About 20 years ago Jimmy Duvauchelle was waiting at the Honolulu International Airport for his flight home to Molokai.
He was wearing his wide-brimmed cowboy hat, a lightweight long-sleeved collared shirt and jeans — his everyday outfit, whether he was working on his ranch or catching a flight. As he sat waiting for his flight, a woman approached him and asked whether he was from Texas.
Duvauchelle asked the woman where she was from, to which she replied, “Kailua.”
The woman had never heard of a paniolo, Duvauchelle told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
“I felt a little disappointed because I represent a culture,” Duvauchelle said. “She’s not the only one. Once in a while you run into people with that question in their mind.”
To spread awareness about paniolo culture, Duvauchelle organized the first Molokai Paniolo Heritage Rodeo in the late 1980s.
Rodeos are usually held in the summer because of the good weather, Duvauchelle said. But he chose to hold his on June 11 in honor of King Kamehameha I, who is the reason paniolo exist.
Cattle came to the Hawaiian Islands when they were first given as a hookupu (offering) to King Kamehameha I in 1793, Duvauchelle said. The king put a kapu on the few he was given and allowed them to breed. But Hawaii lacked the predators cattle had on the mainland, and 40 years later the islands were overwhelmed with the livestock, he said.
King Kamehameha III’s envoys, who had returned from California, told him of the Mexican “vaqueros” (cowboys) they had seen herding cattle. Kamehameha III recognized the usefulness of the practice and in 1832 he sent for three vaqueros to be brought to the islands so they could teach roping to the Hawaiians, Duvauchelle said.
But being a paniolo is about more than being able to rope cattle, he said.
“They see somebody with one hat on and wearing boots — to the people, that’s one paniolo,” Duvauchelle said. “But that’s not a paniolo. Paniolo is a lifestyle and someone who lives within that lifestyle.”
Duvauchelle described his life growing up on a ranch where he and his family would work together to learn how to work with their animals and care for them.
“It’s a practiced lifestyle where family passed down the trade to family,” Duvauchelle said.
Having the rodeo was a way to bring the community together while perpetuating paniolo practices such as pa‘u riding and poo wai u, or double mugging, he said.
For Joyce Miranda, president of the Kauai Rodeo Club, paniolo culture is a lot about values.
One of Miranda’s friends recently described them to her as “taking care of your animals, taking care of your horse before yourself. Times can be tough, and weather and rain or whatever, you still have to go work and get out there and do your best.”
Miranda also owns CJM Country Stables, which will host its 21st Paniolo Heritage Rodeo from July 22 to 24.
Miranda sees a lot of admiration for the paniolo lifestyle, particularly in those in their 40s and 50s, whose parents lived the paniolo lifestyle, she said.
“They are very, very anxious in trying to preserve this so that their children can have a sense of it,” she said.
At Parker Ranch, paniolo culture is strongly perpetuated by the cowboys who tend to the land and cattle every day, Jacob Tavares wrote in an email to the Star-Advertiser. Tavares manages Parker Ranch’s livestock business operations.
“They have learned from prior generations about the types of grasses, seasonal changes, weather events, animal husbandry, care for their family and community, and the maintenance of their kuleana,” Tavares wrote. “That is where the culture lives and is being preserved.”
On the Big Island the paniolo culture is mostly preserved in rural areas such as Waimea, Kohala and Honokaa, Tavares said. He believes that preserving the unique culture requires newcomers to take the time to learn about local culture, while supporting the local community.
“Support local businesses, buy local meat and produce, support community non-profits,” Tavares wrote. “We care for the cattle, and in turn they help us put roofs over our heads, send our children to school and provide opportunities to current and future generations.”
In Hawaii, rodeo season is year-round, Tavares wrote. On the Big Island, one will find that a rodeo is put on almost every month.
Parker Ranch’s rodeo had about 3,500 attendees, while the Molokai Paniolo Heritage Rodeo had about 750.
Miranda expects her 21st Paniolo Heritage Rodeo to draw about 1,500 spectators and about 200-300 competition participants and their family members.
But for Duvauchelle, holding the rodeo was about more than drawing a crowd.
“It was a chance, an opportunity to tell the word who we are and what we are about,” Duvauchelle said.
Correction: This story has been updated to differentiate beween King Kamehameha I and King Kamehameha III. Also, Makawao is on Maui, not Hawaii island, as reported in an earlier version of this story.
