Anthropology and Oral History at Kalaupapa National Historical Park | Sharing + Holding Stories
Nov. 1
It has been a while since I’ve had anything to write.
In one week I will have been in Kalaupapa for four months. I cannot believe I am here sometimes. I have been busy. Since early July I have been working as a NCPE (national council for preservation education) intern in the CRM (cultural resource management) division of Kalaupapa National Historical Park. My main tasks have been: scanning documents and photographs and transcribing oral histories.
Having the chance to transcribe a range of interviews: NPS staff, State Staff, family, patients, pastors, and the people involved with serving Kalaupapa during WWII. This work allows me to learn about various facets of this place: the history, the workers, the way the National Park is striving to preserve the ecology but also how that serves the history of the community.
Community events have been the most wonderful of all—and there is a thread of tradition that moves through each:
Weekly Volleyball, in remembrance most recently of Lelepali, but also a tradition that has carried on since the 1940s (or maybe sooner)
Weekly movie night, an ode to Aunty Gertrude.
Halloween party
and so much more.
Kalaupapa moves me (+ others) with its history, its beauty, and all there is to explore. I am grateful for a great community of friends with whom I can share adventures to the valleys, starry nights in Kalawao, and photo sessions on Black Sand Beach.
This post does not feel as poetic as I imagined it, nor can I write in detail much about my work, but sharing feels important. And growth too: personal and professional. Questions of what I want to do and how I want to do it, personal and professional. Pain, joy, admiration all rolled into one place. A place focused on Ih sharing the history through stories and holding them—holding them for patients who did not wish for the public to now—but knowing that their stories are held, safe, and will be remembered, that’s so amazing to me. And a place where you can tangibly serve patients and other community members in the simple space of showing up, smiling, and sharing a meal.
