Unions

In 1935, the U.S. Congress passed the National Labor Relations Act, opening the way for the systematic organization of unions that would have profound impacts on business and industry in the Hawaiian Islands.

That same year, the first union newspaper—Voice of Labor—was published, and a local branch of the ILA, an international longshore union, instigated a dockworker’s strike in Hilo that led to the reinstatement of some workers. The International Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s Union (ILWU) eventually became a major political and labor influence.

On August 1, 1938, the Hilo Longshoremen’s Association went on strike against the Inter-Island Steamship Navigation Company. After marching down Kūhiō Road, about 250 workers and their supporters staged a peaceful sit-in at the Hilo wharf where the Inter-Island Steamship Company vessel Waialeale was arriving from Honolulu with armed strikebreakers on board.

When the ship arrived, police and strikebreakers attacked the striking workers with bayonets, tear gas and fire hoses, and guns, and fired buck shot and bird shot injuring 51 people. The event came to be known as the “Hilo Massacre” and “Bloody Monday.”

The incident spurred a period of strikes and violence that spanned over the next two years and led to the shutdown of the docks of the Inter-Island Steamship Company. On the 50^th anniversary of the event, a monument was placed at the Hilo dock.

In 1940, a strike by longshore plantation workers at Kaua‘i’s Ahukini port lasted 298 days, the longest to date. By this time the ILWU had become a formidable union under the leadership of regional director Jack Hall.

Passage of the Hawai‘i Employment Relations Act in 1945 empowered agricultural workers and allowed the ILWU to begin organizing workers on pineapple and sugar plantations.

On September 1, 1946, 28,000 workers from 33 sugar plantations went on a statewide strike against the Hawai‘i Employers Council. The ILWU represented the strikers in this action, which became known as the Great Hawai‘i Sugar Strike and lasted 79 days. The union was victorious, and ILWU national chief Harry Bridges stated that Hawai‘i was no longer a feudal colony.

On May 1, 1949, the ILWU led by Jack Hall went on strike against Hawai‘i’s “Big Five” companies: Theo H. Davies; American Factors (Amfac); C. Brewer & Co.; Alexander & Baldwin; and Castle & Cooke. The strike shut down the docks as the union demanded wage parity with workers on the United States Mainland.

The ILWU strike lasted more than five months and became known as the Great Hawaiian Dock Strike, crippling the flow of goods to the Islands, which were almost totally dependent upon shipping.

The strike resulted in statewide food shortages and caused the bankruptcy of many small businesses. Labor organizers were accused of participation in a Communist plot (this was during the McCarthy era).

The dock strike ends on October 23, 1949 when return-to-work agreements are signed by the ILWU and six waterfront companies. The parties involved asked the government to end the seizure of docks in the Hawaiian Islands.

On April 1, 1950, the House Un-American Activities Committee held hearings at ‘Iolani Palace in Honolulu to investigate alleged Communist infiltration of the labor movement, issuing subpoenas to 70 people including Honolulu ILWU leader Jack Kawano.

When Kawano and 38 others refused to testify, the “Reluctant 39” were charged with contempt of Congress. The United States Supreme Court later threw out the charges.

On August 28, 1951, seven union organizers, including Jack Hall, the ILWU’s regional director in the Hawaiian Islands, were indicted for violating the Smith Act (advocating the use of force or violence to overthrow the U.S. government).

The seven were convicted after a seven-month trial in 1952-53, with one of the men sentenced to three years in prison and six of the men given five year terms.

The verdict led to an all-Islands walkout of union members. Jack Hall served no time while the six others served just one week before being bailed out. In 1955, the AFL and CIO merged into one union.

After repeated appeals, and then a 1957 United States Supreme Court ruling that the teaching of Communism is not illegal, the “Hawai‘i Seven” verdict was overturned in 1958 by the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

A strike by sugar plantation laborers in 1958 lasted 128 days, with a settlement reached on June 9, 1958, resulting in the return to work of 13,000 workers who received significant wage gains and a three year contract. Governor William Francis Quinn presented the proposal that led to the resolution of the strike.

The Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star-Bulletin were shut down by a 44-day strike in 1963. Transit workers of the Honolulu Rapid Transit company (a private company) began a 67-day strike on March 1, 1967, the longest transit workers strike in the Hawaiian Islands. Teamsters Local 996 represented the workers.

Hawai‘i Democrats established the nation’s first right-to-strike law for public-employee unions in 1968, strengthening a powerful union lobby that began to significantly influence political change.

In 1970, the Hawai‘i Public Employment Relations Act was passed, allowing County and State workers to join unions, file grievances, and bargain for contracts with better wages and working conditions.

On October 9, 1970, two thousand hotel workers represented by the ILWU went on strike in what became the largest hotel worker’s strike the Hawaiian Islands, lasting 75 days.

On January 1, 1971, transit workers represented by Hawai‘i Teamsters Local 996 went on strike against the Honolulu Rapid Transit, a private company owned by Harry Weinberg.

The strike lasted for two months, inconveniencing some 70,000 commuters and leading to the creation of a city transportation system negotiated by Mayor Frank Fasi.

A strike by dockworkers on the West Coast and in the Hawaiian Islands began on July 1, 1971, with about 15,000 members stopping work until October of 1971 when President Nixon halted the strike for 90 days. The strike resumed the day after Christmas and continued until February, lasting 134 days in all.

A strike by United Airlines pilots and flight attendants in 1985 lasted four weeks, costing the State of Hawai‘i an estimated $100 million in lost revenue.

Public education in the state was shut down on April 5, 2001 by two major strikes involving 3,000 University of Hawai‘i faculty and 10,000 public school teachers, the state’s first combined upper and lower education strike. University of Hawai‘i faculty were represented by the UHPA, and the public school teachers were represented by the HSTA.

Major unions in the Hawaiian Islands today include: International Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners, Hawai‘i Carpenters Union; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Hawai‘i Government Employees Association (HGEA/AFSCME); Hawai‘i State Teacher’s Association (HSTA-NEA); Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees (HERE); International Longshoremen’s & Warehousemen’s Union; and United Public Workers (UPW/AFSCME).

The Democratic Revolution

During the first half of the 1900s, Caucasian, Republican interests connected to the sugar plantation economy dominated politics in the Hawaiian Islands, which was controlled by Hawai‘i’s “Big Five” companies: Theo H. Davies; American Factors (Amfac); C. Brewer & Co.; Alexander & Baldwin; and Castle & Cooke.

Largely excluded from political power were native Hawaiians as well as the many ethnic groups that came to the Hawaiian Islands as contract laborers—Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Okinawans, Spanish, Koreans, and others.

The political landscape of the Hawaiian Islands changed rapidly in the mid-1950s when returning World War II veterans, many of whom were distinguished members of the renowned 442^nd Infantry Regiment, began to assert their political power.

Japanese-Americans led the new political movement and formed alliances with other ethnic groups, including Filipinos. These increasingly powerful ethnic groups were supported by landowners and business leaders who helped them win important election victories in what became known as the Democratic Revolution of 1954 (six Democrats (Nisei) had been elected to the Territorial Legislature in 1946).

Favoring statehood, liberal labor benefits, land reform, and equality in education, the Democrats gained a majority in the Territorial House of Representatives and two years later won both Houses. In 1954, Democrats won 55 of the 76 election contests, gaining control of five of the six branches of the Territorial government.

In 1962, former Honolulu police captain and U.S. Representative John Burns was elected governor of the State of Hawai‘i, and for the first time Democrats controlled both the executive and legislative branches of the state’s government.

John Burns served as the governor of the State of Hawai‘i until 1974, and he is considered the founder of a Democratic political dynasty in the State of Hawai‘i that lasted until the election of Linda Lingle in 2002.

William Francis Quinn

William Francis Quinn, the first elected governor of the State of Hawai‘i, was born on July 13, 1919 in Rochester, New York. On July 11, 1942, Quinn married Nancy Ellen Witbeck.

Quinn served in the United States Navy in World War II from 1942 to 1946, earning the rank of lieutenent commander. After serving in World War II, Quinn graduated from cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1947.

Quinn was appointed as governor of the Territory of Hawai‘i by Dwight D. Eisenhower in August of 1957. He would be the last Territorial Governor. Quinn also served on the Hawai‘i Statehood Commission in 1957.

Quinn was then elected as governor of the State of Hawai‘i, and sworn in on August 21, 1959. Elected at age 38, Quinn became Hawai‘i’s youngest governor.

Quinn lost his re-election campaign to John Anthony Burns (1909—1975) in 1962 after winning the Republican primary against his own lieutenant governor, James (Jimmy) Kealoha. There wouldn’t be another Republican governor until Linda Lingle in 2002.

Quinn loved to sing and was well known for his renditions of both “When Irish Eyes are Smiling,” and “Ka Kali Nei Au” (“The Hawaiian Wedding Song”).

After his long re-election campaign, Quinn returned to practice law and was named president of Dole Company in 1965, serving in the position until 1972, when he was named a senior partner in the law firm Goodsill, Anderson, & Quinn.

He retired after an unsuccessful run for the United States Senate in 1976. William Francis Quinn passed away on August 8, 2006 at the age of 87.

Daniel Inouye

Born in Honolulu on September 7, 1924, Daniel Inouye was the first of four children of Hyotaro and Kame Inouye. As a child, Inouye attended McKinley High School in Honolulu and worked at various jobs, including parking cars at Honolulu Stadium. In 1943 at the age of 18, Inouye enlisted in the Army, and from 1944 to 1947 he served in the United States Army’s renowned 442^nd Infantry Regiment.

Designated a Sergeant, Inouye fought in the Italian campaign where he became a combat platoon leader. Fighting in the French Vosges Mountains in the fall of 1944, Inouye won a Bronze Star when he helped rescue “The Lost Battalion,” a Texas Battalion (141^st Regiment, 36^th Infantry Division) that was surrounded by German forces. Inouye also became a Second Lieutenant.

During an attack on a well-defended hill in Italy, a bullet tore through Inouye’s abdomen and came out his back, just missing his spine. As platoon leader, he alone continued to advance, and threw two hand grenades at the machine gun position that had pinned down his men.

As Inouye advanced, a German rifle grenade hit him from close range and tore up his right arm. With his left hand, he threw his last grenade and then fired his submachine gun before finally being stopped when he was hit yet again, this time by a bullet in the leg. Twenty-five Germans were killed and eight captured in the attack led by Inouye.

After nearly two years in the hospital, Inouye returned home in 1947 with the second highest award for military valor, the Distinguished Service Cross. This award was later upgraded to a Medal of Honor (the highest award), which was presented to Inouye by the President of the United States on June 21, 2000.

Twenty-two other former 442^nd members also received the Medal of Honor. Inouye also earned a Purple Heart with cluster and a Bronze Star, along with a dozen other citations and medals.

After attending the University of Hawai‘i (1950) and George Washington University Law School (1952), Inouye became Honolulu’s Deputy Public Prosecutor in 1954. Inouye’s involvement in politics began during the era of McCarthyism, which was particularly directed against those supporting unions in the Hawaiian Islands.

When Inouye and other Democrats were accused of being Communists, Inouye responded: “We bitterly resent having our loyalty and patriotism questioned. I gave this arm to fight Fascists,” he said, shaking his empty right sleeve, adding, “...If my country wants the other one to fight Communists, it can have it.”

Inouye was elected to the House of Representatives of the Territory of Hawai‘i in 1954, re-elected in 1956, then elected to the Territorial Senate in 1958. When Inouye was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1959 after Hawai‘i became the 50^th state, he became the State of Hawai‘i’s first Congressman and the first Japanese-American in the United States House or Congress.

At Inouye’s swearing in the Speaker stated “Raise your right hand and repeat after me.” Inouye proudly raised his left hand and stated the oath of office.

Inouye was re-elected to the House in 1960, elected to the United States Senate in 1962, and then repeatedly re-elected to the Senate. In 1968, he served as the Keynote Speaker at the Democratic National Convention and gained fame during the nationally televised Watergate hearings in the 1970s and later as chairman of the Senate Iran-Contra hearings.

