Traditional builders to graduate on Saturday

The Maui News
Thursday, November 11, 2004

HANA – Francis Palani Sinenci, a master builder and teacher in construction of traditional Hawaiian hale, will lead a graduation ceremony Saturday for his second group of apprentices in the Maui Community College certified hale builder program.

The ceremonies, scheduled to begin at noon on the grounds of the Hana Cultural Center, are open to the public.

The graduation of the three apprentices will take place as one of the traditional Hawaiian activities during the cultural center's hoolaulea Saturday. The program also will include a blessing of a new hale, the reconstructed Hale Mua or men's eating house that replaces one accidentally destroyed by a fire during the July 4th weekend.

The class graduation project was the restoration of the Hale Mua, restoring the one Sinenci built eight years ago as the first indigenous hale built in Hawaii in almost a century.

The blessing by Sam Ka'ai will include a cutting of the piko – or birth cord – of the hale. The class will perform a haka, a traditional Hawaiian dance that tells the story of the building of the hale.

Sinenci's hale construction program represents a reversal of longstanding restrictions imposed by the counties around Hawaii against structures that fail to meet modern building codes. An effort supported by state Sen. J. Kalani English dating to when English was a Maui County Council member, provided amendments to building codes to provide for indigenous Polynesian construction and materials by certified hale builders.

The students who will be certified Saturday are: Prescott Guillermo, 37, of Hana, and Ulani Combou, a woman from Waihee who is doing graduate work with Sinenci. Guillermo's son, Kainoa, 13, also has completed the program and participated in construction of the Hale Mua, but will not be certified as a hale builder until he is 18.

Prescott Guillermo said he chose to study with Sinenci because the kumu reminds him of his Hawaiian grandfathers and because he wanted to reconnect with his Hawaiian heritage by building shelters of his ancestors. He also wanted to have his son, who is home-schooled, to learn the traditions of his ancestors.

While he was sad to see the original hale burn, Sinenci said, there was a benefit in having his haumana (students) develop their knowledge of traditional hale building for the future.

Copyright © 2004 The Maui News

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