Hawaiian Traditions | Page 92 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 22, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kalanianaʻole Settlement

In 1920, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, Hawai‘i’s Republican delegate to Congress, drafted the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. In 1921, the federal government of the United States set aside as Hawaiian Homelands approximately 200,000‐acres in the Territory of Hawai‘i as a land trust for homesteading by native Hawaiians.

The avowed purpose of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was returning native Hawaiians to the land in order to maintain traditional ties to the land.

The Hawai‘i State Legislature in 1960 created the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) for the purposes of administering the Hawaiian home lands program and managing the Hawaiian home lands trust.

The Department provides direct benefits to native Hawaiians in the form of homestead leases for residential, agricultural, or pastoral purposes. The intent of the homesteading program is to provide for economic self‐sufficiency of native Hawaiians through the provision of land.

“For more than a year the subject of the rehabilitation of the Hawaiian people has been prominently before the public. The legislature of 1921 provided for the appointment of a commission that went to Washington and secured the necessary federal assistance.”

“The idea of rehabilitation is not a new one; it has been the endeavor of a strong Hawaiian society, headed by the late Prince Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, to get the people out of the cities and place them on the soil, there to work out their own destiny.”

“The newspapers have been generous in their treatment of this important subject; it has been a topic of discussion in all sorts of gatherings; it has been injected into political argument and has become a political issue, the Republicans being in favor of the plan, the Democrats being largely opposed to the idea.” (Judd, The Friend, August 1922)

Prince Kūhiō died at the age of 50, on January 7, 1922. Six months after his passing, the first Hawaiian homesteaders would move to what was referred to as the Kalanianaʻole Colony (sometimes called Kalanianaʻole Settlement) on Molokai.

Twenty-three lots of approximately 25-acres each, adjoined by 2,000-acres of community pasture were carved out. Later residential lots were added.

“The Commission selected the promising land of Kalamaula, adjacent to the port of Kaunakakai. It has this advantage of closeness to a shipping point; the obvious privileges of proximity to a community possessing a church, or rather three churches, a social hall with the prospects of a library soon to be erected; a school and other features of modern life.”

“Not only has Kalamaula this fine location, but more important is the fact that it has the soil and the water to insure the success of this first experiment in assisted homesteading.”

“Not far from the “Ho‘opulapula” lots, a field of cane has recently produced sugar at the rate of twelve tons to the acre. Kalamaula has identical conditions with the land of Kaunakakai where the cane was grown.”

“The rich soil is at least four feet deep and at one time had a crop of sugarcane, when the American Sugar Company was actively engaged in the cultivation of this staple.”

“When that enterprise was abandoned more than twenty years ago, the kiawe forest sprang up, and for the past two decades this forest has sheltered cattle and pigs, attracted thither by the abundant crop of kiawe beans that fall every summer.” (Judd, The Friend, August 1922)

“Amongst the applicants that reached seventy in number, to go back to the homestead lands of Molokai, the Commissioner of Hawaiian Homes chose last week Wednesday, eight families as the first to go to live on the homestead lands of Kalamaula Kai, and the rest, they will go later, however, only between twenty and twenty-four families total will live at Kalamaula.”

“In the selection of the commission of those eight families, it was done with them choosing full-blooded Hawaiians, hapa Haole, and hapa Chinese. At the same time, considered were their ages and the children in their families.”

The first eight Hawaiians and their families which were selected by the commission to go to the ‘āina ho‘opulapula at Kalamaula Kai were: David K Kamai, Clarence K Kinney, Albert Kahinu, WA Aki, John Puaa, Harry Apo, George W Maioho and William Kamakaua.

“Of these eight families, only three will go first, because only three of the lots have been so far cleared by the commission to be farmed at once, and thereafter, other families will go when their lots are ready.” (Kuokoa, August 17, 1922) Kamai was the first.

“David K Kamai, a full-blooded Hawaiian who is 41 years old, his occupation is a contractor and a carpenter. He has a wife and they have 11 children, 6 boys and 5 girls.”

