The heirloom passed down and still in tune!

When ukulele enthusiast Romany Buckwheat opened a brown paper parcel that came in the post, she wasn’t prepared for the contents. It was a 100-year-old, Hawaiian-made ukulele. Not only that, it had belonged to her late father, Ronald Wood Paine, and now Romany’s brother was passing it to his strumming sister to keep it in use. 

How did it feel, after all these years, when Romany held the heirloom ukulele in her hands?
“I was very thrilled to hold this much travelled, much loved uke of Dad’s, with gorgeous memories of the songs he used to teach us - The Plughole Song, Mush Mush, Isa Lei Susi.”

The ukulele was acquired in 1924 when Romany’s father was on his way from the UK to Fiji where, as a natural scientist, he was involved in work with moths. His ship went via Hawaii. It is possible that the passengers were gifted the ukuleles or simply that Romany’s father took a shine and bought the instrument as a fine thing to carry around for impromptu entertainment. 

Romany said: “He and his fellow scientists from Cambridge University called themselves The Cantab Trio. They played at weddings and parties - his uke was well used! The Fijians used to sing ‘Isa Lei’ to folk on the ships leaving Suva. My dad used to play that song and many others to us kids.”

The ukulele is so often associated with Hawaii - even its name means “jumping flea” in Hawaiian - that people think it was invented there. The answer is both yes and no. The instrument that we know today, and with a long connection to Hawaii, actually originated in Madeira. The wood and the shape changed due to availability of local materials but the two are connected very closely. 

The story of how one instrument traditionally made on an island off the west coast of Africa in the Atlantic Ocean travelled thousands of miles all the way across continents and oceans to an island in the middle of the Pacific is told in this article from Ukulele magazine. If you want to know a little more about the Portuguese immigrants who brought their musicality and instrument-making skills to Hawaii, here is a short article about the ships that carried 25,000 islanders on the long sea voyage from Madeira to Hawaii between 1878 and 1913. 

The ukulele bought by Romany’s father was made by the Kumalae family and you’ll see in the photos of Romany that the neck of the ukulele she is holding has the Kumalae trademark and name, including reference to a gold award won by the makers at an international exhibition in San Francisco in 1915. Here is an article, also from Ukulele magazine, that paints in some of that family’s history. 

Romany occasionally takes her dad’s precious ukulele to the Findhorn Ukulele Group, adding more tunes to an instrument that was first played over 100 years ago. Imagine if it could play all the tunes it has known from the start - it would be a very long concert!