celebrate National Rain Forest Week

I am so grateful to all of you who have so enthusiastically joined in this celebration of the rainforest. As National Rainforest Week draws to a close today, I leave you with Pegge Hopper images of a wahine in a maile lei. The maile is a fragrant vine that grows in the rain forest, and its leaves are used in leis of celebration. Leis are a Hawaiian expression of gratitude and aloha.

Imagine the fragrance, not a heavy flowery scent, but of the forest itself, as if the spirit of the forest, ancient and new at the same time, had a natural perfume.

aloha & mahalo … A hui hou!

http://starbulletin.com/2007/09/29/news/story05.html

The State of Hawaii has purchased development rights to substantial acreage on the Big Island, with reforestation plans. This is a beautiful story, wherein a couple leaves a legacy that goes beyond money.

This photo from the article is very typical of the rain forests there. They are sometimes referred to euphemistically as cloud forests, perhaps so as not to scare off tourists.

http://www.coffeetimes.com/kapa.htm

This is a link to the history of kapa or tapa cloth making in Hawaii. The story is told as a legend, as a Hawaiian would talk story about what went before.

In Hawaiian legend, Hina is the goddess mother, and among her daughters are Pele and Mahinui, who you don’t hear a whole lot about.

Hina:

This woodcut is done by an artist who lives in Volcano, in the rainforest of Hawaii, Dietrich Varez. Here is something he has done in color, of maile pickers. Maile is the fragrant vine leaf used in making ceremonial leis.

In Brazil, alternative fuel is the order of the day. It is synthesized from sugar cane. Sugar cane, the crop that displaced the rain forests of Hawaii, is what is used.

What is the sense of destroying rain forest to plant sugar cane to synthesize alternative fuel?

In the fragile rainforest, roads are built not just to service the needs of local petroleum companies, but to enable Occidental Petroleum for example access to the Yasuni Rainforest.

But, shall we celebrate? Ecuador refuses to allow the road through the Yasuni to be built.

To find out more, here is a link. I looked for an up to the minute link, but settled for this one.

http://www.saveamericasforests.org/Yasuni/

There is a lot to explore on this website.

some haunting music

an anthem to the land of the Hawaiians and to the people.

“Our land is in great great danger now…” The land, the rain forest, the people – it is all one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSXNP4uE4nc&mode=related&search=

Hawaiian culture is being perpetuated through music, dance, and the arts. I cannot begin to express the emotions I feel about these islands, the people and all that has been taken from them.

If you wish, here is the Israel Kamakawiwo’ole version of the same music. The production values are not as clear, but it’s Iz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvqGWigKusQ

This is a hula celebration at Kilauea. Kahiko is the traditional hula form. Halemaumau is the home of Pele. The name means house of everlasting fire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sppdlelCP2U

Enjoy, as part of the celebration of Rain Forest Week. The rain forest at Kilauea is sacred to Pele, daughter of the goddess Hina.

This is my favorite image of Pele. She sits in her sacred forest holding the egg which holds her sister Hi’iaka. The tales of Pele and Hi’iaka are epic.

It used to be that the Hawaiian rain forest covered much of the islands. Sandalwood, koa, and ohia were the indigenous hardwoods that formed the canopy. Hapu’u, tall ferns not unlike the tree ferns of Australia, formed the mid canopy. Orchids & bird nest ferns lodged in the upper canopy and orchids and bromeliads found niches in the water retaining fuzzy “skin” of the giant ferns. Bright honeycreepers with curly bills drank the nectar of the blossoms of the ohia. From one bird dozens of species evolved, and now extinction threatens – over 25% of US endangered species are found in Hawaii.

The tropical hardwoods made excellent canoes, and eventually building posts for ships and colonial houses, cabinets and trim. The hardwoods left the islands as cut planks. The once flourishing sandalwood forests are gone. Koa is still cut for building and artisan purposes, but it is now recognized as a heritage tree, and conservationists are growing the trees from the seeds of the tallest and straightest trees in the vicinity where the seedlings will be planted. The seedlings must be protected in their early years from the wild boars, animals that were introduced to the islands and forage in the rain forest like bulldozers.

This is a mighty koa.

The i’iwi still exists. When I have seen them in the forest, I always feel as if the spirit of ancient Hawaii is walking the forest, and the birds are keeping company with the spirit.

It is odd how the newest land on the planet is so full of the sense what is passing from us forever.

Come on in for the libation of your choice.

anyone bring guitars and drums?

we are celebrating National Rain Forest Week with a toast!

enlist the aid of the robots

tag your goal “rain forest” and maybe that tag will appear on the public pages and bring more people to an understanding of how vital the rain forest ecology is to us all.