JOHN LAKE, Great teacher, Hawaiian, human being dies
By KEKOA ENOMOTO, Staff WriterArticle Photos
John Keolamaka‘ainanakalahuio-kalanikamehameha‘ekolu Lake — kumu hula of Halau Mele, 32-year educator at St. Louis School in Honolulu and spiritual guide to Hawaiian Canoe Club of Kahului — succumbed to cancer of the larynx at 7:20 a.m. at Straub Clinic & Hospital, family members said. He was 70.
“With the passing of dad, all this means is that our work truly continues, and he has left us definitely with the idea of hooilina, or established legacies,” his daughter, Sissy Lake-Farm of Central Maui, said by phone Wednesday from the family home in Kaimuki, Oahu.
“He has established a firm foundation. . . . All that he has taught and done and has contributed will continue and will flourish,” she said.
She and her hanai brother, Kapono‘ai Molitau, as co-kumu hula of halau Na Hanona Kulike ‘O Pi‘ilani had planned to honor Lake at an event Saturday in Wailuku. The Ho‘oilina (legacy) concert was set to salute the legacies of four Maui families, those of kumu hula Nona Beamer of Lahaina, ki hoalu artist Kevin Brown of Waiehu and singer Emma Veary of Pukalani along with Lake. Two honorees have died within one month of each other — Beamer died April 10 at age 84 — but the show will go on.
“Yes, it’s a sad day for Hawaii today, but on Saturday during the concert, it will be a celebration of his life,” Lake-Farm said. “We’re excited to pay tribute to him and to Aunty Nona and all of our kupuna that have gone before us.”
John Lake was born Oct. 11, 1937, in Wailuku to John Matthew Lake of Wailuku and Naomi Serepta Kealoha Kaluakini Lake of Kaupo, considered the co-founders of Hawaiian Canoe Club.
An alumnus of St. Anthony High School in Wailuku, John Keola Lake graduated from the University of San Francisco and earned a master’s degree in linguistics from the University of Valencia in Spain.
Upon returning to Hawaii, he founded the St. Louis School Hawaiian studies program, taught Hawaiian language at Chaminade University and also instructed at Kapiolani and Windward community colleges.
His wide-ranging community involvement includes service on the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission; as protocol adviser to the Bishop Museum; as an Office of Hawaiian Affairs grants evaluator; and on the National Park Service advisory council to Pu‘u Kohola heiau on Hawaii island. He was also a member of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, State Council on Hawaiian Heritage and Hawaii Alliance for Art Education, and a director of the Natural History Association.
Lake was the recipient of a raft of honors, including Outstanding Hawaiian by the State of Hawaii in 1980, Living Treasure of Hawaii by Honpa Hongwanji in 1987, Kukui Malama Award of OHA in 1993, and Na Makua Award from Brigham Young University in 1984. He is credited with two publications: “Survey on Traditional Music and Dance” in the mid-1970s, and “‘Olelo Hou: Basic Hawaiian Conversation” in 1987.
On Wednesday, Maui residents remembered Lake as a teacher, mentor and cultural practitioner of pervasive influence over several generations and into the future. Keli‘i Tau‘a of Halau Maui Nui O Kama said he and Lake were in the original group of students trained to uniki, or graduate, as kumu hula under the aegis of the late hula master Maiki Aiu Lake.
“Very few were on the level he was on, not only as an educator . . . in an institute such as St. Louis School, but also as a kumu hula, as a community person and as one of, I believe, five kupuna who put together the return to Pu‘u Kohola,” said Tau‘a.
“He was loved by all,” he added.
Native Hawaiian activist Ke‘eaumoku Kapu of West Maui said he served with Lake on the six-member Council of Chiefs at Pu‘u Kohola heiau, where Lake was the longtime kahuna nui, or high priest.
“He’s definitely an icon,” Kapu said, “one of the treasures that definitely will be lost in Lahaina because of the Lake family relation to this place.
“We’re losing one of the greatest inspirations, but he will still live on in the generations that he has ‘infected’ (energized),” he said.
Sam Kaha‘i Ka‘ai of Haiku serves as ‘ielemakua, or distinguished elder, of Pu‘u Kohola.
“It’s a joyful time to have known him, and we celebrate all his sharing and guidance,” Ka‘ai said. “Most people look at the sad loss, but I look at the great light that he spread in the students and the schools. He was one of those people who had European modern religion and yet understood the spirit of poe kahiko (traditional people); each has aloha and governance with Akua (God). . . . We will miss him because of his wisdom and his great love, but we will not forget.
“He is one of the great human beings of our time,” he concluded.
Attorney Diane St. Sure Ho, who is head coach of Hawaiian Canoe Club, called Lake’s statewide impact “immeasurable” and said club officials had sought his counsel, noting that “his insight would always be so Hawaiian and so simple, always back to the basics.”
“He himself is probably the most Hawaiian man I’ve ever known. He’s the essence of what we think that Hawaiian is. People talk about values, but he just lived it (in) how he conducted himself in all kinds of situations,” she said.
Lake is survived by his wife, Barbara Ellen Pualani Kahaka Lake of Kaimuki; two sons, John Maximin Kekoaali‘iokahekili Lake of Kaimuki and Joshua Matthew Iwikauikauakukuiaikaawakea (Stephanie Canda) Lake of Makiki, Oahu; a daughter, Naomi “Sissy” Katherine Kahakuhaupiokamakani (Kyle Elama Farm) Lake-Farm of Waiehu Kou; a hanai son, John Kapono‘aikaulikekeao (Jennifer Perkins) Molitau of Wailuku; two sisters, Miriam Keawepoepoe Lake of Wailuku and Joan Kealohalani Lake Farren of Las Vegas; and four grandchildren.
The family is planning memorial services on Oahu, with burial on Maui.
On the eve of Saturday’s Ho‘oilina concert, Art Fillazar recalled that for David Malo Day at Lahainaluna High School, Lake had served three years as volunteer kumu hula and had composed a song for the occasion in 1992.
Fillazar, Lahainaluna student activities coordinator, described the composition as “a very beautiful, very moving, simple song of thanksgiving. . . . Since then we have sung that song at every major school event. It oftentimes brings tears to the eyes of the audience — chicken sing, as they say.”
The song contains thoughts of pride — and possibly of farewell to a great Maui son:
O kou aloha ka ikena aku
I ka hana la lo
A pono e haeleolu i loko o ke wa.
Hele aku ai kupono
Ho‘oheno mau ke la
‘Ikela maula makou e.
In English:
Your love is great for all the things gone by
It’s time to move on softly
And it’s only time.
As we move forward we will cherish
What we know will always continue
And we’ll be there.
• Kekoa Enomoto can be reached at kekoa@mauinews.com.
