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August 23, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Uldrick Thompson

Uldrick Thompson, Sr was orphaned at the age of 4 – his father, Ambrose Thompson, died of tuberculosis when he was 3 years old. While caring for her husband, his mother contracted the same disease, and died a year later.

His maternal uncle, Uldrick Reynolds and his wife Sarah Myners-Reynolds took him in as one of their own according to the wishes of Thompson’s mother. They farmed halfway between Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs in New York.

Thompson was raised in a Methodist community and in the Methodist church. Uncle Uldrick attended Church regularly, revival meetings occasionally and Camp meetings not at all. The family kept the Sabbath day by attending church, avoiding unnecessary work and reading the Bible and good literature.

But Uncle Uldrick’s personal conduct was more influential; he didn’t swear, drink or gamble and paid his debts, his word being as good as a bond. Thompson sought to do likewise throughout his life.

Thompson was encouraged to become a professional teacher and enrolled at Oswego Normal School. There he met Alice Haviland of Brooklyn, New York; they were married at her parents’ home on July 5, 1882.

On November 4, 1887, the Kamehameha School for Boys opened with 37 students and four teachers. A year later the Preparatory Department, for boys 6 to 12 years of age, opened in adjacent facilities. (Organization of the Kamehameha School for Girls was delayed until 1894.)

Then, Thompson received a letter from General Samuel C Armstrong, the founder of Hampton Institute and son of Hawaiʻi missionary Reverend Richard Armstrong. He was recommended to teach in Hawaiʻi. He met with Charles Reed Bishop and agreed to teach at the new Kamehameha School for Boys.

On August 23, 1889, Rev William Brewster Oleson, principal of the Kamehameha School for Boys (popularly called the Manual School or Department) and Mr Harry Townsend, the vice-principal, met the Thompsons on the dock; they stayed at the Oleson home for a few days.

Thompson (1849-1942) was a teacher at Kamehameha School for Boys (1889-1898 and 1901-1922) and served as the school principal (1898-1901.)

“You who come to Kamehameha and find it as it now is, cannot conceive the degree of barrenness that greeted us that day. No rain for two years! Not a blade of green grass or even a weed in sight!”

“The few algaroba trees scattered about were not taller than a man, and seemed as stunted and discouraged as the mesquite of Arizona. And rocks, rocks, rocks everywhere, with cracks in the clay between large enough to put your foot in.” (Thompson; KSBE)

“One and one half hours work, before breakfast was required of every boy, from the first day of organization. The rising bell sounded at 5:30 am; the Morning Work began at 5:45 and continued till 7 o’clock. Then breakfast.”

“This work consisted of care of the buildings, grounds; helping about the kitchen and dining room; cutting wood for the school fires and for the teachers; and in clearing the Campus of rocks and weeds.”

The core classes were arithmetic, algebra, geometry, English, geography, penmanship, business, health, book-keeping and mechanical drawing. “The curriculum emphasized industrial training considered necessary for a Hawaiian to achieve personal and social success.”

For the girls, along with the standard curriculum, there were sewing, cooking, laundering, nursing and hospital practice classes. Girls 13 and older learned how to be homemakers and mothers. (Ruidas)

“Mrs. Thompson and I and the children, had an ideal life on The Kamehameha Campus. We would not have exchanged our experiences there for anything that might have been offered on the mainland.”

A lasting legacy of Thompson is a clock he made when he was 80; in 1928 he donated it to Oswego Normal School, where Thompson first received his teacher training. (Charles King and Sam Keliinoi of the first graduating class at Kamehameha (1891) came to the Oswego Normal School.)

It took Thompson a year to complete the towering grandfather clock made of koa; “His friend, DH McConnell, donated the Oxford-Whittington-Westminster chimes and works.” Thompson “requested it be placed in Sheldon Hall when built.”

