When you rub two things together, you are creating friction, which makes things heat up. And when things heat up enough, they can catch fire. (Buddhi Rai, Assistant Professor of Physics at UH Maui College)
“The natives produced fire by rubbing two dry sticks, of the hibiscus tiliaceus [hau],” (William Ellis, 1823) Hau sticks, because of their lightness, were used in making kites. “But perhaps the most important use of this soft, light wood was in fire making …”
“… a piece of hau wood laid on the ground was grooved with a pointed stick of hard olomea wood thrust back and forth until the little pile of dust at the end of the groove away from the fire maker smouldered and then was covered with tinder and blown into a flame.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)
“On Kauai Hawaiians have said that there were two varieties of bamboo native to the island, the ‘ohe Hawaii and the ‘ohe Kahiki, as throughout the archipelago. The ‘ohe Hawaii, described on Kauai as green in color with long joints and large leaves, was regarded as too soft for use in house building or for fishing rods …”
“… the long slender internodes were good for making bamboo rattles, called pu‘ili, used in certain hula performances, and for the nose flute (‘ohe-hano-ihu). This type of light bamboo was also used to make’ ohe-puhi-ahi, for blowing on the embers of a fire.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)
For millennia, fire was integral to many Indigenous peoples’ way of life. Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians used fire to clear areas for crops and travel, to manage the land for specific species of both plants and animals, to hunt game, and for many other important uses. (NPS)
“Before the coming of man, native forest clothed the islands from seashore to timber line as it does today in undisturbed areas of certain other Pacific islands.” (Elwood Zimmerman)
“After the arrival of the Polynesians, … the rapid retreat of the forests began. Fires set by the natives, as is still being done all over the Pacific, made great advances through the lowland and dry-land forests.” (Elwood Zimmerman)
The “forest was cleared by the Polynesian settlers of the valley, with the aid of fire, during the expansion of shifting cultivation … The cumulative effects of forest clearance and habitat modification through the use of fire led to major changes in lowland ecology.” (Patrick Kirch)
“The cumulative effects of shifting agricultural practices (i.e., slash-and-bum or swidden), prevalent among Polynesian and Pacific peoples, probably created and maintained this open grassland mixed with pioneering species and species that tolerate light and regenerate after a fire.” (Holly McEldowney)
“With remarkable consistency, early visitors … describe an open parkland gently sloping to the base of the woods. This open but verdant expanse, broken by widely spaced ‘cottages’ or huts, neatly tended gardens, and small clusters of trees, was comfortingly reminiscent of English or New England countrysides.” (McEldowney)
“Kalokuokamaile (Hoku o Hawaii, August 8, 1918), a planter of experience on the island of Hawaii, wrote at some length on planting methods … [for weeding large] patches, in ‘setting the patch on fire here are the rules …”
“… weed the borders all around the patch, leaving a wide margin; then burn the patch twice.’ It is not clear whether the two burnings took place at considerable intervals, or not.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)
Early Polynesians traveling and settling in Hawaiʻi brought with them shoots, roots, cuttings and seeds of various plants for food, cordage, medicine, fabric, containers, all of life’s vital needs.
“Canoe crops” (Canoe Plants) is a term to describe the group of plants brought to Hawaiʻi by these early Polynesians. Domesticated animals, including pigs, dogs and chickens were also introduced. Kukui was one of these canoe crops. The kukui has multiple uses, including light, fuel, medicine, dye and ornament. (Choy)
“When (the Hawaiians) use them in their houses, ten or twelve are strung on the thin stalk of the cocoa-nut leaf, and look like a number of pealed chestnuts on a long skewer.”
“The person who has charge of them lights a nut at one end of the stick, and hold it up, till the oil it contains is consumed, when the flame kindles on the one beneath it, and he breaks off the extinct nut with a short piece of wood, which serves as a pair of snuffers. Each nut will burn two or three minutes, and, it attended, give a tolerable light.” (Ellis, 1826)
“Large quantities of kukui, or candle nuts, were hanging up in long strings in different parts of his house. … Sometimes the natives burn them to charcoal, which they pulverize, and use tattooing their skin, painting their canoes, surf-boards, idols or drums; but they are generally used as a substitute for candles or lamps.”
“When employed for fishing by torchlight, four or five strings are enclosed in the leaves of the pandanus, which not only keeps them together, but adds to the light they give.” (Ellis, 1826)
Hawaiians cooked with an imu, or ground oven. Taro “was put [i]n a hole in the ground about 18 inches deep [that was] laid [with] fuel that will burn long enough to heat the cooking stones (pohaku imu) to almost the temperature of red-hot charcoal.”
“On the fuel are laid the cooking stones, which are roundish stream or beach boulders of porous lava that will not explode or crumble under intense heat. These stones are called ‘eho.”
“When the fire is burned out, the unburned wood and embers are prodded out with a stick and the stones are leveled (ho‘okane‘e or ho‘ohiolo ). Ti or banana leaves, kukaepua‘a grass [itchy crabgrass], ‘ilima ku kule, or seaweed is laid on the hot stones, and on this are placed the unpeeled but washed corms as they come from the patch.”
“Other foods – sweet potatoes, yams, arrowroot, fish, pig, chicken, and so forth, wrapped in ti leaves with or without accompanying greens – may be laid in with the taro. Over the food to be cooked are laid coarsely woven mats and banana and ti leaves to keep in the heat.”
“Sometimes a little water is poured on the food before the covering (ka poi) is laid on, unless the leaf covering on the hot stones will make ample steam.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)
“The main use of ti leaves and the chief purpose for which ti was planted thickly about dwellings was to have at hand plenty of the broad tough leaves used in wrapping food for cooking, for preservation, and for transportation.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)
“Depending on size of imu, variety of taro, and size of corms, the steaming may take from two to six hours. Wild taros, the corms of which contain much calcium oxalate crystal, must be steamed long to dissolve the little prickly spikes which are responsible for ‘itch’ (mane‘o) caused in the throat by coarse taros …”
“… mild taros like Lauloa need be cooked only a couple of hours. … Poi making and imu cooking were usually [and always, anciently] the work of men and boys”.” (Handy, Handy, & Pukui)
Another use of fire was in making a lime to ensnare birds … “The bird lime (kēpau) is made from the sap of the breadfruit. Cut the breadfruit bark and the white sap flows, and when the sap is dry, say in the evening, the sap is hardened. You go and gather the sap. When enough has been gathered, the sap can be made into bird lime.”
“Then you go and gather some raw kukui, removing the shell, you keep its meat. You then go and get the ‘clover’ for making bird lime (‘ihi-ku-kēpau, the Nasturtium sarmentosum), it is a black pā‘ihi, and you mix it with the raw kukui. Then you chew it, and the kukui and pā‘ihi become slimy.”
“This is put into a wauke bark cloth (it is a tough piece), then the juice of the kukui and pā‘ihi are squeezed into the ‘ōpihi (shell), it is the ‘pot’ for cooking the broth over the fire.”
“When it starts to boil, the (‘ulu) gum is cut into small pieces and put in the juice of the kukui and pā‘ihi so it can boil. Then get two coconut mid-ribs or perhaps little sticks to stir this boiling juice. This is how it is done until the juice is cooked and becomes the birdlime. It is then place[d] into the empty ‘ōpihi or a ti leaf, wrapped up in ti leaves.” (Maly)
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