Big Blend Radio
Wai-nani - A Voice from Old Hawaii
On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Lost Angel Travel Adventures with Linda Ballou" she discusses her novel “Wai-nani - A Voice from Old Hawaii.”
Through Wai-nani's eyes, experience the Hawaiian society as it existed when Captain James Cook arrived at Kealakekua Bay in 1779; ride the billowing seas with Eku, the wild dolphin she befriends; learn why she loved the savage, conflicted ruler, Makaha; walk with her as she defies ancient laws and harsh taboos of the Island people; share the love she received from all who knew her and learn how she rose to become the most powerful woman in old Hawai'i. More: https://blendradioandtv.com/listing/wai-nani-a-voice-from-old-hawaii/
View Linda's Wai-nani Wayfinder video: https://youtu.be/rksKsDNtK6Y?si=CoHQDNNdsQWENrB_
Follow Linda Ballou's adventures at https://lostangeladventures.com/ and learn more about her books, including "Wai-nani" at http://www.lindaballouauthor.com/
NOTE: The "Wai-nani" audiobook is currently unavailable.
Listen to Big Blend Radio's "Lost Angel Travel Adventures" Show every 3rd Wednesday at High Noon PST, here on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzIUCV2e7qm3Bmktgu8osUzx2VOF35dgO&feature=shared
Featured music on this episode is “Hi’ilawe” by Makana. http://makanamusic.com/
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- Duration:
- 49m
- Broadcast on:
- 17 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
You're listening to Big Blend Radio's Lost Angel Travel Adventures show with Linda Baloo, travel writer and author, and your host Lisa Smith. Welcome everybody! Linda Baloo is off on a Lost Angel Travel Adventure on the California coast where she's working on an updated version of her Lost Angel in Paradise book. It's a perfect book to get now if you are exploring the California coast. So we thought with the Chief of War, which is a Hawaiian historical drama mini series coming up on Apple TV this year and featuring Jason Momoa, we thought it would be fun to revisit Linda's interview about her novel, Wainani, a voice from Old Hawaii. Through Wainani's eyes, Linda's novel gives us a chance to experience the Hawaiian society as it existed when Captain James Cook arrived to the islands in 1779 and also shows how Wainani rose to become the most powerful woman in Old Hawaii. I encourage you to look at the episode notes and from there you will be able to link through to Linda's websites to purchase the book. I also learn about all of her books and also to watch her Wainani Wayfinder video and also see the article she wrote on our site BlendRadio and TV.com about the inspirations and research she did for the novel. Enjoy! Hey everybody, welcome to Big Blend Radio. Very excited about today's episode. We welcome back travel writer and author Linda Baloo and she's going to talk about her novel Wainani, a voice from Old Hawaii. It is a story told through the eyes of Wainani, a amazing, I'm gonna say a strong woman, a free spirit, a lady of the water. It really kind of takes us way back into Hawaii's history but it's a fresh voice and I love her voice and who she is. I've been reading this novel and I'm very excited to have Linda join us to talk about the just the history of Hawaii, the natural wonder of the Hawaii and also the people of Hawaii in this wonderful book that really goes back to the history back in the 1700s. So I encourage you to go to our website, it's lindaballooauthor.com but welcome back Linda, how are you? Thank you, I just got back from the islands and so I got my aloha fix. Oh, I'm good! Did you see? Okay, so listen, I'm right in the heart, you know, I never finished a story. I really try hard not to and it's been hard with your book because Wainani, I'm like, this is, it's somewhat spiritual, it's mother nature, it's history, it's feminism, strongly in there. It's got everything I love in a novel but there's something about the islands going out there that, the aloha fix, I'm like, I knew you were out there while I'm reading this going, I'm a little jealous, I'm just saying. This is a special, this is a special, special story because I think it's it's timely even though it really does date back, right? Actually, yes, I was inspired by the life of Kahumana who was the favorite wife of Kamehameha, they're great. Now I changed the names in the book to Wainani and Makaha be cut for Western readers because there's a lot of K words in the Hawaiian language in attempts to confuse people but she was a very strong independent woman, the most powerful woman in all Hawaii and I was living on the North Shore of Kauai in 1978 and I got a job on the guard now and was able to run around and interview people and it was the year that Captain Cook was learning, the bicentennial of the landing of Captain James Cook in the islands and so I got involved with the history of the islands and then I fell in love with the Hawaiian people and their culture and there was this strange dichotomy, you know, here you have these people with a wonderful aloha spirit, right? You know, no child goes on love, you know, ohana, the community, everyone that takes care of each other and so on but then there was human sacrifice in their background and the pollinate 2,000-year-olds pollinate and kapu system that prevailed there for since 1250 when the Tahitians brought it to the islands until 1819 where that ended with the burning of the gods. So my story or Wainani's story is inspired by the life of Kahumanu and 1750 to 1819 is the time frame. The story ends one year prior to missionary contract and that's very important because you know, Michener did a fine job, you know, talking about the impact of the missionaries on the Hawaiian culture. I don't go anywhere near there. This is all just what was happening