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Uldrick Thompson-ksbe
Uldrick Thompson-ksbe
The Dolphin Clock by Uldrick Thompson
The Dolphin Clock by Uldrick Thompson
Grandfather-clock-built-by-Uldrich-Thompson-Principal-KSB-1898-1901
Grandfather-clock-built-by-Uldrich-Thompson-Principal-KSB-1898-1901
Early Teachers at Kamehameha Schools
Early Teachers at Kamehameha Schools
V4-01-A-KSB-First-Graduating-Class-1891
V4-01-A-KSB-First-Graduating-Class-1891
L2R-Dormitory A, Dormitory B, the Dining-Kitchen-Classroom Building, Dormitory C-ksbe
L2R-Dormitory A, Dormitory B, the Dining-Kitchen-Classroom Building, Dormitory C-ksbe
Graduating_Class_of_the_Kamehameha_School_for_Boys,_1900
Graduating_Class_of_the_Kamehameha_School_for_Boys,_1900
Assembly-Uldrick Thompson-ksbe
Assembly-Uldrick Thompson-ksbe
Downtown Honolulu-Uldrick Thompson-ksbe
Downtown Honolulu-Uldrick Thompson-ksbe
Downtown Honolulu Landmarks-Uldrick Thompson-ksbe
Downtown Honolulu Landmarks-Uldrick Thompson-ksbe

 

Filed Under: Prominent People, Schools Tagged With: Hawaii, Kamehameha Schools, Uldrick Thompson

August 22, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Makau

Ua Akamai kekahi poe kanaka Hawaii ia ka lawaia, no ia mea, ua kapa ia lakou, he poe lawaia. O ka makau kekahi mea e lawaia ai. O ka upena kekahi, a o ka hinai kekahi.

Some of the people of Hawaii were very knowledgeable about fishing, and they were called fisher-people. The hook was one thing used in fishing. The net was another, and the basket trap, another. (WE Kealakaʻi, Ka Hae Hawaii, 1861; Maly)

“This is how fishing was done with a hook. The cordage was first twined by the fisherman. The kind of cordage was a three-ply twine, a cord of three strands of olona. The line might be 720 feet long, or perhaps 960 feet long. Then the hooks were made and the fisherman was supplied with these things…” (WE Kealakaʻi, Ka Hae Hawaii, 1861; Maly)

Makau (fishhooks) of Hawai‘i took on many different shapes, each one specialized to catching different types of fish with a variety of fishing techniques.

Simple hooks were made from one piece of material, while composite hooks were made of more than one piece joined by lashing. (Bishop Museum)

“Their fishing-hooks are made of mother-of-pearl, bone, or wood, pointed and barbed with small bones, or tortoise-shell. They are of various sizes and forms”.

“(B)ut the most common are about two or three inches long, and made in the shape of a small fish, which serves as a bait, having a bunch of feathers tied to the head or tail. Those with which they fish for sharks, are of a very large size, being generally six or eight inches long.

“Considering the materials of which these hooks are made, their strength and neatness are really astonishing; and in fact we found them upon trial much superior to our own.” (Captain Cook’s Journal)

The use of human bone for fishhooks seems to have greatly increased in the late prehistoric period, and was relatively uncommon earlier in Hawaiian prehistory.” (Kirch)

The man who was skilled in the art of making fish-hooks (ka-makau) was regarded as fore-handed. (Malo)

The raw material was cut with a coral saw, and holes were drilled in the bone or shell blank with a shell-pointed pump drill. It was then shaped with coral files and finished with sea urchin spine files. (Young)

In helping to shape them, the hard wood of the pua and the rough pāhoehoe lava rock were used as rasps. (Malo)

The Hawaiian fisherman considered his fishhooks to be one of his most prized possessions, and they were carefully cleaned and stored in containers after use. (Young)

The names of the different kinds of hooks used in the ancient times would make a long list. The hoonoho was an arrangement of hooks made by lashing two bone hooks to one shank (they were sometimes placed facing each other and then again back to back.) (Malo)

Hook and line fishing was generally practiced in deep water, kawakawa and aku (bonito) and ula (lobster) are the usual bait; for lack of these any kind of fish is used with varying results.

