13 October 2026
From food and drink to rope, roofs, bowls and drums, almost every part of the humble coconut can be put to use. That’s why the hard-shelled fruit gets its own festival in Hawaii every October. Dorimalia Waiau explores why this familiar palm has earned its reputation as the Tree of Life and suggests a delicious traditional coconut dish to try
From food and cooking oil to skincare, crafts and traditional Hawaiian practices, the coconut has countless uses, as Hawaii’s annual Kauaʻi’s Coconut Festival celebrates. Credit: Pexels / Pixabay
In the UK, apples are the fruit of the month as everyone gears up for Halloween and, of course, apple bobbing. But over in Hawaii, it’s the coconut that is put in the spotlight each October, with a festival of its very own.
At Kapaʻa Beach Park, on the east coast of Kauaʻi, the Kauaʻi Coconut Festival brings together hula, Hawaiian music, cooking, crafts, demonstrations and games, all centred on a plant that has been part of island life for centuries.
Coconut palms are such a familiar sight in Hawaii that it’s easy to overlook just how useful niu, as we call the coconut, has been to generations of islanders. It was one of the useful plants introduced to the islands by Polynesian settlers and became so valuable that the description Tree of Life feels entirely appropriate. Almost every part can be put to work.
The flesh can be eaten and the water drunk, while oil from the meat can be used on the body and hair. Fibres from the husk have traditionally been made into cordage, coarse or fine depending on the job, while leaves provide material for baskets, thatch and fans. Even their sheaths don’t go to waste, being used for wrapping food or fish bait. The shell, meanwhile, has often been turned into a bowl, spoon, cup, storage container or a small knee drum called a puniu.
And besides its incredibly versatile fruit, the coconut tree itself has been used for house posts, small canoes, drums and containers while the midrib running through a coconut leaf has been used for centuries as a skewer for kukui nuts found in a traditional torch.
The Kauaʻi Coconut Festival gives people the chance to see some of that versatility for themselves. Children can have a go at husking coconuts, while elsewhere shells become craft materials and coconuts become ingredients for delicious dishes. Cultural demonstrations sit alongside music, games and other activities, so the familiar palm becomes something to handle, make things from, cook with and learn about.
That feels especially appropriate in Kapaʻa. Kauaʻi’s eastern shore around Wailua and Kapaʻa is widely known as the Coconut Coast, and coconut cultivation forms part of the area’s history. Niu is part of the landscape as well as the culture being celebrated.
There’s a nice detail in the Tree of Life description too. If we’re being technical, coconuts are palms rather than true trees, but the Hawaiʻi Community Coconut Program notes that traditional Hawaiian usage recognises the growing coconut as kumu niu, or coconut tree. The language reflects the special place the plant has occupied in everyday life.
Food offers some of the clearest examples. Alongside coconut water and flesh, traditional Hawaiian cooking made use of coconut cream. Bishop Museum records it being combined with sweet potato to make koʻelepalau, a soft, sweet preparation; with taro in kūlolo, a dense pudding-like dish; and with pia, or Polynesian arrowroot, to make haupia, the coconut pudding still familiar across Hawaii today.
Haupia, a traditional Hawaiian coconut pudding. Credit: Arnold Gatilao / CC BY 2.0
The range of uses also depended on a great deal of knowledge. Someone had to know how to turn husk into strong cord, which leaves were suitable for weaving or thatching, and how to shape a shell into something useful. The skills developed around niu only made every part of the plant even more valuable.
Given this, niu is a wonderfully practical example of the Hawaiian idea of mālama. The word means to care for, tend, preserve or protect something. It’s often translated as stewardship, although I like the more active sense of caring for something because it feels closer to what happens in practice.
A plant capable of providing food, drink, fibre, shelter, utensils and tools was worth understanding properly. Using what it provided well, and knowing how to care for the plant itself, were part of the same relationship.
That knowledge still has a place in Hawaii today. The Hawaiʻi Community Coconut Program is working to strengthen the role of niu in food, culture and community life, including establishing and restoring coconut groves and passing on practical knowledge about the plant.
Those efforts have become more important with the spread of the invasive coconut rhinoceros beetle, which can seriously damage palms. First detected in Hawaii in 2013, the beetle has added a new reason to protect a plant with such deep cultural and practical importance.
I think niu makes mālama particularly easy to understand. People learned its value, developed the skills to make good use of it and cared for it so that it could continue to provide.
That’s what I like about the Kauaʻi Coconut Festival. Among the food, music, crafts and games, it gives people the chance to look again at a plant that’s so familiar here it can almost disappear into the scenery, yet one so important that its reputation as the Tree of Life makes perfect sense.
Try It Yourself: Simple Haupia
Haupia is one of the easiest Hawaiian coconut sweets to make at home. Traditionally, arrowroot could be used to thicken it, but cornflour is a convenient modern substitute.
You’ll need: 400ml coconut milk, 400ml water, 70g caster sugar and 45g cornflour.
Mix the cornflour and sugar with the water until smooth. Warm the coconut milk gently in a saucepan, then whisk in the cornflour mixture. Cook over a medium-low heat, stirring continuously, until thick and glossy. Pour into a small square dish, leave to cool, then refrigerate until firm. Cut into small squares to serve.
Dorimalia Waiau is a Native Hawaiian author and cultural educator who writes about travel, island life and Hawaiian traditions. She has spent more than twenty years teaching and sharing the stories of her community, and her award-winning children’s books draw on real experiences of resilience, confidence and belonging. As a Travel & Culture correspondent, she offers warm, accessible insight into Hawaii’s landscapes, heritage and everyday life, bringing readers closer to the people and places that shaped her. The Secret Club and the Lost Legend, book three in Dorimalia’s Be Manaful series, is out now.
