Native Hawaiian artist Sam Kaʻai lost five decades’ worth of his wood carvings and cultural artifacts, which he had collected throughout the South Pacific, to the 2023 Maui fires.
Those that burned were war clubs, stones, and carved images depicting Hawaiian gods, as well as canoe paddles and other items. All of those priceless connections to Hawaiʻi’s ancient past were on display or in storage at the Nā ʻAikāne o Maui Cultural Center in Lahaina.
But the 87-year-old master carver remains optimistic he can create more.
His chipper attitude is: “Get ‘em remade before you die.”
Born in 1938 in Hāna, Kaʻai grew up in Wailuku and Waiehu, and he became adept at working with wood, starting with carving faces using drywood. He graduated from McKinley High School on Oʻahu, and received an art scholarship at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, where he learned scripting, painting and design.
His reputation grew as he carved notable works for Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historic Park on Hawaiʻi Island, Haleakalā National Park on Maui, and other sites.
Kaʻai was living in Wailuku two months before the fire that ripped through Lahaina, a historic town that was a key hub of the whaling industry and the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. He was in the process of moving his wood carvings and Pacific collections to his place.
Among the artworks that burned were two original kiʻi — images of a man and a woman — for the Polynesian sailing canoe Hōkūleʻa, intended to help guide it on its epic voyage from Oʻahu to Tahiti in 1976.
Kaʻai now lives with his daughter, Malia Kaʻai-Barrett, in Pauoa Valley on O‘ahu. He moved just four months ago and has been anxious to start his new line of work.
“We might be talking about something else, but the conversation always circles back to, 'I need to get back to my carving and what I’m making,'” Kaʻai-Barrett said.
One image Kaʻai wants to remake is a kōnane board — one that he lost to the fire two years ago. The image had a man on his elbows holding a wooden board with black pebbles. Kōnane is a traditional Hawaiian strategy game, much like checkers or chess.
Kaʻai hasn’t carved yet because he doesn’t have a setup or the materials to start his projects.
Kaʻai wants to continue his work in traditional Hawaiian carvings while mentoring the next generation of carvers.