In 1993, Inouye helped arrange the return of the island of Kaho‘olawe to the State of Hawai‘i. Inouye received 76% of the votes when he won his 7^th term in 1998. He is now serving his eighth consecutive term and is the Senate’s third most senior member.

Inouye has been involved in many defense-related issues and serves on the Senate Defense Appropriations Committee, and he continues to lobby for legislation that creates job for residents of the Hawaiian Islands. Inouye’s extensive political influence has helped to allocate hundreds of millions of federal dollars to programs in the State of Hawai‘i.

[Photograph: Daniel Inouye]

Ala Moana

The Ala Moana Shopping Center opened on August 3, 1959, the same year Hawai‘i was admitted as the 50^th state. The shopping center sits on an area that was marshland in the early 1900s. Much of the land was more than three feet (1 m) underwater and covered with duck farms.

The Hawaiian Dredging Company, led by Walter F. Dillingham, purchased 50 acres (20 ha) of the swamp land in 1912 and brought coral there from nearby dredging projects.

Plans for a shopping center were developed in 1948 by Walter Dillingham’s son, Lowell, who was president of Hawaiian Land Company (a Hawaiian Dredging Company affiliate).

In 1931, the City and County of Honolulu acted to clean up the region, which had also been the site of a refuse dump. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dedicated Moana Park in 1934, and it was renamed Ala Moana in 1947.

Eventually sand was brought to the beachfront area, and the two-story Ala Moana Shopping Center was built on an adjacent 50 acres (20 ha) of land using coral fill dredged from the offshore reef.

Construction on the shopping center began in 1957. At the initial opening of the $28 million, two-level shopping center on August 13, 1959, there were 87 stores, totalling 680 square feet (63 sq.m.) of space), and 5,000 parking stalls. Some of the stores at Ala Moana were Woolworth, Longs, Sears, McInerney’s, Hartfields, Carousel, Chandler’s, Foodland, Shirokiya, and Uyehara’s Service Station.

The second phase of Ala Moana opened in 1966, increasing the shopping center’s area to 1.35 million square feet (.12 million sq. m) with a total of 155 stores, including Liberty House as well as J.C. Penney, which expanded to the fourth level in 1976.

The center’s total area increased to 1.5 million square feet (.14 million sq.m.) by 1980 when Liberty House added a fourth level.

In 1982 the Ala Moana shopping center and two nearby office buildings were sold for $300 million to Daiea, Inc. (a Japanese retail company) and Equitable (an insurance company). Daiea bought Equitable’s 40% stake for $410 million in 1995.

A boom in Japanese tourism fueled the mall’s fourth major expansion in 1990. A third level was added in the mall’s center where high-end fashion merchandise was sold.

In 1996, construction began on a 160,000 square foot (14,864 sq.m.) Neiman Marcus store (opening in 1998), and another 160,000 square feet (14,900 sq.m.) of space on the third level (opening in 1999) to house 30 more stores and restaurants.

Statehood

A general election plebiscite on November 5, 1940 favored statehood by a 2 to 1 margin. After World War II ended in 1945, the Hawaiian statehood movement grew, and control economic, political and social life in the Hawaiian Islands was increasingly dominated by Caucasian and Republican corporate interests that were strengthened by the dominant trading and sugar firms, including the powerful “Big Five”: Theo H. Davies; American Factors (Amfac); C. Brewer & Co.; Alexander & Baldwin; and Castle & Cooke.

A constitutional convention convened on April 4, 1950 to create a state constitution to present to the United States Congress. The convention produced a draft document in October of 1950 that was approved by the Legislature. On November 7, 1950 the measure was put the voters in a general election and ratified by a 3-1 margin.

On Honolulu’s Bishop Street in 1954, proponents of statehood gathered 150,000 signatures on a petition about 3 miles (5 km) long, written on a roll of blank newsprint. Hawai‘i’s delegates to Congress— John Anthony Burns (1909—1975), Joseph Rider Farrington (1897—1954), and Farrington, Mary Elizabeth (Betty) Pruett Farrington (1898—1984)—pushed for statehood.

When Alaska became a state in 1958, it removed some significant political obstacles to the Hawaiian Islands becoming a state, and made statehood virtually imminent.

The United States Senate passed a measure on March 11, 1959, followed by the U.S. House of Representatives on March 12, 1959. United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Act into law on March 18, 1959, though it required a plebiscite of Hawaiian residents for approval. This occurred on June 27, 1959 when residents of the Hawaiian Islands voted in favor of statehood, and the plebiscite passed 17 to 1, with only Ni‘ihau opposing it.

The first general election was held on July 28, 1959 and William Francis Quinn was elected governor of the State of Hawai‘i. Oren Ethelbert Long and Hiram L. Fong were elected to be Hawai‘i’s first senators.

Daniel K. Inouye was elected to the United States House of Representatives, becoming the first American congressman of Japanese descent to serve in the House of Representatives.

On August 21, 1959, President Eisenhower signed the Statehood Proclamation and Hawai‘i was officially admitted as the 50^th state. The State of Hawai‘i’s population at this time was about 622,000 people, with more than 240,000 annual visitors. On July 4, 1960, a 50^th star was added to the flag of the United States, and Hawai‘i’s state flag was formally accepted.

As a result of statehood, 1.8 million acres (.73 million ha) of ceded lands were transferred to the State of Hawai‘i by the United States government to be held in trust for five purposes: public education; public use; public improvements; farm and home ownership; and the betterment of Native Hawaiians.

The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor honors those who died in the Dec. 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, an event that entered the United States into World War II. The Memorial is an open structure that is 184 feet (56 m) long, and positioned directly over the wreck of the U.S.S. Arizona where 1,177 died and 900 remain entombed.

The architect of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial was an Austrian named Alfred Preis who fled the Nazis in 1939 and later moved to the Hawaiian Islands. President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved the creation of the Memorial in 1958.

An Elvis Presley benefit concert at Honolulu’s Bloch Arena on March 25, 1961 raised about $64,000 toward the $500,000 cost of the shrine. The U.S.S. Arizona Memorial was officially dedicated on Memorial Day, May 31, 1962.

Designated as a National Historical Landmark in 1989, the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial is now one of the most visited attractions in the Hawaiian Islands. About 1.5 million people tour the Memorial each year.

Mormons in the Hawaiian Islands—

The Polynesian Cultural Center

On December 12, 1850, ten Mormons arrived from the California gold camps and became the first Mormon missionaries in the Hawaiian Islands. One of these men was George Q. Cannon, a leader in the effort to translate the Book of Mormon into the Hawaiian language.

On August 8, 1851 at Kealakou, Maui, the first branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established. In 1855 Cannon published the Hawaiian translation of the Book of Mormon, titled Ka Buke a Moramona.

On July 4, 1861 Walter Murray Gibson (1882—1888) arrived after becoming a Mormon missionary. With the approval of Brigham Young to convert Pacific Islanders, Gibson became the leader of a colony of Mormons on Lāna‘i whose leader had returned to Utah three years earlier due to the Mormon War.

Mormon church elders later found out that Gibson had used church funds to purchase about half of Lāna‘i and put it in his own name. He was excommunicated in 1864. In 1865, the Mormons from Lāna‘i purchased 6,000 acres (2,428 ha) and in the Lā‘ie region at the base of O‘ahu’s Ko‘olau Mountains.

Gibson moved to Hawai‘i Island in 1872, and was appointed as King Kalākaua’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1882. Gibson was forced out of the position during the 1887 revolution that led to the Bayonet Constitution.

In 1919, the Mormons in Lā‘ie use volcanic rocks and crushed coral to build a smaller version of the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. Constructed at the base of the Ko‘olau Mountains, the temple is dedicated on November 27, 1919, becoming the first Mormon temple built outside of the continental United States. (See Polynesian Cultural Center in O‘ahu section, Chapter 2.)

In 1955, Mormons established the Latter Day Saints Church College of Hawai‘i in Lā‘ie, and Mormon President David O. McKay dedicated the College in 1958. By 1971, Church College had about 1,300 students, many of whom came from various Pacific Islands.

In 1974 the school became a branch campus of Provo, Utah’s Brigham Young University, a four-year college with an enrollment of about 2,000 undergraduates. The Mormon temple is considered the “cornerstone” of the college.

The success of Polynesian shows put on by the college in the 1950s led to the construction of the Polynesian Cultural Center, which opened on October 12, 1963. Founded by the Mormon Church, the Polynesian Cultural Center is run by the college and staffed by students. A significant expansion in 1975 made the Lā‘ie site a major O‘ahu attraction.

Today the Polynesian Cultural Center encompasses 42 acres (17 ha), including seven theme villages arranged around lagoons.

The villages represent various cultures of Polynesia, including the Marquesas, Sāmoa, Fiji, New Zealand, Tahiti, Tonga, and the Hawaiian Islands, each with its own unique music, dances, and crafts, which include coconut cracking, tree climbing, and fire starting as well as participatory activities such as lei making and rope making.

A daily highlight at the Polynesian Cultural Center is the 90-minute post-dinner show with erupting volcanoes and other special effects. About 900,000 people visit the Polynesian Cultural Center each year, making it O‘ahu’s second most visited attraction after the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial.

The Merrie Monarch Festival

Premiering in 1964 as part of the Hilo Festival, the Merrie Monarch Festival became an organized hula competition in 1971. Television coverage of the event began in 1981, and today the Merrie Monarch is the premier hula event in the state, and also the largest.

The Merrie Monarch Festival is named in honor of King David La‘amea Kalākaua, who reigned from 1874 to 1891 and was known as the Merrie Monarch for his revival of hula and other Hawaiian customs.

When King Kalākaua [David La‘amea Kalākaua] held a coronation ceremony for himself in February of 1883 at the newly built ‘Iolani Palace in Honolulu, Hawaiian men chanted and pounded on pā ipu (gourd drums) and women in traditional dress performed hula.

King Kalākaua encouraged the traditional Hawaiian activities despite the protests of the era’s missionaries and other influential families of the day (beginning in 1820, the missionaries had exerted a steady influence on the native Hawaiians, discouraging traditional cultural and religious beliefs and practices, including hula). Kalākaua was attacked in the newspapers for allowing “paganism.”

Starting each year on Easter Sunday, the Merrie Monarch Festival hula competition is a prominent showcase of the living Hawaiian culture of hula and mele. The Merrie Monarch Festival has long been planned and organized under the leadership of “Auntie Dottie,” a.k.a. Dorothy Thompson.

Stringent guidelines require Merrie Monarch contestants to present the judges with fact sheets detailing their research and the rationale for their performance. Costumes are also required to fit the time portrayed in the chant or dance.

The Merrie Monarch is just one of numerous annual gatherings, festivals, and competitions held throughout the Hawaiian Islands. (See Calendar of Events in the Hawaiian Islands, Chapter 19.)

Hula and Mele

According to legend, the first hula occurred when Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes, wanted her sisters to entertain her with song and dance. Only Pele’s youngest sister, Hi‘iaka, would comply. Hi‘iaka performed gracefully and powerfully for Pele to the amazement of all.

Today hula is a beautiful art form and culturally significant practice that embraces and perpetuates Hawaiian history, legend, and culture.

An ancient Hawaiian proverb states: “Kuhi no ka lima, hele no ka maka.” (“Where the hands move, there let the eyes follow.”), which is said to be “a rule in hula.”[i]

[Illustration: Hula]

With no written language, the ancient Hawaiians recorded their histories, genealogies, legends, and the phenomena of their gods through the creation and memorization of chants, known as oli, and dances called hula.

Mele is a more general word that refers to any type of song or chant. An oli is a chant that traditionally was not accompanied by dance. Often long phrases were chanted in a single breath, with each phrase ending with an ‘i‘i (trill).

Hula dancers are trained by a hula master, or kumu hula, in a school called a hālau. The dancers are trained not only in the dance movements but also in the philosophy of the hula.