For deep sea fishing the hook and line are used without rods, and fishermen sometimes use lines over a hundred fathoms (600-feet) in length. (Maly)

Paeaea is fishing with rod, hook and line. The bait most liked is shrimp. Earth worms are sometimes used and any obtainable fry or fish.

The fisherman takes a handful of shrimps, baits his hooks, and then, bruising the remainder and wrapping it up in cocoanut fiber, ties it with a pebble on the line and close to the hooks; the bruised matter spreads through the water when the line is dropped, and serves to attract fishes to the vicinity of the hooks. This bruised matter is called palu. (Maly)

Fishhook construction changed over time. “Hawaiian fishhooks exhibited sufficient temporal variation to render them a useful tool for seriation and relative dating, just as ceramics were used in other parts of the world.” (Kirch)

Catching fish with hook and fishing line was just one of many methods that were practiced in Hawaii. Bare hands, spears, slip nooses, nets, and traps were also used.

The fish supply remained constant, because the catching of a certain kind of fish was always restricted to a certain time of the year. Outside of this time it was declared kapu (prohibited.) (National Museum Australia)

“The fish eaten during the summer months of Kau were different as to kind from those eaten during the winter, Hooilo. During Kau the opelu was taken and used for food, during Hooilo the aku – bonito or albicore.” (Malo)

Fishing was the domain of specialists in Hawaiʻi. They were called poʻe lawaiʻa (fishermen), and were generally descended from families of fishermen. Certain religious ceremonies were associated with fishing. (National Museum Australia)

The reefs, lagoons and offshore waters around the Hawaiian Islands vary from place to place; fishing strategies that were successful in one place may not work in another – certain kinds of fishhooks and other gear were needed for particular situations. (Kirch)

The persistent use of shell fishhooks after contact (1778) was driven by cultural, political and economic factors that initially constrained access to – and limited desire for – iron hooks. Hawaiians manufactured shell fishhooks as late as 1850. (Bayman)

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Fishhook
Fishhook
Fishooks-BM
Fishooks-BM
Fishooks-BM-Long
Fishooks-BM-Long
Fishhooks-BM
Fishhooks-BM
Composite fishhook of bone, fiber and wood-PeabodyMuseum
Composite fishhook of bone, fiber and wood-PeabodyMuseum
Fishhooks-(Young)
Fishhooks-(Young)

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions Tagged With: Hawaii, Fishhooks, Makau

August 20, 2015 by Peter T Young 7 Comments

Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary

“The inception of this school emanated from Mrs Halsey Gulick. In 1863, when living in the old mission premises on the mauka side of King street, she took several Hawaiian girls into her family to be brought up with her own children … The mother love was strong in that little group as some of us remember.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1897)

The usefulness of such a school became evident; as the enrollment grew, the need for a more permanent organization was required.

“It might be claimed that the real beginning was when Rev. Dr. Gulick and wife first occupied the Clark house, and on March 6, 1865, opened a family school for girls.” (The Friend, April 1, 1923)

In 1867, the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society (HMCS – an organization consisting of the children of the missionaries and adopted supporters) decided to support a girls’ boarding school. An early advertisement (April 13, 1867) notes it was called Honolulu Female Academy.

HMCS invited Miss Lydia Bingham (daughter of Reverend Hiram Bingham, leader of the Pioneer Company of missionaries to Hawaiʻi) to return to Honolulu to be a teacher in this family school; she was then principal of the Ohio Female College, at College Hill, Ohio.

“Her love for the land of her birth and Interest for the children of the people to whom her father and mother had given their early lives, led her to accept the position, and in March, 1867, she arrived on the Morning Star via Cape Horn.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1897)

HMCS appropriated funds for repairs and additions to the buildings; “(t)he old stone buildings which had formerly been used as printing office and bindery by the mission, with the house of Rev EW Clark, then occupied by Dr. H. Gulick, were repaired and remodelled, to enlarge and make more comfortable the necessary rooms for the school now successfully started.”

“It would be impossible to tell those of you who only know the present building, how crowded and uncomfortable some of those rooms were but we rejoiced, for it was improvement! Miss Bingham soon became principal of the school.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1897) It was later named Kawaiahaʻo Female Seminary.