“He is a land owner and he has knowledge of taro cultivation, sweet potato, corn, cabbage, alfalfa grass and melons. He is prepared to go at once and live on the land when his application is approved.” (Kuokoa, August 17, 1922)

“This lot, like all the others, has a frontage of five hundred feet on the government road that leads up to Kalae. The second lot is the demonstration lot, as already stated. Then come two more lots, after which is the plot reserved for the school, the playground, the reservoir. It is on higher ground than the rest of the country.”

“Laborers are now clearing the lots. The kiawe trees are being pulled out by their roots and the wood cut into proper lengths, for shipment to Lāhainā and other places. The land will soon be ploughed and prepared for the homesteaders by the Commission.”

“Seed corn is now growing near Kalae and chickens are being raised for the “Ho‘opulapula.” Efforts are being made to secure suitable varieties of taro and sweet-potatoes for the use of the farmers.”

“Alfalfa will likely be a popular crop. It does exceptionally well at Kaunakakai where as many as thirteen crops have been cut in one year. This is said to be a world record.”

“The first eight farmers have now chosen their locations and are ready to live there as soon as the lands are cleared and their houses erected. There are many children in these pioneer families; between thirty and forty young people are looking forward to being located at Kalamaula in a short time.”

“The eight heads of households are industrious, self-reliant and progressive men of promise. The policy of the Commission is not to get incompetent people out of the tenements and send them to the country regardless of their fitness and ability to make a living from the soil.”

“The idea is rather to secure picked men to make this initial attempt a success and thereby create a momentum that will spell victory in other places where the Homes Commission may undertake work in the near future.” (Judd, The Friend, August 1922)

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Molokai-USGS_Quadrangle-Kaunakakai-1952-portion

August 13, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Konohiki

For generations the small, slowly growing population clustered around shore sites near streams that supplied them with water. Such sites are best for inshore fishing.

In the course of native settlement, as the early Hawaiians spread from fishing sites on the shore to inland areas and fanned out over the plains and hills from original centers of settlement, households with ties of relationship became scattered.

Neighborly interdependence, the sharing of goods and services, naturally resulted in the settling of contiguous lands by a given ʻohana rather than in a scattering over an entire district. In this way there came to be an association of particular ʻohana with various areas.

The heads of the ʻohana groups were called haku or haku ‘āina. He came by his responsibility through seniority and competence. His authority was a matter of common consent rather than formal sanction; he was not appointed, he was not elected. (Handy, Handy & Pukui)

“(I)n the earliest times all the people were aliʻi … it was only after the lapse of several generations that a division was made into commoners and chiefs”. (Malo)

Kamakau noted, in early Hawaiʻi “The parents were masters over their own family group … No man was made chief over another.” Essentially, the extended family was the socio, biological, economic and political unit.

Because each ʻohana (family) was served by a parental haku (master, overseer) and each family was self-sufficient and capable of satisfying its own needs, there was no need for a hierarchal structure.

Kamakau states that there were no chiefs in the earliest period of settlement but that they came “several hundred years afterward … when men became numerous.”

As the population increased and wants and needs increased in variety and complexity (and it became too difficult to satisfy them with finite resources;) the need for chiefly rule became apparent.

As chiefdoms developed, the simple pecking order of titles and status likely evolved into a more complex and stratified structure. The actual number of chiefs was few, but their retainers attached to the courts (advisors, konohiki, kahuna, warriors, etc) were many.

In ancient Hawai‘i, most of the common people were farmers, a few were fishermen. Tenants cultivated smaller crops for family consumption, to supply the needs of chiefs and provide tributes.

Access to resources was tied to residency and earned as a result of taking responsibility to steward the environment and supply the needs of aliʻi. The social structure reinforced land management.

The traditional land use in the Hawaiian Islands evolved from shifting cultivation into a stable form of agriculture. Stabilization required a new form of land use and eventually the ahupua‘a form of land management was instituted.

A typical ahupuaʻa (what we generally refer to as watersheds, today) was a long strip of land, narrow at its mountain summit top and becoming wider as it ran down a valley into the sea to the outer edge of the reef. If there was no reef then the sea boundary would be about one and a half miles from the shore.