In ancient Hawai‘i, one who trained from childhood in the art of chanting was known as haku mele, a prestigious accomplishment that gave the person a high ranking status in the society.

Considered a narrative movement, hula embraces the meanings of the chants while releasing the grace and spirit of the dancer. The essence of hula is to go inward, to touch one’s center. Dancers are especially aware of their feet touching the earth, and of the earth itself, which is felt to be the source of the power of the dance.

‘Auana and Kahiko

The two main forms of hula are ‘auana (also spelled ‘auwana) and kahiko. ‘Auana is the more modern style of hula, which is characterized by undulating movements and is usually accompanied by a Hawaiian band. Kahiko (which means “ancient”), is the older and more traditional form of hula.

In kahiko, an invocation precedes each dance, and the women often wear knee-length skirts made from flat green ti leaves. They may wear a necklace made from the polished nuts of the kukui tree (Aleurites moluccana, candlenut) or lei ‘ā‘ī (draping vines or flowers).

Bracelets of ferns around their wrists and ankles are known as kūpe‘e. The lei po‘o encircles the dancer’s head, which is traditionally graced with long, dark flowing hair.

Mele Oli and Mele Hula

The two general classes of chants, mele oli and mele hula, serve different purposes. Oli is a non-metered chant that is used for specific occasions and when addressing formal subjects, but not for dancing. Mele hula is a more rhythmic chant with a broader tonal range.

Mele oli may use just two or three notes, and the lines usually do not rhyme. Instead, the chants often have what is known as “linked assonance,” in which the end of one line has a sound-alike word or some associated meaning with the beginning of the next line.

Mele hula is accompanied by hula, and possibly musical instruments as well. Mele oli is never accompanied by dance or music, though may be accompanied by rhythmic instruments such as pā ipu (gourd drums).

In mele oli, the words usually revolve around a principal tone, which is pronounced with more emphasis than other tones of the mele. The principal tone occurs over and over, and several subordinate tones may also be repeated, though with less emphasis and frequency.

Mele hula is a relatively free melody, with more tones and larger intervals between tones. The range and pitch of mele oli is more restricted, while the melody is more confined and less voiced.

Mai pa‘a i ka leo, he ‘ole ka hea mai.

Do not withhold the voice and not call out [a welcome].

From a password chant used in hula schools. It was often used by one who would like a friendly invitation to come into another’s home.

Pukui: 2082-226

The Artistry of Chants: Microtonal Inflection and Kaona

Chants may use an inflecting tone that momentarily varies from the principal or subordinate tone and then immediately returns. Microtonal inflection involves very quick, small alterations of the pitch, each time quickly returning to the main note. This creates a fluctuating or trilling sound.

Chants rarely use melody, the variations in pitch that are so common in Western style songs. The inflecting tones and the weaving up and down sounds of microtonal inflection provide much of the artistry of chants. Also integral to chanting is the use of kaona (hidden meanings, concealed references, or double meanings) that may allow the chants to be interpreted several ways.

Chants are typically metaphorical rather than literal. For example, the word lehua may refer to one’s lover, or may refer to the lehua flower blossom, or to Pele’s younger sister, the goddess Hi‘iaka (the lehua was her sacred flower).

In ancient times, the meanings of certain words in chants were known only by the haku mele, and a chant might be telling two or more stories at the same time. Deciphering the symbolism of a chant was considered part of the enjoyment, sort of an intellectual game.

The style used for a particular mele depends on the chant’s purpose, which resides in the meaning of its words. Some types of mele include mele ipo (love chant), mele inoa (name chant) and mele kahi (place chant). Hula ‘ili‘ili (pebble hula) is a form in which smooth, water-worn stones are used as clappers (castanets).

Different vocal techniques are required for different styles of mele, such as ‘oli‘oli (joyous), ho‘oipoipo (romantic), ‘ai ha‘a (vigorous), and ho‘aēae, a style of chanting with short phrases and prolonged vowels. The ho‘aēae style is often used in love chants.

Different chanting styles require tones that may be tremulous, staccato (rapid fire), or more lyrical.

Hula and Mele—Carrying on the Hawaiian Culture

Hula and mele chants are the ancient way that Hawaiians tell their stories, pay reverence to nature, and unite mind, body and spirit with all of creation. Hula and mele are also a celebration of the beauty of the heart of the Hawaiian people, their love and aloha.

Traditionally, hula and mele have helped Hawaiians remember their origins and give thanks for all of the many natural wonders that enrich their world, including the animals, birds, fish, flowers, trees, mountains, streams, ocean, wind, and sky.

Chants are enhanced by hula, and both are integral parts of Hawaiian spirituality. Chants and hula carry on the legends and history of the Hawaiian people and help Hawaiians retain a connection to their ancient past. Hula brings forth the meanings of the chants, similar to how the form of poetry may give life to a poem.

Hawaiian chants and hula recount the origins of the Hawaiian people and the islands on which they live, as well as the origins of the universe. There are tales of migrations, genealogies, myths, customs and traditions. There are also stories of love, of longing for loved ones, stories of grief over deaths, and heroic explorations.

Hawaiian chants and hula acknowledge the ‘āina (land) and the history of the Hawaiian culture, a culture sustained by an oral tradition captured in the lyrics of the chants. Performed by those trained in the art, hula is infused with all the power and history of the Hawaiian people.

Forest Plants Used in Hula

On the morning before performing hula, dancers traditionally walk up the mountain trails into the rainforest. There, with humility and reverence for the ‘āina (land), they take into their hands the verdant leaves and gently begin to weave and braid them into the strands of lei that will soon encircle their heads, necks and arms.

The dancers may gather the lacy pala‘ā fern (Sphenomeris chinensis, lace fern), and most frequently the palapalai fern (Microlepia strigosa) and in post-contact times the hardier laua‘e fern (Phymatosorus scolopendria).

The forest plants used in hula are symbolic—the palapalai fern is a representation of the hula goddess Laka; pala‘ā is an incarnation of Pele’s sister, Hi‘iaka; blossoms of ‘a‘ali‘i (Dodonaea viscosa) symbolizes strength.

Hula students also learn about the ‘āina (land), and how to respect and care for the ferns and flowers. Plants are conserved for future generations, and never taken by the roots.

The dancers give thanks to the source of the plants—the fragrant maile (Alyxia oliviformis) and leaves of ti (Cordyline fruticosa, ti) and woodland ferns—and ask permission for their use, paying reverence to Laka, the goddess of the forest and hula, as well as other ancient (kahiko) Hawaiian gods. Today many hālau also thank the god of Christianity.

Traditional Instruments

Traditional instruments that accompany hula include the pahu hula, a drum made from the trunk of niu (Cocos nucifera, coconut palm) or ‘ulu (Artocarpus altilis, breadfruit), with a drumhead made from sharkskin.

Drumming sticks to keep beat are called lā‘au ho‘okani pahu. Also used are pū‘ili (split bamboo rattles) and the ‘ulī‘ulī, a gourd rattle that contains seeds and is adorned at the top with colorful feathers.

A saying from ancient times was “I le‘a ka hula i ka ho‘opa‘a.” (“The hula is pleasing because of the drummer.”), which is explained to mean, “The lesser details that one pays little attention to are just as important as the major ones. Although the attention is given to the dancer, the drummer and chanter play an important role in the dance.”[ii]

The Rebirth of Hula—

King Kalākaua, the Merrie Monarch

Beginning in 1820 when the First Company of American missionaries came to the Hawaiian Islands on the Thaddeus, missionaries exerted a steady influence on the native Hawaiians, discouraging traditional cultural and religious beliefs and practices, including hula.

Hawaiians were eventually required to learn English, forbidden to speak Hawaiian, and made to wear Western-style clothes. Hula stayed alive only in secret, and the knowledge was passed along by those devoted to keeping this integral part of Hawaiian culture alive.

Formal restrictions on hula began as early as 1830 when Kuhina Nui (Regent) Ka‘ahumanu issued an edict forbidding hula and olioli (chants) as well as mele, which were described as songs for “pleasure.”[iii] Ka‘ahumanu was co-ruler of the Hawaiian Kingdom with King Kamehameha II (Kalaninui ‘Iolani Liholiho), and the former queen as the wife of King Kamehameha I.

Ka‘ahumanu’s 1830 edict also disallowed women from bathing in public, and banned foul speech.

Hula was practiced openly again after Ka‘ahumanu’s death in 1832, although missionary influences continued to push for hula regulations. In 1851, perhaps partly in response to hula being used to provide entertainment for whalers and other visiting sailors, the Legislature enacted a law requiring “public shows” to be licensed.

The missionaries of the Hawaiian Evangelical Society complained that hula interfered with industrious work (e.g. farming on sugar plantations), and asked the Minister of the Interior, Prince Lot Kamehameha (Lot Kapuāiwa Kamehameha, the future King Kamehameha V) to ban hula as a “public evil.”[iv]

The missionaries’ request was likely influenced by the fact that the decimation of the Hawaiian population by foreign diseases had worsened the shortage of plantation laborers in the Hawaiian Islands.

A law passed in 1859 required licensing fees for hula, imposing fines on violators and limiting hula performances to Honolulu only. Violations of the new laws could be punished with up to six months in prison and fines of up to $500.

Numerous cases of “public hula” were tried in the courts in the 1860s, but the strict sanctions were eventually eased due to pressure from the Hawaiian community.

Licenses were still required, however, and fines continued to be imposed. The law restricting public hula to the Honolulu area was repealed in 1870.

Public displays of hula were further revived during the reign of Hawai‘i’s last king, David La‘amea Kalākaua, which began in 1874. When King Kalākaua had a coronation ceremony for himself in February of 1883 at the newly built ‘Iolani Palace in Honolulu, Hawaiian men chanted and pounded on pā ipu (gourd drums) and women in traditional dress performed hula.

King Kalākaua later came to be known as the Merrie Monarch for his revival of hula and other Hawaiian customs, despite protests of the era’s missionaries and other influential families of the day. King Kalākaua was attacked in the newspapers for allowing “paganism.”

Despite King Kalākaua’s efforts to revive Hawaiian traditions, restrictions on commercial (public) hula remained in place until 1896 when the laws were finally repealed, three years after the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. The government of the newly formed Republic of Hawai‘i desired increased tourism and saw commercial hula as a means toward that end.

Today the premier and largest hula event in the Hawaiian Islands is the annual Merrie Monarch Festival, held every April in Hilo on Hawai‘i Island. The week-long hula competition is named in honor of King Kalākaua, and is a prominent showcase of the living Hawaiian culture of hula and mele.

Numerous other annual hula gatherings, festivals, and competitions are held each year throughout the Hawaiian Islands. (See Calendar of Events in the Hawaiian Islands, Chapter 19.)

[Photograph: Hula and Mele]

The Spirit of Aloha

At its core, the ancient Hawaiian culture embodies the concept of aloha, emphasizing giving without the expectation of return, and a spirit of loving, sharing and caring for all the ‘ohana (extended family).

This spirit of aloha was an integral part of ancient Hawaiian life, and it continues strongly today. A Hawaiian saying is: “Ua hilo ‘ia i ke aho a ke aloha.” (“Braided with the cords of love.”), which is explained to mean “Held in the bond of affection.”[v]

[Photograph: Hula dancing at Merrie Monarch Festival (2007 photo)]

Rediscovering the Past:

The Revival of Polynesian Voyaging Traditions

Hele ‘e ka wa‘a.

The speed of a canoe.

Said of a fast traveler.

Pukui: 736-81

[Photograph: Hōkūle‘a Voyaging Canoe]

The Hōkūle‘a Voyaging Canoe

In the 1970s, members of the Polynesian Voyaging Society constructed a wa‘a kaulua (Hawaiian double-hulled voyaging canoe) called the Hōkūle‘a to show that migrating Polynesians were able to sail east against the prevailing winds and settle the “Polynesian Triangle,” a region that covers approximately 10 million square miles (25,900,000 sq. km).

