"Aunties and Uncles: I have read that the relationship between children and their Aunties and Uncles in Hawaiian culture is a strong one. Even more than that, I have felt those bonds ever since I was young. Whether related by marriage or blood, they are parents to me no matter how old I am. When I was very young, we had a very unusual visitor, the eldest of my mother's siblings, Uncle Junior. He traveled for his job and for the first time came to visit us. My mother did not talk about her home in Hawaii with us, perhaps because she missed it too much. She did not say and we were too young to understand it even if we asked. Those were grown-up topics.
Uncle Junior was exciting and new to us. He talked of Grandma and their other siblings and the mischief they would get into as children. My mother's eyes lit up with excitement when they talked about those old familiar places and events. He used words like "kolohe" and "da kine" and "cut short". Today I even use them in my "talk story" with them.
Later, came the Aunties and other Uncles to our unsuspecting New Jersey town. Auntie Charis and Uncle Randal and Auntie Roberta brought with them the flavors, the colors, and the unforgettable plumeria lei flowers. My one and only tattoo is of plumeria in honor of that awakening. Uncle Randall coached us in the fine art of building an imu in the back yard! In the following years I was to meet and grow to love Auntie Ann in Connecticut. It was a hike up the New England Turnpike, but it was well worth it and I was eager to meet my new-found cousins. It wasn't until I made my first trip to the Islands that I met Uncle Jerry, Auntie Honey and Uncle Pete, Auntie Lehua and Uncle Geoff, and Uncle Harold. The only ones absent were Auntie Jeanie, who lived in Wisconsin and Uncle Glen who passed away some years earlier. It was quite good fortune, I thought, to be able to discover the richness of my mother's family after all these years. It's been many years since my Mom passed on...I see her in them; they see her in me. And so, she lives still in the memories, the stories, and the talk story sessions. My Aunties and Uncles watch over me and I honor them as if they were my parents. I've found my home in their arms, me ke aloha pumehana (with the warmth of my love)."
Always in my heart. Me ke aloha, dear sister. Please hang over the kiln and watch it for me :)
This was started pushing powder away. I wanted to stay with black & white but I couldn't really tell it was plumeria until I added color. We'll see how it fires... I also used a rubber shaper tool to clear away white to bring out the petals but I had a static electricity issue and powder sort of flies back onto the petals.
Fired plumeria:
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