Legends from the Pacific: Book 1

Chapter 3

WHEN I BEGAN WORKING on film and television projects in the mid-90s, cast and crew asked me to share stories about my culture. I shared childhood stories, personal experiences, and discovered some of Hawaii’s locals and Native Hawaiians knew little about Hawaii’s culture and past.

After many paranormal experiences and investigations, I met historian and storyteller Dr. Glen Grant. I became a regular guest on his weekly radio show, and he referred to me as the embodiment of his “Chicken Skin” stories. We formed a society that investigated Hawaii’s paranormal disturbances, while others conducted Dr. Grant’s tours.

In November 2004, before podcasting was a term, my friend Kenneth “Kento” Komoto, a professional comedian, and I started “Off the Air’s: Geek Nation”, a weekly 3-hour geek culture show. Geek Nation became a hybrid AM radio/internet show. After a few years, Kento understandably got burned out, and we stopped Geek Nation. But I knew I’d return to podcasting.

While productions continued asking about my culture. Movies, shows, streaming programs and the internet reworked cultural tales. These re-imaginings were entertaining, but many viewers weren’t aware of the original story, or knew how different the reinterpretations were.

Some renditions were like bad 80s films that were so loosely based on popular intellectual property, their films only shared the main character’s name, and sometimes the property’s title.

I felt Asian and Pacific cultural stories were getting the bad 80s movie treatment, and no one knew or cared.

However, bad 80s movies were not the only culprits. Time-blurred memories and storytellers, who accidentally or deliberately stripped a tale’s elements, created fractured shadows of stories.

In a crusade, some likened to creating the Asian and Pacific version of Grimms’ Fairy Tales, I researched these stories to restore them, and in February 2020, launched the podcast “Legends from the Pacific” to share my findings, promote cultural history, and awareness.

While I understand it is impossible to reconstruct all a story’s details. My goal is to provide a completed version of these stories close to their original telling, and hope they are cherished instead of lost to time.

Mahalo nui loa for your support in helping us spread cultural awareness,

Kamuela Kaneshiro.