Ahupuaʻa served as a means of managing people and taking care of the people who support them, as well as an easy form of collection of tributes by the chiefs.

For hundreds of years since, on the death of all mō‘ī (kings or queens), the new ruler re-divided the land, giving control of it to his or her favorite chiefs.

Each ahupuaʻa in turn was ruled by a lower chief, or aliʻi ʻai. He, in turn, appointed an overseer, or konohiki. (The makaʻāinana (common people) never owned or ruled land.)

Konohiki were appointed to supervise the distribution of land, of planting and harvesting, water rights, the building and maintenance of irrigation ditches and new lo‘i. It was the konohiki who served as tax collectors in the Makahiki festival.

Under the aliʻi system of collecting tribute in the form of produce, these subdivisions of the chiefdom became tax units, each marked at its border with a heap (ahu) of stones, an altar upon which was put a symbol of Lono the god of rain, in the form of the rudely carved head of a hog (pua‘a.)

Within a given ahupua‘a the heads of the respective ʻohana were responsible for seeing that their people met the tax levy prescribed by the konohiki, the ali‘i’s land supervisor.

Under the aliʻi it was competence in meeting the requirements of this levy on produce that determined the rights of the planters to continue to cultivate and dwell on their land.

In addition to his responsibility as an overseer of the lands and their use in the ahupua‘a, the Konohiki was also in charge of along-shore and offshore fishing rights (sometimes referred to as ‘konohiki rights.’)

He enforced the seasonal kapu that protected various kinds of fish during seasons of spawning. He supervised the division and distribution of the catch in communal fishing, when prescribed portions went to the aliʻi and his entourage, to the kahuna, and to the households whose members had participated.

There was a high degree of stability or permanence of tenure despite the general turnover of authority and titles to the land whenever a new aliʻi came into power, owing to the fact that particular ʻohana enjoyed the rights of occupancy and use and faithfully fulfilled their obligations.

In many cases their ancestors had pioneered the area and cultivated it since the earliest era of Hawaiian settlement. Actually it was to the advantage of an aliʻi to maintain the occupancy of diligent cultivators of the land.

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View of southern Oʻahu from ʻEwa in the 1820s

July 23, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kōnāhuanui

The Hawaiian Islands were formed as the Pacific Plate moved westward over a geologic hot spot. Oʻahu is dominated by two large shield volcanoes, Waiʻanae and Koʻolau. Koʻolau volcano started as a seamount above the Hawaiian hotspot around 4-million years ago. It broke sea level some time prior to 2.9-million years ago.

About 2-million years ago, much of the northeast flank of Koʻolau volcano was sheared off and material was swept more than 140-miles north of O‘ahu and Molokai onto the ocean floor (named the Nuʻuanu Avalanche) – one of the largest landslides on Earth. Ko‘olau’s eroded remnants make up the Koʻolau Mountain Range.

Mountains are one of ‘āina’s most enduring bodies, not as easily leveled as hills or forests; Kōnāhuanui (among others on the Koʻolau capture rain clouds coming in on the trade winds, and silvery shimmering steams of water tumbling down their pali have come to symbolize the sky father Wākea bringing new life to the earth mother Papa. (Kawaharada)

Ku luna ‘o Kōnāhuanui i ka luku wale e, “Mountainous Kōnāhuanui reveals the onslaught” is the tallest on Koʻolau; Kōnāhuanui is actually two peaks (3,150 feet and 3,105 feet.) It forms the northwest corner of the Mānoa Ahupua‘a boundary.

Kōnāhuanui plays a part in the ‘Punahou’ story told by Emma M. Nakuina, a tradition of the creation of Punahou Spring by a moʻo god named Kakea.

The main characters in ‘Punahou’ are twin rain spirits: a boy named Kauawa‘ahila (a rain of Nuʻuanu and Mānoa) and his sister Kauaki‘owao (a rain and fog carried on a cool mountain breeze.)