The Society’s founders who initiated the Hōkūle‘a’s construction were Hawaiian artist Herb Kane, seaman Tommy Holmes, and anthropologist Ben Finney. The Hōkūle‘a was launched on March 8, 1975, and completed its first voyage, to Tahiti, in 1976.

The Hōkūle‘a is comprised of two 62-foot (18.9-meter) long kuamo‘o (hulls), eight ‘iako (crossbeams) joining the two hulls, pola (decking), and two kia (masts). The voyaging canoe weighs about 8 tons (7.3 mtons) and reaches speeds up to 12 knots.

The Hōkūle‘a can carry more than 5 tons (4.5 mtons), including 12 to 16 people with supplies.

Hōkūle‘a—The Voyages

The Hōkūle‘a’s first voyage, to Pape‘ete, Tahiti, left the Hawaiian Islands (Honolua, Maui) on May 1, 1976 and was navigated by master Micronesian navigator Mau Piailug (see below). The Hōkūle‘a returned to the Hawaiian Islands in July. On the return voyage modern navigational instruments were utilized.

A second journey to Tahiti began on March 16, 1978 but ended when the Hōkūle‘a capsized in the Moloka‘i Channel. The crew was eventually rescued, except for 31-year-old Eddie Aikau who had paddled a surfboard toward land to get help and was never seen again.

As Waimea Bay’s first lifeguard in 1968, Eddie Aikau saved the lives of many people, and he was voted Lifeguard of the Year in 1971. Eddie later appeared in surf movies and was a talented musician, writing songs and playing slack-key guitar.

Eddie Aikau lost his own life trying to save others, and his bravery is now immortalized in the saying “Eddie Would Go,” which is often heard throughout the Islands.

Each year a surf contest entitled the In Memory of Eddie Aikau Invitational is held in honor of Eddie Aikau, and the competition only commences if the waves reach the giant heights worthy of the Aikau name. The first Eddie contest in 1987 was won by Eddie Aikau’s brother, Clyde Aikau. (See Eddie Aikau section.)

When Nainoa Thompson led the Hōkūle‘a crew that left the Hawaiian Islands on March 15, 1980 and sailed to Tahiti, he became the first Hawaiian to navigate a voyaging canoe in more than 600 years. The 33-day journey to Tahiti was completed without modern navigational tools.

The next major voyage of the Hōkūle‘a departed the Hawaiian Islands on July 10, 1985 on a journey to New Zealand (Aotearoa) including some 16,000 miles (25,750 km) throughout Polynesia, with visits to the Cook Islands, Tonga, Sāmoa, and Tuamotu. Nine legs of the voyage were navigated by Nainoa Thompson. The Hōkūle‘a returned to the Hawaiian Islands on May 21, 1987.

The Hōkūle‘a left the Hawaiian Islands again on June 17, 1992 to sail to Rarotonga before returning to Tahiti. This journey also included a visit to the Cook Islands.

Students in the Hawaiian Islands were able to monitor the canoe’s progress through daily radio reports, and the canoe established a direct connection with the space shuttle Columbia orbiting Earth.

The Hōkūle‘a’s next voyage left the Hawaiian Islands on February 11, 1995 with a team of navigators who sailed the canoe to the Marquesas Islands, including Nukuhiva and Ua Pou, and then on to Tahiti. The Hōkūle‘a was accompanied on this voyage by the Hawai‘iloa voyaging canoe and the Makali‘i voyaging canoe.

The Hōkūle‘a left the Hawaiian Islands on May 27, 1995 and traveled the West Coast of the United States. On this journey the Hōkūle‘a was accompanied by the Hawai‘iloa voyaging canoe.

Upon reaching the continental United States, the Hawai‘iloa traveled north to the Alaskan villages that had given them the large trees needed to build their canoe (see below), while the Hōkūle‘a sailed south from Seattle as far as San Diego.

In 1996-1997, the Hōkūle‘a crew sailed around the Hawaiian Islands and allowed thousands of school children to visit or sail on the vessel.

Leaving the Hawaiian Islands again on June 15, 1999, the Hōkūle‘a utilized the skills of five separate crews to sail to the extremely remote and isolated island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) including many stops along the way. In 2002, the Hōkūle‘a underwent a complete restoration that was finished in January, 2003 after nearly a year of work. The restoration included replacing approximately 5 miles (8 km) of ropes and cordage that held the canoe together.

In September, 2003 the Hōkūle‘a sailed to Mokumanu (Nihoa Island), 150 miles (240 km) north-northwest from Hanalei, Kaua‘i, carrying a cultural protocol group that conducted ceremonies on Nihoa.

Nihoa is the site of ancient Hawaiian agricultural terraces and home sites, and was inhabited in ancient times though not inhabited at the time Captain Cook arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778. (See Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Chapter 2.)

In June, 2004, the Hōkūle‘a sailed from O‘ahu to Kaua‘i’s Hanalei Bay before continuing on to complete a 2,400-mile (3,862-km) round trip through the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands to Kānemiloha‘i (Kure Atoll) and back.

The Hōkūle‘a arrived on the island of Kaho‘olawe on October 20, 2004 along with the voyaging canoes Makali‘i and Hōkūalaka‘i. The visit celebrated the end of military bombing on that island and the return of Kaho‘olawe to Hawaiians as a place to relearn old traditions.

Ancient chants have revealed that a spot at the 1,444-foot (440-m) elevation on a Kaho‘olawe mountain called Moa‘ulaiki was a place where Polynesian ocean navigators were trained in the arts of celestial navigation, using stars to guide them over the vast Pacific Ocean.

Moa‘ulaiki provides a panoramic view of the sky and as well as views of Maui, Lāna‘i, Moloka‘i, and Hawai‘i Island. Also visible from Moa‘ulaiki and particularly important to ocean navigators are the currents in the channels between the islands.[vi]

Currents on the ocean’s surface are created by winds as well as variations in the water’s pressure and temperature. Around the Hawaiian Islands, the general flow of surface currents moves westward at a speed of about .4 knots.

A stone shrine at the summit of Moa‘ulaiki is called Pohaku ahu ‘aikupele kapili o Keaweiki or “Stone of deep magic of Keaweiki.”[vii]

More than 500 archaeological sites, including at least 3,000 archaeological features, have been identified on Kaho‘olawe, although many of the island’s native sites were destroyed by years of bombings.

The United States Navy transferred control of access to Kaho‘olawe to the State of Hawai‘i on November 11, 2003, and the whole island is now designated as a State of Hawai‘i cultural reserve. (See Kaho‘olawe, Chapter 2.)

The Hōkūle‘a returned to Mokumanu (Nihoa) on the Summer Solstice of 2005 along with the voyaging canoe Hōkūalaka‘i, bringing a cultural protocol group that conducted ceremonies on the island.

Voyagers have now sailed the Hōkūle‘a voyaging canoe well over 120,000 miles (185,200 km), which is equal to more than four times completely around the Earth

[Photograph: Hōkūle‘a]

Maluna mai nei au o ka wa‘a kaulua, he ‘umi ihu.

I came on a double canoe with ten prows.

I walked. The “double canoes” are one’s two feet

and the “ten prows” are his toes.

Pukui: 2131-232

Voyage to Micronesia—Homage to Mau Piailug

From January to April of 2007 the Polynesian voyaging family undertook a mission to perpetuate their cultural heritage by completing an ocean journey to Satawal, the homeland of Micronesian master navigator Pius “Mau” Piailug in the Micronesian state of Yap.

On the voyage to Micronesia, the Hōkūle‘a was accompanied by a new wa‘a kaulua (Hawaiian double-hulled voyaging canoe) named Alingano Maisu (pronounced mai-shu), which is 56 feet (17 m) long.

The Alingano Maisu was built for Mau Piailug as a gift to thank him for sharing his navigating knowledge with the Polynesian people and reintroducing Hawaiians to the ancient skills of non-instrument navigation.

The voyage of the Hōkūle‘a and the Alingano Maisu to Mau’s homeland in Micronesia was named Ku Holo Mau / Sail On, Sail Always, Sail Forever, signifying the perpetuation of ancient navigating skills and the legacy of Mau Piailug.

A Hawaiian proverb states: “‘A‘ohe e pulu, he wa‘a nui.” (“One will not be wet on a large canoe.”), which is explained to mean, “One is safe in the protection of an important person.”[viii] Mau is just such a person.

The voyage to Micronesia was a partnership between the Polynesian Voyaging Society and Nā Kālai Wa‘a Moku o Hawai‘i (“The Canoe Builders of the Island of Hawai‘i”). The group previously built the Makali‘i voyaging canoe, which was used to sail Mau home to Satawal in 1999.

The Alingano Maisu

Construction of the Alingano Maisu voyaging canoe was initiated by two of Mau’s students, the late navigator Clay Bertelmann and his brother Shorty Bertelmann, and completed by Nā Kālai Wa‘a Moku o Hawai‘i and a group of Micronesians from Satawal led by Mau’s son, Sesario Sewralur. Construction of the Alingano Maisu took five years and involved hundreds of people.

The Alingano Maisu has a single mast, and the hulls were cast from the same molds as the Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hōkūalaka‘i.

The name Maisu is a Satawalese term referring to the custom that allows anyone to pick up the fruit of ‘ulu (Artocarpus altilis, breadfruit tree) when high winds cause the breadfruits to fall to the ground. In this same way the Alingano Maisu voyaging canoe will be available for the people of the region, particularly the youth, so they may gain canoe navigating knowledge and continue the cultural traditions of their ancestors.

Mau describes how the meaning of the word maisu relates to the canoe: “When it stay breadfruit season in our island, and a strong wind coming and shake all the breadfruits down, then you can go and collect it, even if it is not your tree. We call that maisu.”[ix]

The Alingano Maisu voyaging canoe is now home-ported on the island of Yap and operated as a floating ocean academy that travels to different islands. An escort vessel will travel with the Alingano Maisu, and the academy will teach traditional navigation skills, resource stewardship, and Pacific Islander cultural values.

The canoe, according to Mau, will always available to “teach the kids navigation. They can come any time; the canoe is gonna be there waiting.”[x]

When the Hōkūle‘a and the Alingano Maisu arrived on Satawal, the traditional navigators of the Micronesian Weriyeng school of navigators bestowed the title of “pwo” upon five men from the Hawaiian Islands: Shorty Bertelmann, Nainoa Thompson, Bruce Blankenfeld, Chad Baybayan, and Chadd Paishon.

The pwo designation recognizes the men as qualified non-instrument navigators. Their teacher, Mau Piailug, belongs to the Weriyeng school.

The Voyage to Japan

After presenting the Alingano Maisu to Mau, the Hōkūle‘a traveled on to Japan, arriving in Okinawa on April 23, 2007. The name of the voyage to Japan was Ku Holo La Komohana / Sail On to the Western Sun, referring to komohana (the western sun) on the Hawaiian star compass, which points toward Japan from the Hawaiian Islands.

One of the reasons for Hōkūle‘a’s visit to Japan was to honor historical ties between the people of the Hawaiian Islands and Japan, which began with the mass immigration of Japanese laborers to work on Hawai‘i’s sugar plantations in the late 1800s. This influx of Japanese workers was facilitated by King Kalākaua [David La‘amea Kalākaua], who visited Emperor Meiji in Japan in March of 1881.

King Kalākaua asked Japan’s Emperor Meiji to allow workers to come to the Hawaiian Islands because there was a shortage of laborers to work on the sugar plantations. The two leaders signed a treaty in 1885 permitting the large-scale immigration of sugar plantation laborers.

The first official (government sponsored) Japanese contract workers to come to the Hawaiian Islands were 676 Japanese men and 158 Japanese women who arrived in Honolulu on the City of Tokio on February 8, 1885, resulting in approximately 70,000 Japanese coming to the Hawaiian Islands. (See Immigrant Laborers, Chapter 12.)

[Note: The final account of the Japan Leg of the Hōkūle‘a Japan visit, occurring now, to be added here in June, 2007.]

The Hawai‘iloa Voyaging Canoe

The Hawai‘iloa voyaging canoe is named after an ancient voyager who, according to tradition, was the first discoverer of the Hawaiian Islands.

