Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Kūkaniloko Birthstones

The Kūkaniloko Birthstones site is one of the most significant cultural sites on O‘ahu. This significance was recognized in the listing of the site on the National and Hawai’i Registers of Historic Places.

Kūkaniloko means “to anchor the cry from within.”

The 5-acre site was acquired by the State of Hawaiʻi in 1992 and placed under the jurisdiction of State Parks to preserve and interpret this important historic site.

Kūkaniloko was one of two places in Hawai‘i specifically designated for the birth of high-ranking children; the other site was Holoholokū at Wailua on Kauai.

These royal birthing sites maintained the antiquity and purity of the chiefly lineages on O‘ahu and Kauai. It is said that chiefs from Hawai‘i Island and Maui often sought greater prestige by marrying those with these strong ancestral lineages.

The site is marked by 180 stones covering an area of about ½-acre. Many of these stones have surface depressions and fluted edges with a coating of red dirt. These surfaces are probably a combination of natural weathering and human craftsmanship over many generations.

Today, they appear as very smooth, round, “sit-spots” in the rocks, with no signs of tools or human workmanship; only their uniform symmetry and design would indicate human craftsmanship.

One can immediately visualize the use of these stone “sit-spots” in childbirth, for many of them have natural backrests behind the depressions, which would have given firm support to a straining mother-to-be. It is small wonder that these birthstones would have been revered and reserved for childbirth for chiefesses.

With assistance from her attendants, the chiefess would lean against the stone and follow the prescribed regulations for birthing (liloe kapu).

Beginning with the birth of Kapawa, Kūkaniloko became recognized as the royal birthsite on O’ahu. Based on genealogical records, the dates of Kapawa’s birth range from A.D. 1100 to A.D. 1400, but the date could be earlier.

A child born in the presence of the chiefs was called “he ali‘i” (a chief), “he akua” (a god), “he wela” (a blaze of heat). The births of at least 4 renown chiefs of O‘ahu are recorded at Kūkaniloko – La‘a (ca. 1420,) Mā‘ilikūkahi (ca. 1520,) Kalanimanuia (ca. 1600) and Kākuhihewa (ca. 1640).

The reign of these chiefs was marked by good deeds, peace and prosperity.

This place was so highly viewed that, even in later times, Kamehameha I, in 1797, previous to the birth of his son and successor, Liholiho (Kamehameha II,) made arrangements to have his birth take place at Kūkaniloko; but the illness of Queen Keōpūolani prevented that (Liholiho was born in Hilo.)

Major trails crossed the island and intersected near Kūkaniloko. The Waialua Trail ran from Waialua through Wahiawā to ‘Ewa. The Kolekole Trail from Wai‘anae crossed the Wai‘anae Range and joined the Waialua Trail near Kūkaniloko.

To the south of the birthstones is the Wai‘anae Mountain Range with prominent peaks such as Kaʻala and a dip known as Kolekole. According to oral tradition, these features create an image of a pregnant woman known as “wahine hāpai.”

From Kūkaniloko, the setting of the sun at peaks (pu‘u) along the Waiʻanae Range could be observed and used as a calendar. Some of the stones at Kūkaniloko may have been used as reference points to observe the sun setting behind, Mt. Ka‘ala at the equinox.

Likewise, it is believed that alignments and marking on the stones illustrate navigational directions. (Today, September 22, 2012) is the Autumnal Equinox; from Kūkaniloko, the setting sun is aligned with Mt. Kaʻala.)

Wahiawā is translated as place of rumbling. It is said that Wahiawā is where thunderstorms, the voices of the ancestral gods, welcomed an offspring of divine rank. Being the center of O‘ahu, Kūkaniloko is also symbolic of the piko (navel, as well as center) and thus, birth.

The site is managed and maintained through a partnership between DLNR-State Parks, the Hawaiian Civic Club of Wahiawā and the Friends of Kūkaniloko. Additional support for interpretive efforts at the site has been provided by the Wahiawā Hospital Association and the Wahiawā Community and Business Association.

The Kūkaniloko birthstones are located next to a dusty (or muddy) plantation road and are partially surrounded by former pineapple fields. The turn-off from Kamehameha Highway just north of the town of Wahiawā, at the Whitmore Village intersection.

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Nine Traditions That Emphasized Chiefly Rank

In 1920, Martha Beckwith became the first person to hold a chair in Folklore at any college or university in the country. The Folklore Foundation, established at Vassar, was an unprecedented institution and became a center of research in the almost entirely new field of folk culture.  (Vassar)

“Position in old Hawaiʻi, both social and political, depended in the first instance upon rank, and rank upon blood descent-hence the importance of genealogy as proof of high ancestry.”

“Grades of rank were distinguished and divine honors paid to those chiefs alone who could show such an accumulation of inherited sacredness as to class with the gods among men. Since a child inherited from both parents, he might claim higher rank than either one.”  (Beckwith)

There were nine traditions that emphasized chiefly rank:

  1. a family genealogy tracing back to the gods through one of the two sons of Ki‘i, Ulu and Nanaʻulu, and by as many branches (lala) as family relationship could be stretched to cover
  2. a name chant, composed at birth or given in afterlife, glorifying the family history not only of persons concerned but also of places made sacred by particular events or association
  3. signs in the heavens by which ʻaumakua of the day recognized their offspring on earth
  4. a special place set aside as sacred to the birth of high-ranking chiefs (i.e. Kūkaniloko)
  5. the sacred cord (aha) stretched at the entrance of a chief’s dwelling, under which all of lower rank must pass but which fell “of itself” before the approach of anyone of equal or higher position
  6. wealth, especially in lands, labor and specialized objects such as foods, ornaments, colors belonging to ranking chiefs alone
  7. the power of the kapu, which gave the ranking chief immense personal privilege, although the ruling chief might have actually more power over lands and wealth (before certain captive chiefesses of Maui of incredible sanctity, according to Kamakau, Kamehameha himself was of lower rank)
  8. the right to officiate in the heiau as both chief and priest 
  9. at death, the final deification of the bones and their laying away in a sacred and secret place difficult of access (one of the most important such place in ancient times being the ʻĪao valley on the island of Maui)

Rank depended primarily upon blood; but of great importance was the conduct of life by which one could, by carelessness in preserving the kapu and in making proper marriages, lose caste and prerogatives under the severe discipline of the Aha-ali‘i (Council of Chiefs,) or could, through a royal marriage, raise the rank of one’s descendants upon the family line.