The twins were abused and neglected by an evil stepmother named Hawea while their father Kaha‘akea was away on Hawai‘i Island. The siblings fled from their home near Mount Kaʻala, the highest peak on O’ahu (4,020 ft) to Kōnāhuanui above Manoa.

The affinity of the twins for mountain peaks suggests their rain cloud forms and also their moʻo ancestry; their flight from Kaʻala to Kōnāhuanui depicts the movement of rain clouds associated with cold fronts which sweep over the islands from west to east during the rainy season of Ho‘oilo (October to April).

Pursued by their mean-spirited stepmother, the twins fled from Kōnāhuanui to the head of Mānoa Valley. Like a cold north wind behind a passing front, Hawea followed her stepchildren to the head of the valley, so the twins went down the valley to Kukao‘o Hill; then to the rocky hill behind Punahou School.

The movement of the twins down the valley represents the path of the rains called Kauawa‘ahila and Kauaki‘owao sweeping from the wet uplands toward the dry plains. Each stop is drier than the last, with less food.

At Kukao‘o hill, the twins planted and ate sweet potatoes, a dry-land crop, not as prized as the wetland taro of the upper valley. At the rocky hill near the mouth of the valley, they lived on leaves, flowers, and fruits and on ‘grasshoppers and sometimes wild fowl.’ The rocky hill marks a rain boundary: it may be pouring rain in the upper valley, while it is sunny and dry below the hill. (Kawaharada)

Translated “his large seeds (testicles,)” the name Kōnāhuanui is said to come from a story summarized by T Kelsey: “when a man, probably a giant, chased a woman who escaped into a cave, he tore off his testes and threw them at her”. (Kawaharada)

Kōnāhuanui is the highest peak in the Koʻolau Mountains and is the northwest corner of the Mānoa Ahupua‘a boundary. It was the home of the gods Kāne and Kanaloa.

It was where their parents came on their way to and from the east from above and from the right (mai kahiki a mai ka hiwamai), meaning it was the starting and resting point of the gods since the formation of the islands. (Cultural Surveys)

It is home to a moʻo goddess, a large mythic lizard that lives in freshwater pools and streams. Rain clouds gather around its peak, and its Kona side, often ribboned with waterfalls, is the wettest area of Honolulu: here is the source of the waters of Manoa and Nuʻuanu valleys.

On the Ko‘olaupoko side, below Konahuanui, is a stream called Kahuaiki (the small seed,) one of three streams said to be wives of the god Kāne (the other two are Hi‘ilaniwai and Māmalahoa).

The three join together as one, Kamo‘oali‘i (the royal mo‘o), which brings life-giving water to the fields and plains of Kāne’ohe before entering the bay near Waikalua fishpond. Huanui, big seed, and huaiki, small seed, both speak to the fertility of the land.

To the northwest of Konahuanui is Lanihuli (swirling heavens,) a name suggesting rain clouds moving in the wind around the peak; northwest of Lanihuli is Kahuauli, the dark seed. Uli may refer to the dark rain clouds, their shadows on the land below, and the dark green vegetation along the summit and below it. (Kawaharada)

“There is only one famous hiding cave, ana huna on Oʻahu. It is Pohukaina… This is a burial cave for chiefs, and much wealth was hidden away there with the chiefs of old … Within this cave are pools of water, streams, creeks, and decorations by the hand of man (hana kinohinohiʻia), and in some places there is level land.” (Kamakau)

Pohukaina involves an underground burial cave system that connects with various places around O‘ahu and is most notable as the royal burial cave at Kualoa. The opening in the Honolulu area is in the vicinity of the Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) residence (the grounds of ʻIolani Palace,) where also many of the notable chiefs resided. (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

The opening on the windward side on Kalaeoka‘o‘io faces toward Ka‘a‘awa is believed to be in the pali of Kanehoalani, between Kualoa and Ka‘a‘awa, and the second opening is at the spring Ka‘ahu‘ula-punawai.

