Aunty Annadele Yahiro & Mick Bursack
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In 2022, Michael Bursack participated in our Hui Mo‘olelo training program under the guidance of artist Leilehua Yuen. Upon completion, we captured an audio-recorded talk-story between he and fellow Hale Hōʻikeʻike docent Annadele Yahiro. In 2024, professional artists from across the globe submitted proposals to translate Aunty Annadele's story as a work of public art. Upon selection by a community panel, artist Richard O'Connor and his team at Ace & Son Moving Picture Co. entered a period of project development to meet the storytellers, learn more about the context of their story, and infuse the evolving design with a sense of place distinct to the recording.
• Full Recording HERE • Excerpt HERE On April 27, 2024, this animated film short was unveiled at the 2024 Hui Mo‘olelo Film Festival in Kīhei for a packed house. |
Excerpt from Aunty's Story
My family has lived in Waiehu for more than a hundred years, and we still have family living in Waiehu at that place where I grew up. My tutus five generations back from me grew kalo, they were fisherman, they lived along the coastline from lower Waiehu to Paukukalo growing taro, raising fish in the ponds and fishing in the ocean. They had canoes so they traveled by canoe from Waiehu to Hana... they watched the tides and the weather so they knew, you know, when to go and when not to go. A lot of this we’ve learned by doing research. Our immediate kupunas that were alive when we were, they told us stories that we thought were fairytale stories, and whenever they mentioned big tutu, you know big tutu could’ve been big tutu 3 generations ago or big tutu four generations ago.
There was a story that my mother told me, that my cousins and I didn’t put together until recently, about our big tutu and here they’re saying big tutu, but not which big tutu, how he swam away with the sharks, which, we’re told is one of our ʻaumakuas, He swam away with the sharks because he didn’t want to be taken away by authorities who said he had leprosy. And so they would tell us “don’t be afraid of the sharks, there’s a big shark out there,” and there is a grandfather shark out in Waiehu, because you know it’s your big tutu. Well, recently while doing research I discovered that in fact tutu was diagnosed with leprosy, and was sent to Kalaupapa because of that, but he tried to run away. He didn’t want to go to Kalaupapa, so he escaped and they found him about three months later and took him back to Kalaupapa - but this is the big tutu who swam away with the sharks. This is what we’ve determined. And my cousins and I were not surprised, but enlightened, by this story that we thought was a fairytale. And turns out to be, you know, it was a story that was probably handed down to her.
There was a story that my mother told me, that my cousins and I didn’t put together until recently, about our big tutu and here they’re saying big tutu, but not which big tutu, how he swam away with the sharks, which, we’re told is one of our ʻaumakuas, He swam away with the sharks because he didn’t want to be taken away by authorities who said he had leprosy. And so they would tell us “don’t be afraid of the sharks, there’s a big shark out there,” and there is a grandfather shark out in Waiehu, because you know it’s your big tutu. Well, recently while doing research I discovered that in fact tutu was diagnosed with leprosy, and was sent to Kalaupapa because of that, but he tried to run away. He didn’t want to go to Kalaupapa, so he escaped and they found him about three months later and took him back to Kalaupapa - but this is the big tutu who swam away with the sharks. This is what we’ve determined. And my cousins and I were not surprised, but enlightened, by this story that we thought was a fairytale. And turns out to be, you know, it was a story that was probably handed down to her.
Project Development
This is a season of storytelling. A time to share the tales from our kupuna and the legends our mo‘opuna will tell.
Meet the Storytellers
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Work in progress
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Youth Task Force meeting
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‘Ōlelo No‘eau consultation
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Project Timeline
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