Peeling Olena, Practicing Olelo

I got to spend a couple of hours last week peeling the skin off of 8 large trays of olena with our family friend and mentor Tuti Kanahele. It was not only super relaxing, but also great practice sitting next to and conversing with a Hawaiian language speaker of Tuti’s caliber. I’ll share some of the words that we commonly used that day with each other and how they were used:

1. ihi - to take off the skin of the olena kinda like peeling “Ihi ka olena” Skin the turmeric

2. huna - to hide something like an easter egg or a thought “Ua huna Oia i ka hua moa” She hid the egg.

3. wehe - to open something like a door or take off something like a shirt: “Wehe i ka ipuka” Open the door. “Wehe i kou pale ili” Take off your shirt.