On the Kona side of the island the cave had three other openings, one at Hailikulamanu – near the lower side of the cave of Koleana in Moanalua—another in Kalihi, and another in Pu‘iwa. There was an opening at Waipahu, in Ewa, and another at Kahuku in Ko‘olauloa.

The mountain peak of Kōnāhuanui was the highest point of the ridgepole of this burial cave “house,” which sloped down toward Kahuku. Many stories tell of people going into it with kukui-nut torches in Kona and coming out at Kahuku. (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

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Nuuanu Pali-PP-60-2-019-00001

Konahuanui-other peaks-ExplorationHawaii

Konahuanui-marciel

Konahuanui-USGS-marker

July 18, 2016 by Peter T Young 5 Comments

Idlers

“Formerly, the chief could call the people from one end of the Islands to the other to perform labor. At the present time this is prohibited, and the people can be required to work only nearby their home.”

“Formerly, if the King wished the people to work for him, they could not refuse. They must work from month to month. So also at the call of every chief and every landlord.”

“At the present time there is nothing of the kind. If any chief should attempt to pursue such a course, it would be a crime such as would free all his tenants from laboring for him at all until the time specified in the law.”

“Formerly, the people were regularly required to work every Tuesday and Friday, that is four days in a month for the King and four for the landlord, eight in whole, and as many more as the chiefs chose. At the present time the whole number is limited to six days in a month, leaving twenty laboring days for the people.”

“Formerly, if the people did not go to the work of the King when required, the punishment was that their houses were set on fire and consumed. Now if they do not go, they must pay a rial, or at most a quarter of a dollar.”

“But still, the people are wailing on account of their present burdens.”

“Formerly, they were not called burdens. Never did the people complain of burdens till of late – till these dreadful weights mentioned above were removed. This complaint of the people however would have a much better grace, if they with energy improved their time, on their own free days, but lo! this is not the case.”

“They spend many of their days in idleness, and therefore their lands are grown over with weeds, and there is little food growing.”

“The chiefs of their own unsolicited kindness removed the grievous burdens mentioned above. The people did not first call for a removal of them. The chiefs removed them of their own accord.”

“Therefore the saying of some of the people, that they are oppressed, is not correct. They are not oppressed, but are idle.” (Laws of the Hawaiian Islands, 1842)

“As for the idler, let the industrious put him to shame, and sound his name from one end of the country to the other. And even if they should withhold food on account of his idleness, there shall be no condemnation for those who thus treat idlers.”

“If a landlord, or a chief should give entertainment to such a sluggard, he would thereby bring shame on the industrious. For three months the tenants of him who thus entertains the sluggard shall be freed from labor for their landlord. Such is the punishment of him who befriends the sluggard. Let him obtain his food by labor.” (Laws of the Hawaiian Islands, 1842)

“Indolence is a crime involving the best interests of the state. Even in days of old it was considered a crime, and at the present time it is perfectly clear that it is a downright misdemeanor. Those who live without labor live in direct disobedience to the commands of God, and in disregard of the opinions of mankind.”

“Wherefore, in a council or the Nobles and Representative Body, this law was passed.”

“1. If a man be often see running about, or sitting idly without labor, or devoted to play and folly, he shall be taken before the judges, and if he cannot bring evidence that he labors sufficiently to pay for his board and clothing, he shall then be put to hard labor for three months.”

“2. If he be again seen living in the idle manner after he has been punished, then he shall he put to hard labor for one year.”

“3. If a man live in idleness because he have no land, then his destitution shall be examined into, and if he be faultless he shall not be punished. But land shall be given him as the laws requite.”

“4. By this law, men and boys are forbidden to run in crowds after new things. Whosoever does this in an indecent manner shall be punished thus; he shall be taken to the house of confinement and remain till he pay a rial, and be set at liberty. The same also with those who obey not the police officer when he proclaims a prohibition.”

“It shall therefore be the duty of the police officers to watch carefully around the markets and places of public resort, that they may discover who they are who crowd after strangers, for these are indolent and lazy persons. Let them he taken before the judges and tried, and when convicted let them he punished according to the requirements of this law.”

