The Paniolo Preservation Society is celebrating its 25th anniversary with the second annual Ka Mea Kanu ‘Ai – Paniolo BBQ and Slack-Key Celebration Wednesday and Thursday at Pukalani Stables in Waimea.

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The Paniolo Preservation Society is celebrating its 25th anniversary with the second annual Ka Mea Kanu ‘Ai – Paniolo BBQ and Slack-Key Celebration Wednesday and Thursday at Pukalani Stables in Waimea.

The event kicks off with a free family day between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Wednesday celebrating Hawaii’s paniolo (cowboy) heritage with a full day of music, culture and community.

On Thursday between 4-10 p.m. is the Paniolo BBQ and Slack-Key Celebration, an intimate evening with live slack-key music and ranch-to-table barbecue prepared by local chefs. Performers include Jerry Santos, Sonny Lim, Jeff Peterson, Ikaika Kalani, Natalie Ai Kamauu, Kalena and Kala‘e Parish, J.J. Ahuna, Dwight Tokumoto and Christy Leina‘ala Lassiter.

Thursday’s celebration is a fundraiser for the Paniolo Preservation Society to install the Aloha Vaqueros Exhibit in its Paniolo Heritage Center museum.

The exhibit documents and celebrates the remarkable cultural connection between Mexican vaqueros and paniolos. The vaqueros, who arrived in 1832 with lariats and guitars, taught the nascent Hawaiian cowboys how to herd the feral cattle descended from a 1793 gift of six cows and a bull from British naval Capt. George Vancouver to King Kamehameha I.

The vaqueros eventually returned home after teaching Hawaiians cowboy skills. They, however, left guitars — with the Hawaiian recipients tuning the strings down to make open chords. That was the genesis of ki ho‘alu, Hawaiian slack-key guitar music, which remains popular today.

The Aloha Vaqueros Exhibit has been displayed in museums including the Cowboy Museum of the Californias in Baja California Sur, Mexico, the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, and the San Diego History Center. Currently on display at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Old West Museum in Wyoming, the Aloha Vaqueros Exhibit will find its forever home in the Waimea museum at Pukalani Stables.

Beyond the artifacts themselves, the exhibit represents a commitment to preserving a living legacy for future generations. Through immersive displays, oral histories, film, music and educational programming, it tells a story that has shaped Hawaii’s ranching history but has seldom been shared on this scale.

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“It’s a world-class museum exhibit,” said Chelle Pahinui, executive director of the Na‘alehu Theatre and the Malama Ko Aloha Initiative. “They spent $150,000 to build the exhibit, and they’re donating the whole thing to us for permanency. That’s a significant contribution to the community and a story for people to experience.

“The brand of the Waimea community is the paniolo, you know, Parker Ranch. I think people go to Waimea to have an experience, and instead of just seeing the Paniolo Hall of Fame, they’ll actually see the whole story.”

Pahinui called it “an inspiring story of preservation, partnership and the people working together to ensure one of Hawaii’s greatest cultural legacies continues for generations to come.”

Billy Bergin, a veterinarian and member of the Paniolo Hall of Fame, described the Aloha Vaqueros Exhibit as one of “international historical significance” because vaqueros also laid the foundation for the cowboy of the American West.

“If we get busy and raise the money, we’ll have a building for them to occupy as early as 2028 or 2029,” Bergin said. “It’s coming here in a 40-foot container, and we’re going to build a 3,000- or 4,000-square-foot museum extension to accommodate it.

“My wife and I went all the way to Cheyenne, Wyoming, to see it on display to the public there — and it is stunningly accurate in historical reproduction of what actually did happen. It’s a remarkable moment in history, and that’s what we are celebrating. It’s high time we had a museum exhibit that visually reenacts the coming of the vaquero.”

There’s no admission charge on Wednesday.

On Thursday, there’s a limited number of general admission seats for $50 that includes music but not the meal. VIP seating, which includes the meal, is $175 per person. And a VIP table of 10 individuals with a reserved table is $1,750.

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For tickets or more details visit
bit.ly/4gEHGsH.

Email John Burnett at [email protected].