The Hawai‘iloa voyaging canoe is 57 feet (17.4 m) long, and is the first of the Hawaiian voyaging canoes to be built almost entirely out of traditional materials. In comparison, the Hōkūle‘a voyaging canoe was built using modern materials, though it was built to be as performance accurate as ancient Hawaiian voyaging canoes.

In ancient times, koa (Acacia koa) was the wood preferred for making canoes. The canoe’s outriggers were traditionally made of wiliwili (Erythrina sandwicensis, coral tree) and hau (Talipariti tiliaceum).

An ancient Hawaiian saying is: “Ka ulu koa i kai o Oneawa.” (“The koa grove down at Oneawa.”), which comes from the legend of Pele’s sister, Hi‘iaka, and refers to the fact that “Canoes are sometimes referred to as the koa grove at sea, for canoes in ancient times were made of koa.”[xi]

Unfortunately there were no longer any koa trees in the Hawaiian Islands large enough to build the Hawai‘iloa, so the builders of the voyaging canoe had to acquire old growth Sitka spruce trees (Picea sitchensis) from southeast Alaska. The use of Sitka spruce may be considered traditional, since ancient Hawaiians sometimes used drift logs to make canoes, and those driftlogs may have come from Alaska.

The Sitka spruce used for the kuamo‘o (hulls) of Hawai‘iloa came from two 400-year-old trees, each about 200 feet (61 m) tall and 7 feet (2.1 m) in diameter. Koa wood was used for the manu (bow and stern pieces), the mo‘o (sideboards), and wae (braces), as well as the steering paddle and steering blades.

The Hawai‘iloa’s seven ‘iako (crossbeams) were made from ‘ōhi‘a lehua (Metrosideros species), as were the two kia (masts), the two ‘ōpe‘a (spars), and the two pumi (booms). Wood of hau (Talipariti tiliaceum) was used to construct the railings, and synthetic cordage was used for the Hawai‘iloa’s lashings and riggings.

Tools used to construct voyaging canoes and their various components in ancient times included the stone adze and the bone gouge. Coral files were also used, as well as sharkskin for sanding.

Though modern tools were used in the construction of the Hawai‘iloa, traditional materials were used whenever possible. Every attempt was made to build an accurate replica of a traditional voyaging canoe.

[Photograph or illustration: Stone adze; bone gouge; coral file.]

The Hawai‘iloa builders attempted to recreate the sennit cordage that Polynesians once made from olonā (Touchardia latifolia) as well as from the fiber of the husk of niu (Cocos nucifera, coconut). Using only contemporary techniques, however, the canoe builders were not able to sufficiently replicate the methods and materials of the ancient canoe builders.

The skills of creating traditional cordage and certain other canoe components have yet to be duplicated to the quality level of the ancient sailors, and so modern materials were instead used for some parts of the Hawai‘iloa voyaging canoe due to safety concerns. Sails were woven from lau hala, the leaves of hala (Pandanus tectorius, screwpine), and tested for use on the Hawai‘iloa, but did not meet the standards required.

An ancient proverb states: “Nakaka ka pua‘a, nahā ka wa‘a; aukāhi ka pua‘a mānalo ka wa‘a.” (“The pig cracks, the canoe breaks; perfect the pig, safe the canoe.”), which is said to mean: “Whenever a new canoe was launched, a pig was baked as an offering to the gods. If the skin of the roasted pig cracked, misfortune would come to the canoe; but if it cooked to perfection the canoe would last a long time.”[xii]

The Hawai‘iloa voyaging canoe was launched in 1993, then modified and launched again in 1994, making its first voyage in 1995. With no navigational instruments, the crew sailed the boat more than 6,000 miles (9,660 km), from the Hawaiian Islands to Tahiti and the Marquesas, and then back to the Hawaiian Islands.

[Photograph: Hawai‘iloa]

The crews of the Hōkūle‘a and Hawai‘iloa voyaging canoes recovered the art of non-instrument wayfinding used by Polynesian voyagers (see below), and this revival of ancient traditions continues today.

Nearly a dozen more wa‘a kaulua (Hawaiian double-hulled voyaging canoes) have now been built or are under construction, including the Makali‘i, the Nāmāhoe (on Kaua‘i), and the Hōkūalaka‘i (used by the Aha Punana Leo Hawaiian immersion education program).

The growing fleet of traditional voyaging canoes is helping Hawaiians to continue their quest for traditional knowledge and their ongoing rediscovery of the ancient skills of non-instrument navigation.

At least a dozen people in the Hawaiian Islands have been trained in the skills of reading the stars and other traditional techniques of deep-sea voyaging. Modern navigators such as Nainoa Thompson have also given new Hawaiian names to important navigational stars whose correct Hawaiian names are unknown.

Ancient Voyagers

The average Westerner seeking to understand the world of the ancient Pacific voyagers should remember that Polynesians and Micronesians are island people from island cultures, and they have lived for thousands of years in a different paradigm from people and cultures who live on continents—to the islanders, the ocean is their continent.

Afloat upon the surface of the ocean in their voyaging canoes, the islanders are in a dynamic world of stars and sea, moving currents of wind and water, and an ever-changing sea and sky populated by fish and whales, sea turtles and seals, and innumerable birds coming and going in every direction.

Traditional navigators absorb the meaning of everything in their environment—the rising and setting points of the sun, moon, stars, and constellations; rolling movements of waves and swells; the flight patterns of birds; plants floating on the ocean; reflections of light off the sky, clouds and water; and even phosphorescence on the surface of the sea.

Although the environment provides a complex matrix of navigational clues, the master navigator possesses a natural ease and intuitive sense as he or she sails their vessel to a distant destination across the vast ocean.

Indeed the very concept of sailing the canoe may be a Western paradigm, not necessarily applicable to island cultures. For island people, the ocean is their continent. It is said that the master navigator upon the ocean just points the canoe in the right direction and then simply waits for the distant islands to come to him or her.

The Polynesian sea voyagers who discovered the Hawaiian Islands likely began their west-to-east journeys when westerly winds replaced the prevailing easterly trade winds. If they failed to find land, then they could wait for the trade winds to return and carry them home.

Without the use of modern instruments such as the compass, sextant, timepiece, and now the Global Positioning System (GPS), the Polynesian ocean travelers of ancient times sailed the Pacific using only natural clues as aids to navigation. These traditional navigating skills were revived in the Hawaiian Islands in recent decades with the help of Micronesian master navigator Mau Piailug, who shared his knowledge with Hawaiians.

Pius “Mau” Piailug—Master Navigator

Micronesian master navigator Pius “Mau” Piailug was born in 1932, and grew up on the island of Satawal in the state of Yap in Micronesia. Satawal is only about ½-mile (.8 km) wide by 1 mile (1.6 km) long, and home to about 300 people.

As a young child, Mau was chosen by his grandfather to become the master navigator for his people. He began sailing with his grandfather at age four, and by age five Mau had committed to memory a “star compass” consisting of 32 stars corresponding to points around the horizon.

“Mau learned to turn the clues from the heavens and the ocean into knowledge,” said Nainoa Thompson.[xiii]

Mau’s star compass is oriented east-west rather than north-south. This orientation is due to the prevailing westerly direction of the sun and stars as they make their way across the visible sky.[xiv]

As a young man, Mau became highly skilled in the arts of navigating canoes, and at age 20 he went through the initiation ceremony to become a “full-fledged navigator.”[xv]

Mau means “strong,” and it was the name given to Pius “Mau” Piailug when he was growing up because he was known to stay at sea for a very long time, even in very bad weather.

“By growing up at the side of his grandfather,” said Nainoa Thompson, “he [Mau] had been an apprentice in the traditional way. He had learned to remember many things through chants and would still chant to himself to ‘revisit information.’”[xvi]

Kihe ka ihu i ka ‘ale.

One who sneezes when the spray from the surf rises

at the bow of the canoe.

Said of one who braves danger with indifference.

Pukui: 1789-192

The wayfinding knowledge that Mau received from his grandfather was passed down through a long line of Micronesian navigators in an unbroken tradition spanning more than 3,000 years. Sharing such traditional knowledge with others was considered kapu (forbidden). Mau stated that “the chiefs (on Satawal) were mad at me for teaching.”[xvii]

Mau believed, however, that breathing new life into the ancient skills of non-instrument (e.g., celestial) navigation was the only way to perpetuate these important cultural traditions. Canoe navigating skills were disappearing in Mau’s own homeland—he is the youngest of just five remaining Micronesian master navigators—and the younger generation was not acquiring the knowledge.

In the Hawaiian Islands, traditional navigating skills had already disappeared. Mau taught his skills to Hawaiians—Nainoa Thompson and others—who were interested in reviving the ancient Polynesian traditions of navigating voyaging canoes using only the stars and other directional clues provided by the natural world to sail across the Pacific Ocean.

“The star compass is the basic mental construct for navigation...if you can identify the stars, and if you have memorized where they come up and go down, you can find your direction. The star compass is also used to read the flight path of birds and the direction of waves. It does everything. It is a mental construct to help you memorize what you need to know to navigate.”

Nainoa Thompson

For helping the Hawaiians revive the traditional skills of non-instrument navigating and for his role in the overall revival of Hawaiian canoe culture, Mau was honored by the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. “My grandfather tell me not to hold the knowledge to myself,” said Mau, adding, “I have to pass it on.” [xviii]

Mau and his son, Sesario Sewralur, have formed an organization called the “Mau Piailug Society” which is dedicated to perpetuating traditional navigation skills and fulfilling the vision of Mau Piailug to create “one united cultural Family throughout the Pacific dedicated to the proposition that in our hearts we are all one people.”[xix]

Non-Instrument Navigation

To navigate a canoe across the ocean, a master navigator utilizes many different directional clues in the natural environment. These navigational clues include the positions and movements of the sun, moon, stars, and constellations, as well as prevailing winds and seas, the movements of birds and clouds, and other natural signs.

Directional information is also provided by ocean swells, which are large, organized systems of waves that travel far from the storm systems that generate them. Swells may persist for days or even weeks.

Northern Pacific storms generate north swells that reach the Hawaiian Islands each winter just as south Pacific storms generate south swells during the summer months. Northeast and southeast swells are also generated by northeast and southeast trade winds.

Swells have a general direction that is more stable and consistent than localized waves. Due to this consistency, swells are particularly useful to the ocean navigator when the sun and stars are not visible.

The direction of a swell may vary over a period of days or hours if the storm generating the swell is moving (and it usually is), so the navigator must regularly determine the swell direction in relationship to a known direction (e.g., the rising or setting points of a known star).

Islands also have effects on swells, which either reflect off an island or refract around it. A master navigator may discern the existence and the bearing (direction) of an unseen distant island by noticing its subtle effects on the swell pattern.

The navigator may use the wind’s direction to hold a course by keeping the wind at a constant bearing. However, the wind is even less stable than swells, and so the navigator must be vigilant about regularly checking the wind’s direction against more reliable clues (e.g., the direction of a known star).

Other navigational clues important to traditional voyagers are sightings of “seamarks” such as flocks of seabirds or particular forms of marine life such as jellyfish, porpoises, flying fish, sharks, and other species that may indicate to the navigator a particular latitude or location in the ocean.

Other potential seamarks include rafts of driftwood, floating land plants, or other natural debris afloat on the ocean. Particular sea and sky conditions also reveal to the navigator familiar locations along their ancestral ocean pathways. “Mau can unlock the signs of the ocean world,” said Nainoa Thompson, “and can feel his way through the ocean.”[xx]

“If you can read the ocean, you will never be lost.”

Mau Piailug

Traditional ocean voyagers also observe cloud formations (clouds tend to pile up over islands) as well as shades of color in the sky and water. Moa‘e (trade winds) blow off the ocean onto islands. The winds rise up the mountain slopes where the warm, humid air cools and condenses into windward and mauka showers.

Clouds have a distinctive shape over land, and may reveal to the trained eyes of the navigator the presence of a distant unseen island. Land also reflects light, and the color of the sky may reveal a distant island.