in her world when Cook landed and Kamehameha has arrived to power and how that evolved and how she was with him shoulder shoulder, you know, through his progress. So anyway it became a beautiful obsession for me. Over a 20-year period I went back and forth to the islands. I was lucky enough to live on a North Shore for a solid year which was one of the most blissful year in my life and it was at a time when Hanaleh Bay was a backwater and you know they filmed the descendants there in Hanaleh and King Kong and many other movies and it's become like the hottest spot in the islands, you know, for wealthy people who can afford to be there and so I was really fortunate to be there when it was really no one winter because it was rainy, they all wanted to stay on the sunny side of the island and it was also a time of spiritual awakening for me personally. There was a lot of alternative lifestyle people experimenting with things you know young people experimenting with I for instance I got introduced to yoga there and doing yoga on the beach and being connected with the elements you know deeply connected with the elements and that I think really shows in my story. I think when as a reader you know for me growing up in the equator in Kenya and then later in South Africa there's a connection for me and and and I want to take this for people who have never been to Hawaii and I have not and I have done Nancy and I've done gazillion interviews with artists going and as residents and artists in residence with the National Parks Arts Foundation saying in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park right outside there and they you know document they you know before and after the recent volcano eruptions and when reading your book you know during these interviews I've had to kind of learn a little bit like it's Hawaii and you know where to put the comma and all these things and growing up in Africa you know I've had to learn all these different languages and when you read stories what it's interesting with your book you start to adopt your own way of saying things and because I've I don't know how to speak that way so it's interesting because you say Makaha I'm like Makaha because I'm going African style like that's just me but it's interesting you know because you bring in the village I'm gonna say we got more than one village in the book right you got two basic - you got more villages than that but you got the two different kingdoms almost right and they're two fighting kingdoms but you're telling the story from you know you know when you think about her my naniad it's such a young age and her thought of what was going on an already questioning things and I thought that was interesting well that was it yeah why nani they why nani asks the why questions that was you know kind of my little secret thing about her name why nani means beautiful water but in my mind when nani asked the why questions she questioned authority you know why father do I can't I surf with the lawyers why father do we have separate eating you know why why why and so she was you know rebuked by her chief her father and she you know what resisted her culture and her society and I was very much a rebel myself so I identified with this woman hey she's a childless bride you know most women are only important because they gave birth to somebody you know when they married somebody in history she was a childless bride who rose to be the most powerful woman in old Hawaii and she sometimes called the loving mother of the people because she cared for her people and the and the children and even her and their children what do you what do you call your next door your the wife of your husband you know the other wife what you call the sister in the wife-in-law you know and this is the other part you touch on that and you know here in this kind right well now it's that polygamy now right you know right well she had to deal with the fact that he had to marry he had to marry someone else because she couldn't conceive so he had to marry the sacred bride so that he could have an heir you know that was in the bloodline they were in breeding like the Egyptians they inbred and instead of having you know you strange mutations they evolved into like an Amazonian height he was like seven feet tall she was over six feet tall it's very common for these people to be very very tall and very very athletic now I do think that if they had something of deformity they would simply drown the baby they would write it around you know I mean they were a rough culture and they had the cap who system was terribly harsh if you walked in the shadow of a of a chief you could be club to death for that and become a human sacrifice you know I mean but that but why Nani did have to walk around she walked in the shadows of her husband the warrior Makahaha and in the you know in is it Haley I you know I've just put my own spin on how to say the different names and that's what I love about your book because that's what brings me home is you know a lot of the historical fiction and a lot of the books I read that you know they when you bring in how people speak and communicate then you're bringing sense of place like no other like you are in the village you're around the people and I really appreciate that you did that and I'm just I have my own way of speaking the language now I'm just saying you know it's an oral that's fine that's fine I did put a glossary in the back like I said there's too many K words in the Hawaiian language for Westerners they get very confused so in the back of the book there is a glossary you know a word Hawaiian words that I use in there so that you know people don't get confused it's paylay and yeah and in the volcano National Park you know when Nani does take you there if you I don't