Luana Maitland, known to most as “Aunty Luana,” added three purple orchids to a needle and pushed them on to the thread holding a lei together.
She is the area director of cultural experiences and oversees the cultural programs for Outrigger’s Waikīkī beachfront resorts: Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort and Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort. Since a class had just finished and there were extra flowers, she invited me to kui lei at the beginning of summer.
Maitland was set up inside the A’o Cultural Activities Center, which opened in 2022, just steps from Monkeypod Kitchen by Merriman and inside the Outrigger Reef Waikīkī Beach Resort, which recently did a $100 million refresh.
In this space, Maitland and other kumu, or teachers, offer beginning classes in how to make a lei, dance hula, play an ʻukulele, and more. There are classes that teach tourists how to spell their name in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi and how to make bracelets out of ti leaves or polished kukui nuts. Each workshop is first-come, first-served, and free for guests of the resort.
Before the center, she had a table in the lobby for about 12 years.
“It didn't matter where the class was going to be,” she said. “Hula could be on a beach.”
Soon, a cultural center will open at Outrigger Waikīkī Beach Resort, which is less than a mile away, Maitland told Aloha State Daily in a follow-up email last month. It will be called Emmalani, named after Queen Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke and honoring a place where she grew up and surfed, she added. That space will offer the same cultural classes as the A’o Cultural Center but on alternate dates, so guests of both resorts have more opportunities to participate in each class.
The A’o Cultural Center includes displays about voyaging, as well as hula and music.
“Once they're in here, they just want to absorb everything in,” she said. “While they’re waiting for the class to start, they can look around at other artifacts that we've collected all these years.”
The Aʻo Cultural Center is located inside the Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort, not far from the ocean and Kani Ka Pila Grille. (Aloha State Daily Staff) 
A display in the Aʻo Cultural Center includes hula implements such as an ʻukulele; ʻuliʻuli, or feathered rattles; and an ipu, or calabash gourd that is used as a percussion instrument. (Aloha State Daily Staff) 
Wayfinding is also featured in several exhibits in the Aʻo Cultural Center. (Aloha State Daily Staff) 
This exhibit on native birds is also part of the Aʻo Cultural Center. (Aloha State Daily Staff) 
The A’o Cultural Center also includes an exhibit about this family heirloom, which passed from mother to daughter for five generations. (Aloha State Daily Staff)
Some of the items, such as the ʻukulele, were Maitland’s personal items growing up. Others were gifted to the center. It’s a way to share the culture “not by a book but by experience,” she said.
Maitland has been working in the tourism industry for about 45 years. Originally, she was working as a host at a restaurant and was chatting with a good friend who worked for a hotel management company. Maitland ended up joining the company in reservations, helping sports teams and families find accommodations near the places they planned to go. She eventually was moved to the sales department because someone was out on maternity leave. When that person did not return, Maitland stayed in that role.
Eventually, she changed companies and moved into working in customer service at Classic Hawaiʻi, where she was later promoted to Island manager. In 11 years, she learned about different resort and hotel properties across the state, including Outrigger, and worked to coordinate airlines, car rentals and attractions. When the local office closed, the company offered her a job in San Jose, but she chose to stay in Hawaiʻi.
“That's when Outrigger called me,” she said. “And I’ve been here ever since.”
Honoring Hawaiian music at Kani Ka Pila Grille
As part of her role at Outrigger, Maitland has also been instrumental in bringing Hawaiian music to Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort’s Kani Ka Pila Grille. About 18 years ago, the hotel was doing major renovations. The family running the poolside restaurant at that time had been a vendor there for about 30 years and decided to retire, she said.
Outrigger assumed operations of the space and wanted to feature Hawaiian culture. Maitland started to organize Hawaiian music. The goal was to curate a list of artists that would share Hawaiian culture with tourists while also bringing in kamaʻāina, she explained.
“Come to Kani Ka Pila for true Hawaiian music was all we said,” Maitland added.
