KAPALUA — As he hammers away at a coconut stump carved with intricate design, few passersby would know that John Keoni Awau Turalde was once paralyzed from the neck down.

A former commercial diver, Turalde got the bends and became paralyzed at age 26. For seven years, he diligently worked to regain the use of his limbs. Now, the 60-year-old is back doing what he loves — creating and sharing pahu, Hawaiian drums.

“I never let it hold me down,” Turalde said. “There’s nobody around that makes drums like this anymore . . . the traditional way, without machines.”

On Friday and Saturday, some of Hawaii’s best and most passionate artisans and cultural practitioners gathered at The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua for the 25th annual Celebration of the Arts. Every year, the event offers demonstrations, films, panels, entertainment and hands-on workshops spotlighting art and Hawaiian culture.

The event came about after mass protests in the late 1980s against construction of The Ritz-Carlton near Honokahua Bay, where hundreds of ancient human remains had been discovered, said Clifford Naeole, event organizer and cultural adviser at The Ritz-Carlton.

After the hotel site was moved farther up the hill, The Ritz decided to create a festival to highlight Native Hawaiian culture and accomplishments, Naeole said.

“What it does is offer a safe haven for Hawaiians to come express their views, while inviting our visitors so they can understand the culture, that we’re not just props,” he said.

On Friday, the clacking of stone on stone and the thwacking of hammer and chisel on wood filled the air of the hotel grounds. Turalde, who’s from Hilo, pounded away at the base of a drum alongside his son Oli, who was threading twine through a rawhide drum cover.

A friend taught the 16-year-old Turalde his craft. Turalde explained that he takes dead coconut trees and lets them dry out for about a year to a year and a half. Then he cuts them into stumps and starts shaping them into drums. If he works 14 to 16 hours a day, he can finish one in about eight days.

After a diving accident more than 30 years ago left him paralyzed, he had to put aside thoughts of drum-making and diving as he focused all his energies on regaining feeling and movement. When he finally got out of the hospital, the spirit of a kupuna put a hand on his chest and told him, “Boy, make Hawaiian drums.” The spirit didn’t have to ask twice. Turalde loaded up a truck with coconut stumps and went to work.

These days, Turalde gets around in a wheelchair, which sits folded on the side as he hammers and carves drums that get donated to hula halau and “individuals that deserve it.” He’s been coming to the Celebration of the Arts for 16 years.

“This is the best festival,” he said. “I get to meet every Hawaiian practitioner and artist over here. Everybody’s the best practitioners that came here. I love it.”

Hoaka Delos Reyes is another practitioner, a Haiku stone carver who can hammer uncanny detail into rocks. Delos Reyes appreciates the significance of stones to early Hawaiians, who used them to build heiau and fishponds, and to create mortar and pestles, game implements and useful tools.

“Stone is a foundation of our culture,” he said.

Delos Reyes has been at his craft for more than 40 years. He was taught by a Japanese elder who kept him doing stone-on-stone work for the first five years before he could move on to using a hammer and chisel. Delos Reyes creates everything from elaborate sculptures on massive slabs of rock to hand-held stone candles burning with kukui nut oil. He said he doesn’t shape the stone; the stone shapes him.

“For me, it’s not really work,” Delos Reyes said. “It’s about perpetuating the tradition of carving stone, keeping it alive so that it’s not lost. Anything like the language or making a fishnet, even just pounding and making poi . . . if we don’t use it, we lose it.”

The event also drew in vendors from around the state, selling Hawaii-inspired artwork, clothing, jewelry and home decor.

Lahaina resident Victoria Andrews was a first-time vendor and entrepreneur. She just started her business, NautiGirl Maui, this year. A native of Germany with a love of sailing, Andrews moved to Maui 20 years ago hoping for warmer waters where she could sail and dive. The sails left over from her ocean outings inspired her new business.

“I had old sails lying around that I couldn’t use, and so I started doing these,” Andrews said, motioning to handbags and tote bags fashioned from sails.

To make the bags, she spreads the sails across the floor of her garage and driveway and carefully cuts them into the appropriate sizes. Then she uses a machine to embroider them with island- and nautical-themed designs.

The material is strong and waterproof — great for the beach, Andrews said. She also gets old sails from the sailing company Trilogy and parasails from UFO Parasail, both in Lahaina.

“Just the idea of repurposing, I think, is really great,” Andrews said. “It’s (made of) Dacron. It’s a plastic. If you imagine how big these are, you don’t want them in a landfill. I think this is a beautiful way to upcycle them.”

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.