BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY:

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ELLAHAM TaKa, 25, C. Brewer warehouse andclerical worker

Ellaham Iosua Toko, Hawaiian-Japanese-Chinese-Filipino, was bornNovember 5, 1953, in Kukuihaele, the oldest child of Gladys and RoyToko. Ellaham lived in Kukuihaele until his graduation from HonokaaHigh School in 1971. As he was growing up he often helped in hisparents' taro patches.

After high school Ellaham started college at the University of Hawaii atHilo. There he met his wife-to-be, Cindi Nichols. He followed her backto her home in Maine, and they were married in Novembe~ 1974. In 1975they moved back to Hilo. The Tokos have a two year old son, Matthew.

Ellaham is presently working for C. Brewer in Hilo.

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY:

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CINDI TOKO, 24, Hila Community College student

Cynthia Adele (Nichols) Taka was born September 19, 1954, in Alamogordo,New Mexico. She is Scottish-Irish-English-French-Indian. She grew upin both New Mexico and Maine.

In 1972, after graduation from a Maine high school, Cindi came to Hawaiito attend Hila College. She met Ellaham Taka at school and shortlyafterwards they were married in Maine. After living in Maine for awhile, they returned to Hila in 1975. The Takas have a two year oldson, Matthew. Cindi has held jobs as a strawberry picker, camp counselor,waitress, clerk, shoe sewer, and sewing teacher.

Cindi is now a student at Hila Community College. Her hobbies includesewing and bowling.

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Tape No. 4-50A-1-78

ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEW

with

Ellaham and Cindi Toko

June 25, 1978

Kukuihaele, Big Island

BY: Vivien Lee (VL) and Yukie Yoshinaga (YY)

VL: This is an interview with Ellaham and Cynthia Toko. Today isJune 25, 1978. We're at the church in Kukuihaele.

Okay Ellaham, when and where were you born?

Ellaham: November 5, 1953. Honokaa.

VL:

Cindi:

And Cindi?

I was born September 19" 1954,in Alamogordo, New Mexico.

VL: Okay. Can you tell us how you two met?

,Cindi: My grandmother brought me over [1972J to come to school [Universityof Hawaii at HiloJ, and we were in the same dormitory after awhile. I met him through his cousin, Deborah Mock Chew. Wewere roommates. And he came over and visited and that's howwe first met.

VL: And this was where?

Cindi: At the University of Hawaii at ...

E11 aham: Hi 10 •

Cindi: Yeah. Hilo Bay Hotel was where we first met. We were waitingfor the Ash housing to get finished in Hilo. And so that'swhere we were staying. And then we ended up at the old dorm.Him in the boys' wing and us in the girls' wing.

VL: Oh. And how did things develop after that?

Cindi: Well, when we first met, we weren't realTy struck with eachother. (Laughs) And, I don't really know. It just kind ofwent. I can't think of any significant events that happened.

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He used to take me and another girl dancing because we werethe only ones that didn't have boyfriends. And so that's how.We used to dance together and ....

VL: Where did you grow up? Was it New Mexico?

Cindi: In New Mexico and in Maine. We transferred back and forththere several times when I was growing up. So, it was about ayear there and a year someplace else. We were always moving.

VL: How much schooling did you have here?

Cindi: Let me see. I came over here after I graduated from highschool. And I had a year and a half of college at the University[Hilo]. And then I quit and I went back to the Mainland. Andthen I came back and now 11m here at the community collegefor .... llve been there for one semester.

VL: And when you went back to the mainland, what was Ellahamdoing?

Cindi: Nothing.

Ellaham: Going crazy.

Cindi: He stayed over here [Hilo]. And then he found out he couldn'tlive without me and he moved back over there [Maine]. Andthat's when we were married.

VL: In Maine?

Cindi: Uh huh.

Ellaham: She sort of gave me an ultimatum.

Cindi: No, I didn't. I just spooked him.

Ellaham: You know, IIEither you come or 1 1m going to leave without ya. 1I

(Ellaham and Cindy laugh.)

VL: Ellaham, did you ever think that you two might settle down inMaine?

Ellaham: Yeah, it was a very strong idea about two or three monthsbefore we came back. We decided since my father-in-law gaveus a piece of land, then we decided, II Well , r think timelsright to build a house. 1I The land was free. The house wouldprobably cost, with the furnishings and everything would costabout $15,000 to $17,000. And sounded like a good idea. Sowe went to one of our friends. She drew up the blueprints.

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Had everything set, went in, applied for a loan. Then wedecided to come back to Hawaii.

VL: What made you decide that?

