Even though it's moved to a brand-new building, the Nanaikapono Community-School Museum in Nanakuli — a 35-year-old, one-of-a-kind public museum specializing in the area's unique Hawaiian cultural history — mostly has been a well-kept secret.

That was supposed to change after February 2004, when the museum relocated from its old Nanaikapono Elementary School site at 89-195 Farrington Highway and into the school's $21 million complex a half-mile away at 89-153 Mano Ave.

The facility was poised to become a Leeward O'ahu "mini-Bishop Museum," it was said. But those expectations were put on hold after partnership funding with the Bishop Museum ended and the larger institution was unable to find a new source.

Officials at both facilities have big plans for the little museum and predict it will receive some well-deserved recognition — just not as soon as hoped.

"From our standpoint, we're still seeking a funding source to make our dreams come alive over there," said Kay Fullerton, Bishop Museum community program manager.

"The federal grant under which we were partnering with them for a few years has dried up. But we remain committed to trying to find a way to sustain the partnership and make the vision come true."

That vision includes high-quality permanent exhibits, ambitious photographic and oral-history projects, and other avenues through which the Bishop Museum could apply its expertise to a community museum, she said.

Nanaikapono museum curator Jonathan Kuahiwi Moniz agrees that that goal eventually will be realized.

"I still consider us to have a very good partnership with the Bishop Museum," he said. "If I needed guidance on something, I would have no reservations as far as calling them and asking for advice.

"And actually, the Bishop Museum includes us in many of their workshops."

Meanwhile, the museum continues to provide hands-on experience to those who seek to know more about Hawaiian dance, language, music and other traditions of the culture.

The obscure facility started out quietly inside a converted economics building at Nanaikapono Elementary in 1970. Part of a Model Cities Program, it was on the forefront of the Hawaiian cultural revival.

Its goal has been to acquaint school kids, the Nanakuli community and the general public with cultural, archaeological and historical aspects of the Hawaiian community in Nanakuli.

From the beginning, the museum was unique. Operated by the state Department of Education, it is primarily a school facility serving local students and school groups from around the state.

But it is also a public museum that serves the community at large, which Moniz defines as local, islandwide, national and international in scope.

Normally, visitors other than Nanaikapono Elementary students come by appointment, but stragglers occasionally show up without warning.

"When that happens, I call upon one of my Museum Club members here at the school, and the students actually give the walking tour," said Moniz, who recounted how that happened recently when a woman from Belgium appeared at the door.

The essence of the museum's collection is its hands-on lending kits — consisting of authentic Hawaiian cultural objects made over the years by students themselves.

Each kit addresses a topic such as kapa making, poi pounding, canoes, farming or Hawaiian hula instruments. Student groups can visit the museum, touch items customarily locked in cases and be educated about the details of the culture.

If the students can't come to the museum, Moniz takes the lending kits and his expertise to the students.

The museum also has visual exhibits, in glass display cases, that it changes twice a year. The current display focuses on the fourth-grade curriculum of Hawaiiana.

Interest in the museum and Nanakuli's historical importance was heightened a few years ago by survey studies in the valley that turned up ancient adzes, game stones, dwelling structures, agricultural terrace systems and evidence of a heiau.

One uncovered artifact that has become the museum's most treasured possession is a hohoa, or kapa cloth beater, that predates Western contact with Hawai'i.

"What makes it extra special for us is that it was found in Nanakuli," said Moniz as he delicately removed the hohoa from its display case.

Moniz said the discovery of the hohoa dispelled the notion that Nanakuli was once a sparsely populated area, because the artifact was indicative of a more sophisticated society.

"There was sort of an opinion that Nanakuli was this impoverished fishing village," said Ross Cordy, who teaches Hawaiian Pacific studies at the University of Hawai'i-West O'ahu and who worked with the Nanakuli survey teams.

"What we found in the back was that the valley was covered with sweet potato fields and scattered houses dating back to the 1300s and 1400s."

Ironically, the majority of the folks living in Nanakuli houses today have little knowledge of the area's history, said Moniz, who grew up on the Wai'anae Coast.

More research needs to be done to uncover and explain the valley's mysteries, say many, including Cordy. They believe the role of Nanai-kapono Community-School Museum in the task is destined to grow.

"The museum has tremendous potential," Cordy said. "For that side of the island, for the community and for the schools."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.