Highlights from the Digitization for Papakilo Database Grant Project

As a project assistant for the 2025 Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Digitization for Papakilo Database grant project, I had the privilege of being one of the first to view newly preserved footage from three amazing collections held at ʻUluʻulu: The Moving Image Archive of Hawaiʻi.  Thanks to the generosity of OHA, ʻUluʻulu made 200 items available for public viewing, totaling 71.5 hours of digitized footage from the Bishop Museum Media, Kevin Coates, and Alexander and Baldwin Sugar Museum collections.  I am grateful to share my highlights and reactions from these valuable collections. 

The Bishop Museum Media footage serves as a time capsule of programs from the 1970s—much of it consisting of episodes from UH Today—a news magazine-style program about the student and faculty life at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. As a UHM alumna, I was struck by the familiarity of the campus despite the many decades that have passed.  The overall “feel” of the campus remains, which makes me wonder if the current construction along the McCarthy Mall pedestrian walkway will alter its identity moving forward.  It was also interesting to hear about the university’s research priorities at the time, some of which included focuses on tsunamis, endemic plant species, ethnomusicology, and anthropology.  

Amidst some of the more scripted features on academics, sports, and UH leadership, I found the student interviews most interesting as they shared candidly about their programs and current events.  One of the most captivating segments featured an interview from Lehua Lopez discussing her role in the 1971 President’s White House Conference on Youth.  Lopez spoke about the difficulties of representing all minority and indigenous cultures within the conference’s taskforce on values, ethics, and culture.  Her work as an after-school teacher at Kuhio Park Terrace (KPT) gave her firsthand insight into the social and economic conditions of her community, informing her decision to embark on such a daunting task.  Lopez expressed the unquestionable relevance of the initiative to Hawaiʻi by saying, 

“The conference has everything to do with KPT, it has the worst parts of what America is supposed to represent… the problem is, are we going to do something about it or is it going to be another talk conference? Where things are said, recommendations are written, people predict, and nothing happens after that.” 

A follow-up interview with Lopez upon her return revealed its disappointing outcome: neither President Nixon, nor any other influential policy makers attended the conference, leaving her frustrated by the waste of time.  Her sharing piqued my curiosity regarding the history of the President’s White House Conference on Youth, and I discovered that 1971 was the final year it was held.  This footage is invaluable, serving as a vital record of the event and the way Hawaiʻi’s youth were represented.

Footage from the Kevin Coates collection also grabbed my attention for its coverage of anti-nuclear testing in the Pacific.  During the 1970s, Maui filmmaker Kevin Coates documented the journey of the Fri, a New Zealand-based vessel, and its crew on their journey to Mururoa Atoll.  The individuals aboard the Fri represented thousands protesting French nuclear testing in French Polynesia while also drawing attention to the United States’ involvement in nuclear research.  I enjoyed hearing from the Fri’s captain, David Moodie, and other crew members as they navigated harsh weather on the open seas, repaired the boat on remote islands, and negotiated with the gendarmerie (French National Police) upon their capture.  

Other perspectives captured in the footage feature interviews from significant figures such as American chemist and peace activist Dr. Linus Pauling and California Senator Alan Cranston who discussed the sociopolitical implications of nuclear testing in the Pacific.  As I watched the newly digitized tapes, I found that this footage fills a unique niche by providing primary-source Cold War sentiments from international protesters—an enlightening shift from the often academic or political literature of this era.  I certainly would have benefited from this footage back in high school for my Hawaiʻi History Day project!  I foresee this collection becoming an essential resource for research on nuclear colonialism, geopolitics, and public health.

Finally, the Alexander and Baldwin Sugar Museum (ABSM) collection surprised me the most because the film transferred to digital very well considering some of the reels date back to 1945.  Having grown up in a sugar plantation town myself, I became familiar with the history of my town by looking at photos from my grandmother’s home built by the Ewa Plantation Company.  I always tried to visualize the sugarcane fields that once sat where houses stand today, but it was difficult to imagine a way of life that felt so far removed from what I saw in the photos.  There are only a few physical remnants of plantation life in Ewa and many other sugar towns across the islands, so witnessing the sugar harvesting and production processes on Maui in the ABSM footage helped me understand the history of my own community a little better.

Some of the most striking films show the fields set ablaze to burn away loose foliage leaving the cane stalks ready for harvest.  I had heard stories of how the smoke lingered for days, but seeing the scale of these prescribed burns was fascinating.  I am happy to report that ‘Uluʻulu has already shared copies of this digitized footage with the Alexander and Baldwin Sugar Museum.  My hope is that the people of Maui will be able to see their own community’s history through the footage—not only through the lens of the sugar industry—but also other gatherings at notable places such as Haleakalā Crater, ʻĪao Needle, the Lāhainā Jodo Mission, and Front Street. 

While these are just a few highlights, they represent only a small fraction of the content now available to the public. Thank you again to OHA for supporting this project and allowing another glimpse of Hawaiʻi’s rich moving image history to be revealed for all to enjoy.