know who got into the part where they go up to the volcano that's why I'm and they you know they do put you know an offering there they're taking the umbilical cord of his son to the petroglyph field which is there today the petroglyph field can be visited in my why Nani's wayfanger that I offer with my book I take you to the sacred sites on the big island which was the center of their culture and they were warring constantly with Maui and Maui kekili is the name of the chief who the real name of the chief I call him Pano Pano means thunder and Pano was tattooed from head to toe including his eyelids he was a very dark and dangerous figure in Hawaiian history and there is some rumor and I don't want to give it too much maybe I won't give it away about Kamehameha genealogy I won't give that away anyway it is a big part of the story it's kind of a Shakespearean twist that's the other thing about this story in the very first chapter I talk about our first chapters I explain how there was a prophecy that a warrior would be born who would unite the Hawaiian Islands and that a rooster tail fiery rooster tail would go across the sky and that would mark the birth of that warrior right isn't that because isn't that remind you a little bit isn't a little bit biblical yeah remind you of a story you know it's it's what there's so many things there's so many things I think that's exciting this I mean that's I mean that's to me it's like it takes you into that folklore but it when you start getting into this you start to find all the connections like you start to realize the world the entire planet is connected in some way and we share all these different stories and that like to me reading this took me home as a young woman young girl growing up in a different culture amongst many different cultures I should say it was really interesting because you had to know who you were and you had to grow I mean I grew up in a culture where everyone was graduating engaged and pregnant and I said I doing any of that hell no it's not happening and that's something I we're all connected on that you know right right right so back to her being a strong woman so I was you know trying to decide in my own life but you know when I was living on the North Shore what I was gonna do with my life you know I wasn't I wasn't wild to get married I really didn't want to have children you know I wanted to be a writer I wanted to you know have self-fulfillment I wanted to you know live up to my potential you know things like that and I just wasn't typical of the girls that I went to school with and college and all they wanted to do was get married and have babies you know so this woman just stood out to me as someone that I admired and emulated and got very involved with her she was also very sexually liberated mm-hmm which I admired you've got some love scenes I'm just saying girl reading this I'm like Linda belue you know dad I'm like come on now we've been talking about hiking and nature but you went I mean you went to the deepest part of nature there's some there's some sex in this just say yeah well they they were very sensual yeah they were a very sensual society you make me sit up I'm just gonna tell you I've sat up when I did go Linda but there's nothing horribly graphic in I want people to know that it's not graphic there's there's any windows but there's nothing really graphic they had love games the royals had love games even the commoners had a love game so you know even if you had a a steady partner so to speak with children and so forth you could go to an evening of love games and you know you sat in a circle and you'd throw your father into the coconut shell across from you and if it landed three times right you could go with that person and have a nice evening well I mean they just they had a very liberal way of of looking at life but still I didn't believe that a woman could not be jealous of another woman who had the child of a man I love you had such a good balance on that that that part of the book and I don't see I don't I should never read books before people come on the show but the reality is that that part of the book to me there is this as a woman you know you know I've been through that you know in love and then the breakup happens as a strong woman and the reason the breakup happens is because no I'm not settling down you know the love of my life this is not happening because I ain't doing that and it that's a very tough choice and so when you take this in the book and so personally I'm reading this going you know there's not very many of us around it's growing but there's not very much literature for women who we're not bad we're not mean because maybe we don't know there are women who they're women who are self-actualized Lisa who don't revolve around other people's lives and to me that's a healthy way to be but that that balance in your book of what you what you've created of women there's that jealousy anger part and then it's like we're gonna work together and that is what I would like to see more of in our society now where women need to we work together yeah work together and I thought you covered that beautifully because I was like oh here we go and then here yeah I don't want to ruin the story but it really was such a central story but let me you know let me just say this in the Hawaiian culture the women are like sisters there's a sisterhood in the one a real sisterhood in the well Hawaiian culture and that was why it was true to the culture to have Wainani helped the sacred bride even though it broke her heart she did it because she's Hawaiian I mean that was being true to the Hawaiian culture hmm so anyway it also because she was a decent human being but anyway I love that balance of what you did I just I loved how you balanced that out and