Forgotten document emerges

Cultural leader, Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, who has been one of the most prominent faces of māhū and transgender visibility for the last two decades, found the first written account of the stones in a forgotten box at University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa in 2015.Tiny Sex Dolls

The story had initially been passed down orally, and then written in English by a former colonel of the Hawaiian Kingdom, during a time the Hawaiian language was banned. Published in the Hawaiian Almanac in 1907, it included the role and description of māhū.

This forgotten document led to the Oscar-nominated animated short film, “Kapaemāhu,” which was produced, directed, and written by Wong-Kalu alongside fellow filmmakers Joe Wilson and Dean Hamer. The film, broadcast on PBS, also was part of a large exhibit at the Bishop Museum of Honolulu last summer that remains accessible as a virtual tour.Teen Sex Doll

“What some people call legends are actually elements of our history,” Wong-Kalu said in an interview with Ka Wai Ola. “The stones of Kapaemāhū are more than a tourist site. They are an insight into our Pacific understandings of male and female, life and healing, and the spiritual connections between us all.”

The exhibit not only amplifies the history of the stones, but features stories from māhū throughout history, and traditional healing treatments practiced by māhū and others today. Wong-Kalu says Hawaiian culture places a greater emphasis on the importance of what one can contribute to society—whether male, female, or māhū.Sex Doll Creampie

“It is a doorway into respect and shared aloha when we honor this understanding,” she says.