2009 Aesop Prize, American Folklore Society- Children’s Folklore Section
(Includes audio CD)
Nona Beamer, an iconic figure of the Hawaiian cultural renaissance, skillfully retells the locally well-known legend of Naupaka, artfully enhanced by Caren Loebel-Fried’s stunning block print illustrations. The picture book, presented bilingually with parallel English and Hawaiian texts on the same page, tells of two lovers kept apart by the rigid strictures of traditional pre-contact Hawaiian social structure. Naupaka, a princess or member of the ruling ali’i class, falls in love with a commoner, Kau’i. Her parents tell her to consult the kúpuna, the village elders, to determine the lovers’ fate. They refer the decision to a distant kahuna, a religious leader, who defers to the judgment of the gods. When a lightning bolt signals that the lovers must be parted, they sorrowfully concur, with Naupaka remaining in the mountains and Kau’i returning to the seashore. The tale is told to explain the origin of two varieties of scaveola, a flowering plant known in Hawai’i as naupaka. An indigenous variety grows on the coast, in Hawai’i and elsewhere, while the mountainous variety is endemic, found only in Hawai’i. Each bears a white half-blossom, signifying the parting of the lovers.
"Auntie" Nona, who died last year, learned Hawaiian oral tradition and dance from her grandmother. She was a member of the Beamer family, known for their extensive role in keeping Hawaiian culture alive during generations when it was suppressed. Cited as &educator, composer, storyteller, chanter, kumu hula, cultural expert and matriarch of one of Hawai’i’s most beloved musical families," she won the Pacific Business News’s Gladys Kamakakuokalani Ainoa Brandt Kupuna Award in 2008. Naupaka, released shortly after her death, reflects her care not only in retelling the story, but in providing cultural context, botanical details and sources for further research. Artist Loebel-Fried, herself a storyteller, has retold and illustrated several works of Hawaiian legends, often with Auntie Nona as collaborator. She states that her "intention and greatest challenge as an artist and reteller is to give voice to the legends while remaining true to the source." Her distinctive visual style succeeds admirably. Noted slack-key guitarist Keola Beamer provides a musical background to his mother’s reading of the Naupaka story on an enclosed CD, taken from their 1997 CD collection of stories, The Golden Lehua Tree.