how you wrote that that whole part I'm gonna give you a good line with my mom read the book right and she wasn't exactly a liberated female she had the you know typical marriage of revolving around my dad anyway she read the book and she said well you got the sex part right thanks mom I did something right but there's that liberation part of women being part of it and also conjuring it up you also had that she's she's a feminist she's also a very strong women and also very very sexual like she's you know the dances and right you know talking to the spirits and and connecting with the spirits I do want to talk about the spirits and the dolphins that with the dolphin is actually the dolphins were the dolphin yeah the dolphin is a little bit of magical realism in there but it's not unreal it because she was a water baby like all Hawaiians or water babies she was a beautiful surfer and they called it wave sliding and the royals were allowed to wave slide not the common here they had a very definite striated society at any rate it I I studied dolphin behavior there is no dolphin behavior in that story that I didn't see somewhere that I didn't read about somewhere I saw in the first chapter she wins a surfing contest writing on the back of her dolphin dolphins right mm-hmm well I saw a woman doing that in Florida you know she was writing her dolphins behind her you know a boat and you know being pulled along standing on her dolphins you know I went okay and then in the and dolphins lived to be like 40 years so it's not unrealistic to feel that she would have a relationship with a dolphin family for the entire you know span of her adult life and then in the scene where she helps the sacred ride with the birth have you gotten there yes yes yes I passed that she calls her dolphin she calls her dolphin tribe into help the birth right to just on it they do that that is a real thing they do that they they whim there are women who and I've thought on YouTube when I wrote that I didn't know that I thought that was a you know maybe I was stretching it a little bit but in reality they do have women have had birth in water with dolphins doing the sonic impulses to relax and see this is why on YouTube well it's and beyond the YouTube I think one of the things that's important about it too is to understand those connections I think you're also bringing a very environmental message through this too because when we look at what's going on with Wales Wales are being in you know with the the sonar firm what's going on the military yeah I think there's a connection there there's a connection you know you know just there is that connection you can do it through sound you can do it through feeling you talk about the tingling right that that's something you always bring back about this tingling sensation between sonic impulses yeah but you know dolphins have been written the first chapter she's rescued by her dolphin friend who right dolphins have been rescuing human being since the Greek you know there's recorded incidents of dolphins interacting with human beings they're intelligent things and I know there are groups in Hawaii who go down to Tonga every year and swim with the whales and the dolphins and have you know very strong spiritual connections with these mammals and so I you know I don't get it too too woo-woo I only put in there the actual physical things that I have read about human beings with dolphins but I would I want to ask you this you know number one I don't want to tell everybody because try and swim with dolphins because there's also reports of if you're wearing sunblock they can actually hurt them there so so there's like an environment like don't ride elephants when you you know just there's certain things but I wanted to touch on base with you on this because you talk about the eye of the dolphin like you know when you look at a dolphin they do give you the eye and it's very connected and I wonder about this there like the sea I know there's sea horses which I love but don't you feel like they are the horse of the ocean in a way and I know you're a horse person like I am that there is a connection well you know this was a this whole story is is a fulfillment of my imagination right and I would love to swim with dolphins I have fantasies about swimming with dolphins you know I sit here in California in Malibu and I watch the surfers and I watch the dolphins and I so envy them both and you know if this is something that I know I can't do but in my imagination I think it would would be a wonderful thing to do and so it became the communication with the dolphins is real we know that and so and I've had people who are dolphin experts read the story and tell me that they felt that the interaction between the human beings and the dolphins was was realistic in their mind and you also I want to come and read what you you know from Hawaii to read a Hawaiian scholar to read the manuscript to make sure that you've got the history correct and the like the actual culture right did it right that I was true to the culture that was very very important to me and I've had reviews from Hawaiians and Westerners and Hapa-Hollies half Hawaiians and so on who who tell me thank you Linda thank you for being so careful and so true to the culture no I mean that was a very serious thing for me I mean after 20 years of going back and forth I realized I'd really taken on a big job of up trying to tell the Hawaiian story because it's an oral tradition you know there was no written language until the missionaries came and taught the Hawaiians to read and write and so the earliest chronicles are clouded by the prism of the missionary point of view right and so it's you know they handed their stories down through genealogical chance that went on for days but the thing I