TV series reveals 'Pacific Clues'

Lisa Asato / Ka Wai Ola

University of Hawai'i doctoral student Kekuewa Kikiloi is helping to raise the next generation of archaeologists. Kikiloi is featured in a new TV series, Tuesdays on PBS Hawai'i, that's helping middle school students to unlock the mysteries of archaeological sites around the Pacific.

Kikiloi's 10-minute episode (Pacific Clues, program two), takes students to two remote northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Nihoa and Mokumanamana, where he has employed coral-dating technology to help determine the age of heiau, and surveyed and mapped well-preserved archaeological sites.

“It's kind of like the lost city of Babylon there,” Kikiloi said by phone as he was sailing to Nihoa for a recent field study. “On Nihoa you have everything like ceremonial sites, house platforms, rock shelters, shrines, agricultural terraces – just a lot of artifacts still lying around. … It's like you're going back in time.”

Travel back in time with Pacific Clues, airing through Dec. 1 at 12:50 p.m., following the 12:30 showing of Stories to Tell, a new series about how the Civil War reached into the Pacific. Both nine-part series are produced by the state Department of Education's Teleschool Branch, led by director/producer Ann Marie Kirk, an award-winning documentary filmmaker. For information, email pacificclues@gmail.com.

Shows repeat Thursdays and Saturdays on Educational Channel 56. Previously aired episodes – including Kikiloi's – may also be viewed online at teleschool.k12.hi.us by clicking on TV Programs and scrolling down to Stories to Tell and Pacific Clues. The shows will re-air in the spring on channel 56.