“If this law he proclaimed in any village or district, the day of its proclamation shall be the day of its taking effect at that place, but even if it be not proclaimed, it shall nevertheless take effect on the first day of September of the present year, at all places of these Hawaiian Islands.”

“This law having received the approbation of the Nobles and Representative Body, we have hereunto set our names on this twenty-third day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-one, at Lahaina, Maui.” (Laws of the Hawaiian Islands, 1842)

The image is from the State Archives; it shows people at their home with a taro lo‘i. Their land is cared for (not grown over with weeds,) and there is ample food growing; according to the preambles and laws of the Kingdom, they are not idlers.

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“The image is from the State Archives; it shows people at their home with a taro lo‘i. Their land is cared for (not grown over with weeds,) and there is ample food growing; according to the preambles and laws of the Kingdom, they are not idlers.”

July 15, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Kau Ka Lā I Ka Lolo

“Kau ka lā i ka lolo, a hoʻi ke aka i ke kino” is a phrase designating high noon; the time when “the sun is directly overhead and the shadow retreats into the body,” or, more literally, “rests the strong sun on the brain, and retreats the shadow into the body.”

“In the beliefs of old Hawaiʻi, morning was masculine and afternoon was feminine. Once a day, the two met in a brief union. Morning then retired, his day’s work done; Afternoon took over. At the time of this meeting, no shadow could be seen.”

“Man’s own mysterious aka (shadow) neither followed nor preceded him nor paced at his side. Instead it retreated into the body, directly into the brain.”

“Near the very region of the spirit pit (tear duct of the eye) through which one’s own living spirit might exit and return in the wanderings of dreams. In the topmost part of the entire poʻo (head), sacred to the aumākua (ancestor gods.)

“In view of all this, what we now call ‘high noon’ was thought a time of great mana (spiritual power.)” (QLCC)

It is suggested that “Kau ka lā i ka lolo, a hoʻi ke aka i ke kino” applies to the sun’s position around noon on any date; but there are times when the sun is exactly overhead.

The Earth’s subsolar point is the point on our globe ‘directly under the Sun’ (where the Sun appears directly overhead.) It’s location is always changing, this point circles the globe once a day.

In addition, once each year it gradually migrates north and then south over the equator, its yearly northernmost and southernmost limits respectively defining the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.

This site lets you see where the subsolar point is at your search time (to update, reload):

ttp://www.skymarvels.com/infopages/vids/Earth%20-%20Sub-solar%20Point%20001.htm

Equinoxes occur when the subsolar point crosses the equator, once in March (the Vernal Equinox) and again in September (the Autumnal Equinox.)”

In the tropics, the sun passes directly overhead twice during the year; in Hawaiʻi this happens about a month before and after the Summer Solstice (June 20/21) when the Sun is at the highest point in the sky around noon.

This ‘overhead noon’ is sometimes called ‘shadowless noon’ or ‘zenith noon.’ Here in the islands, a term we use for zenith noon is ‘Lāhainā Noon’ (when the sun is directly overhead and many vertical objects cast no shadows.)

This is a modern term, selected by Bishop Museum in a 1990 contest held to select a name for the zenith noon phenomenon. (However, the exact time of Lāhainā Noon is not necessarily ‘noon.’)

The term ‘Lā hainā’ means ‘cruel sun’ in Hawaiian, and while the sun in the islands is almost never ‘cruel,’ it can be pretty intense as it shines directly down from the zenith. (Bishop Museum)

Here’s a link showing shadows leading to Lāhainā noon:

Dates/Times for Lāhainā noon, 2016
Līhuʻe ………….July 11 12:42 pm
Kāne‘ohe……..July 15 12:37 pm
Honolulu………July 15 12:37 pm
Kaunakakai…..July 16 12:34 pm
Lānaʻi City…….July 18 12:34 pm
Lāhainā………..July 18 12:33 pm
Kahului………..July 18 12:32 pm
Hāna……………July 18 12:30 pm
Hilo…………….July 24 12:27 pm
Kailua-Kona….July 24 12:30 pm
South Point….July 28 12:28 pm

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