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June 21, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Puakea Heiau

The nine ahupuaʻa of Kāneʻohe Bay, beginning at the boundary between Koʻolauloa and Koʻolaupoko Districts (west) and moving eastward, are Kualoa, Hakipuʻu, Waikāne, Waiāhole, Kaʻalaea, Waiheʻe, Kahaluʻu, Heʻeia and Kāneʻohe.

The ahupuaʻa of Hakipuʻu (Broken Hill – referring to the jagged ridge top) is located at the northern end of Kāne’ohe Bay, between Kualoa and Waikāne.

“The area is typical of Oʻahu, in contrast to Kauai, Maui, and Hawaiʻi, in combining: (a) bay and reef coast line which make cultivation feasible right to the shore where coconuts thrive; (b) extensive wet-taro plantations with ample water; (c) swampy areas where taro and fish were raised …”

“… (d) sloping piedmont and level shore-side areas well adapted to sweet-potato farming; (e) ample streams whose mouths are ideal seaside spawning pools; (f) fishponds in which systematic fish farming was practiced; (g) upstream terraced stream-side lo‘i; (h) accessible forested slopes and uplands, for woodland supplies and recourse in famine times”.  (Handy; Klieger)

“The bay all round has a very beautiful appearance, the low land and vallies being in a high state of cultivation, and crowned with plantations of taro, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, etc. interspersed with a great number of coconut trees”.  (Portlock, 1786)

Fishponds, loko i‘a, were things that beautified the land, and a land with many fishponds was called a ‘fat’ land (‘āina momona.) They date from ancient times.  (Kamakau)

Handy described the taro flats at Hakipuʻu, originally more than one-half mile south from Moliʻi Fishpond, where all the level land along Hakipuʻu Stream was once in terraces.

“An acre of kalo (taro) land would furnish food for from twenty to thirty persons, if properly taken care of. It will produce crops for a great many years in succession without lying fallow any time.”  (Wyllie, 1848)

Later, in Hakipuʻu, “fields were fenced and plowed for the cane , small flumes were put up, and Chinese coolies imported for laborers”; by 1867, however, it became evident that the land was poor for sugarcane and it was abandoned.

The land was later used for rice cultivation (1860s,) then pineapple.  However, by 1923, it was evident that pineapple cultivation on the Windward area could not keep up with that in other O‘ahu areas.

Crops on the Windward side were not yielding tonnages as compared with the Leeward side, fields were smaller, with wilt more prevalent, and growing costs considerably higher. Plantings were therefore reduced.  (Libby; Devaney)

Much of the land was converted to pasture for cattle ranching.  Some of the Hakipuʻu land remains part of the Kualoa Ranch.

Here, was Puakea heiau, (white blossom), just above the road at the foot of a ridge, Hakipuu.

It was a large three-terraced structure. “Almost all of the stones have been removed for road building…. Thrum says that the heiau was ʻan ancient place of refuge to which is coupled the name of Kaopulupulu as supervising priest.ʻ” (Hawaiian Place Names)

“Kamakau calls the site Pu‘ukea rather than Puakea, which infers a relationship to Kea, and pu‘u means hill but can also refer to a religious site like a pu‘u honua, place of refuge.”

“As pointed out, Kea may refer to both Lono and Nu‘akea (because of their bilateral genealogy), or more generally to the family name that occupied the northern Society Islands. This brother-sister, husband/wife pair of dieties relates to storm

production, and the name is appropriately attached to this site.“

“Puakea sits within the convective center of the island where morning rainbows are frequent and midday cloudbursts, sometimes accompanied by thunder and a strike of lightning, occur on the hottest days. Being to windward, it also catches the tradewind showers coming off the sea.”

“Johnson describes the Kaha‘i/Hema passage in the Kumulipo as alluding to the travelling path of the sun annually across its ecliptic, an association that becomes evident from Puakea heiau in Hakipu‘u on O‘ahu.”

