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My Day With an Expert: Auntie Oki

An expert is someone who has a special skill or knowledge in a certain area that nobody else has. There are many experts on the island. Some are really good at finding water, knowing what the animals are going to do, or fixing things that break. Sometimes people argue about who’s the best expert at certain things but when it comes to shark-toothed weapons everyone agrees. Nobody is as good as Auntie Oki. When I learned that we had to spend a day with an expert for this assignment, I knew right away that I wanted to spend a day with her.

Oki and her sister Pana run the armory. Before the fracture the armory used to be a museum. Lots of people would come to look at all kinds of old stuff, not just weapons. Since the accident, the sister’s family have made it the best place to buy the equipment you need to protect yourself and keep you alive if you’re out exploring.

Leiomano is an old Hawaiian word that means “lei of the shark”. Today it’s a word that means any kind of shark-toothed weapon and it is Oki’s specialty. She says that making leiomano is a form of art and she tries to make each of her weapons as suitable for framing on the wall as they are at slicing through a Nightmarcher.

Every morning Oki puts on her beach hat and sets out just before sunrise to look for shark teeth. “You find the best ones right at dawn,” she says. Oki prefers tiger shark teeth but says you can use any heavily serrated species like dusky, bull, or even great white teeth. Even though the pointy teeth of the different kind of reef sharks look cool, Oki says they don’t cut very well so she only uses them for decoration or toys.

She carries the teeth back home in specially made bundles of hau tree cloth and palm fibers to avoid the teeth cracking or becoming dull by rubbing against each other. In her workshop, Oki lays out all the teeth, grades them, and decides what color schemes, patterns, and weapon types each tooth would be good for.

Oki says that every tooth, tusk, and antler she finds has a place and that there are a numerous opportunities in every home to “tastefully weaponize the decor”. She is almost as well known for her nontraditional creations as she is for her leiomano work. Every night Oki teaches a class on creative armament design for anyone interested in the subject. She says her exclusive line of boar-tusk brooms are, “easy to use and are as deadly as they are elegant.” But when it comes to shark teeth she does things the old way.

Oki treats the teeth with a special process handed down through her family to make them hard and less brittle. Even though I asked politely, she wouldn’t tell me what it was. She only uses koa or milo wood in her weapons. She says that they are the most durable and fit in well with almost any color palette.

Some people say that the best way to secure a tooth to a weapon is to lash it without drilling holes or use a strong epoxy or glue. Oki says those methods are lazy and can lead to tooth or life loss in battle, as well as a missed opportunity to add exciting accent features to a weapon. Auntie Oki uses a small laser drill to score her treated shark teeth before punching a hole with a handmade sandalwood awl. She says you can’t make beautiful weapons unless you’re using beautiful tools.

The ancient Hawaiians believed a lot of weird things about teeth. They believed that shark teeth could protect you from shark attacks and made warriors more brave. They also believed that if you took a molar from a fallen enemy and inlay it in a club, the mana from the slain warrior was transferred to the weapon, giving its owner more spiritual power. Owning a shark-toothed weapon was a great honor and would make its wielder almost impervious to harm. But Oki says her creations are for display and devastation purposes only, not for spiritual protection.

If you are looking for: a Koa axe, a niho knife, a hoe leiomano paddle, or just a simple shark-toothed club, there is no better place to look than the armory. My mom says that I’m still too young to get a pololu spear, but when I grow up, I know Oki will make me a beautiful one that will match my favorite boots.

Akamai Mahelona
4th Grade
Pu`u School Lahaina

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Lahaina Ancestor Exhibit Misses the Mark

For weeks I’d been hearing about how wonderful the ancestors exhibit was at the museum so I decided to finally check it out for myself. I moved to Lahaina over 4 years ago and have completely embraced the way of life and culture. I’ve never lived someplace that felt so perfect before. I couldn’t wait to see the artifacts and learn more about my adopted people. To put it bluntly, what I found inside was horrifying. Instead of uplifting a proud and ecologically responsible culture, I was exposed to a hit job of the grossest kind.

First, let me address the elephant in the room. Let’s talk about the shark teeth. They are tied, wedged, and jammed into a majority of the “artifacts”. Did I mention that most of the artifacts are really weapons? There are shark teeth clubs, daggers, and things that I don’t even know what they are. I was surprised that the gratuitous amount of teeth didn’t spill over into other parts of the museum. I fully expected to find shark-toothed pens or bookmarks in the gift shop.

I’m not saying that these items might not have been occasionally used in the past, just that this dental damnation of the Hawaiian people was offensive. I’m not sure why we as a community would support this sort of thing.

I had heard that tiki idols were used at one time to revere ancestors but that was before pens and paper. It’s hardly the Hawaiian people’s fault that they used these grotesques at one point before they had the technology to write down, “Grandpa Joe is a really great guy!”

Hula skirts were nowhere to be seen except the gift shop. Are we really to believe that the early explorers brought dance and clothing to Hawaii? The same held true for leis. I guess the islanders couldn’t string a bunch of flowers together either until the big boats showed up.

After a few minutes of looking around at this Polynesian minstrel show, my hands began to shake with anger and I had to leave. I thought about what I’d seen all day and decided that I should warn everyone thinking of going to the exhibit and to help the “experts” at the museum with their next “celebration of Hawaiian culture and history.” Here it goes.

