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Echoes of the Plantation, Spirit of the Paniolo
Two powerful forces shaped Honokaa: disciplined plantation life and the independent paniolo spirit
Written by a Local Cultural Expert
Leilani AkoWhen Sugar Was King: The Hāmākua Legacy
Honokaa's soul is forged from two powerful forces. One is the disciplined world of the sugar plantation, which brought a mix of cultures from across the globe to the Hāmākua Coast. The other is the independent, rugged spirit of the Hawaiian paniolo. Understanding this duality is the key to understanding Honokaa.
For over a century, sugar was not just a crop here. It was the entire world. The Honokaa Sugar Company, founded in 1876, grew to dominate the landscape. It covered over 9,000 acres of land from the sea cliffs to the slopes of Mauna Kea. It was a massive operation with its own incline tramway to transport bags of sugar down the cliffs to a wharf. There they were loaded onto steamers bound for the mainland.
This sugar empire was built on the backs of immigrant laborers who came in waves. Each group sought a better life and left a mark on the local culture. The Chinese arrived first, followed by Portuguese, Japanese, Puerto Ricans, and Filipinos. They lived in plantation camps, with company housing and company stores. Their lives were largely dictated by the rhythms of the mill.
The Honokaa Heritage Center tells this story masterfully. It has exhibits dedicated to each ethnic group. They showcase the multi-ethnic identity that defines the Hāmākua Coast today. To keep this history from feeling abstract, the Center preserves the stories of individuals:
🥋 Denzaburo Shigematsu
A twenty-year-old who arrived from Fukuoka, Japan, in 1907 to work on the plantation. But he was more than a laborer. He was a sportsman, a sumō wrestler, and a baseball player. The Heritage Center displays his ceremonial keshō-mawashi (sumō apron).
⚖️ Katsu Goto
His story is a powerful reminder of plantation struggles. A successful merchant and advocate for Japanese laborers' rights, Katsu Goto was lynched in Honokaa in 1889 for his activism. A memorial now stands near the high school.
Nā Paniolo o Hāmākua: Where Boots Still Clatter
To understand Honokaa, you have to understand the paniolo. It's more than a hat and boots. It's a way of being. It's in the quiet confidence of a man who can read the land and the sky. In the stories shared over a fence post. In the thunder of hooves during Western Week.
While the plantation's history is preserved in museums, the paniolo spirit is what the town actively celebrates in its streets. This reflects a cultural choice to define the town's public identity through independence, strength, and connection to the ʻāina (land). A narrative of empowerment that stands against the more complex and often painful history of plantation labor.
The ultimate expression of this is Honokaa Western Week, an annual festival held every May that transforms the town. It's a week of parades, rodeos, talent contests, and street parties that celebrate the region's century-old ranching heritage.
Honokaa Western Week: Leilani's Insider Guide
🎠 Western Week Parade
The parade kicks off the festivities with decorated floats, marching bands, and plenty of horses. Local families participate, and the community spirit is infectious.
🎵 Block Party & Street Dance
Māmane Street closes to traffic for live music, dancing, and food vendors. It's a chance to mingle with locals and experience the town's party atmosphere.
🗣️ Cowboy Talk Story
This is where you'll hear the real stories. Local paniolo share tales of cattle drives, ranch life, and the old days. It's history straight from the horse's mouth.
🏇 Hawaiʻi Saddle Club Rodeo
The main event features barrel racing, bull riding, and traditional rodeo competitions. The arena fills with cheering locals supporting their favorite riders.
The rodeo itself is a living piece of Honokaa history, deeply connected to the Andrade family. William J. "Willy" Andrade, Sr., a lifelong paniolo, co-founded the Hawaiʻi Saddle Club in 1953 after being inspired by a rodeo arena he saw on Oʻahu. He and his friends gathered local ranchers, and his mother, Rose Andrade Correia, donated the land for the stadium. This ensured that Honokaa would always have a place for its rodeo.
His oral history is a treasure, filled with vivid tales of two-day cattle drives from Ahualoa to the Kawaihae coast. Stories of roping wild cattle in the forests of Mauna Kea. The founding of the rodeo that remains the town's proudest tradition.
🗺️ Navigate Honokaa
🤠 Western Week
- When: Every May
- Duration: One week
- Main Event: Rodeo
- Location: Town center
🌏 Plantation Heritage
- Chinese (first arrivals)
- Portuguese
- Japanese
- Puerto Ricans
- Filipinos
🏛️ Heritage Center
Exhibits
Each ethnic group represented
Oral Histories
Individual stories preserved
Artifacts
Sumō aprons, tools, photos
A Place in the Middle: The Honored Role of Māhū
In any real telling of Hawaiʻi's story, it is vital to include the honored place of Māhū. In pre-colonial Hawaiian society, Māhū were not simply a "third gender" in the Western sense. They were individuals who embodied both male and female spirits. They were respected as keepers of cultural traditions, teachers of hula and chant, and healers.
The famous Kapaemahu stones on Waikīkī beach commemorate four Māhū healers from Tahiti. They are a powerful testament to this legacy. The arrival of Western missionaries and their rigid laws led to the suppression of this understanding. But in recent years, there has been a powerful movement to reclaim the dignity and history of Māhū identity.
The Kanakaʻole Legacy
To ground this important cultural story in our region, we need only look to the legacy of the Kanakaʻole family, a cultural dynasty from the Big Island. The matriarch, the late Edith Kanakaʻole of Hilo, was a revered Kumu Hula and a central figure in the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970s. She dedicated her life to preserving Hawaiian language and arts.
Her legacy is carried on today by her descendants, including her great-grandchild, Kaumakaiwa Kanakaʻole. Kaumakaiwa is a five-time Nā Hōkū Hanohano (Hawaiʻi's equivalent of a Grammy) award-winning musician and a proud, modern māhū wahine (transgender woman).
Their powerful, soul-stirring music is a direct extension of their family's deep roots in hula (Hālau O Kekuhi) and their life on the family homestead on the Big Island. Kaumakaiwa's work blends ancestral memory with modern sensibilities. It uses indigenous thought to address today's issues.
Their presence on the world stage provides a vibrant, modern, and deeply authentic Big Island connection to the lasting and respected role of Māhū in Hawaiian culture. This is further supported by historical accounts, such as the story of Kaomi, a Māhū healer who was the beloved aikāne (intimate same-sex companion) of King Kamehameha III. This shows the deep precedent for these identities and relationships in Hawaiian history.
Continue Your Cultural Journey
Explore the sacred landscapes of Waipiʻo Valley and the wild beauty of the Hāmākua Coast.
Sacred Edge: Waipiʻo & Coast →