“Kamakau states that the gods made Kāne‘ohe into an image of all the known lands of the earth. Manu states that O‘ahu is ‘the center of the archipelago of Hawai‘i, … the place referred to in the second of the famous prophecies of the priest, Kaopulupulu”. (Masterson)

“From Puakea, the heiau at Hakipu‘u, we can see these landmarks come together in a pattern that might represent a roadmap to the mother’s land, one that follows the passage of the sun.”

“At Summer solstice (around June 21), the sun rises where Kualoa ridgeline meets the sea, north of Mokoli‘i, then climbs over Kānehoalani, setting in the gap between Palikū and Pu‘uohulehule. The sun never touches the long ridgeback of Kualoa, arching over both Hapu‘u o Haloa and Palikū, thus it might be seen as the ‘floating land of Kane.’” (Masterson)

“Here’s the ka-lā-hiki, if you will, the pathway [of the sun] leading in. I’ve never watched the sun at the solstice and the equinoxes from this place, but I would like to because I’m sure it’s quite significant, and we could probably see the structure of the heiau as marking where the sun rises and sets, like the research on Puakea up there.”

“What’s the declination of the star that rises at that latitude? It’s twenty three and a half degrees south of east. That’s none other than Sirius, the dog star, which was once called ‘A‘ā – the great white bird of Kāne.”

“So here is this mythology that sitting at Puakea heiau: I could look and see the chant physically embodied in the landscape, leading me to a place that’s east but south towards Tahiti.”

“Polynesian Voyaging Society, that Nainoa Thomson, the navigator, said ‘You have to go east to go south to Tahiti.’ Turns out Taputapuatea is in a straight direct line south, you go straight south and you will find the sister heaiu of this one here in Ko‘olau, of Puakea. You will find Taputapuatea. Down there is Ra‘iātea, Hawaiki.”  (Pacific Worlds)

“So here was the lay-line to that place. But in order to voyage there, you don’t want to go straight south because then you’re going to have to beat against the Tokelau—the Ko‘olau winds.”

“So you have to go east so you can do what Carlos Andrade said: sail downwind into your place. But you have to be careful, you don’t want to get stuck in the bay once you get there.”

“I know that they were voyaging upwind to find islands, but now they found the new location, beating upwind to the island no good, so you sail and come down.”

“(T)he great-circle route, the voyaging pathway is exactly that. So we start to understand that concept of Kāne‘ohe and Ko‘olau Bay being a map of all the known lands of the Earth.”  (Pacific Worlds)

© 2023 Ho‘okuleana LLC

Filed Under: Hawaiian Traditions, Place Names Tagged With: Hawaii, Oahu, Hakipuu, Puakea Heiau

August 15, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hakipuʻu

The nine ahupuaʻa of Kāneʻohe Bay, beginning at the boundary between Koʻolauloa and Koʻolaupoko Districts (west) and moving eastward, are Kualoa, Hakipuʻu, Waikāne, Waiāhole, Kaʻalaea, Waiheʻe, Kahaluʻu, Heʻeia and Kāneʻohe.

The ahupuaʻa of Hakipuʻu (Broken Hill – referring to the jagged ridge top) is located at the northern end of Kāne’ohe Bay, between Kualoa and Waikāne.

Paliuli (green cliff,) a “legendary paradise of plenty” with many proclaimed sites throughout the islands, was said to have existed in the mauka regions of Hakipuʻu.

The legendary and historic navigator Kahaʻi a Hoʻokamaliʻi was said to have landed on the beach here, on his return trip from Tahiti. He is credited for bringing and planting the first ʻulu (breadfruit) tree, in this ahupuaʻa. (Mālama ʻĀina)

“The area is typical of Oʻahu, in contrast to Kauai, Maui, and Hawaiʻi, in combining: (a) bay and reef coast line which make cultivation feasible right to the shore where coconuts thrive; (b) extensive wet-taro plantations with ample water; (c) swampy areas where taro and fish were raised …”

