Museum Friday

A pahu drum at Bishop Museum.

 

While at the Oiwi Film Festival. I was talking with Kaleo Paik about what the pahu Hawea and Opuku drums would have looked like. She suggested that they must have been large temple drums with deep tones. She said the stumps of the coconut trees in Tahiti are much larger than those found in Hawaii. The drums Hawea and Opuku were brought from Tahiti during the migration of La'amaikahiki and his family. When the drums arrived in Hawaii they also travelled around the islands, and so many places bare the name. Finally they must have been set at Hoolonopahu heiau near Kukaniloko to signify the birth of the alii. They must have been very loud because they were said to have been heard by the commoners not allowed to enter the district of what was then known as Lihue...