got what I did was I used the myths the the melee's the songs right the poem which I found in you know several different places and Martha Beckquist is an expert on mythology Hawaiian mythology and I leaned heavily on her and there's a woman Mary Pukui who talked you know talks about the values of the Hawaiian people and I really did my utmost to recreate that culture just just in this just in this way and listen one of the toughest things was not to use any modern words to snap people out of ancient Hawaii there's no word plastic for instance it's not ever and I didn't use big adjectives because they they talked simply you know with warm aloha and short sentences and stuff so I imitated them it's hard to do it's I've written radio plays using imitations of people and only using their words out of quotation like Mae West and Phyllis Diller and they you know and headed right and the actual plays out of it where it's nothing but structuring it together and I'm reading I understand the tasks that you put on not just from my experience but also reading you know stories that I grew up with in Africa where it'd be an oral tradition especially with the Bushman and the Sun that would come down and here comes these books and to get it correct because you can get it you know the world's gonna come down on you I remember Nancy when she published her first magazine in South Africa she put in Kosa she put it in Afrikaans and in English and no matter what she did the world came down on her she had professors and everybody sign off on it but you ain't gonna get you know what I mean it's very difficult to I'm right and here's the thing you're not gonna please everybody you know I it took no I took me you know a while to be have the guts to publish this book because I know knew there would be detractors because the Hawaiian people are very sensitive about the corruption of their culture and at this point they're just downright angry you know talking about break sovereignty and they're mad about Monica you know Monica is just a symbol of the how angry they are because they're being forced off their own island a lot of them Hawaiian people can't afford to live in it's sad because yeah I'm sorry but it's there is you know there isn't undercurrent there there is a lot of anger and so when a white person Holly writes a Hawaii story well you know you know what nerve yeah it's gonna say how dare you Linda who are you who are you you know you you know how can you talk but see writers have this problem I think it was Annie Rice sort of remember the name of the book that she wrote it was took place in the Newfoundland and anyway the people when she published your book you know the local people said how can you you know you don't know us you not she said look I know you better than you know yourself because I can look at your objective like and in the Hawaiian case they're not literary types for the most part Hawaiians love to sing and dance and swim and play and I love that's why I love them a lot of fun but they don't have a huge literary you know contribution so I did my best let me know I think I think that you view what I think what's what's good about it on that on that note is that it's educating people who have never been to Hawaii and if they've gone they're gonna get some they're gonna have a connection that's what I was saying like yeah I've never been there I've done all these interviews about Hawaii and interviewed all these artists you know and and at the same time never been there and you know Tonya Tega from the National Parks Arts Foundation is like Nancy Lee get your butts over here you know the air flare is cheap come especially after the volcano it's erupting yeah about here but at the same time it's like you know it is for me reading this goes right back to my home roots of Africa like I said that's it's understanding these cultures and you're gonna read this and you're gonna you're gonna create your own lingo of how to say everything and then you're gonna start going hey I'm gonna go on the internet and check how this is all said and done you're gonna start being inquisitive about this and understand and you're sharing history I think when it's historical fiction like this it's important that you did what you did by bringing in the lingo and bringing in her voice and coming from her why nani because then people can have that sense of place and sense of person very important and that's what historical fiction does it I think really good historical fiction that keeps the basic facts in there yes it's fiction but at the same time allows you to learn history they're learning I mean there's programs like drunk history now just because we have a problem of teaching history people don't want to know about history because it's about a bunch of dates and and wars and timelines and nobody's interested when it's presented that way we need right when the need movies we need all these right when it when it's a dry documentary people are not interested well why nani takes you to a place you can't get too it's exciting because it yeah because it doesn't exist anymore and the thing about it you know people go to the islands and you know they don't really know the history they the Hawaiian people sort of hide it a little bit because they give you bits and pieces you know they give you but they don't give you a full picture and that's what I tried to do that was what I because you know like you go to the Nepali jump off place where there was a huge battle where 800 people died and so on and it's in the story but in Oahu that's in I was just in Oahu but when they tell when you go there the guides just tell you that little snippet you know they don't give you the 1750 to 1819 full picture and that's what I tried to do and I don't think anyone else has done it