Posted by Pinky.

Hi everybody! Bunny just posted a great mini-documentary by Na Maka o ka Aina in the Pinky Presents area - it's called Na Ono o ka Aina / Delicacies of the Land. Some of you may not know much about kalo (taro) and its significance in Hawaii. Here's a little bit of background from Hawaii SEED:

"[Taro] is one of the single most well-known, important, and reliable plants in all of Polynesia, and the locals take a deep pride in its profound history. Various names for parts of the taro plant indicate its interwoven history with the Hawaiian people: the place where the stem meets the leaf is called the piko, or navel. The stem is the ha, the breath, and the cluster of shoots (or keiki, meaning children) that surround the mother plant are called an ohana, or family.
Here in Hawaii, the growing and cultivation of the kalo plant is a tradition that stretches back for more than a thousand years. The Hawaiians loved, honored, and cared for kalo and were in turn, as the creation story implies, fed and supported by it for generations and generations. By tending carefully the kalo, the Hawaiians eventually cultivated more than 300 varieties by selecting the plants for certain conditions, climates, and soils..."

Besides being an absolutely delicious food to eat, kalo has also been on people's mind lately for another more disturbing reason: there are bio-tech corporations who are trying to control, own, and exploit kalo in all kinds of very inappropriate ways. Many of the issues surrounding kalo are very similar to what's going on all over the Fourth World, as these corporations rush to own and commodify not only indigenous knowledge but also life itself. This is the context in which this mini-documentary was made.

A sincere thank you to Na Maka o ka Aina for allowing us to share this video with you on our website for a while.

Take care,
pinky

[ Update: This video is no longer available on our website. ]