Hau’oli lā hānau is how we say Happy Birthday here in Hawai’i.
“Hau`oli” means “Happy, glad, joyful,”
“Lā” means “Day, date, sun”,
“Hānau” means “To give birth, to lay an egg, born.”
June 21st is the Summer Solstice – the of brightest day of the year with the most hours of sunlight.
It was at a Summer Solstice celebration, “a long time ago in a galaxy far far away”, that a old school Hawaiian Sativa strain was given her famous marijuana moniker and became known to the world as Maui Wowie.
Bradda Joseph of Lower Nāhiku Maui tells us a tale of peace, love & Pakalōlō from back in the 1960’s when Maui Wowie was born at a summer solstice celebration down the legendary long and winding road in heavenly Hana Maui…
***Kids if you are reading this; what are you doing reading this?!?!
Why don’t you go do some school work, or play a video game or better yet go outside and play with your dog and enjoy nature!***
Parents if you are reading this to your kids, you are the coolest parents ever, but might it be time to switch back to Dr. Seuss, as this story involves various colorful psychedelic substances (it was the 60’s after all) and you don’t want your children turning on, tuning in and dropping out to teach you about the wonders of the universe at such a young age do you?
Now back to our regularly scheduled deprogramming…
It was the 60’s the era of peace love and happiness – it was also a time of war and conflict.
In an unprecedented movement people around the globe began uniting in a collective desire for peace, love and happiness. Many counterculture activists fled to the Hawaiian islands to escape persecution.
In lower Nāhiku a psychedelic summer solstice celebration was about to take place that would change the world of weed on Planet Pakalōlō forever.
Here is our full interview with Bradda Joseph of Hana Maui, who hosted the lower Nāhiku summer solstice celebrations from the 1960’s all the way up until to 2004:
“It is funny how much hype surrounds this funny little plant we love so much… (inhaling deeply on a doobie of freshly cured to perfection real deal Maui Wowie straight from the source in lower Nāhiku Maui).
So many people have said they have Maui Wowie – there are even new people showing up that say Maui Wowie never existed because so many people put the name Maui Wowie on their shwag to make money and ride the hype train to hell, but the real Maui Wowie is a specific recognizable strain, a genetic Hawaiian Sativa from down here (lower Nāhiku). Just try bringing any imposter false “Maui Wowie” down to da landing to blaze wit da Bradda’s and Sista’s and see if you no catch dirty lickin’s.
The real story of how we started the name Maui Wowie is a glorious story of peace and love, a meeting of two worlds, tale of two tribes to say, when the counterculture hippies made peace with Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) culture.
In the 60’s there was still lots of animosity between the Hawaiian people and the hippies. The Hawaiian Kingdom had recently been overthrown many Hawaiians were distrustful of the new wave of haole hippies that began migrating in those days.
There were still stories of hippies being thrown off bridges and being beaten up really badly going around and with every new incident the walls between Hawaiian culture and hippy counterculture got thicker.
Then came summer solstice and the hippies threw a huge psychedelic party down in Lower Nāhiku. There were clouds of smoke everywhere, you could smell Pakalōlō all da way up Hana highway! People were playing music and dancing it was awesome! A few truck loads of Hawaiians showed up looking menacing, it seemed as if the party was about to get broken up before it even started.
The Hawaiians had been out planting their own Pakalōlō, as summer solstice is the day with the most sunlight of the year. Apparently the Hawaiians smelled the Pakalōlō, heard da music and came over to check it out. Instead of busting out bats to beat up hippies they busted out their own Pakalōlō and started rolling bat sized doobies, passing them around to everyone.
The hippies had some really good Pakalōlō like Panama Red, Acapulco Gold and this killer Vietnam grass and crazy Thai stick weed from the returning Vets that made you start sweating and tripping out, but then the Hawaiian Pakalōlō started going around and we reached a whole new level. The hippies were astounded by true Hawaiian Pakalōlō, everyone wanted to know the strain name, as strain names were becoming increasingly popular in those days.
The Hawaiians called it Nāhiku Maui budz.
It was like nothing the hippies had tried before.
There were some really killer mushrooms from the Big Island and all kinds of colorful sheets and liquid going round.
