Malu Konanui | Hana Hou! Magazine

It was a true pleasure meeting Malu Konanui, wood-turner and artist on the Big Island, we photographed him for Hana Hou! The Hawaiian Airlines Magazine at his shop in Pahoa. Uncle Malu is such a friendly, interesting character, he told us incredible stories of his Hawaiian upbringing and taught us about the Hawaiian tradition he created, pola hanau. The concept of 'pola hanau' is the birthing of a bowl on the day of your child's birth, making it an heirloom for the baby and the generations to come. Every wooden bowl Malu makes he completes within 24 hours of the child's birth and blesses it with a simple prayer. He's such a sweet man, when he heard Matt and I got married he made us our very own wooden bowl :)