Ellaham: Education mostly. The tuition for a resident student up atthe University of Maine at Farmington was something like $400a semester. And here in Hawaii, you can go to school forwhat, 50-some odd dollars at the community college, andthat's for a whole semester. So we decided to come back toHawaii. Give it a try. Get work experience~ education, andin the future we're planning on moving back to the mainland.

Cindi: And we're still here.

Ellaham: And welre still here.

VL: What were you studying at Hilo College?

Ellaham: When I first started off r wanted to be in business management.And, I guess every freshman goes through that"crisis when hedoesnlt know what to do and he doesnlt know what he wants. SoI just went into liberal arts. Then I branched off intoarcheology with a minor in business. And I studied archeologyfor about two years. Fell in love with it. But, you can'tfind a job. I know of a lot of people who've taken courses inanthropology and are working as busboys or hostess down atMauna Kea Beach Hotel. It's not how much you know but itlswho you know. So I decided, 11 11 quit school for now. Go outand work. Then, after a while, 1111 finally find out what Iwant to do. And, right now I'm doing it. Just working for acompany and slowly moving my way up. Itls good experience.

VL: What is your job now?

Ellaham: Well, I started off back in 1975, working for C. Brewerwarehouse. Start off as a warehouseman. Then about sixmonths later, the manager of the warehouse asked me to come onin and help him out with the paper work. Making receivingreports, taking inventory. Then, after that, I started workingevery day outside in the warehouse, general warehouse work.In the afternoons, I moved into the office doing clerical

. work. And starting July 10, I'll be working in the officefull time. The manager moved on up to another job so thatleft one space open. So for the past two months we've beenpicking up the slack for everybody and I'm doing most of hisjob. And hopefully, 1 can get a better pay.

VL: And Cindi, what are you doing right now?

Cindi: Working this summer. I got into the CVE program, the CooperativeVocational Education program at the community college, where

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you work and you go to school. So I'm working at First HawaiianBank this summer. And then in the fall, 1 1 11 be going toschool in the mornings and working in the afternoons. It1sjust a student helper job, I do a little bit of everything.Everything everybody else doesn't want to do. But it's good,and I enjoy it.

VL: And now you folks have a little two year old baby. Are yourcombined salaries enough for you folks to live on?

Ellaham: It is now. It was rough in the beginning when she firststarted going to school. We had to make loans to payoffbabysitting jobs. And now days, babysitters are quite expensive.

Cindi: Really.

Ellaham: But, right now, I think the sky is opening up a little bit.Not much, just a little bit.

Cindi: Yeah. It's looking better.

VL: Back to the past a little bit, your fatherls been raising tarofor 20 years, Ellaham. What involvement have you had over theyears in his taro patch?

Ellaham: Well, I guess the farthest I can remember is when I was five,I started going to Waipio helping them out. Mostly justkeeping them company. I used to walk with my mom. Weld leaveearly in the morning from Kukuihaele, and walk down the valley,spend the day down there and then walk back. And, you ask meto do it now, I say crazy. I'm not up to that.

But I'd say I've been in it for about 18 years. And it's notan easy life. Sometimes 1 just wish my parents could justpull up their roots and forget about it, because it's hard onthem physically. And the only reason why they were keeping itup is because they need the money to payoff whatever extrasthat they want. And, through the years, we just chipped inour bit. We had to go down every Saturday. Might have aSunday off, sometimes. Not most of the time. Sut we'd worksometimes after school. Weld go down, help to keep the placeup. .

VL: What kind of jobs would you do when you were down there?

Ellaham: Everything. First of all, when we were young, we were justsent to a certain section of the patch ...Pulling weeds, cleaningthe sides. That's mostly what we used to do when we wereyoung. Couldn't harvest that much, we just got in the way.And as the years progressed, we expanded our abilities andstarted doing a lot of the work that my dad used to do. Iguess I was about 15 or 16, that's when we first got our

1075

license and we started to drive. From then on, we would drivedown the valley. Sometimes even by ourselves. Harvest andload the trucks and bring the taro up to the top.

VL: When you were about 15 or 16, how did you feel about the work?

Ellaham: I made a vow. I'd never come back after I graduate from highschool.

VL: You didn't like it, I take it.

Ellaham: I didnlt like it. We made our vows and so far, my brotherAlston is the only one who kept it. He doesn't want to setback in the patch again. But after you been out, you findthat just living with your parents and seeing them go to work,the way I feel, is I have an obligation to them. They've putup with me for so many years, they've sent me to school. I'mjust doing my part to help them back.

The part I don't like is to see them suffer so much. I don'tknow if it's everybody but I just don't like to see that. IfI inherited a million dollars, lid just tell them to forgetabout it, just leave it alone. IIYou come and live with me. 1I

VL: You don't think they get any enjoyment out of working taropatch?

