While on an all-day hike deep in Molokai’s Halawa Valley five years ago, the popular Hawaiian folk singer and musician known simply as Lono ran across a friend, Lawrence Aki, who was guiding a group of visitors on the trail.

"Lawrence asked me who I was with, and I told him, ‘Just me and my friend,’" Lono recalled. "He looked around and asked where my friend was. I pulled the ukulele off my back and showed it to him, and he smiled. He knows the special connection that musicians have with their instruments."

Dusk was falling as Lono reached Moo­ula Falls. As the final shafts of daylight filtered through the dense forest, he sat beside the waterfall and started strumming his ukulele.

Suddenly an old man appeared in the cascading water. "He had long white hair and he was wearing a robe," Lono said of the apparition. "I looked at him and said, ‘I will play for you.’ Then I saw his family — some of them were behind him, some were at his feet, maybe nine of them in all — and I said, ‘I will play for you, too.’"

According to Lono, the kupuna (elders) of Molokai have told many stories about this mysterious old man and his ohana (family). Perhaps they are the guardians of the valley; no one knows for sure.

Lono serenaded his mystical audience for about an hour, then headed out of the valley in the dark. When he got home, he wrote the song "Ka Wai­lele" ("The Waterfall") about that chicken-skin experience.

In what is sure to be one of the highlights of the inaugural Uke Ohana Molokai, participants will hike two miles to Moo­ula Falls, where they will play "Ka Wai­lele" for the old man and his family as members of Hula Halau Mele Nei dance.

Melany Berry, founder and coordinator of the five-day ukulele workshop, believes Molokai is the perfect setting for such a gathering because of its rich cultural heritage. "It’s the least developed of the major Hawaiian islands and has a population that’s predominantly Hawaiian," she said. "It’s the sacred birthplace of the hula. It’s known as Molokai Pule Oo, the place of powerful prayers, because in ancient times it was where kahuna (priests) were trained."

Halawa Valley, on the island’s lush east end, starts with twin waterfalls fed by 200 inches of annual rainfall. The water flows six miles past giant mango trees rising out of what was once carefully tended taro patches on black lava terraces.

"There are twin coves where the stream reaches the sea," Berry said. "Halawa was the Polynesian voyagers’ first settlement in Hawaii. They knew it was a fertile, spiritual place."

Uke Ohana Molokai will be based at 13,000-acre Puu o Hoku Ranch, which encompasses part of the valley. It’s an area Berry describes as "pure and peaceful, a place with strong connections to the past. You can touch the roots of Hawaiian culture, history and values in a very intimate and personal way there."

Classes and activities will revolve around the "old-style" Hawaiian music for which Lono, a descendant of Hewa­hewa, the last kahuna of King Kamehameha I, is known. The event’s primary presenter, he was raised on Molokai and was greatly influenced by the Hawaiian culture and the teachings of his kupuna.

"Lono’s songs honor Molokai’s people, their ancestors, history, legends, sacred sites and natural wonders, including the different types of winds that blow on the island," Berry said. "Attendees will be experiencing the living traditions from which old-style Hawaiian music springs. They’ll ‘talk story,’ walk the land, swim in the sea, dance the hula, eat traditional foods, prepare poi and kava, learn about the Hawaiian language and how ukuleles are made, and play lots of happy ukulele music."

Joining Lono as teachers will be other Molokai artists and cultural authorities, including luthier Dan Ryerson; "Uncle" Pilipo Solatario, who will lead a hike into Halawa Valley and do a poi demonstration and kava ceremony; and dancers Sheri Shultz and Richard and Kim Markham of Hula Halau Mele Nei.

Hailing from the town of Otis, on the Oregon coast near Lincoln City, Berry and her husband, Duncan, have been avid followers of Hawaiian music since the 1960s. They have been visiting Molokai every year since 1995 — sometimes several times a year — for stays of at least a few weeks. Drawn by the island’s simple, slow-paced lifestyle, they relish those escapes, the close friendships they’ve made in the community and the beauty and mana (spirit) of the island.

Berry commissioned a handmade curly koa ukulele from a Molokai craftsman in 1998, and she has been playing the instrument and organizing ukulele events ever since (see www.tunes­in­the­dunes.com). Uke Ohana Molokai is the first event she has organized in Hawaii, and she hopes it will become an educational retreat that aficionados of Hawaiian music can look forward to every year.

"At Uke Ohana Molokai you’ll learn chords and playing techniques, and have the opportunity to perform," Berry said. "You’ll play traditional Hawaiian songs, write your own originals, really hear the voice of your ukulele and feel the spirit of ohana. This workshop is all about you falling in love with your ukulele and the beautiful music you make together."

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.