Real Hawaiians don’t drink out of hollowed-out pineapples and coconuts. Pineapples aren’t even indigenous to the islands. We enjoy our adult beverages in glasses with LED lighting like everyone else. We don’t put on flip-flops and walk down to the beach to play our ukuleles. We wear rubbah slippers and listen to the house band at the resort. I’d never wear a shirt that combined flowers with cars or animals. True Hawaiian shirts have flowers, various plants, and maybe surfboards. That’s it. Anything else is cultural appropriation. Our free time is not spent watching the spam sculpture competition at the fair. We eat musubi and spicy spam sushi rolls.

The Hawaii I’ve come to know and love is about beautiful beaches, the bounty of nature, and buffets. When we have a problem we go down to the local beach bar, watch the surfers, and talk it out over chi-chi’s. We don’t rip open bellies with the tooth-encrusted handguards on our bone punch-daggers when we have a disagreement. I’m no historian but I think we as a people, and certainly our children, deserve better than what is on display now. Let’s forget the past and work together to frame a better narrative moving forward.

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Lahaina Man Invents Printable Shark Mitigation System

The spring season is just around the corner and the island is about to see a big increase in surfers. With half of Maui situated within 5 miles of the coast, it is no wonder that so many seek out the waves. Whether it is the big consistent waves of the North shore or the gentle breakers offered by numerous other spots, the island is considered a jewel by longboarders of all skill levels. While a day on the waves can seem like a dream come true, it comes with one unlikely but still terrifying possibility, a shark attack. Local inventor Ano Lee says he’s come up with a solution to the problem and that his new printable Sharknet system will help surfers sleep a bit easier.

The history of shark deterrents is long and interesting. During the second world war, militaries poured money into research in order to develop a system to keep downed pilots and sailors safe. Early solutions were chemical: Repellants were made from naturally occurring irritants and a wide array of copper compounds. Some tried to harness the odor of dead sharks or use semiochemical solutions like strong pheromones, all with less than stellar results.

Magnetic and electrical mitigation systems were developed later with better results but they tended to be bulky or impractical. Smart buoy and sonar systems proved to be an effective warning system but not of much use once a shark decided to attack. Lee’s Sharknet device borrows a little from each of these previous attempts.

The Sharknet module sits on the bottom of a board and looks like a streamlined oversized hockey puck. The device uses sonar to scan the surrounding water for activity out to 100 yards. Data is analyzed for the distinct movements of sharks, and an alert message is sent via your Ceremplant if a shark is detected. This message is also sent to anyone else within a mile who is using the Sharknet system. In addition, the device creates an electromagnetic field that overloads the electroreceptive sensory organs unique to sharks called the ampullae of Lorenzini. This acts as a barrier to any interested sharks. But that’s just the beginning of what makes his invention extraordinary according to Lee.

“The latest model has all that shark stuff, but it is a huge improvement over the earlier version. I’ve managed to incorporate 4 multicolored 300mW lasers that look totally awesome in the water. I’ve heard some people worry that it might not be good for the coral, but that’s because they haven’t seen how cool it looks when you’re going up a wave, especially at night. I also had some trouble with the electromagnetic field interfering with the piezo plates and messing up the sound the boards could make but I figured out a solution. The new one lets you use your board as a speaker even when a shark is making a run at you,”

The fact that surfers account for around 50% of worldwide shark attacks makes the possibility a concern for everyone who enjoys riding the waves. Womanimal World Champion Layla Kalani famously had an encounter with an aggressive tiger shark during a competition back in 2023. Coming off her best season yet, the multiple time champion said, “Growing up in Lahaina, I know Ano well. He was always coming up with cool gadgets in school, but this thing is amazing! I’d definitely recommend putting one of these on your board if you are worried about sharks. I just wonder if Ano is making something to warn them about me. You have to remember that the last time I came face to face with a shark, I wasn’t the one who needed saving.”

It’s not just famous surfers who are interested in Sharknet. A number of companies and research organizations have expressed interest in the system. According to Lee the phone has been ringing off the hook and he gave up on answering his email. Even the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has reached out to talk about a development partnership.

“It’s crazy how many people want to talk about Sharknet with me. I was totally honored that the Navy seems interested. I have mad respect for the men and women in our military. That’s why I really pushed home the point that I’d love to work with them but they had to be really careful about not turning on the lasers unless the board was in the water. Blinding a sailor is the last thing I want to happen. I made sure to include some eye protection with the couple units I sent them just in case the sailor’s desire to shred overcomes good sense.”

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Surfer Layla Kalani Fights Off Shark Attack

Four-time world champion surfer, Layla Kalani, had a close encounter with a shark during the Manimal Invitational surfing competition on Saturday. The battle between the Womanimal spokeswoman and the 8-foot-long tiger shark was caught on live television.

Layla not only fought off the attack but seemed to turn the tables on the shark by grabbing it by the dorsal fin and striking it repeatedly. Safety personnel pulled her off her would-be attacker and brought her to shore. Although Kalani was unharmed after the encounter, organizers decided to cancel the event.

In the terrifying footage, the shark can be seen hitting the back of Layla’s board almost knocking her into the water. Rescuers quickly responded to the scene but not before Kalani lept into the water and attacked the shark.

“I only needed one more wave to clinch the day and I could really feel the Womanimal purring in my veins when it hit,” Kalani said. “I just saw Radical Red and couldn’t believe that the shark was ruining my day. The next thing I remember one of the safety guys was pulling me off its back and telling me to calm down.”

When asked if the attack made her have second thoughts about her profession, fellow surfer Laurie Parker said, “It’s part of our sport, so no, the shark doesn’t scare me that much. But I’m going to make sure to not get too close to Layla from now on when she’s drinking that stuff.”