It started with boarders and day students, but after 1871 it has been exclusively a boarding school. “Under her patient energy and tact, with the help of her assistants, it prospered greatly, and became a success.” (Coan)

At first the school was designed to prepare Hawaiian girls to become ‘suitable’ wives for men who were at the same time preparing to become missionaries and work in the South Seas.

This objective took the back seat to industrial education as new industrial departments were added. This included sewing, washing and ironing, dressmaking, domestic arts and nursing.

The mainstay of the curriculum involved furnishing complete elementary courses, including music, both vocal and instrumental, and training in the household arts. Concerts given by the girls helped the school to make money.

In January 1869, Miss Elizabeth Kaʻahumanu (Lizzie) Bingham arrived from the continent to be an assistant to her sister. Lizzie was a graduate of Mount Holyoke and, when she was recruited, was a teacher at Rockford Female Seminary. (Beyer)

“To those of us who were then watching the efforts of these Christian ladies the school became the centre of great interest. The excellent discipline, the loving care, the neatness and skill shown in all departments of domestic life, the thoroughness of the teaching and the high Christian spirit which pervaded it all caused rejoicing that such an impulse had been given to education for Hawaiian girls.” (Hawaiian Gazette, March 23, 1897)

“Every Sunday one of the teachers accompanied the Girls to Kawaiahaʻo Church diagonally across the street to the morning service.” (Sutherland Journal)

“When Miss Bingham came to Hilo (on October 13, 1873 she married Titus Coan,) the seminary was committed to the charge of her sister, whose earnest labors for seven years in a task that is heavy and exhausting so reduced her strength, that in June, 1880 she was obliged to resign her post.” (Coan)

While Kawaiahaʻo was both growing and changing into an industrial school, two other female seminaries came into existence: Kohala Female Seminary and Maunaʻolu Seminary (East Maui Female Seminary.)

At the end of the century, all the female seminaries began to lose students to the newly founded Kamehameha School for Girls. This latter school was established in 1894.

It was not technically a seminary or founded by missionaries, but all the girls enrolled were Hawaiian, and its curriculum was very similar to what was used at the missionary sponsored seminaries.

Since Kawaiahaʻo Seminary was located only a few miles from this new female school, it experienced the biggest loss in enrollment and adjusted by enrolling more non-Hawaiian students.

In 1905, a merger with Mills Institute, a boys’ school, was discussed; the Hawaiian Board of Foreign Missions purchased the Kidwell estate, about 35-acres of land in Mānoa valley.

By 1908, the first building was completed and the school was officially operated as Mid-Pacific Institute, consisting of Kawaiahaʻo School for Girls and Damon School for Boys.

Finally, in the fall of 1922, a new coeducational plan went into effect – likewise, ‘Mills’ and ‘Kawaiahaʻo’ were dropped and by June 1923, Mid-Pacific became the common, shared name.

Kohala Female Seminary and Maunaʻolu Female Seminary continued to exist through the 1920s, offering a high school diploma to their graduates. (Hiram and Sybil Bingham, parents of Lydia and Lizzie, are my great-great-great grandparent.)

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Kawaiahaʻo_Female_Seminary,_Honolulu,_c._1867
Kawaiahaʻo_Female_Seminary,_Honolulu,_c._1867
Lydia Bingham-1866
Lydia Bingham-1866
Kawaiahaʻo_Female_Seminary
Kawaiahaʻo_Female_Seminary
Kawaiahaʻo_Female-Seminary
Kawaiahaʻo_Female-Seminary
Honolulu Female Academy-PCA-April_13,_ 1867
Honolulu Female Academy-PCA-April_13,_ 1867
Gulick_Home_expanded_to_house-Kawaiahaʻo_Female-Seminary
Gulick_Home_expanded_to_house-Kawaiahaʻo_Female-Seminary

 

Filed Under: Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Schools Tagged With: Hawaii, Oahu, Kawaiahao Seminary, Lydia Bingham, Mid-Pacific Institute, Hiram Bingham, Lizzie Bingham, Damon School for Boys

August 18, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Toketa

Toketa, a Tahitian, arrived in Hawaiʻi in 1818; he probably landed on the island of Hawaiʻi. He was a member of the household of the chief (Governor) John Adams Kuakini, at that time a prominent figure in the court of Kamehameha I in Kailua, Kona.

