Presentation Grant Award Winners: Apela Colorado and Frances Santiago

Mysteries of the Sacred Pond and Its Lizard Guardian: Tribute to Alice Kaehukai Shaw, Memory-keeper of Moku`ula and the Kihawahine

Moku`ula, the “Red Island” (referring to menses and genealogy), is one of the most sacred sites in Hawai`i. Moku`ula was the seat of ancient Hawai`ian royalty and home to the Kihawahine, a woman sanctified as the spirit of conception and embodied as a Lizard-guardian of fresh waters. Little is left of the ways that kept the waters pure and ceremonies of Moku`ula vibrant. What did survive colonization and missionization is due to a line of cultural practitioners who gave their lives to protect and maintain the ancient ways. Alice Kaehukai Shaw (1867- 1956) was the last of this line. Dr. Apela Colorado joined efforts with her husband Keola, Moku`ula sacred site guardian, to research and recover the narrative of Alice’s life. Inextricably linked to the greater story of the guardian-spirit she served, and through the individuals and communities revitalized by these stories, Alice continues her work of bringing life through the waters.

Apela Colorado (Oneida-Gaul) is the Founding Director of the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network, a cultural nonprofit created in 1989 for the revitalization, growth and worldwide exchange of traditional knowledge. Apela also created the Indigenous Mind Program, the first advanced degree program based on Indigenous Science. She suports Indigenous healers in their work for their communities and advocates for protection of key apex species integral to the cultural survival of Indigenous peoples around the world.

Frances Santiago (Tagalog-Ilonggo-Ilokano), MA in Indigenous Mind and PhD candidate in Women’s Spirituality, is a poet, dance ritualist and scholar born and raised in the Philippines. She volunteers at the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network as a writer and editor. She also volunteers at the Center for Babaylan Studies where she is involved in the Filipino and Filipino-American decolonization and reindigenization movement. Frances’ current research focuses on the ancestral remembrance process of women from different cultural lineages.