Point 10

Welcome to point #10 on the Lihue Loop Audio Tour. You are hopefully standing in front of the Skate Park and Holua Mural. This is Sisi Caletena and Sydney Ito from the Advanced Media Productions Class at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School, and we will share with you the story about the mini Skate Park and Holua Mural.

Let’s begin by looking at the Holua mural. We suggest walking up to the mural to get a better view. The mural is located on the East-facing wall of the Pi’ikoi building at the Lihue Civic Center. Here’s Seth Womble, one of the artists responsible for the mural to tell us more.
In April of 2020, the County of Kaua’i commissioned me to create a mural backdrop for a pop-up skatepark project as part of the revitalization of the Lihue town core. With the assistance of artist Samuel Schryver, we came up with a theme to tie Hawaiian history with modern skateboarding. The abstract mural has imagery that represents the ocean, lava, and sky with silhouettes of ancient Hawaiian holua riders. Holua was a sacred Ali’i tradition that involved shooting down a long-ridden slope on a hand-crafted sled.

Seth has many other projects in the works. He plans on painting more murals around the island, and collaborating with other artists in the future to put some life back into older buildings.

Located next to the Holua mural is the mini skate park. At first this park was supposed to be here for just a year or so, but community volunteers have stepped up to clean and take care of the park.

The purpose of this park was for the community to have a safe place where they can skate and enjoy themselves.

The skate park was funded through a quick-build grant from the State of Hawaii Department of Health that cost $9,000 and was installed in early October of 2020.
Thank you for listening to point #10, the Lihue Skate Park and Holua mural. Enjoy the rest of your audio tour!