A convert to Christianity (he likely received missionary instruction in his homeland – first Europeans arrived in Tahiti in 1767; in 1797 the London Missionary Society sent 29 missionaries to Tahiti,) he became a teacher to Hawaiian chiefs, made a visit to Honolulu with Kuakini in January-February of 1822. (Barrere)

On October 23, 1819, the Pioneer Company of missionaries from the northeast US, set sail for the Sandwich Islands. After 164-days at sea, on April 4, 1820, they arrived and anchored at Kailua-Kona on the Island of Hawaiʻi; the Honolulu contingent arrived on Oʻahu on April 19, 1820.

One of the first things Hiram Bingham and his fellow missionaries did was begin to learn the Hawaiian language and create an alphabet for a written format of the language. Their emphasis was on teaching and preaching.

Initially, the missionaries worked out a Hawaiian alphabet of 17-English letters. On January 7, 1822, on the mission press set up in the (Levi) Chamberlains’ thatched house, “we commenced printing the language in order to give them letters, libraries, and the living oracles in their own tongue, that the nation might read and understand the wonderful works of God.” (Bingham)

(Later, on July 14, 1826, the missionaries established a 12-letter alphabet for the written Hawaiian language, using five vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) and seven consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p and w) in their “Report of the committee of health on the state of the Hawaiian language.” The report was signed by Bingham and Chamberlain. The alphabet continues in use today.)

On February 4, 1822, “Adams (Kuakini) sent a young Tahitian to us (Toketa,) to obtain for him that part of the spelling book which is printed, with a view to commence learning to read his own language. … This young Tahitian is one of the three, whom we have found here from the Society Isles, able to read and write their native language.”

“He, with one hour’s instruction, is able to read the Hawaiian (Owhyhean) also, and to assist the chief to whom he is attached.” (Missionary Herald, 1823) Toketa then began to teach Kuakini to read and write.

Shortly after (February 8, 1822,) “Adams (Kuakini) sent a letter to Mr B (Bingham) written by the hand of Toleta the Tahitian, which Mr. B answered in the Hawaiian language. – ‘This may be considered as the commencement of epistolary correspondence in this language.’” (Missionary Herald, 1823)

Kuakini’s interest in learning to read had not stopped, and he continued to study under Toketa. Kuakini later requested that the missionaries send him more books and teachers. In response, Elisha Loomis was sent to Kailua-Kona in mid-October to organize a school.

By early November 1822, that school had fifty students under Kuakini and Toketa, the latter being “sufficiently qualified to take charge of it for a season till a teacher could be sent from Honolulu.” Within a few weeks Thomas Hopu, a Hawaiian youth trained as a teacher by the American missionaries and part of the Pioneer Company, was sent to Kailua and put in charge of the school. (Barrere)

Later, Toketa moved to Maui and entered the service of Hoapili, a high chief of great note and foster father of the princess Nahiʻenaʻena (sister to Kiholiho and Kauikeaouli.)

While on Maui Toketa taught classes for the chiefs and helped in the translating of the Scriptures. Early in 1824, “The most interesting circumstance of the day, is an application for baptism from Kaikioewa and wife, from another chief and wife, Toteta, a Tahitian in the family of our patron Hoapili …”

“Every thing in the characters of these persons, as far as we can ascertain, sanctions the hope, that, through the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus, they have been turned from darkness to light … and are proper subjects for the administration of the ordinance, the benefits of which they are desirous of receiving.” (Stewart, February 24, 1824)

Toketa “continues a favorite with the chiefs, a diligent teacher and has given pleasing evidence of piety. He and several others would probably have been baptized before this had it not been for the difficulties that lie in the way respecting some of the chiefs who have requested baptism but which we hesitate to comply with and who would probably take great offence were any to be admitted to that ordinance before themselves.” (Ellis; Barrere) (It is not clear if Toketa was ever baptized.)