Also noted by navigators is the overall “shape of the ocean—the character of the sea,” as Nainoa Thompson calls it, as well as any changes that may be occurring in the water or sky. Light on the underside of clouds may reveal reflections off shallow waters.

Many other less tangible clues also provide directional information to the master navigator. Some of these subtle clues may be perceived only after many decades of ocean traveling, and are based on the ancient knowledge that is passed down from generation to generation through the millennia.

A proverb from ancient times states: “He kau aune‘i i ka lae ‘a‘ā.” (“Watch out lest the canoe land on a rocky reef.”), which is explained to mean, “Watch out for trouble.”[xxi]

The Role of Birds as Guides to Navigation

Ancient Polynesian ocean navigators also utilized their knowledge of the daily and seasonal cycles of birds.

Migratory birds, such as the kōlea (Pluvialis fulva, Pacific golden plover) and the ‘akē‘akē (Arenaria interpres, ruddy turnstone) revealed to ancient mariners that there was land somewhere to the north or northeast. The birds winter on islands in the Central Pacific and then head back to their arctic breeding grounds in April or May.

Also helpful to the sailors were the flight directions of pelagic (oceanic) birds, such as petrels, shearwaters, and albatross, which spend most of their time over the ocean seeking food including fish, squid, and crustaceans, and then return to land during the nesting season.

Non-pelagic birds such as ‘a (boobies), noio (noddy terns), koa‘e (tropicbirds), and manu-o-Kū (white terns, also called fairy terns) all feed over the sea by day but return each night to their island homes. Navigators watched for these species at dawn (when birds were leaving islands) or at dusk (when birds were returning), because sighting them meant land was near. All of these natural clues used by the ancient navigators are still used today.

Different species of birds provide different information to the navigators. For example, the white tern is known to travel about 120 miles (193 km) from land while the noddy tern ranges only about 40 miles (64 km).[xxii]

Particular bird behaviors may also be revealing. For example, if a bird has a fish in its mouth it is likely returning to land.

Birds congregating over feeding areas reveal locations where fishing will be productive, helping the voyagers sustain themselves on their long ocean journeys. An ancient proverb states: “I wawā no ka noio, he i‘a ko lalo.” (“When the noio make a din, there are fish below.”), which is said to mean: “When the people gossip, there is a cause.”[xxiii]

Orienting the Canoe

Sunrise and sunset are considered the most important times in regards to navigation, and at these times of the day the navigator fixes in his or her mind the direction of the wind and ocean swells in relation to the location of the sun or stars. This information is then used to orient the canoe in the right direction.

The location of the sunrise or sunset is aligned by the navigator to marks on the railings on each side of the canoe (eight marks on each railing). Each of the marks is paired to a point on the stern of the canoe to provide bearings in two directions. This results in a total of 32 bearings corresponding to 32 directional houses of the Hawaiian star compass.[xxiv]

During its annual cycle, the sun’s direction ranges from 23.5 degrees south on the winter solstice to 23.5 degrees north on the summer solstice and then back, crossing the equator on the spring and fall equinoxes.

When clouds block the sun in the daytime or block the stars at night, other signs of the natural environment are used by the navigator to guide the canoe. It is then that the true skills of a master navigator (such as Mau Piailug) are revealed.

“He can be inside the hull of the canoe and just feel the different swell patterns moving under the canoe,” Nainoa Thompson said of Mau, adding that “he can tell the canoe’s direction lying down inside the hull of the canoe”[xxv]

Hōkūpa‘a, Hōkūle‘a, and the Star Compass

One star that was particularly important to the ancient Polynesian voyagers was the star that Westerners call Polaris (also called the North Star), which was used by the Polynesians to determine the direction toward the Hawaiian Islands.

The ancient Hawaiian navigators called this most northern star Hōkūpa‘a, which means “Fixed Star,” or “Stationary Star,” referring to its location, which is (nearly) due north at the very center of the circumpolar stars and very near to the North Celestial Pole.

To an observer on Earth looking north, Hōkūpa‘a appears “fixed” or “stationary” in the sky, and doesn’t change position in the sky like all other stars (due to the Earth’s spin, or rotation).

The North Star of today, however, will not always be the North Star. That is because the Earth wobbles on its axis in a process called precession. One complete wobble occurs every 26,000 years.

To an observer in the northern hemisphere, including the Hawaiian Islands, the altitude of Hōkūpa‘a above the horizon is approximately equal to the latitude of the observer. The altitude of the Hawaiian Islands ranges from 18.5º to 22.5º.

Hōkūpa‘a is about 1.8 degrees from the actual North Celestial Pole. As the Earth turns, Hōkūpa‘a inscribes a small circle around the actual northern pole.

If you are in the Hawaiian Islands, the “circumpolar stars” such as Hōkūpa‘a are those which are less than 18.5º to 22.5º degrees from the North Celestial Pole. These stars do not rise or set, instead circling the North Celestial Pole as the Earth rotates.

As Earth rotates to the east at the equator, the circumpolar stars circle the North Celestial Pole in a counter-clockwise path.

[Photograph: Nainoa Thompson]

“At night we use the stars. We use about 220 stars by name-having memorized where they come up, where they go down.”

Nainoa Thompson[xxvi]

The time it takes a circumpolar star to make one complete circle around the North Celestial Pole is 24 hours, so the ocean navigator may gauge the movement of these circumpolar stars to determine how much time has passed. One of these circumpolar stars is Holopuni (known to Westerners as Kochab). Holopuni means “To sail or travel around, circumnavigate.”[xxvii]

Like the sun, stars rise in the east and set in the west at the same spot each night. In Hawaiian, hikina (east) means “to come,” as in stars “coming up” from the east, and komohana (west) means “to enter” as in the stars “entering the horizon” as they set.

Another star important to the ancient Polynesian navigators was the orangish-red star referred to by Hawaiians as Hōkūle‘a (“Star of happiness”),[xxviii] and known to Westerners as Arcturus (Latin name Alpha Bootis).

Voyagers sailing to the Hawaiian Islands from the Marquesas or Tahiti needed to determine how far north to sail. They knew that at the latitude of Hawai‘i Island, the star Hōkūle‘a, the highest star in the northern hemisphere, would be directly overhead (a zenith star).

Hōkūle‘a was a celestial beacon representing their northern destination. At the high point of its nightly arc across the sky, the star Hōkūle‘a points the way to the Hawaiian Islands.

The star Hōkūle‘a is found in the sky by following the curve of the handle of the Big Dipper, which is known to Hawaiians as Nā Hiku (“The Seven”), referring to the seven stars in the Big Dipper’s shape. The two stars at the end of Nā Hiku’s bowl point to Hōkūpa‘a (the North Star).

South of Hōkūle‘a, in the constellation Virgo, is a bright, blue-white star called Hikianalia, known to Westerners as Spica. Even farther south and slightly west of Hikianalia are four stars forming a rectangle that is known as Me‘e, and known to Westerners as Corvus, the Crow.

Also providing ocean navigators with directional information is the kite-shaped constellation called Hānaiakamalama (“Cared for by the Moon”), known to Westerners as the Southern Cross.

Hānaiakamalama rotates around the Southern Celestial Pole, which is not visible from the northern hemisphere. Observers in the northern hemisphere will see Hānaiakamalama traveling in a low arc over the southern horizon.

Hānaiakamalama stands upright as it transits the meridian dividing east and west. As Hānaiakamalama crosses the meridian, the constellation’s height in the sky reveals the latitude of the observer.

Hānaiakamalama’s bottom star is known as Ka Mole Honua (called Acrux by Westerners), and the top star is known as Kaulia (called Gacrus by Westerners). Mole means “base, root,”[xxix] and honua means “land, earth.”[xxx] Kaulia is known as the “chief of the month Ikiiki, because it appears in that month.”[xxxi]

As seen from the Hawaiian Islands, Hānaiakamalama’s bottom star, Ka Mole Honua, is about six degrees above the horizon while the constellation’s top star, Kaulia, is about six degrees above the bottom star. Only at the latitude of the Hawaiian Islands are these two distances the same (equidistant).[xxxii]

In the Hawaiian Islands, Hānaiakamalama sets just after dark in late June. Soon after that it cannot be seen in the evening hours until the following year.

The Moon and Planets

The Hawaiian term for planets is hōkū hele (“traveling stars”) or hōkū ‘ae‘a (“wandering stars”). The rising and setting points of the visible planets (as well as the moon) vary nightly.

The ocean navigator aligns these rising and setting points with known locations of rising and setting stars, and this allows the navigator to use the moon or planets to hold a course.

As the moon and sun traverse the sky they are positioned to the east and west of each other. This means that, to an observer on Earth, the moon’s boundary line between light and dark is aligned approximately north to south.

Some of the visible planets have more than one Hawaiian name, and some names for planets vary depending on when the planet is appearing in the sky. For example, the Hawaiian names for Venus are Hōkūao “Morning Star,” Hōkūahiahi (“Evening Star”), Hōkūloa “Long Star,” Hōkūali‘i (“Chiefly star”), and Hōkūali‘iwahine (“Chiefly [Female] Star”).[xxxiii]

Saturn is known as Makulu (“A drop of mist”). Mars is known as Hōkū‘ula (“Red star”) and Holoholopīna‘au, ‘Aukelenui-a-iku (“Great travelling swimmer son of Iku.”)

Jupiter is known as Aohīkū (“Starlight”), ‘Iao (“Dawn”), or Ikaika (“Strong”).[xxxiv] Mercury is referred to as Ukaliali‘i (“Following the Chief”) (“chief” refers to the sun).

Kaho‘olawe—The Departure Point

The westernmost point of the island of Kaho‘olawe is known as Kealaikahiki, and is a location known from ancient times as a training ground for ocean navigators. According to tradition, it was at Kealaikahiki that “voyages to foreign lands (Kahiki) were begun,”[xxxv] and also the spot to which they returned. Kealaikahiki means “the way to foreign lands,” [xxxvi] and “the pathway to Tahiti.”[xxxvii]

“The spirits are waiting,” Mau says of Kaho‘olawe, “waiting for the canoes to come; to go.”[xxxviii]

Mau had previously sailed to Kaho‘olawe in 1980 on the Hōkūle‘a voyaging canoe. When he visited the island again in 2004, Mau stated that Kaho‘olawe was “for navigation. It has some spirit about sailing. When I come here, I feel something. We talk story to the spirits, they look at us when we talk, but we never see them.”[xxxix]

Mau recalled that Kaho‘olawe has traditionally been a “guidepost for Pacific travelers,”[xl] and noted that his own ancestors “would come here [Kaho‘olawe] first, and they talk to the spirit of this place.”[xli] “They come here with blessings,” said Mau, “and when they leave, the sprit of this place goes with them.”[xlii]

From Lae o Kealaikahiki (“Point of Kealikahiki”[xliii]) the northern and southern horizons are visible, allowing navigators to see both Hōkūpa‘a (the North Star) and Hānaiakamalama, the Southern Cross. The Polynesian Voyaging Society has rededicated Kealaikahiki as a training ground for ocean navigators and a place to restore and perpetuate the cultural traditions of deep-sea voyaging.

Dr. Noa Emmett Aluli, the chairman of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission and one of the first protesters to occupy the island on January 7, 1976 (see Kaho‘olawe, Chapter 2), stated that Kaho‘olawe will become the piko (center) of Hawaiian sovereignty, and “a place where the culture will continue to be seeded and grow.”[xliv]

“Young kids can come to this island,” sail Aluli, “and learn how to feel more Hawaiian and fish and share and bring their experiences to their communities.”[xlv]

Kaho‘olawe Returned

According to Hawaiian tradition, the island of Kaho‘olawe is the sacred home of the god Kanaloa. Unfortunately Kaho‘olawe’s land and native ecosystems have suffered a long history of abuse, beginning with the habitat degradation caused by introduced goats as well as cattle ranching during the post-contact era. In 1920, the United States military began using the island of Kaho‘olawe as a bombing range for ships and aircraft.

