Ilima Hotel Lobby

My sister in law used to work at the Ilima Hotel years ago. She was still able to help accommodate a few friends of mine visiting the island during my wedding. I walked back with them to their room one night and found these four interesting paintings in the lobby. I brought up how each one had some deep meanings and my mainland friends made fun of it, leading to one of our own renditions of one of them.

The other day while riding around Waikiki I decided to revisit the hotel and share these. The artist is Ralph Kagehiro and they are each named with single words that evoke a deeper story to each... 

I think the images should be interpreted in the opposite order. But I took them left to right instead of observing them from the front door heading into the hotel. So this is how I'm going to share them.

The first two images are of Lohiau and two different women. Lohiau was Pele's lover when she passed through Kauai. After setting up her home at Maui or Hawaii island. She asked her sister Hi'iaka to fetch him for her but not to fall in love with him. Hi'iaka makes an epic journey back across the archipelago disspelling all sorts of mythical creatures and villans. Including large mo'o, ruling chiefs, an even beautiful women that want to challenge her. All fall to the power of Hi'iaka. The journey takes so long that Pele becomes suspicious and destroys Hi'iaka's beloved forest. When they finally return, depending on the story teller. Hi'iaka and Lohiau realize they are in love and they sail off into eternity. The top image is Lohiau with Hi'iaka and the one below is him with Pele. As well as my good friends from San Francisco doing their own version.... 

If I could I'd buy this one and hang it in my house to stare at all day. I love the legend of Kane and Kanaloa. Two brothers. Kane of fresh water and Kanaloa of the ocean. Kane and Kanaloa travel the island and Kanaloa being the trickster, keeps getting Kane to produce water for them to drink and make awa with. Kane produces it over and over again across the land. Even in totally dry places. Or spewing out of a stone. They even come across a beautiful woman named Waiakeakua in Manoa and they both almost rush to overwhelm her. Just before she escapes into water herself.

Finally, or actually "the beginning." As it it titled. This image struck me at my second visit and is the reason why I thought it was special is this, in Olelo Hawaii Class with Kaipo'i. We just learned and are still mastering a creation legend. It starts with a fisherman that is enlightened by observing a spider and it's net. He learns netting and cordage and in turn. He can fish and create a better seagoing vehicle. Mankind takes advantage of this and migrates across the world. This happens somewhere near the equator and the Hawaiian word for the equator according to Kamehameha's very own navigator/star gazer actually means the path of the spider...

Kukaniloko During The Winter Solstice

This past Saturday marked the winter solstice. There were some assumptions going around that there would be a significant alignment of the sun at Kukaniloko, on one of the stones. I woke up early and raced the sunrise in the morning, expecting a gathering already there. I got there and no one else was there. I was hyping it up on my social media accounts. So my good friend Kawika rolled in on his new cyclocross bike at around the same time.

The morning dew was everywhere and it made the visit even more amazing. Even though we were off schedule of any Hawaiian gathering besides Kawika, my wife, and I.

Even the moon was still out and about.

A baby loulu plant must have been added by the care takers recently. Along with a few other varieties of local fauna.

Here is one of the bowl shaped water collectors doing it's thing. Suggested to be used for star watching during ancient lessons of navigation...

Here is the pohaku that represents the island of Oahu.

A closer look at the center of the Oahu pohaku reveals etchings that may have had a deeper significance. Possibly marking Kukaniloko as the piko of the island...

The view northwest from the Oahu stone looking at the Waianae range in the foreground, that the humps on the stone coincide with. 

The piko 

The Birthing Stone.

Puu Palaoa...

The egde on this pohaku reminds me of Haiku Valley's north ridge...

The rest of the morning consisted of me trying to find things on other pohaku that I may not have noticed on my earlier visits.

The head of the canoe...

After checking out Kawika's new bike. We both said aloha and went back to our daily duties. He went back to his newborn daughter Sadie Mahealani Samson. I went to watch cyclocross at CORP Park and then went to work...

After work I decided to head back to Kukaniloko and see if the sunset had any significance instead.

When I arrived I was surprised to see Kawika on his bike again. He just beat me into the driveway leading into Kukaniloko. Tom Lenchanko was just leaving with his lawnmower. I got to introduce myself to him and shake his hand. He's possibly the the forerunner and most knowledgeable person to know about the purpose of Kukaniloko and the ancient district of Lihue on Oahu. I was also surprised (not really) to see my Kumu at Olelo Hawaii class on Thursday, Kaipo'i. With his friends, all very knowledgeable sharing stories. Kawika was already eavesdropping, as he got in on bike faster than I could walk in. I was lucky enough to catch a few things...

Kaipo'i's friend mentioned that there are notches nicked off of some of the stones there by "us"( I love how he said us, like the ancient and present day are one and the same. Especially here in the piko of everything). It may have marked different alignments of the sun. This notch on the image above is on the puu palaoa pohaku. When the sun is just at the equator, it's shadow should lines up with the piko petroglyph in the center. On the summer solstice the sun should rise at a certain point on the Koolau range and then pass between the two large pohaku at the modern entrance to Kukaniloko (in the first image of this post), pass through this pohaku and then continue across the island to a point on the Waianae range...

