The Animated Story of Nanifay Paglinawan & Pualani Enos​​

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In 2022, Nanifay Paglinawan, Women Helping Women lifetime achievement awardee + Pualani Enos recorded a talk-story as part of our Hui Mo‘olelo program partnership with Hale Hōʻikeʻike at the Bailey House/ Maui Historical Society.

In early 2024, professional artists from across the globe submitted proposals to translate this 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 their feedback. 

>> Listen to the story that has inspired this artwork 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. ​

From the Story

• Pualani: Do you think that there is enough in the way we engage today, like a place where we can have disagreement and have open conversations
• Aunty: I think they’re sporadically out there. In my generation and my mother’s generation and even my grandmother’s generation, they had to be really kūʻē, they either had to hide to keep what they wanted, or they had to fight. My grandmother’s generation and my mother’s generation, I call it the secret generation. At least for most people, everybody learned to keep it a secret. And this is another story that I share: When I was in my early 20s I went to visit my grandmother who was living in Lāʻie and she never locked her door. Well hardly anybody locked their door. Anyway I’m going in “Grandma, how you? I’m here. Nanifay”. And I go in and my grandmother is sitting on the kitchen table. It’s about 1 or 2 o’clock in the afternoon. And she’s sitting with Uncle George. He’s a Hawaiian man too, and they’re very good friends. But I walk in and they both look at me and they start jerking. They’re petrified scared. And Uncle George, he was like about my age, they were like about in their middle-70s, late-70s, and he started to cry. And I just, I thought they were having an affair and I walked in on them. That’s the first thing that came to my head. So I said “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m going, I’m going, I’m going”. They said “no no no, come here girlie”. They called me girlie. “Come. Sit down girlie”. Because they were speaking pure Hawaiian. 
• Pualani: Ahhh
• Aunty: Pure Hawaiian. The two of them. And I’ve never heard my grandmother speak. She’ll say little words, noho, pau, hele mai, just little phrases here and there. But they were speaking ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i. I said no but you folks were speaking Hawaiian. How come? I don’t understand. You know. I looked confused, I know because I was. Then they explained. Uncle George in his middle and late 70s, said that this is what PTSD was for him. That he remembers as a little boy, about 7-8 years old, the whole household spoke Hawaiian. The military came in, grabbed his mother by her hair, punched her out, dragged her outside, for speaking Hawaiian
• Pualani: Oh my gosh
• Aunty: He witnessed that. Then he went out there. He was crying, Chasing his mother outside. And when he was out, he saw his father was tied up to a pole all beaten. 
• Pualani: Oh my gosh
• Aunty: Blood coming out. And when he looked up, his grandfather, they had hung his grandfather right there in a tree
• Pualani: All for speaking Hawaiian
• Aunty: All for speaking the Hawaiian. And my grandmother has similar stories. And then I understood. Well I started to understand why she never spoke it. My mother, her brother and sister, had no clue that their mother could speak fluent Hawaiian. They kept the secret under the table. That’s why when sometimes certain Aunties they go off by themselves
• Pualani: Oh yaa
• Aunty: And you know, I started to get, to remember little pieces. I believe they were talking Hawaiian but don’t let the kids hear, don’t let anybody know. They wanted to protect us. I really believe that to be true. I’ll never forget that story. And the younger generation, like my daughter’s age and maybe a little bit older, they brought it back. And now, I’m learning from them and my grandchildren. They’re my teacher. I’m trying to talk a little bit more, but I’m not that good at it. But I’m not afraid to say “Aloha. A hui hou” were before I was scared to say that. Or in the school we would get hit in the knuckles if we just said “no pau” already. Just for saying the word “pau”. I used to get the knuckles slammed on my face. They had those clip clip things to keep us in line. Stand up. Sit down. Walk. All of that stuff.

​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

Youth Task Force meeting

‘Ōlelo No‘eau consultation

Project Timeline

• 4/27/24: Hui Mo‘olelo Festival at 3 PM
• 4/23/24: Animation workshop with Chris Magee's Principles of Animation class | UH Maui College Academy of Creative Media
• 3/14/24: Meeting with Youth Task Force lead Kekaulaiwi Farm
• 3/5/24: ‘Ōlelo No‘eau​ meeting with cultural consultant Sissy Lake-Farm + animator Sasha Hercik (WATCH)​
• 3/1/24: Meeting with storytellers + muralist Oscar Lett
• 2/23/24: Project launch; begin weekly meetings 
• 2/14/24: Artist notifications + contracts (signed)
• 2/9/24: Community panel meeting
• 12/31/23: 2024 RFP is released ​​
• 11/4/22: Pualani Enos & Aunty Nanifay record talk-story