Laie

Last week Friday I finally went crabbing with my uncle Paul. He's the youngest of my dad's siblings and to me, seems like he embodies my grandfather's spirit. Although my father, my aunty Lou, and my late uncle Kalani all have some sort of traits from my late grandfather Wilfred. I think my parents underestimate my memory of him. As my cousins would all gather together to go crabbing in Ala Wai (yeah I was raised eating crabs from there). Or going surfing in Waikiki. We would always gather back at my grandpa's house in Kapahulu. He'd be waiting on the table outside with a bottle of Colt45...

 

My uncle picked me up and after the nets were baited, we headed out to Laie. We decided to try the bridge on Kamehameha Highway crossing Kahawainui Stream. My uncle took two nets and left me with four. He steadily watched his two nets laid next to each other. As I dropped mine on both sides of the bridge and took the timed cruiser technique...

Hukilau Beach at the mouth of Kahawainui Stream

 

After a couple rotations of pulling my nets with no luck. I took to pursuing this bird as it tried to fish.

 

I took my, "Sites Of Oahu" book to read. As I had the rare opportunity to look over the land from the mountains to the ocean at the same time that I read about the location and viewed its site numbers on the maps in the book.

 

Site 278 in McAllister's island survey mentions Hanapepe. On an elevated piece of land on the Kahuku side of the first bridge in Laie. An akua stone dedicated to a female fish god named Kamehaikana. Where the first caught fish were left as offerings...

Later in the day I decided to relocate a couple of my nets and headed up stream to find an opening at the end of the fence. So that I could get into the canal.

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As I passed a somewhat elevated area with tall grass. The stream side opened up to a small coral outcropping...

 

past the outcropping was a small cemetery containing unmarked graves although it looked well cared for. Mounds could be spotted where burials were, by slight elevations on the surface. Only a couple had headstones, although unreadable. Others had traditional Hawaiian stone markers.

 

Laie and more specific, the mouth of Kahawainui was a location of a large Hukilau, or fish gathering. They were said to have been hosted during the turn of the 19th century by the Kamakeʻeʻāina family. More specifically Pahumoa "John" Kamakeʻeʻāina. Could this be a resting place of those that would have been a part of the Laie Hukilau. Gathering fish as a community and sharing them with all that needed them? Could McAllister have misinterpreted the pronunciation of the family shrine. With that of the goddess Kamehaikana???

 

 

Just after taking a look around and gathering my empty crab nets. A huge rain cloud covered the windward side of the island. Heavy rains forced us to leave and head home. Luckily my uncle caught a few crabs and ended up giving the two big ones to me!