It was crazy man!
Everyone was trippin’ balls, hippies, Hawaiians I think even the trees and birds were trippin with us, cuz we were all on this super high vibration like a collective consciousness or something.
Groovy is a good word we used to use back in the day that would describe the vibe.
We all were seeing heart to heart, Hawaiians and hippies, eye to eye, third eye to third eye.
The hippies explained for the first time to the Hawaiians that they were afraid of the Hawaiians, but loved and admired Hawaiian culture and the Hawaiians told the hippies the reasons they were upset with the new comers invading their homeland; things like being naked around ‘Ohana (family) beaches and how haoles (foreigners) always mispronounced Hawaiian names and words.
Even the name of the island Maui, the Hawaiians were explaining how it was pronounced with a powerful guttural MA-oo-WEE. “Say it with Mana (power, spiritual energy)… Maui!” Da Braddaz say.
The Hawaiians told the legend of the demigod and trickster Māui, who snared the sun and of how Māui was the name of a star near the Pleiades that lined up perfectly with lower Nāhiku, some theories even say Maui Wowie was brought by extraterrestrials who would visit lower Nāhiku landing (ha, the landing literally) back in the time before missiles when there was peace, Hawaiians and hippies had some real similar views on the Universe.
Hippies were trying to learn to speak Hawaiian language correctly but we were all trippin’ so hard we could barely talk and the Hawaiian Pakalōlō was so good everyone kept saying “wow” when they hit it. It was hilarious seeing hippies all high like “MAooEE” then “Wow” when they hit the doob and Hawaiians like no “Māui MA-oEE” and hippies like “no wow da weed man” ~ everyone all laughing, what a party!
All anyone could say was “wow” when they tasted the local bud, soon all you could hear was trippy and echos of: “wowie, maui wowie, maui” everyone all totally tripping at this huge psychedelic bash down Lower Nāhiku!
It was incredible! .
By the end of the party the Hawaiians and the Hippies saw eye to eye in a way we never had before, or as we like to say we saw third eye to third eye for the first time.
Sadly people these days don’t have as many collective community psychedelic experiences as we did in those days, but if you ever have you know what I mean when I say it connects us ~ it lets us all in on one hilarious cosmic joke.
After the Solstice celebration, Hawaiians would drive by hippies in their trucks throwing shaka (a Hawaiian hand gesture where only the pinky and thumb are extended from the fist) yelling “Maui Wowie” Hippies would laugh and yell back “Maui Wowie”, you would have to have been there to understand, but Maui Wowie brought us together in a most amazing way through a truly strange and unique set of circumstances. Mahalo Ke Akua (Thank God) for Maui Wowie."
We can Thank God for Maui Wowie as her complex tropical terpene profile could not be created over night or even over many decades by human hands.
Our 'Ohana (Family) in Amsterdam who brought Maui Wowie home with them in the 1990’s, still say that flowering indoors is difficult unless one adjusts the photoperiod to Hawaiian style 11/13 light/dark – as Maui Wowie is so Hawaiian she will not flower properly under traditional 12/12.
Here in Hawai’i we have between 10:30 - 13:30 hours of daylight between winter and summer solstice. If you are growing Maui Wowie indoors anywhere on God’s Green Earth try adjusting your lights to Hawaiian style 11/13 photoperiod in order to trigger aggressive flowing in Maui Wowie of other Hawaiian sativa strains.
If you have chosen to grow Maui Wowie outdoors anywhere on Planet Pakalōlō “you have chosen…wisely” as a Great Templar Knight guarding the Holy Cannabis Cup once said because Hawaiian sativa strains inherit a natural resistance to mold from literal centuries of cultivation in paradise and thrive during outdoor grow seasons all around the globe!
It is rather symbolic that the day with the most light of the year gave birth to the legendary Maui Wowie – a strain that has spread abundant Aloha and light worldwide to many medicated members of Pua Mana 'Ohana (Hawaiian for “Flower Power Family”).
Speaking of light…does anyone have a light?
It is 4:20 HI time…
~ Pua Mana 'Ohana & Pua Mana 1st Hawaiian Pakalōlō Seed Bank release all genetics for souvenir & preservation purposes ~