Pāka‘a Lanakila! is a 33-minute “music-moʻolelo” (music story) performed by wind quintet and amplified narrator in both English and ʻōlelo makuahine (Hawaiian). Commissioned by Chamber Music Hawaii for the Spring Wind Quintet with generous support from the Honolulu Mayor’s Office on Culture and the Arts, Pākaʻa first premiered in its English version. After this first performance, and with the generous help of Sam ʻOhu Gon III and B.K. Cabigon, an ʻolelo Hawaiʻi version was developed along with free educational resources (with additional generous help from educator Mailelauliʻi Nakī), and supported by the Kosasa Foundation and private donors, and this version has been the main version performed for the past 10 years by the Spring Wind Quintet and master storyteller B. K. Cabigon. In both English and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi versions, the narrator tells a humorous and ultimately empowering story of Pākaʻa, a boy living on Kaua‘i long ago, in the cliffs of Ke-ahi-ahi (near the present-day Kealia) with his single mother and her bird-catching brother. Pākaʻa is tired of the fishermen making fun of his uncle because he struggles to provide the family with fish—only birds. Pāka‘a is also frustrated that the fishermen never give generously of their fishing catch to him, believing that his uncle, Ma‘ilou, is too lazy to deserve it. Pāka‘a, however, figures out a clever way to beat the fishermen at their own game, and wins many ka‘au (quantities of forty) of his favorite mālolo fish. With timeless ʻōlelo noʻeau (wise, Hawaiian sayings), learning opportunities in traditional Hawaiian knowledge systems and hana noʻeau (Hawaiian arts), beautiful story-telling images by artist Caren Loebel-Fried, and masterful story-telling by B.K. Cabigon and Sam ʻOhu Gon III, the work (in its wind quintet form) has become a favorite for families and school children across Kauaʻi, Maui, Moku o Keawe (Big Island), Lānaʻi, Molokai, and Oʻahu, and it will soon have an orchestral version. Stay in touch!