Kumu Pono Associates LLC
Kumu Pono Associates LLC is a husband-wife team, made up by Kepa Maly and Onaona Pomroy-Maly. Formally organized in 1995, Kepa and Onaona worked out of their Hawaiian Homestead residence in Hilo, on projects across the state. In 2006 they were asked to take on a project on Lana’i, where Kepa was raised, and began working on a program that became the Lanai Culture & Heritage Center. Between September 2007 to June 2010, most of their work focused on Lana’i, with smaller projects being worked on as time permitted. The Lanai work led to the development of the Lanai Culture & Heritage Center (Lanai CHC), a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to perpetuating knowledge of Lanai and promoting awareness of the island's unique resources.
Lanai Culture & Heritage Center
The new Lanai CHC facility opened in in January 2010. In June 2010, medical needs required that the Malys relocate to Honolulu. While still acting as the Executive Director of the Lanai CHC, Kepa manages the program on Lanai from afar, with monthly visits, museum and field work projects. Onaona spends part of her time working on the Lanai CHC website and research projects, and the other part of her time on Kumu Pono Associates LLC projects.
PBS Hawaii - Long Story Short - Kepa Maly: A Sense of Connection
Sharing interview of Part 1 with Leslie Wilcox and Kepa Maly.
PBS Hawaii - Long Story Short - Kepa Maly: Lanai and the Spirit of Place - Part 2
Leslie Wilcox continues her conversation with Kepa Maly, executive director of Lanai Culture and Heritage Center. Throughout his years as an ethnographer, Kepa gathered stories from kupuna. Here, he passes on local legends and stories behind place names that capture the essence of Lanai.
Ola ka aina, ola ke kanaka! (Healthy land, healthy people!)
(Viewers please note, that while modern practice in writing Hawaiian words includes the use of diacritical marks to indicate proper pronunciation of selected words, those marks are not used on this site due to incompatibilities with search engines.)