One Thursday night ride with a few of my cycling friends, I was fortunate enough to be reintroduced to and then talk story with the artist John "Prime" at his workshop in Kaka'ako. Aside from some very fascinating stories about the blessing of the Pow Wow 2012 and 2013 events, and the locations of places from the old times entwined within those stories, Prime pulled out his only copy of a 2013 calendar that helps guide one toward better farming and fishing. In relation to the stages of the moon and the temperature of the environment the calendar is like an almanac devised from the ancient wisdom of countless years of Hawaiians living off of the land. They have names for the stages of the moon for each day and months that would coincide with certain deeds that needed to be done in order to prosper. Not like a royal mandate, but more of what nature itself would help you to gain if you pay heed. While working with the land, instead of trying to go against or controlling it like that of the modern world.
I won't delve too deep into this but hopefully this can help someone in Hawaii. I tend to take a look back at it and match up the days now and then. Prime hinted that it can also extend further onto a person's own growth. On the radio I heard a story about night marchers and it mentioned that they are usually spotted during the nights of Lono...
Prime mentioned a pretty "chicken skin" story that I would also like to share. It took place when they were organizing a mural for the Pow Wow event in 2012. Each artist had their own style and were assigned a particular Hawaiian god to paint. Well, an elder Hawaiian woman was able to view the plans and totally disagreed with the drafted images. She is said to be a seer and later with everyone present, started channeling messages from some separate realm about the mural design. Prime suggests that she said it was a giant that came from the back of Manoa Valley. Anyhow, the mural was completed and is currently on the wall at the corner of Cooke St. and Auahi St. The gods were painted in more personable forms instead of powerful beings. Ku for instance takes the shape of a loving husband instead of the menacing warlike god. As for the giant from Manoa, well, that seer was the only one to be able to see it and she pointed out to Prime where it stepped on its way to instructing the artists in Kaka'ako. Wherever it stepped caused growth and although I forgot the location he told me. There is a spot where Taro has sprouted out of a random plot of soil in the city, usually littered on and dismissed.
Sometimes when I'm reading up on some historical places. Something pops out to me and I feel restless until I can learn more or visit it for myself.
I've read about and plotted the place on a Bishop Museum map identifying the location of petroglyphs in Palolo Stream, on a bluff about 600 ft. east of the St.Louis School bridge. After climbing down and rock hopping in cycling shoes. Then asking residents living near the stream. I couldn't find any sign of them. They were noted as already easy to miss and in bad shape back in the 1950's when the report was made. So, sometimes you come up short and as some might say, I should already be about a century too late to attempt to discover any physicality of certain things. That were already lost and forgotten to the people even searching for them back then. On another note, any bike ride or hike on its own is never an empty endeavor...
At a point that seemed to have a trail leading down into the stream and across it. I found these holes in a few large stones in the dried up section of the stream bed.
Further east behind some kind of Japanese dojo. I came across a shrine with peculiar stones. None with petroglyphs on them. Just to the left of the shrine was a pathway leading down into the stream where someone is doing some landscaping on both sides. I could see no way to cross to the mauka side in which the petrogyphs are supposed to be.
Somewhere near this intersection at 5th Ave, stood the Pohaku Kikeke, a bell stone. It was said that it could be heard from the shore in the old days when obstructions to the sea were few and far between. Someone recalled that children would throw smaller rocks at it in order to hear the resonance. Sometime during the widening of Waialae Ave. the stone was moved and broken up. Some say it is in a part of the wall surrounding Sacred Hearts School on that side of the road. Others say it was taken aboard a foreign ship and toured the world with other relics from Hawaii.
The same kind of stone rests in the property of Bishop Museum, from Kalihi Valley. Although I dare not throw a rock at it to confirm myself.
At the intersection of Wilder Ave and Punahou St. you will find Pohaku loa. It was much larger and was dismantled as well. During road construction. Kamehameha III is said to have ridden on the stone when it was moved from higher up in Manoa. It was said to be a male Akua embodied into the stone. At first it did not wish to be moved but after the council of a kahuna. A feast was thrown around the stone for it and after it was done the stone could be moved. Pohaku loa is said to bring wisdom and strength to the minds of children and for good reason it was placed outside of Punahou School. After it was broken up, some pieces were left at Kapiolani Children's Hospital. Another, if not the same section. Was left deeper inside the of campus near the location of a spring called Kapunahou that the school is named after. Yet more are said to be a part of the wall next to it and another piece could have been brought to Japan by someone that wished to spread the blessing of it, for the children there...
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