Toketa then goes to Honolulu, still engaged in teaching the chiefs. Chamberlain wrote, “Some very interesting classes were examined. The classes of Toteta and Haʻalilio were particularly so. In the former class were Boki, Kekauruohe (Kekāuluohi,) Kekauōnohi, Liliha, Akahi, and other chiefs of high grade …”

“… in the latter were Kaʻahumanu, Opiia, Tapule, and others – all stood forth like pupils made obeicence at the signal of their teacher with the docility of children spelled a lesson from the spelling book read in the tract repeated a number of hymns & the whole of the catechism.” (Chamberlain, November 23, 1825)

While in the Islands, Toketa wrote a journal. In part, he notes, “Those of Hawaiʻi talk much – day and night – about farming. In the cultivation of the land there is life. But it must be done continuously, otherwise death comes. They make great efforts in cultivating. There is no land which they do not ready for planting – they even raise taro (ʻai) on ʻaʻa lava.” (Toketa Journal; Barrere)

Toketa was but one of a number of Tahitians in such a position during the 1820s and 1830s. The earliest, and model for the rest, was the Tahitian missionary Auna who came to Hawaii with a visiting English delegation of missionaries in 1822.

Others among the Tahitian teachers were Tauʻa and his wife Tauʻawahine and a female teacher, Kaʻaumoku, who came to Hawaii with William Ellis when he returned in February of 1823.

The three were taken into the household of the queen mother Keōpūolani and after her death that September, into that of Hoapili on Maui.

Stephen Pupuhi (Popohe), a Tahitian youth educated at the Cornwall School, accompanied the Second Company of missionaries to Hawaii in 1823. He entered the service of Boki, governor of Oahu, and later that of Kalanimōku, the prime minister.

Another is Kahikona, who took over Toketa’s journal. Kahikona’s first entry refers to incidents of 1838 and may indicate the time of Toketa’s death or perhaps his return to Tahiti. We believe one or the other to have occurred at some time before 1843. (Barrere)

The image shows a view of Kailua, Kona, at about the time Toketa was there, teaching Kuakini how to read and write Hawaiian. (Thurston, Lahainaluna Engraving) (Lots of information here is from Barrere.)

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P-02 View of Kailua
P-02 View of Kailua

Filed Under: Ali'i / Chiefs / Governance, Missionaries / Churches / Religious Buildings, Prominent People Tagged With: Hawaii, Kuakini, Pioneer Company, Hoapili, Toketa

August 16, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Place Names

“It was the same from Hawaiʻi to Kauai –
no name was given without some reason.”
(Kamakau)

In old Hawaiʻi, it was the nature of ‘place’ that shaped the practical, cultural and spiritual view of the Hawaiian people.

In ancient times, the naming of a place was not a task to be undertaken lightly, for the Hawaiians recognized the power inherent in a name.

In giving a name to a piece of land, whether it be an island, a hill or a rocky headland, the inhabitants of ancient Hawaiʻi were placing a part of themselves on the landscape. (Reeve)

In Hawaiian culture, natural and cultural resources are one and the same. Traditions describe the formation (literally the birth) of the Hawaiian Islands and the presence of life on, and around them, in the context of genealogical accounts.

Place names reflect the way in which the ancient Hawaiians viewed their island home, and today, centuries later, they provide windows through which we can look back into the past and see the world again as they saw it, through a Hawaiian perspective.

The name chosen might reflect the physical characteristics of the place, it might recall some event which occurred there, or it might honor a god or gods.

One need only to listen to the ancient mele, the traditional poetry of these islands, to appreciate the important role which place names (and the remembrances they evoke) played in Hawaiian culture. (Reeve)

“The ancients gave names to the natural features of the land according to their ideas of fitness. … There were many names used by the ancients to designate appropriately the varieties of rain peculiar to each part of the island coast; the people of each region naming the varieties of rain as they deemed fitting. … The ancients also had names for the different winds.” (Malo)

For place names were a reaffirming link, not only to the land itself, but to all the events, both legendary and historic, which had taken place on that land and to the ancestors who had lived on and were now buried within it.