Kaipo'i on the left and his crew.

here is another notch that was chipped off and could mark an alignment...

Kaipo'i sharing the creation theory of the spider, that enumerates itself within the Hawaiian language. As well as many other island societies near the equator and within Polynesia. A spider that sparked the idea of ocean life with it's web and then far voyages chasing it's path across the stars. If the whale took us north and south. Then the spider took us across the equator. east and west. Maybe someday I will be eloquent enough to share it with others as well...

The following images are of the moment of the sunset on the winter solstice. The sun's rays illuminate a one dimensional image of a woman on the northern side of Kolekole pass in the right side of the images. She is laying down facing the sky. The first peak to the right of the sunset is her hair bun, as Jo-Lin exclaimed. Fashioned like that of the one Liliha was wearing in a painting with her and Boki. The next closely gathered peaks are her face. Then the mountain slopes down her neck and rises just slightly to form her Palaoa Lei Niho and then further down, her breasts. Finally the mountain view rises to form her pregnant opu...

Looking east toward our exit after the sunset. I was fortunate enough to reacquaint myself with Jo-Lin Lenchanko. I had met her earlier this year during the Onipa'a event at Iolani Palace. If you wish to help with the Wahiawa Civic Club and Kukaniloko, shoot her an email on their page. Or simply go and visit this iconic place any day of the year. Share what you have learned and dispel the false ideas of others that come here respectfully....

Ko'olaupoko

Ann Marie Kirk's short film, "Short Kine Stories" contained an interview with a Waimanalo man with a peculiar stone now located near his porch. It got my mind jumbling about stories I have read concerning important ancient fishing shrines of the district. During the question and answer portion of the Oiwi film showing that night, I asked Ann Marie where that stone exactly was. Because I was planning a trip to Waimanalo the next day with my wife, to look for plant nurseries. She said it was at a home in Kalapueo, above the Honu fishpond at the end of Waimanalo.

Kalapueo is what remains of an old fishing village. I didn't get a chance to talk to anyone outside of their homes but it still has the feel of old Hawaii, as I would have imagined it. There was even a canoe being carved and some people cooking outside, sitting on woven hala mats.

 

 Here is the stone that was the topic of one of the stories in the movie. I forgot the homeowners name, but he basically mentioned how a woman approached him about fifteen or so years before the interview. She asked him to take care of a stone that was somewhere in the area. He could tell it must have been important to her and the whole idea of Hawaiian culture. So he agreed to care for it. He took his truck and went to collect the stone from wherever it was, and set it outside of his house. This was not an easy task as the stone is just a little smaller than a La-Z-Boy recliner and it must have been pretty heavy. He mentioned in the film that he could tell it was somehow related to fishing because the curve on the top was most likely used to hold the fish while it was being cleaned.

I know of two particular stones that were said to have been from this district. The first is Malei, it stood on the back of Makapuu hill on the Koolau side. It is site #1 in McAllisters island wide survey. He mentioned that it was above the lighthouse and was a female kupua. It was given burnt offerings and sung to. Charles Alona, the informant of Waimanalo Oahu place names, mentioned that it also was offered Uhu fish and attracted abundance of fish all of the way to Hanauma Bay. Another mentions Lipoa seaweed leis being left by the alii and how the stone actually came from Molokai. Aiai son of Ku'ula brought it there to be set up as a fish god. A chant about Hiiaka mentions Malei and Moeau Point (Makapuu Point).

Sometime later John Cummings is said to have taken malei to his home in Waimanalo until his death and then the stone was taken back to Makapuu Point. Other stories mention that it was taken to Bishop Museum, that it was buried somewhere near Makapuu, or that it was pushed into the ocean. Some stories mention it causing sickness and death to those that disturbed it. Now it is lost to history...

Another famous stone to Waimanalo folklore is that of Kini. It was also a fish shrine and female kapua that was said to help attract akule and O'io. It had a slight depression on its top that fishermen used to pour awa on it before going out to catch fish. The first fish caught was left on the stone as an offering of thanks and the last kanaka t have left an akule on it was a Maui man, Kaalele. Later during road construction and widening. The stone was tossed on the mauka side of the road and left on it's side. The informant Charles Alona mentioned how he hoped that the stone sould be set somewhere that it could see the ocean...

 

Could the stone now sitting outside of that Waimanalo home possibly be one of these famous pohaku? This is the view that is now has. In the movie that home owner mentions that he never saw that woman that asked him to care for the stone ever again. All must be right with the land and sea, in this time and district then...

 

Sad to say but I didn't find anything else of immediate historic cultural significance to share with you. As far as my research so far reveals. I did get a better feel of the land and will try to return and take a closer look at places that I now know exist deep in the valleys down empty dirt roads. Most likely in tights and on my bike. Since that never looks threatening when trespassing...

 

The following images are glimpses of what we found at the end the valleys from Waimanalo to Waiahole.