Wat? You no believe in da Night Marchers? And what about da pork and da ca’ getting broke in da Tree Tunnel?
Dom Acain has written about this in his The Hawaiian Storyteller: Stories of the Paranormal in Paradise” that was first released in November on Amazon. The Westside author will be on hand to sign copies of his book on Friday from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Talk Story Bookstore in Hanapepe.
“One kupuna, uncle Roland Gay, once told me that if there is no one to pass the stories on to, the stories are lost,” Acain said. “That’s the reason I wrote this book. My thought was that maybe my kids aren’t ready to listen to the stories now, but at least when they are ready, it’s waiting here for them long after I am gone.”
Amazon said in the days of old Hawai‘i, there were no written languages, and in order to preserve the accuracy of genealogical lines, history and legends, certain children were selected and trained until adulthood in conveying all three areas through the arts of hula, oli and ha‘i mo‘olelo, or translated to mean “story telling.”
“Dominic ‘DC’ Acain was brought up in a time when most of the ancient traditins of Hawai‘i were being lost to westernization,” Amazon said. “Both of his parents were the last of a generation that grew up in the deep Makaweli Valley of Kaua‘i, far enough from civilization that was still holding on to most ancient traditions.”
Acain was “chosen” to sit amongst the elders to listen and learn some of the stories and experiences of past and present generations.
Acain has also taken the modern path of preserving the art of ha‘i mo‘olelo through publishing some of his many stories in “The Hawaiian Storyteller: Stories of the Paranormal in Paradise.”
This modern path offers numerous distractions for youth, and it can be a challenge to find a child who will sit long enough to listen and learn stories and experiences.
“Honestly, my kids aren’t at that age where they like to listen to stories of the paranormal events, whether past or present,” Acain said. “So, a lot of the stories that were passed down to me from kupuna who were born in the late 1800s haven’t been passed on. Even modern day paranormal experiences are kept within small circles.”
“The Hawaiian Storyteller: Stories of the Paranormal in Paradise” covers experiences from The Night Marchers, Menehune, and Aikanaka, which could be described as the Hawaiian version of Bigfoot.
The book carries tales of certain areas and people who walked the island long before the Europeans arrived. The book also covers ghostly experiences shared and experienced, and of stories of famous kahuna who were talked about while they were alive in old Hawaiian newspapers. All of the stories are Kaua‘i-based and include names of a lot of known families on the island, as well as places that many people are familiar with.
“The Hawaiian Storyteller: Stories of the Paranormal in Paradise” is a combination of old and new short stories of paranormal experiences with a bit of historical tales passed on through the years, Acain said.