All forms of the natural environment, from the skies and mountain peaks, to the watered valleys and lava plains, and to the shore line and ocean depths are believed to be embodiments of Hawaiian gods and deities.

Place names are often descriptive of: (1) the terrain, (2) an event in history, (3) the kind of resources a particular place was noted for or (4) the kind of land use which occurred in the area so named. Sometimes an earlier resident of a given land area was also commemorated by place names. (Maly)

“Cultural Attachment” embodies the tangible and intangible values of a culture – how a people identify with, and personify the environment around them.

It is the intimate relationship (developed over generations of experiences) that people of a particular culture feel for the sites, features, phenomena and natural resources etc, that surround them – their sense of place. This attachment is deeply rooted in the beliefs, practices, cultural evolution and identity of a people. (Kent)

The meaning of a particular Hawaiian place name might have been evident to all, or understandable only to those intimately familiar with the place and its history.

Often times a single place name carried more than one meaning. In addition to its easily discernible descriptive meaning, a place name might also possess a kaona, a hidden meaning.

Hawaiian customs and practices demonstrate the belief that all portions of the land and environment are related; the place names given to them tell us that areas are of cultural importance. (Maly)

“Sense of place is about the feeling that emanates from a place as a combination of the physical environment and the social construct of people activity (or absence of) that produces the feeling of a place. … People seek out Hawaiʻi because of the expectation of what its sense of place will be when they get there.” (Apo)

“Sense of place helps to define the relationships we have as hosts and guests, as well as how we treat one another and our surroundings.” (Taum)

“In the Hawaiian mind, a sense-of-place was inseparably linked with self-identity and self-esteem. To have roots in a place meant to have roots in the soil of permanence and continuity.”

“Almost every significant activity of his life was fixed to a place.”

“No genealogical chant was possible without the mention of personal geography; no myth could be conceived without reference to a place of some kind; no family could have any standing in the community unless it had a place; no place of significance, even the smallest, went without a name; and no history could have been made or preserved without reference, directly or indirectly, to a place.”

“So, place had enormous meaning for Hawaiians of old.” (Kanahele) (Lots of information here from Maly, Kanahele and Reeve.)

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A map of Hawaii printed in 1837 by students of Lorrin Andrews at Lahainaluna
A map of Hawaii printed in 1837 by students of Lorrin Andrews at Lahainaluna

Filed Under: Place Names Tagged With: Hawaii, Place Names

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Images of Old Hawaiʻi

People, places, and events in Hawaiʻi’s past come alive through text and media in “Images of Old Hawaiʻi.” These posts are informal historic summaries presented for personal, non-commercial, and educational purposes.

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  • Schools
  • Sailing, Shipping & Shipwrecks
  • Economy
  • Voyage of the Thaddeus

Tags

Albatross Al Capone Ane Keohokalole Archibald Campbell Bernice Pauahi Bishop Charles Reed Bishop Downtown Honolulu Eruption Founder's Day George Patton Great Wall of Kuakini Green Sea Turtle Hawaii Hawaii Island Hermes Hilo Holoikauaua Honolulu Isaac Davis James Robinson Kamae Kamaeokalani Kameeiamoku Kamehameha Schools Lalani Village Lava Flow Lelia Byrd Liberty Ship Liliuokalani Mao Math Mauna Loa Midway Monk Seal Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Oahu Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument Pearl Pualani Mossman Quartette Thomas Jaggar Volcano Waikiki Wake Wisdom

Hoʻokuleana LLC

Hoʻokuleana LLC is a Planning and Consulting firm assisting property owners with Land Use Planning efforts, including Environmental Review, Entitlement Process, Permitting, Community Outreach, etc. We are uniquely positioned to assist you in a variety of needs.

Info@Hookuleana.com

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