In 1939, the Territory of Hawai‘i leased the southern tip of Kaho‘olawe to the United States Army for use as an artillery range. After the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor (and despite many objections) the United States Navy gained exclusive use of Kaho‘olawe for bombing practice and gunnery training.

On February 20, 1953, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed an executive order placing Kaho‘olawe under the Secretary of the Navy’s jurisdiction, for use by the U.S. Navy.

On January 4, 1976, nine people led the first protest occupation of Kaho‘olawe in an effort to stop the United States Navy’s use of the island as a military bombing target.

Seven of the protesters—Kimo Aluli, Ian Lind, Ellen Miles, Stephen Morse, Gail Kawaipuna Prejean, Walter Ritte and Karla Villalba—were arrested within hours.

Two of the protesters, Walter Ritte Jr. and Emmett Aluli, were able to get inland from the shore without being caught. Ritte and Aluli remained on the island for nearly three days before surrendering.

Following the occupation, the stories told by Ritte and Aluli of what they saw—widespread destruction, and desecration that included bombed heiau (ancient sacred sites)—inspired activists and fueled a passionate protest movement that sought to stop the bombing of Kaho‘olawe.

After the initial occupation, Ritte and Aluli returned to Kaho‘olawe with Ritte’s sister and wife, and again they evaded the military for days. In all, there were at least twelve occupations of Kaho‘olawe after the initial landing by the “Kaho‘olawe Nine”.

In the weeks after the initial protest, the county councils of Kaua‘i and Hawai‘i Island urged an end to the use of Kaho‘olawe as bombing target. Native Hawaiians organized a grass-roots protest movement known as Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana and filed a lawsuit in federal court attempting to halt the bombing.

In March of 1977 James “Kimo” Mitchell and his cousin George Jarrett Helm Jr., the leader of Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana while paddling their surfboards to Kaho‘olawe during another attempt to reclaim the island for native Hawaiians.

In 1980, Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana entered into an agreement with the United States Navy. The consent decree authorized an archeological survey as well as goat eradication, and began clearance of weapons materials from the island’s surface, although military training on Kaho‘olawe continued. On March 18, 1981, Kaho‘olawe was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On October 22, 1990, United States President George Bush ended the use of Kaho‘olawe for bombing practice, and created a congressional commission to work out a return of the island to Hawaiians.

In 1993, the United States Navy received a $400 million authorization from the United States Congress to clean ordnance from Kaho‘olawe (through November, 2003, and then later extended four months), and the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission was put in charge of restoring the island once the ordnance was removed.

In 1994, under a congressional appropriations act and presidential order, the island of Kaho‘olawe was returned to the State of Hawai‘i. In July of 1997, Parsons-UXB Joint Venture was given a contract to clear ordnance, and employed archaeologists, surveyors, environmental specialists, heavy equipment operators, and other workers. The Navy transferred control of access to Kaho‘olawe to the State of Hawai‘i on November 11, 2003.

By the end of 2003, the cleanup efforts had succeeded in clearing more than 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) of the island’s surface to 4 feet (1.2 m) deep. More than 90,000 pieces of ordnance were disposed of, including 2000-pound (907 kg) bombs. More than 8.5 million pounds (3.9 million kg) of weapon fragments were gathered.

In addition, more than 12,000 tires (commonly used to mark targets) were removed from Kaho‘olawe. The Navy also identified 2,550 historic sites on Kaho‘olawe, including 630 discovered during the cleanup effort. Seventeen of the 27 cultural sites that had been identified in a 1995 Land Use Plan were cleared.

A $3 million rain catchment tank was installed at the island’s summit to provide water for the native plants and trees, including more than 20,000 plants in Lua Makika crater. A small desalination plant was constructed on the west side of the island to provide drinking water.

Kaho‘olawe remains off limits to the general public, and there is a 2-mile (3.2-km) offshore no fishing zone. The United States Navy transferred control of access to Kaho‘olawe to the State of Hawai‘i on November 11, 2003, and the whole island is now designated as a State of Hawai‘i cultural reserve.

The island is visited by Native Hawaiians as well as by military personnel carrying out the federally funded clean-up of bombed and unexploded ordnance.

The Hōkūle‘a voyaging canoe arrived on the island of Kaho‘olawe on October 20, 2004 along with the voyaging canoes Makali‘i and Hōkūalaka‘i. The visit celebrated the end of military bombing on that island and the return of Kaho‘olawe to Hawaiians as a place to relearn old traditions.

Ancient chants have revealed that a spot at the 1,444-foot (440-m) elevation on a Kaho‘olawe mountain called Moa‘ulaiki was a place where the Polynesian ocean navigators were trained in the arts of celestial navigation, using stars to guide them over the vast Pacific Ocean.

Moa‘ulaiki provides a panoramic view of the sky and as well as views of Maui, Lāna‘i, Moloka‘i, and Hawai‘i Island. Also visible from Moa‘ulaiki and particularly important to ocean navigators are the currents in the channels between the islands.[xlvi]

Currents on the ocean’s surface are created by winds as well as variations in the water’s pressure and temperature. Around the Hawaiian Islands, the general flow of surface currents moves westward at a speed of about .4 knots.

A stone shrine at the summit of Moa‘ulaiki is called Pohaku ahu ‘aikupele kapili o Keaweiki or “Stone of deep magic of Keaweiki.”[xlvii]

More than 500 archaeological sites, including at least 3,000 archaeological features, have been identified on Kaho‘olawe, although many of the island’s native sites were destroyed by years of bombings. On the Kaho‘olawe volcano called Lua Makika there is a large stone quarry once used by ancient Hawaiians.

A rock outcropping known as Kealaikahiki, the westernmost point of the island and a location known from ancient times as a training ground for ocean navigators.

According to tradition, it was at Kealaikahiki that “voyages to foreign lands (Kahiki) were begun,”[xlviii] and also the spot to which they returned. Kealaikahiki means “the way to foreign lands,” [xlix] and “the pathway to Tahiti.”[l]

From Lae o Kealaikahiki (“Point of Kealikahiki”[li]) the northern and southern horizons are visible, allowing navigators to see both Hōkūpa‘a (the North Star) and Hānaiakamalama, the Southern Cross.

The Polynesian Voyaging Society has rededicated Kealaikahiki as a training ground for ocean navigators and a place to restore and perpetuate the cultural traditions of deep-sea voyaging.

Micronesian master navigator Pius “Mau” Piailug sailed to Kaho‘olawe in 1980 on the Hōkūle‘a voyaging canoe. When he visited the island again in 2004, Mau stated that Kaho‘olawe was “for navigation. It has some spirit about sailing. When I come here, I feel something. We talk story to the spirits, they look at us when we talk, but we never see them.”[lii]

Mau began sailing with his grandfather at age four, and by age five he had committed to memory a “star compass” consisting of 32 stars corresponding to points around the horizon. “Mau learned to turn the clues from the heavens and the ocean into knowledge,” said Nainoa Thompson.[liii]

The wayfinding knowledge that Mau received from his grandfather was passed down through a long line of Micronesian navigators in an unbroken tradition spanning more than 3,000 years.

Mau taught his skills to Hawaiians—Nainoa Thompson and others—who were interested in reviving the ancient Polynesian traditions of navigating voyaging canoes using only the stars and other directional clues provided by the natural world to sail across the Pacific Ocean.

Mau recalled that Kaho‘olawe has traditionally been a “guidepost for Pacific travelers,”[liv] and noted that his own ancestors “would come here [Kaho‘olawe] first, and they talk to the spirit of this place.”[lv] “They come here with blessings,” said Mau, “and when they leave, the sprit of this place goes with them.”[lvi]

“The spirits are waiting,” Mau says of Kaho‘olawe, “waiting for the canoes to come; to go.”[lvii]

Dr. Noa Emmett Aluli, the chairman of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission and one of the first protesters to occupy the island on January 7, 1976, stated that Kaho‘olawe will become the piko (center) of Hawaiian sovereignty, and “a place where the culture will continue to be seeded and grow.”[lviii]

“Young kids can come to this island and learn how to feel more Hawaiian and fish and share and bring their experiences to their communities,”[lix] said Aluli, “This will be a piko of the culture”[lx]

(See Kaho‘olawe, Chapter 2; and Rediscovering the Past: the Revival of Polynesian Voyaging Traditions, Chapter 3.)

Eddie Would Go

In 1978, the Hōkūle‘a voyaging canoe capsized off Moloka‘i. Crew member Eddie Aikau, a respected lifeguard, surfer, and Hawaiian waterman, paddled a surfboard toward land to get help, but was never seen again. The rest of the crew was eventually rescued. (See The Hōkūle‘a Voyaging Canoe.)

Eddie was the son of Solomon “Pops” Aikau and his wife Henrietta, and the third of six children. Born May 4, 1946 in Kahului, Maui, Edward Ryan Aikau was a full-blooded Hawaiian.

Eddie’s father took the family surfing frequently during Eddie’s childhood, allowing him to improve his surfing skills with a classic 75-pound (34-kg) surfboard.

In 1967, Eddie surfed 15-foot (4.6-m) Sunset Beach waves, and on November 19 of that year he startled Hawai‘i’s top surfers by taking off on an estimated 40-foot (12-m) set wave at Waimea Bay. Also in 1967, Eddie took sixth place in his first major surf contest, the Duke Kahanamoku Classic.

In 1968, Eddie became Waimea Bay’s first lifeguard, and went on to save the lives of many people who otherwise might have drowned in the rough ocean waters of the Hawaiian Islands.

Eddie was a North Shore lifeguard during the 1960s and 1970s, and was voted Lifeguard of the Year in 1971. He later appeared in surf movies. A talented musician, Eddie also wrote songs and was proficient at slack-key guitar.

In 1978, Eddie was chosen to be one of the 16-member crew invited to sail on the Hōkūle‘a, a 62-foot (18.9-m) Polynesian voyaging canoe to Tahiti. The Hōkūle‘a had no modern navigation or communication equipment, and was built to reenact the ancient voyages of the Polynesians who first settled the Hawaiian Islands.

On the night of March 16, 1978 the Hōkūle‘a capsized in large swells and gale-force winds about 12 miles (19 km) off the island of Lāna‘i in the Kaiwi Channel, forcing the 15 crew members to cling to the voyaging canoe’s overturned hull. Eddie Aikau volunteered to paddle his twelve-foot tandem surfboard toward Lāna‘i for help.

As Eddie stroked away from the capsized Hōkūle‘a, he stopped and tossed off his life preserver, which was hampering his paddling. Then as he rose to the peak of a swell, Eddie turned and gave the crew a final wave goodbye and paddled into the distance. Eddie Aikau was never seen again.

A Hawaiian Airlines plane later saw a flare shot up by the Hōkūle‘a, and soon a Coast Guard helicopter arrived and tossed a metal cage down to the stranded crew. An intensive air-sea search and rescue effort was launched to find Eddie, but after five days the search was called off.

In 1987, a surf contest was initiated in honor of Eddie Aikau. The In Memory of Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational is known locally as “The Eddie,” and matches the world’s best big wave surfers against each other in the biggest of waves.

The surfing contest only commences if the waves reach the heights considered worthy of the Aikau name, which is at least 40 foot (12 m) faces, locally referred to as at least 20 to 30 foot (6 to 9 m) waves, measuring by the back of the waves.

The first Eddie was won on February 21, 1987 by Clyde Aikau, the brother of Eddie Aikau. Other past winners of the Eddie include: Keone Downing (January 21, 1990); Noah Johnson (January 1, 1999); Ross Clarke-Jones (January 14, 2001); Kelly Slater (January 7, 2002); and Bruce Irons (Dec. 15, 2005).

Eddie Aikau was known for his humility, and for never seeking thanks or praise for his many heroic deeds. Today the saying “Eddie Would Go” recalls Eddie Aikau’s selflessness and bravery, and the phrase is frequently seen on local bumper stickers and heard throughout the Islands.