I really don't I think people you know like Brandon you know he did his stories are Molikai and the lepers and you know there are a lot of Hawaiian books but I don't think I think I have given the fullest picture in a way that western readers can comprehend it and that is what I tried to well I'm thoroughly enjoying it I mean as to me I'm just like and I just I want to sit slow with it and that's something with your writing that you write where you put you your travel books you know we've talked about your last angel books you know on shows before and there's something about your writing that makes you stop and think and feel and get visual thank you and I think that's important but it's important you know it's we get bombarded with books and interviews and everything here and it's like I take my time when it's worthy you know what I mean it's like take your time and you you command that you you basically as a as a writer so you you're gonna get the feel you're very metaphorical in your writing um which I think is and you do it in a really good way that it's not overdone but it's putting you that you put that sense of place and I'm like damn man she's really thinking about this when she I go like I stop I go like how like I'm thinking about you writing this like she's got to have been proud about that paragraph man because that was good you know what I mean as a writer you know don't you get joy out of this it's hard yes you want to sweat bullets I was I'm going to admit that Winani is my proudest achievement well done it is very you know all the things I've done and writing and so on you know it's like I say it was a beautiful obsession it was a 20 year beautiful obsession and pulling it all together pulling in all that research I interviewed all these healing you know kumus masters um you know I got lo me lo me massage from the finest masters in the island that was important I was like that you know of course I loved I mean I loved doing it but I gathered so much information you know because so then then whittling it down I'm compressing it and then having like I say the guts to publish it because I knew there would be some people some detractors you know and I but it really hasn't been that bad I've just had a few well listen why none he was why none he stood up right and so must you if you're gonna do that that I yeah that's right you've got to stand up you cannot sit you cannot wait for people to say whether or not you should do something you have a burning in your chest or you know wherever to do something you got to stand up and do it otherwise you're gonna die not doing it that's correct I would have been psychologically blocked for the rest of my life if I hadn't published that book and that's just the way it had to be you know it had to be I just had to deal with it you know I have a talk that I give called accepting your greatness where I talk about how she embodies female empowerment in the steps that she went through and how I've tried to follow that path you know to lift the dragon's tail from your path at the end of the day is what you must do and you you know you just simply have to believe in yourself yeah and she was able to compromise because she believed in her strength in spirit she was able to compromise I'm gonna tell you the yet don't you dare but don't you dare not tell it what my readers I don't want you to know the end I want them to read the book also you know I just wanted to say that if people buy my book when any of us from old Hawaii on my site linda belu author.com I'm happy to provide one on his wayfinder which is that map to all the sacred sites on the big island which you know when you go to Hawaii it's just it's just enhances your time being there if you know what you're looking at if you know why these places are important and they're all over the big island it's like a mini travel guide that's gonna give you the I think the two and one if you're gonna go there you need to take the book you'd read it beforehand read it on the plane oh perfect you got five hours on the plane read it on the plane yeah and take the wayfinder and also if you like audiobooks I'm happy to give a free audiobook awesome audible I have coupons for for audiobooks if you know if that's what you enjoy so everyone linda belu author.com is the website to go to for that obviously you can get on Amazon and all those places but you know what you know I just always go go to the author go to the bookstore I you know just gonna say that I always love bookstores and gift shops that you know sell books we got to look at the times that we're in and recognize the the small business and the individual creative artisan and linda one last thing before you go there's a part in the book a lot of parts in the book that talk about lava tubes so having interviewed all these artists that have gone down into the caldera or been above the caldera depending on when and what was going on with the volcano so these lava tubes this is a big part of the book where you know people are going in and out of the lava tubes and while the volcano I want to know about that okay all right Pele had her own following and of of you know island people what happened when the Tahitians came in 1250 was they brought the the capu system like I told you and it was very harsh so some of the people ran into the mountains and hid and they lived in the lava tube like Thurston Lava Tube which is a huge lava tube on the flank of Kilauea and some people think that was the origin of the many hoonies because they would only come out at night many hoonies or little people who come out at night and you know build things and do things and you know that was where they hid was in the lava tubes and in the mountains and then on the big island they were Pele's people and they became a