeah I’m gonna finish this”.
I tried finishing it in like my ‘beginning state’ I was never cutting feathers at all…
Wrong. Move. Terrible thing to do. I’m- no. I haven’t even finished it yet! I looked at it and I was like “so like this part that she did was like really nice” and then I got down and I was like “wow, this is like really ugly!”
It felt like ‘this is not what I’m supposed to be doing’ I don’t think. It’s hard to kind of match somebody else’s style that they do, but one day I’ll get back to it.
Do you ever look at it and lik-
NO I NEVER LOOK AT IT. I never wanna look at it… The Bane of my existence.
I plan to finish it like (not anytime soon), when I get better at it probably, cause there’s so much more to learn… Or just make another one that looks like the other one and throw the other one away. I’m just kidding I’m not throwing it away, I’m keeping it forever.
And when I first started making a new one, actually at the time I didn’t know I was supposed to be cutting my feathers all one size so I was just cutting it like *snip* *snip* cutting ALL kinds of feathers and then I was making it, I was like “why is it not coming out like I want it to come out?” like “what’s going on here?”
Then, I knew why. Cause one feather was ‘this big’, one feather was ‘this big’ was like ALL kinda different sizes goin on in that lei, but I still have that lei. Cause it’s good to remember where you started, and how you got better, and the transition from that to where you are now.
So you still keep all of your leis you’ve made over the years?
Oh yeah, definitely.
What do you do for hobbies outside of lei making?
Hmm… what do I like to do outside of lei making? It would have to be…
*Kalamaku proceeds to completely break the fourth wall.*
I know this GoPro part is supposed to be for like ‘hobbies that you do’ outside of your hobbies, but lei making IS my hobby.
That’s what I like to do in my free time since I have like school, and I have work, and I have all these other things that I gotta do - lei making is like my time AWAY from people, away from other responsibilities I have. I can sit there and do it for so long, I don’t even know like the time goes by so fast, that’s what I’d be doing.
What have you learned from making Lei Hulu?
I think something that I’ve learned from making Lei Hulu from past experiences is to kind of always never be hesitant to ask for help - like FIND help when you’re making these things. Or anything, because people CAN help you. There’s people that are better out there, there’s people that are better than you that know more about what you’re doing, and by SEEKING help (because we all have new things to learn in life), by seeking help you get better at the things that you’re doing.
And also, not to be afraid to try doing something new. Not being afraid to get out there and be doing something.
BEFORE I was doing Lei Hulu I was like “Ah I’ll just do Lei Hulu”, and from that I was like “Okay Lei Hulu, maybe I’ll try Lauhala. Maybe I’ll try doing jewelry with the plants that I have, or maybe I’ll try Kahili” and all these things, and ALL these doors started opening up and it kind of like -
Don’t limit yourself to what you can do or can’t do. Just don’t keep yourself in that box, you know what I mean? Be open…
So that IS my hobby, it’s my time away from everything and stuff…
Are there any mental challenges you have to face when you’re making Lei Hulu?
Patience, sometimes you’re like “I don’t wanna do this anymore” *laughs* “I’m just gonna put that down” and you do need that time, you need that time to step away, before it becomes something that you don’t wanna do anymore.
So that’s why I kind of have to - If I’m doing it for a really long time I have to space it out forreal and do something else, because I don’t want it to be something that I will DREAD coming back to or it’s like a chore coming back to.
So, first having that time. And then also, patience. Treating it as your ‘self time’ like your time FOR yourself.
What would you say makes you Delusional in your craft of making Lei?
What makes me Delusional in lei making or featherwork is the idea of me passing down this ‘gift’ and this ‘knowledge’ and also, keeping it alive, within my family and within others, so that everyone can know about it.
How far do you plan to take Lei Making? Is it just a Hobby for you or something you’d want to turn into a business one day etc?
So the business part for me, no.
Because I feel like when I make lei and I’m making it for people, all of my love is going into that lei. And I’m like “I’m not about to sell it to a random stranger that I don’t even know” even though yes, it WILL make a lot of money but, no in the sense that: it’s an art.
And a culture. It’s a love of mine, and a passion of mine. So, majority of the time I make it for the people that I know and have a relationship with… If not, I make for myself or I share it with my family members and stuff.
I think passing it down and having that knowledge is how FAR I wanna go with learning more and more.
What is Kalamaku’s Final Message to The World to leave on?
I guess what I wanna say to everyone is, first like for me in my experience: Know The Lord.
And also like I said before, don’t be afraid to try something new. And don’t put yourself into a box kind of limiting yourself to what you can do, no don’t do that. Cause that’ll keep you from doing so many more things that you didn’t know that you COULD do in life.
And also, push yourself. Push yourself to do new things because it’s what you should be doing. You should be pushing yourself to do new things…
And Finally.
Be Delusional.
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Kalamaku Namba: Making Lei Hulu to Pass Down for Generations to Come.
“Don’t be afraid to try something new. And don’t put yourself into a box kind of limiting yourself to what you can do, no don’t do that. Cause that’ll keep you from doing so many more things that you didn’t know that you COULD do in life.”
- Kalamaku Namba
