Haleakala National Park unveiled a new cultural brochure and celebrated the kupuna who helped to author it, during a special event held this week in Kipahulu.

“Some people might question why a national park would hold an event to celebrate the public roll out of a brochure, but this is no ordinary brochure and this is no ordinary place,” said superintendent Natalie Gates in an agency press release.

“No other brochure in the entire 401-unit national park system was written by community members in the native language of the community,” she said.

US Senator Mazie Hirono, who spoke at the event as part of her visit this week to Maui and Molokai, said, “Our national parks are not museums or places where culture is only discussed in the past tense.”

“The Hawaiian culture and the people who practice it are very much alive. Native Hawaiians come to Haleakala to renew ties to their ancestors as well as to pass ancient traditions down to the next generation,” she said.

Read the entire piece here: http://mauinow.com/2013/12/06/haleakala-national-park-unveils-new-cultural-brochure/