How Hawaii’s Master Stone Carver Is Preserving History
29 Video Views·Dec 16, 2025
Hoaka Delos Reyes is the last of his kind. The master stone carver has practiced his craft, one that holds deep significance in Hawaiian culture, for 40 years. His process utilizes the technique and tools of his ancestors, requiring patience, endurance and prayer. Travel to the glorious island of Maui and spend time with an artist who is constantly learning from the natural world around him.
These stones are considered sacred in Hawaiian culture. When visiting, please be careful not to move or remove rocks.
He ala pōhaku, he maki pōhaku.
Stone is the foundation of Hawai'i.
We use stone to make our food, and we use it in battle.
This method of traditional stone carving cannot be forgotten.
I am the last stone carver that carved these stones from Hawai'i.
I've been carving stone for 40 years.
I can carve from a small one-pound stone to four tons using Neolithic methods, which is
so essential in Hawaiian people's lives.
To do the carvings, I've managed to replicate stone tools that were used by my ancestors.
It requires you to have endurance.
It requires you to have patience.
Once a piece breaks off, it's not the same.
It's either you give it your best, or you don't do it at all.
Before I go about picking up the stone, I do a prayer.
I pray before I take.
When you're down at the ocean, you notice all the different size and shapes.
That's called kaha.
Kaha is the scarring of stone from water.
Water cuts the pathways of these gulches and rivers and shapes the stones into what you
see when it's down at the beach.
There are days when I don't find any stone.
I'll be walking all day, but it tells me it's not time.
It finds me.
As I look at it and I touch it, it reveals to me what it's going to be shaped into.
It's unknowing.
It's so strong that I just can't walk away from it.
This rock, I know, will make a great poi pounder.
I will pick it up, bring it home, and start the process of chipping and grinding stone
on stone.
Countless strikes in order to bring about what's inside.
If you force yourself upon it, it will resist.
I hear and I start to feel the direction it wants to go in.
And you realize it's not you who shaped the stone.
It's the stone who shapes you.
After completing it, you feel good that you have been able to take something so large
and shape it to bring about a form that will give life.
The smaller stone taught me how to do the big stone.
One of the most important pieces for me is situated at an ancient burial ground at the
western end of Maui.
The stone sculpture has a story.
There are two figures, one coming down and one going up.
And there's a hole on the top of the sculpture, which is a portal.
It's the cycle of life.
When I am gone, that story in the stone will live on because stones are forever.