Ellaham: It's mostly self-satisfaction. To accomplish what they've setout for. So many times, you see them coming home and grumblingabout aches and pains, and "Oh, my back is hurting. 1I Itlingers inside of you for as long as you live. Because youseen them suffer and you've suffered the same thing yourself.And when they get ill, when they're sick, you can't help butput up and it's not that long.

The kids today, I think are a lot luckier than we were when wewere growing up. There were no machines. We used to pack thetaro for about 100 yards, lOa-pound bag on your back and youwalk it down for about 100 yards.

Back then, we were young and everybody says, IIHmm, strong boy, huh?1ISince we got a lot of hands, everybody would take a half bagat a time.

When my parents first started off, they used to do it all bythemselves. No outside help. When we were kids, oh, aboutseven or eight years old, we'd be working with our parents.And my grandfather would come down and just look at us, nodhis head in approvement, turn around and walk back to hisplace. Then my grandmother would come down and give us ahand. He was that kind of person. He gave you the land and

1076

he didn't expect to be in there helping you out. If you canmake it by yourself, you doing all right.

So it was kind of rough. The kids now days, they got allkinds of machinery that'll help them clean the patch. Youdon't have to worry about grass. But, for those who can'tafford it, they suffer. Ask Honey-honey and Lani [Ellaham'syounger sisters], they know.

VL: Your parents still don't use machinery?

Ellaham: Just the four-wheel drive.

VL: So presently, you do help occasionally?

Ellaham: Yeah, on occasion. When lim not too busy or we don't haveanything to do.

VL: About how often is that?

Ellaham: Once or twice a month. At the most. That's on the average.Sometimes weld be out here every weekend.

Cindi: Last year, we were out about four or five months, every weekend,helping them.

VL: How do you feel about working taro patch?

Cindi; I don1t really mind it. lid rather be out there than in thehouse cleaning. lim not an indoor person. Though, I don'tlike the spiders and the centipedes. But, as far as pullingthe taro, I don't really mind. It's all right.

VL: Did you ever have your own patch, a patch of your own toharvest?

Ellaham: Yeah. When we came back from the mainland, I didn't have ajob. So my father said, "Okay, we give you this piece of landand you try to work it as much as you can." I came back withthe idea that, wow, I didn't want to go into taro patch. I'mnot ready for that. Because I had a strong feeling that Icould do something else besides raising taro. But I gave it atry. It didn't work out so well. The grass and the weeds gotthe better part of me. Then we just gave up. Couldn't do it.

Just by doing it for that short period of time, I envy myparents a lot more. Because they've got three times theamount that we had, and they did it. But it's kind of roughwith just two people doing it. You need a lot of hands. Anda family unit working together is about the strongest bondthat you can find. Everybody's together. We may be squabbling

1077

every now and then, but the unity is there, the bond is there.And it carries on until death breaks it up. That's how Ifeel.

VL: In the future, say when you and Cindi have more children, andthey're grown and could help in the taro patch, would youconsider raising taro?

Ellaham: Hopefully, by that time, I won't be here. No, but if I am,yeah, I'd think about it. But I don't think it's profitable.It's a good experience if I had kids. And if I had a lot of'em, sure, it's fine. I think you can make do. But it's goodexperience for a lot of the kids, to at least have some kindof experience. To know what work really is. A lot of 'emthink that work is just going around, putting in your eighthours, and that's it. But with a taro field, there are nohours, you work whenever you have the strength. And sometimes,when you don't even have it, you still have to push yourselfbecause you know it has to be done. And, nobody comes aroundand pats you on the back and says, IIGood job, good work. You'redoing a good job, keep it Up.1I It's all within yourself.It's something that you have to instill within yourself, thatyou have to do it and you go ahead and do it. And, if youwant to quit, you can quit any time. But, with the thought inmind, that you have to get back to it and finish it up.

VL: So would you, some day, take over your dad's land and carryonthe taro raising?

Ellaham: If I had to, I guess I would. But, not right now~

VL: What do you mean, if you IIhad to?1I

Ellaham: If the situation is brought up, the sugar industry collapses,and I lost my job, I know I could come back to Waipio. Waipio,I would say, is a sanctuary for us. If anything goes wrong,we can just move away from everything, go back down intoWaipio, and know that we have a piece of land. We can farm itand make a little bit of money off of it ..But right now, it'snot essential. That's how r feel about it right now.

YY: Do you have any feelings about that, Cindi?

Cindi: It's hard for us, and I think a lot of people around us,because if we're going to make it on our own, we have to livein Hilo. Because that's the only place you can find jobs andmake a living. I wouldn't mind being out here and working inthe patches. But, just the wear and tear on you, from havingto come out here and work, and then go back to Hilo and workthere all week is very rough. If the circumstances wereright, I think I would enjoy staying our here. But we do haveto think of ourselves, so that's the only way it can be rightnow.