Pu‘uwai hao kila.

Heart of steel.

Fearless[lxi]

[Photograph: Eddie Aikau]

Recent Eruptions of Kīlauea Volcano

The most recent activity on Kīlauea Volcano is a flank eruption on the East Rift Zone. It began on January 3, 1983 at Nāpau Crater with 250-foot fountains of lava.

In June of 1983, the activity moved to Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Vent with lava shooting up to 1,400 feet (427 m) high and eventually reaching the Royal Gardens subdivision about 4 miles (6.4 km) from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō. In 1983 and 1984, 16 homes were buried and/or burned. In 1984 at Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō, explosions of fountaining lava reached heights of more than 1,500 feet (457 m).

Eruptive activity moved to Kupaianaha Vent in July, 1986, and soon the lava was flowing through the community of Kapa‘ahu and across the coastal highway. Later in 1986, 14 houses in the community of Kalapana were destroyed.

In the spring and summer of 1990, numerous homes in and around Kalapana Gardens were destroyed along with the county store and the Mauna Kea Congregational Church.

The destruction totaled 181 homes by the end of 1990. The black sand beach on crescent-shaped Kaimū Bay was filled with lava. In 1992 the eruptions moved from Kupaianaha Vent back to Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō.

In 1997, amidst a swarm of earthquakes, Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater erupted and collapsed, sending abrasive red cinder dust (fine-grained lithic tephra) over dozens of square miles of Kīlauea’s eastern flank. The iron in the volcanic rock oxidized as it was ejected, creating red dust-sized particles that were a kind of volcanic rust.

The floor of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater fell nearly 500 feet (152 m). About 3 miles (4.8 km) up the East Rift Zone from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater, and 9 miles (14.5 km) east of Kīlauea’s summit, curtains of fiery lava up to 100 feet (30 m) tall shot from fissures in the Earth. Two miles west, at Nāpau Crater, a 24-hour eruption occurred.

In May of 2001, the Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Vent flow covered almost a mile of an unpaved access road, blocking nearly 1,500 people from the lots they owned. A significant increase in lava flows from Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō began on May 12, 2002, the same date that Mauna Loa showed volcanic activity.

Kīlauea’s May 12, 2002 outbreak of lava first reached the ocean along the Puna coast on July 19, 2002. As many as 4,000 visitors per day flocked to the area to see the increased activity, including streams of lava cascading up to 45 feet (14 m) off the seacliffs into the ocean.

Since May of 2002, the lava flows of Kīlauea Volcano have added more than 10 acres (4 ha) of land to Hawai‘i Island, and created new black sand beaches along the island’s southeast shore.

The eruptions have also sparked bush fires that have burned thousands of acres. In 2004 and 2005, spectacular lava flows into the ocean drew a record numbers of visitors.

Updates on volcanic activity may be seen at the Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park website (www.nps.gov/havo) and the United States Geological Service (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory website (http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov).

[Photograph: Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Crater collapse; lava destruction]

‘Onipa‘a Centennial Observance

From January 13^th to January 18^th of 1993, the ‘Onipa‘a Centennial Observance of the 100^th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy took place in downtown Honolulu.

On January 17, the day of the anniversary of the overthrow, a procession of pro-sovereignty marchers estimated to exceed 10,000 people marched from Aloha Tower to ‘Iolani Palace.

As part of the Centennial, Governor John Waihee ordered the American flag lowered and the Hawaiian flag raised on government buildings in the area of the Capitol District, though this was discouraged by other officials, including Senators Akaka and Inouye, and Representative Patsy Mink (1927—2002).

Native Hawaiians and their supporters called for the restoration of Hawaiian sovereignty, declaring the overthrow of the monarchy an illegal act, and demanding the shutdown of military bases and return of stolen lands.

‘Onipa‘a means “Stand firm,” or “Steadfast,” and was the motto of Queen Lili‘uokalani [Lydia Kamaka‘eha Pākī-Dominis Lili‘uokalani].

Historic Eruptions of Kīlauea Volcano

Kīlauea Volcano extends over an area of about 600 square miles (1,554 sq.km.) of the southcentral region of Hawai‘i Island, and the summit caldera is up to 2½ miles (4 km) across and 400 feet (122 m) deep.

Kīlauea Volcano is currently the most continuously active volcano on Earth, having covered more than 500 square miles (1,300 sq.km.) with lava in the last 1,100 years, and erupting almost continuously since 1983.

Kīlauea Volcano has erupted at least 20 times since 1959. In 1960, a Kīlauea lava flow destroyed the town of Kapoho (“The depression”[lxii]). In 1969, a lava flow from the ‘Ālo‘i and ‘Alae craters near Kīlauea Crater approached ‘Apua, Hawai‘i. A 1971 eruption from Kīlauea’s Mauna Ulu (“Growing Mountain”[lxiii]) vent poured into the sea near Kealakomo (“The entrance path”[lxiv]), and added 97 acres (39 ha) of new land to Hawai‘i Island.

A flank eruption on the East Rift Zone of Kīlauea Volcano began in 1983 and has continued almost uninterrupted to the present day, releasing more than 67 billion cubic feet (1.9 billion cubic meters) of lava covering at least 40.7 square miles (105 square kilometers), and increasing the island’s size by more than 535 acres (217 ha). From January 3, 1983 to 1986, Kīlauea (“Much spreading”[lxv]) erupted spectacular fountains of lava.

The aptly named Chain of Craters Road in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park descends 3,700 feet (1,128 m) from the summit of Kīlauea Volcano to the sea. In 1986, lava flows block a section of the road, which was eventually reopened and then later closed again by lava flows.

Since 1986, more than 9 miles (14.5 km) of the original road have been covered. Volcanic activity increased on May 12, 2002, once again sending lava flows over Chain of Craters Road.

Within Kīlauea Caldera at the volcano’s summit is Halema‘uma‘u Crater, which is about 3,000 feet (914 m) across. Halema‘uma‘u Crater was about 1,200 feet (366 m) deep in 1924, but eruptions as recently as 1974 and 1982 poured lava onto the crater floor and filled it to its present depth, about 280 feet (85 m).

Halema‘uma‘u was a lava lake during a century of continuous volcanic activity until 1924 when a violent steam eruption occurred and the lava lake drained out. Since then approximately 40 more eruptions have occurred in the area of the summit and rift zones that run down the volcano’s flanks.

Today pungent sulfur fumes continue to steam up from mineral-encrusted cracks on Halema‘uma‘u’s black-rock floor.

Kīlauea Iki (“Little Kīlauea”), a smaller crater in the summit area, last displayed a stunning fire show in 1959 when fountains of lava erupted to heights of 1,900 feet (579 m), the highest ever recorded in the Islands.

On September 13, 1977, Kīlauea Volcano began erupting intermittently, and this continued until September 28, 1977. Since that time Kīlauea’s summit area has seen only two eruption events, and each lasted less than one day.

Ka ‘ohu kāku o Kīlauea.

The draping mists of Kīlauea.

The mists in the crater of Kīlauea look like drapery along its cliffs.[lxvi]

Historic Eruptions of Mauna Kea and Hualālai Volcanoes

The towering Mauna Kea Volcano last erupted about 4,500 years ago. Mauna Kea rises up more than 6 miles (10 km) from the ocean bottom, and 13,796 feet (4,205 m) above sea level. Measured from base to summit, Mauna Kea is more than 1,000 feet (305 m) taller than Mount Everest, which is the tallest mountain on Earth measured from sea level.

Historic eruptions of Hualālai Volcano include three eruptions between 800 and 1100, an eruption around 1300. Hualālai erupted again in 1800-1801 above Ka‘ūpūlehu at an elevation of about 5,750 feet (1,753 m), sending lava flows to the ocean.

Both Mauna Kea Volcano and Hualālai Volcano are considered dormant but not extinct.

Historic Eruptions of Mauna Loa Volcano

Mauna Loa Volcano is the most massive mountain on Earth, rising 13,677 feet (4,169 m) above sea level, and descending another 18,000 feet (5,486 m) below the sea.

Mauna Loa’s total size is about 10,000 cubic miles (, making it more than 100 times as large as Washington’s Mount Rainier.

In the last 1,100 years, Mauna Loa’s eruptions have poured lava over some 1,000 square miles (2,590 sq. km.), which is about half of the volcano’s total land area. Mauna Loa has erupted 37 times since 1832, and 14 times in the last 100 years.

Moku‘āweoweo, the summit caldera of Mauna Loa, is about three miles long, 1½ miles (2.4 km) wide, and 600 feet (183 m) deep, having filled in somewhat from its depth of more than 985 feet (300 m) in 1794.

In 1852, a Mauna Loa lava flow came within seven miles of Hilo. An 1868 lava flow from Mauna Loa Volcano entered the Pacific Ocean to the west of South Point in Kā‘ū.

The volcanic activity also formed the 240-foot (73-m) high littoral cone known as Pu‘uhou (“New hill”[lxvii]). In 1877 lava from Mauna Loa’s summit crater flowed through the Kona district and into the sea near Ka‘awaloa.

Lava flows from Mauna Loa eruptions have repeatedly threatened the town of Hilo. When it happened in 1880, the flowing lava took 280 days to reach the edge of Hilo, causing great concern.

King Kamehameha’s granddaughter, Princess Ruth Ke‘elikōlani, traveled to the area and offered chants and gifts. This is said to have supplicated the wrath of the volcano goddess Pele, and the lava flows stopped just on the edge of town.

In 1887, strong earthquakes shook the Ka‘ū district and lava flowed from the summit of Mauna Loa through Kahuku in Ka‘ū and then into the ocean.

When lava flows again threatened Hilo (including defense facilities) in 1930 and 1942, the Army Air Corps attempted unsuccessfully to divert or disperse the flows by dropping bombs.

Lava flows from a Mauna Loa eruption reached the South Kona area in 1950, and it only took about three hours for the flowing lava to reach the ocean.

The 1950 event lasted for 23 days, destroying many homes and ranches. A 1975 Mauna Loa summit eruption lasted for several days and blocked a road near the summit.

A 22-day eruption of Mauna Loa in 1984 sent lava flowing for 16 miles (26 km) down to the 3,200-foot (975-m) level of the mountain, and covered more than 18 square miles (47 sq. km). The flow came close enough to Hilo to make many people very nervous.

On May 12, 2002, Mauna Loa’s summit caldera, Moku‘āweoweo, gradually began swelling, and outward spreading began along a northeast rift (facing Puna and Hilo) at an elevation on the volcano between about 10,000 and 13,000 feet (3,000 and 4,000 m).

Though the swelling decreased in early 2003, researchers remain cautious, as the pattern of swelling was similar to what occurred previous to the 1975 and 1984 eruptions, and the rate of swelling was actually higher in 2002 than it was before the 1975 and 1984 eruptions.

Hawaiian Volcano Observatory volcanologists continue to monitor geophysical data from Mauna Loa using tiltmeters and global positioning system instruments on the volcano.

A Mauna Loa eruption could threaten Hilo (to the east) as well as Kona and its Gold Coast resorts (to the west). Subdivisions above South Point, near Mauna Loa’s southwest rift zone, are considered the most likely to be inundated by a Mauna Loa eruption.

Mary Kawena Pūku‘i (1895-1986)

As the author or co-author of more than 50 books, Mary Kawena Pūku‘i is perhaps the most influential Hawaiian scholar of modern times. Several of her books are now the primary reference tools used by Hawaiian scholars.

Pūku‘i was born in 1985 in Ka‘ū and grew up on Hawai‘i Island. The lineage of her mother, a native Hawaiian, contained respected medical kāhuna, and her grandfather (on her father’s side) was a 17^th century poet.

Pūku‘i was raised by her maternal grandmother and studied hula, chants, and legends while speaking only Hawaiian. After the death of her grandmother she lived with her parents speaking English as well as Hawaiian.

Pūku‘i grew up during a time when the mass immigration of sugar plantation laborers threatened to overwhelm the Hawaiian culture. Pūku‘i collected Hawaiian stories