The image, ‘Aha Ula’ by Brook Parker, represents the chiefly rank.  Information here is primarily from Beckwith, Mookini and Yardley.

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Nanaʻulu – Ulu

He aina loaʻa i ka moana
I hoea mai loko o ka ale
I ka halehale poi pu a Kanaloa
He Koakea i halelo i ka wai
I lou i ka makau a ka lawaia
A ka lawaia nui o Kapaahu
A ke lawaia nui o Kapuheeuanuu-la
A pae na waa, kau mai
E holo, e ai ia Hawaiʻi he moku
He moku Hawaii

A land that was found in the ocean
That was thrown up from the sea
From the very depths of Kanaloa
The white coral in the watery caves
That was caught on the hook of the fisherman,
The great fisherman of Kapaahu,
The great fisherman, Kapuheeuanuu
The canoes touch the shore, come on board
Go and possess Hawaii, the island
An island is Hawaii
(From the chant of Makuakaumana when Pāʻao’s invites a chief to come and live on Hawaiʻi.)

Papa and Wākea are the ancestors of the Hawaiian people. “Papa” in Hawaiʻi is “a word applied to any flat surface,” especially to those undersea foundation layers from which new lands are said to rise.

This probably relates to the successive generations of mankind born out of the vast waters of the spirit world and identified through their family leaders with the lands which they inhabit.

In the South Seas, Papa is a goddess of earth and the underworld and mother of gods.  Wākea is god of light and of the heavens who “opens the door of the sun”.  (Beckwith)

“In the genealogy of Wākea it is said that Papa gave birth to these Islands. Another account has it that this group of islands were not begotten, but really made by the hands of Wākea himself.”  (Malo)

“Papa gives birth to a gourd, which forms a calabash and its cover. Wākea throws up the cover and it becomes the sky. He throws up the pulp and it becomes the sun; the seeds, and they become the stars …”

“… the white lining of the gourd, and it becomes the moon; the ripe white meat, and it becomes the clouds; the juice he pours over the clouds and it becomes rain. Of the calabash itself Wākea makes the land and the ocean.”  (Kamakau)

Hawaiian legends suggest the place to which Hawaiians frequently sailed for centuries was usually Kahiki or Tahiti, the old home of the family of ruling chiefs.    (Westerfelt)

Thirteen generations after Papa and Wākea, Kiʻi and his wife Hinakoula appear.  Kiʻi was king in the Southern Pacific Islands – at Tahiti, the chief island of the Society group.   (Westerfelt)  They had two sons, Nanaʻulu and Ulu – they came to the Hawaiian Islands and established a dynasty of high chiefs.

It has been suggested that Ulu remained in the southern islands and that Nanaulu alone found his way to Hawaii; but the frequent use of the name Ulu in the genealogies of the chiefs of the two large islands, Hawaiʻi and Maui, would support the position that the brothers, sailing together, found Hawaiʻi.  (Westerfelt)

Eleven generations from Nanaʻulu and Ulu, Nanamaoa, of the southern Ulu line, pioneered the first migratory influx to the Hawaiian Islands. He was a warlike chief who succeeded in establishing his family in power on Hawaiʻi, Maui and Oʻahu.  (Sands)

Later on Oʻahu, three major competing districts developed out of earlier small and independent political units. These districts were Kona, Koʻolau (later divided into Koʻolauloa and Koʻolaupoko), and Greater Ewa (the later districts of ʻEwa, Waianae and Waialua.)

About AD 1100, thirteen generations from Nanaʻulu and Ulu came Maweke of the northern Nanaʻulu line. Maweke is one of the main figures in the voyaging era of Hawaiian traditions.  With Maweke, the lineage of ancient Polynesia was transformed into a distinctly Hawaiian lineage.
Likewise, about this time on the Island of Hawaiʻi, the island was divided into competing district-sized chiefdoms. In general, there were three centers of power during this period:  Waipiʻo Valley in the windward region, Kona in the leeward area and Kohala on the northern end of the Island.

Pilikaeaea, the chief, brought by Pāʻao from Tahiti to rule Hawaiʻi, first established his reign in Waipiʻo Valley.  Through inter-marriage with descendants of the Nanaʻulu or Ulu line of indigenous rulers he established the Pili line of rulers in Waipiʻo, from whom Kamehameha ultimately descended.  (McGregor)

Kūkaniloko, the sacred place of birth on the central plateau may have been constructed by the late-AD-1300s.  A divine center for Nanaʻulu chiefs, to be born at Kūkaniloko signified legitimacy.  It is said that chiefs from other islands often sought greater prestige by marrying those with these strong ancestral lineages.

During the wars of interisland unification in the eighteenth century, the indigenous ruling Nanaʻulu chiefs of Oʻahu were practically exterminated, first by invaders from Maui, then by the warriors of Kamehameha I of Hawaiʻi Island.    (Klieger)

The image shows a general genealogical Chart from Papa and Wākea, to Kiʻi, to Nanaʻulu and Ulu, with several names noted.  (Emory)

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