“… (d) sloping piedmont and level shore-side areas well adapted to sweet-potato farming; (e) ample streams whose mouths are ideal seaside spawning pools; (f) fishponds in which systematic fish farming was practiced; (g) upstream terraced stream-side lo‘i; (h) accessible forested slopes and uplands, for woodland supplies and recourse in famine times”. (Handy; Klieger)

“The bay all round has a very beautiful appearance, the low land and vallies being in a high state of cultivation, and crowned with plantations of taro, sweet potatoes, sugar-cane, etc. interspersed with a great number of coconut trees”. (Portlock, 1786)

Fishponds, loko i‘a, were things that beautified the land, and a land with many fishponds was called a ‘fat’ land (‘āina momona.) They date from ancient times. (Kamakau)

Moliʻi fishpond (within Hakipuʻu) has a pond wall about 4,000-feet in length (attributed to the work of Menehune) that separates about 125-acres of shallow water (one of the largest ever built) from the northern rim of Kāneʻohe Bay. The main species of fish raised in ponds were ʻawa (milkfish) and ʻanae (mullet.)

Handy described the taro flats at Hakipuʻu, originally more than one-half mile south from Moliʻi Fishpond, where all the level land along Hakipuʻu Stream was once in terraces.

It was especially interesting as the only swamp plantation on Oʻahu in which a marshland patch was cultivated in the old mounding method. (Devaney)

“An acre of kalo (taro) land would furnish food for from twenty to thirty persons, if properly taken care of. It will produce crops for a great many years in succession without lying fallow any time.” (Wyllie, 1848)

Based on the estimated rates of population decline due to the introduction of European disease, Hakipuʻu would have had a population of about 300 at the time of ‘contact’ in 1778, decreasing to about 225 by 1800. In the first formal census in 1832 the population of Hakipuʻu had declined to 180.

Later, in Hakipuʻu, “fields were fenced and plowed for the cane, small flumes were put up and Chinese coolies imported for laborers”; by 1867, however, it became evident that the land was poor for sugarcane and it was abandoned.

The land was later used for rice cultivation (1860s,) then pineapple. However, by 1923, it was evident that pineapple cultivation on the Windward area could not keep up with that in other O‘ahu areas.

Crops on the Windward side were not yielding tonnages as compared with the Leeward side, fields were smaller, with wilt more prevalent, and growing costs considerably higher. Plantings were therefore reduced. (Libby; Devaney)

Much of the land was converted to pasture for cattle ranching. Some of the Hakipuʻu land remains part of the Kualoa Ranch.

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© 2015 Hoʻokuleana LLC

Enoch_Wood_Perry,_Jr._-_'Kualoa_Ranch,_Oahu',_oil_on_canvas,_c._1864-5
Enoch_Wood_Perry,_Jr._-_’Kualoa_Ranch,_Oahu’,_oil_on_canvas,_c._1864-5
Kualoa_Ridge-(kualoaranch)-1926
Kualoa_Ridge-(kualoaranch)-1926
Fishponds - Molii and Mokolii-1930
Fishponds – Molii and Mokolii-1930
Kualoa-Mokolii-aerial-(kualoaranch)
Kualoa-Mokolii-aerial-(kualoaranch)
Oahu-Molii-fishpond-toward-Kualoa-ridge
Oahu-Molii-fishpond-toward-Kualoa-ridge
Mound-planted Taro-Devaney
Mound-planted Taro-Devaney
Mixing and Winnowing Rice-1925
Mixing and Winnowing Rice-1925
Windward_Rice_Planting
Windward_Rice_Planting
Windward_Rice_Farmers
Windward_Rice_Farmers
Molii_Pond-makaha
Molii_Pond-makaha
Molii_Pond
Molii_Pond
Kualoa Sugar Mill - 1865
Kualoa Sugar Mill – 1865
koolaupoko-ahupuaa-(KSBE-edu)
koolaupoko-ahupuaa-(KSBE-edu)
Molii_Pond-sign
Molii_Pond-sign

Filed Under: Place Names, Economy Tagged With: Hawaii, Oahu, Koolaupoko, Hakipuu

Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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