Makahiki event celebrates culture, family, community
The incarcerated members of San Quentin’s Native Hawaiian Religious Group cannot go to their homeland, so they brought Hawaii to San Quentin through their annual Makahiki celebration.
The well-attended festive November event in the Garden Chapel featured friends, family, a delicious meal, and ceremonial dances and prayers. Lively conversation and island-vibe music played over the sound system, filling the room with a warm ambiance as everyone sat at tables set in white.
Louis Sále, the NHRG’s resident spiritual leader, started the festivities with an oli aloha chant to “honor our ceremony and community” with the sound of crashing waves in the background.
“Today we celebrate Lono Makahiki, one of the four gods, who is the god of feasting, peace, and rejuvenation. At its root, it’s a harvest celebration, a universal expression of thanks and appreciation,” Sále said, noting that it also serves as the Hawaiian way to celebrate the New Year and has an association with the Pleiades constellation.
“This is a time to remember our loved ones who have passed, the year that has passed, to spend time with loved ones, and plan for the future — for feasting, hula, and playing games,” Sále said.
After a moment of silence for victims of the Maui wildfires, Kumu Patrick Makuakane delivered an opening prayer in Hawaiian.
Before the hula and haka dances and the uku’lele songs commenced, Sále talked about his insight into the group’s journey to redemption through practicing his culture and the Ho’oponopono way of a spiritual foundation built on righteousness.
“Us incarcerated gentlemen weren’t always the angels that you see today,” Sále said. “I think I speak on behalf of the Native Hawaiian Religious Group that we are sorry to our families for the poor choices that we made; we are doing our best to atone for our mistakes and do our best to make our amends.”
Sále later noted the irony of having experienced toxic masculinity in his younger days and then finding healthy masculinity through his traditional native culture at — of all places—San Quentin. He said he felt a sense of redemption by coming back to his roots of hula dancing after walking away from it at age 14, having feared that it would make him look “soft.”
“Lots of boys had sports or even gangs to show masculinity, but hula in the modern world wasn’t always perceived that way. It’s very healing to come back to it; it’s good feeling for all of us,” Sále said.
The event treated guests to moving musical performances, including a uku’lele song by Sále and his cellie, Tam Nguyen, dedicated to Sále’s son and daughter in the audience. His son brought his girlfriend so that she could meet his father for the first time, and they all said they felt proud of him for leading the group.
“There was a healing element for them to come in and see the work we are doing,” Sale said later, “and to sing that song that me and my cellie wrote together, to see how much I love them.”
As part of the celebration, NHRG presented plaques of appreciation to key volunteers and supporters, including Nate Tan of the Asian Prisoner Support Committee.
Tan said, “Every year, I’m blown away by your commitment to your healing. Not only your healing, but to the world’s healings. Thank you, all!”
A final plaque of appreciation went, with roaring applause, to Auntie Adel, the group’s beloved longtime volunteer, mentor, and uku’lele teacher.
“My background is in social work … so I really, really do appreciate that you appreciate my volunteering,” Adel said.
The group recited a prayer before serving plates heavy with teriyaki chicken, pulled pork, rice, frosted sweet bread, and taro and pineapple pie. “The ocean is sacred to our elementals … the prayer is lifted, it rises, and it flies.”
“When I first saw the dance and heard the music, it brought up so much emotion that I wanted to cry for joy,” said Ken Osako, a new NHRG member, whose parents grew up in Lahaina. He said he looks forward to inviting his family for the next Makahiki event.
