Informant: My friend was born and raised in Hawaii. He grew up in a culture rich in stories, myths, and legends, a few of which he shared with me.
Original Piece: “Long long time ago, there’s this braddah named Māui, and he really loves his culture, and he wanted to be a fisherman when he grow up, but the best way to fish was to make their own hooks. And the best ones, the number one ones, was made from the ancestors…so his grandmother, on his mother’s side, he made one from her jaw…but the thing was, Māui was a terrible fisherman, but he wanted to be a good fisherman, so he went with his braddahs, he snuck on their canoe, and they went out to sea and they found him, they threw him off the boat, and he had to go and swim back to shore with his hook and his fishing line, and he went fishing on shore by himself. But he caught one mono—one shark—braddahs came back, they were so impressed that they took him fishing the next day. He took out his hook… he was the last one on the boat. He was facing the other way, Māui threw his line out, with the magical hook from his grandmother’s jaw, and he caught something, something big. Māui told his braddahs, ‘don’t look back, keep paddling, I’m gonna fish this up.’ And they were paddling hard, paddling hard, for like half an hour. Then one of the braddahs looked back, and Māui saw him and said, ‘NO!’ and then he hooked up an island. And that’s the island of Māui.”
Context of Performance: We were having lunch when I asked him if he remembered any folktales from home.
Thoughts about the Piece: This one was a lot of fun, because while telling it the performer threw some Pidgin into the dialogue.
For more information on the legend of Māui, see “Legends of Maui.” Maui Kayak Adventures. N.p., 19 Jan. 2016. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.