different culture a hidden culture a a secret culture almost like the the better one yeah okay so a secret culture is what they were and if you got caught by them it was it was not going to be a good day people feared them because Pele is an angry goddess you know that she's the fire goddess she's a jealous goddess she you know you you don't mess with Pele and her people you know were you know fairly warlike and so they lived in the lava tubes in the mountains in hidden places so wow there you go so lava tubes are like little caves but they could go up in all these different big caves big caves they're quite yeah there's Thurston Lava Tube that you almost can drive a car it's pretty big see that's all one yeah i've never been in a lava tube in my life that i can remember so that's that's i'm gonna send you a picture of a lava tube i want to see a lava tube i'm like i love a tube like you think about this it's like okay i feel like it's a the cavity in a tooth you know it's like this is crazy so i'm gonna send you a picture of Thurston lava tube it's huge awesome and i was you know yeah when i was in the in like 2014 i hiked what they call the icky killaway icky trail where you go down into the floor of the the crater and the femurals were rising you know the steam was rising from these femurals and if you went off of the path that was marked with rock stacks Karen you could you could melt the top bottom of your tennies you know i mean it was still kind of you know uh dangerous down there but at the time they let you do it now they don't let you do it anymore but you know i i walked all the way across and then up the other side to the Thurston lava tube which is a huge lava tube and hid in the ferns imagining myself to be a what a paleis followers oh this is cool so you're you're reenacting well you're as you're doing this whole thing okay so wait i okay wait we're gonna go i got a digress here you said this is a 20-year obsession so like when did you start reenacting in the ferns oh it became like i say it became just an obsession for me i had to go to all these places but did you know you had to go to the book did you know you're gonna write the book i was toying with it yes yes i was yes when i went to kawaii i dropped out for a year and lived in kawaii decided whether or not it has a good to be a writer not you know and if that was going to be the direction in my life wow it's amazing that's what i connected with this story and yes it was kind of like on the back burner for many years and then i just finally bit the bullet and did it but you know started the writing and and actually did it but for 10 or 15 years i was just exploring you know like i had to go to the place of refuge which if you go to the big island you must go to the place of refuge it's one of them it's totally authentic and if they had kind of an ollie ollie oxen free kind of a justice system like if you broke a kapu and you you know we're going to be used as human sacrifice for for your mistake you could run to the place of refuge if you could make it inside the walls of the refuge and the priest would take you in you could be spared wow and then and then if you followed certain protocols you could be let back into society so it wasn't exactly jail it was like a free space and i found that very fascinating and i had to hang out there for a very long time because the the bones of of at least a dozen chiefs are in the in the walls there oh so yeah i had to go to these places you know i have to go to hawaii now i mean i know we have to anyway because of our love your park store but um i'm i'm like in i'm in like flin i want to get in the lava tube so everyone again why nani a voice from old hawaii hawaii by linda belu get it on amazon but again really go to her website and uh if you get the book from there uh you get her why nani's wayfinder map uh nice beautiful brochure i have it it was the first thing i got in my hands with the book and i'm like dude i mean to you know i i'm i'm a sucker for maps so and and especially ones that are like curated and uh also you know you get it from an artisan directly from the source so go to linda belu author.com and uh also we've got an article from her talking about writing the book and you can see that at glennradio and tv.com and of course i always have to play music so he elawi um i i'm reading the book and he elawi pops up and you know why nani's over there and i'm like why nani or elawi and the first way of being ignorant about he elawi was through makana being on our shows makana amazing slacky guitarist uh from hawaii and uh so i thought oh we've got to play this i sat up and i'm like we're reading this i mean we're playing this song like when i'm reading the book i'm like we're playing the song and then you know then and then there's another love scene so anyway i was like well now i might have to change the music no kidding but um oh thank you so much Lisa it's always lovely to talk with you too and everyone again don't forget big blend radio we stream episodes on monday wednesday's friday sunday go to big blend radio dot com uh the podcast are available just about in any place you want the list is on there and here it is he elawi again by makana you can keep up with him at makana music dot com and this is from his album right thank you so much linda happy travels i know australia is next so enjoy thank you lisa bye bye [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and so the story is told all eyes rest upon he loved me [Music] thank you for listening to big blend radios lost to angel travel adventure show with linda belu travel writer and author keep up with her at linda belu author dot com and lost angel adventures dot com you can also keep up with big blend radio at big blend radio dot com now happy traveling