Brother Noland teaches skills to build confidence

There’s book learning and there’s the experiential kind, and Brother Noland Conjugacion is committed to both. In his case, experience came well before books, said the musician, film actor and author in a telephone interview this month.

Conjugacion’s “The Hawaiian Survival Handbook by Brother Noland,” a charming compendium of traditional nature knowledge and essential outdoor living skills, was published in 2014, the year he was honored by the state House of Representatives as one of the founders of “Jawaiian” music. But well before that, in 1996, he founded Ho‘ea Initiative, a nonprofit organization with the mission of teaching children life skills using nature as a classroom.

In immersive daylong to weeklong programs, Conjugacion and his team of instructors train young people in traditional skills such as tracking deer, fishing (“they catch it, clean it, cook it, eat it”), farming, harvesting wild plants, building a shelter in the wilderness and, last but not least, maintaining “the resource so you can always have enough for everybody,” Conjugacion said.

He led one of his popular Hawaiian Inside Tracking camps on the east end of Molokai over spring break and was gearing up to return for the summer camp, which runs June 5 to 9; applications are being accepted for a group of 25 to 30 students, with a ratio of one instructor to three youngsters.

Although students of all backgrounds and ages are welcome — including, for this session, adults — Ho‘ea’s priority is to provide opportunities and a meaningful sense of community for at-risk youth. Conjugacion himself experienced a troubled early life: As a 7-year-old living in Kalihi-Palama, he went on what he calls a “walkabout” during a rough time when his parents were getting a divorce and he was getting into fights at school. The unhappy child found mentors in the community from whom he learned survival skills — including the art of listening — that he could apply anywhere.

“We are all actually surviving in our own way, even in the urban environment, whether it’s financial (or emotional or physical), so my program is designed to look like it’s a survival program. But really it’s a program that teaches you how to live correctly, so you’ll never have to be in a survival situation,” said Conjugacion, 60.

The goal of the beginner camps is to instill “a little self-confidence, knowing who they are and (what they are) capable of doing,” he said. “You use a skill to teach them to learn about themselves.”

Over years with the program, some children become junior trackers and assistant instructors.

Mostly, for Conjugacion, it’s exciting to see them grow. “My No. 1 girl tracker is Karina Jacang, now a sophomore in high school. Her parents brought her to me when she was in second grade and couldn’t even stand still. Now she can stand like a tree.”

Jacang’s favorite use for her stance is in Japanese kyudo bow and arrow/meditation training, which she taught at the spring session on Molokai.

Another example, Conjugacion said, is Alex Johnston, now in ninth grade. “His dad is in the military, goes back and forth in the war world, but the mom and him are really supportive of Alex, who came to me in second grade.”

Johnston, he said, leans more toward the Filipino martial arts sticks, “so he teaches that: how to stand correctly, work on form, to be smooth, flowing gracefully.”

The idea, he added, is not to train kids as fighters but to learn the rhythm, coordination and balance required to throw, say, a fishnet.

After it’s thrown, “everybody gets to hold the net and then go under and see what the fish sees.”

On Molokai, the base camp for Hawaiian Inside Tracking is at the Keawanui Hawaiian Learning Center in Kaunakakai that includes a 60-acre fishpond. “But because we’re kind of nomadic, (mostly) all day we’re gone.”

As service learning and to instill a good work ethic, campers help to repair the rock walls. “You get one day working on the fishpond and you realize, ‘What am I whining about? I have a luxury life.’”

Is there music around the campfire?

“They usually ask, ‘Can we bring our ukulele?’ and we say yes, but you better have skills.” He laughed. “Everybody sorta sings. You join in after awhile, because music, humor — it’s about getting comfortable.”

Through building a community we find ourselves, he said.