1078

VL: Would you, someday, like to live in Kukuihaele?

Cindi: I wouldn't mind. I'd much rather live in the country, than inthe city. I never liked the city. live always liked outhere. And to me, this [Kukuihaele] is more crowded than Iwould rather have it. I'm a very country girl. And so, yeah,I would rather live out here. But it's very hard to be ableto do something like that.

VL: Economically?

Cindi: Right.

VL: How about you, would you someday like to live out in Kukuihaele?

Ellaham: Oh yeah. It's a nice place. It's quiet. But, like she said,it's economically unfeasible right now. Jobs are scarce. Youhave to work at something that you'd have to learn to like.Working for the plantation, or working as a farmer full time.And right now, there's more minuses than plus. So, for now, Iguess we will just live as we are now. Don't make any strongcommitments for the future, because we don't know what it'sgoing to be like tomorrow.

VL: What do you think is the future of taro in Waipio?

Ellaham: I think there's a future. There1s going to be pretty good, ifbig business doesn't get into it. C. Brewer is planting taronow for taro chips. And if, by chance, that they do decide togrow taro for poi, then the industry is going to suffer a lot.Not only in Waipio but allover the State.

Because, now, a lot of people are eating poi. Not only theHawaiians, the Japanese too. And a lot of the other Polynesians.So, the market is expanding, but the supply isn't. Everything'sat a standstill. The yields aren't as great. Major reason isbecause of the disease. It's been causing a lot of headachefor a lot of the farmers over the past couple of years. Andif it wasn't for the disease, I think the yields would havebeen higher. And a lot of the farmers would have made a lotof money and you'd see a lot more farmers. Lot of 'em don'twant to take any chances now. If they feel they have to putan investment in, they want to see a profit in the first year.But with taro, it's a lot of ifs.

VL: You think that the industry could keep going because themarket is there. Now, how about people to farm tne taro,though. Young people would have to pick 'up from where the oldpeople leave off. You think that's going to happen?

Ellaham: No. Right now, a lot of the young people around don't wantto--I canlt say they don't want to--but a lot of 'em arenlt

1079

into farming that much right now. What's helping the farmersout in Waipio are the "hippies" coming in from the Mainland.And they've helped the farmers down in Waipio a lot. And alot of them are beginning to open their eyes and see thatthere is a future down there, not only in taro, but in prawnsand, of course, pakalolo. A lot of lem do. I think somethinghas to stir the young people to think towards the future.They1re thinking more of economics and not on tradition.

VL: What could be done, to encourage young people to go into tarofarming?

Ellaham: Government aid, I guess, would be one of I~m. There's a lotof things that could be changed in Waipio. But, I think, it'smostly individual changes. Because I really don1t know whatcould change their mind. I guess another war would help.Everybody has to start pinching pennies and then they start torealize, "We can't live as easy as we used to. 1I Then everybodyhas to clamp down. I hate to say it but I think that·s aboutthe best id.ea.

Cindi: You're radical, no?

Ellaham: Because after a war, the country·s pulled together tremendously.

VL: And Cindi, you're pretty far away from where you originallycame from. Do you ever miss there?

Cindi: Yeah, I do. It's kind of hard now. My family used to all betogether. More or less, like the people around here, allliving in one area. We had our parents· home and then all theother homes were around us. But my parents moved to be withmy grandfather in New Mexico. And there's been so many happeningsthat everybody's been going their own way. So the family, thecloseness that I used to think about, isn1t really there now. SoI don't mi ss it as much as I used to. But I do .mi ss I em andI'd like to go back and see 'em. Whenever.

YY: In terms of your child, do you want him to learn about yourroots, your parents' roots? Do you want him to experiencethat?

Ellaham: Yeah. I think it's important to know where you came from.What they did, how they went about doing it. Now, when I grewup, I didn't know much about it. I wasn't exposed a greatdeal to it. What my ancestors did or where we came from.Because my parents didn't have an idea where they came from.We grew up sort of in the dark. And hopefully, 1 1 11 be ableto do a better job. That's why, I guess, I took archeologyand anthropology. Just wanted to know where we came from andwhat we used to do before.

1080

VL: Do any of you have anything else to add?

Ell aham: No.

Cindi: Nothing I can think of.

END OF INTERVIEW

-WAIPI'O: MANO WAI

AN ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION

Volume II

ETHNIC STUDIES ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

ETHNIC STUDIES PROGRAMUNIVERSITY OF HAWAlI,MANOA

December 1978