The news spread by word of mouth. Soon, about half the guests were tourists and the rest were kamaʻāina who came from across the island, from Waiʻanae to Waimānalo, she added.
The restaurant is named after the backyard jam sessions of the legendary slack key guitar master Gabby Pahinui and his family.
Today, Kani Ka Pila Grille features live Hawaiian music daily from 6 to 9 p.m. Currently, regular performers include Sean Naʻauao on Mondays, Kalaʻe Camarillo on Tuesdays, Ei Nei on Wednesdays, Kawika Kahiapo on Thursdays, Ka Hehena on Fridays, Hoʻokena on Saturdays, and Nathan Aweau on Sundays.
In July, Ei Nei captured six Nā Hōkū Hanohano awards: Group of the Year, Single of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Island Music Album of the Year, and Favorite Entertainer of the Year. Camarillo won Contemporary Album of the Year and Hawaiian Music Video of the Year.
Recently, Kani Ka Pila Grille recently held its talent search on the main stage at the Made in Hawaiʻi Festival. ʻĀlewa was named the winner and earned a paid performance contract at Kani Ka Pila Grille. The ‘ōpio ‘ōlapa hula band consists of four teenagers: Kamaha'o Haumea-Thronas, Kamalu Tupou, Kainalu Jacang and Hayden Kaaialii. Previously, Ei Nei won this talent search in 2017, eventually securing a regular contract at Kani Ka Pila Grille, which they still have today.
Sharing culture & family tradition
Back in the Aʻo Cultural Center, Maitland explained the history of the lei-making tradition. Maitland was told by her grandma, “who taught me everything I know,” that it was a man who made the first lei.
“And that was because it was the men who would leave the village every day to find food,” she said. “Now, I'm talking before Hawaiʻi was discovered.”
While seeking provisions for their families, they would find beautiful flowers. Since they had no needles and threads, they used the braid technique that fastened fish together and applied it to create lei.
“The lei giving always came with a kiss,” she added. “That is the tradition of lei making, making it for someone you love.”
Maitland teaches from life experience.
“I did not go to college to learn the culture,” she said. “I lived it.”
Her father was the eldest of 14 kids, nine of which were boys.
“And they were invited to every girls' birthday party,” Maitland said. “Grandma could not buy a present for every one of them — sometimes several parties a weekend."
So she had her husband plant flower trees and the boys would pick those flowers and create lei. Those boys were invited to lots of parties, she added. And they made a lei for the person celebrating a birthday and the mother of the house.
“Back in the day, they didn't go to no banquet rooms for parties or bars,” she said. “They went to the home of that person, and the mama or the grandma is the one cooking and tending to these boys, so they would make a second lei for the mother of the house.”
Maitland’s grandma would often make a lei at the same time as her sons while chatting with them.
“That’s how I learned to make a lei – by sitting in her lap,” Maitland said.
As she shares this story, the class is usually still taking the stems off the flowers, she added.
“When we share that story, and we know now they're making it for each other, we can see the difference in how they’re making their lei,” she said. “It’s not just a lei; there’s a reason you’re making it.”
This is how each class starts — with a story, she said.
At this point in the lei making class, she instructs them to thread three flowers at a time on to the needle.
“And then just keep stacking until your lei is complete,” she said.
The space’s name, Aʻo Cultural Activities Center, references the attitude she hopes class attendees take with them.
“Aʻo – the name of our cultural center — means to learn and to share,” she said. “When they come, I ask that they come with an open heart so they come to understand what they're doing, respect what they're doing, and before you know it, you already want to take care of the place.”
Before chatting with ASD, Maitland connected with the mother of several kids who had been in one of her classes about a decade ago. This time, the mother was on a trip without her kids, who are now ages 16 and 12, but she asked if they could take a photo with Maitland that she could share with them.
“If we do our job well here and let them know where the story came from, they're going to take it and keep it inside of their heart,” she said. “If they come with an open heart, it will be there forever.”
Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
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