Reclaiming Kahoolawe - History

"He haki nuanua a nei kai. 'O 'awa ana i uka. Pehe e hiki aku ai"
When Hawaiians first arrived on Kahoolawe around 400 A.D....

They dedicated the island to Kanaloa, the Hawaiian deity of the ocean.... and initially reffered to the island as “Kohe malamalama o Kanaloa”.

Mike Nahoopii:
“One of the ancient names relates to Kanaloa..
That makes it a very unique place

Kanaloa is one of the 4 major Hawaiian gods. His Kinolau, or physical manifestation, is the he'e or octopus. He is also associated with the deep ocean and voyaging.

Sasha Giron
“I am one of the Hawaiians that I don’t know where I’m from. And we talk about Kanaloa pulling us back in with his tentacles and I feel like it’s more than that. I just feel like my kupuna came here before me."


Kahoolawe served as a wahi pana, or sacred place.. puuhonua or place of refuge...

And recognized as one of the greatest navigational training sites on the planet.

Mike
“... you see not only the southern horizon, so you can learn about the stars and voyaging, but you see local navigation. Because from there you can see most of the channels across the islands.”



Nainoa Thompson:
"When we figured out the southern cross and the latitude that we needed and we opened the map up it's only Kahoolawe, it's only Kealaikahiki, that's the school, that's the school."


Kahoolawe was also known for its adze quarries and agriculture.


“Kaho’olawe is like the country home you know…..

In: They would come here, they would get the resources from the island and then take it back to Maui. And then eventually over the years they started spending more time on Kahoolawe so they started growing agriculture.
Out: We see the shells that they ate for food and the remnants of food.

Archaeologists believe there was a large population in Hakioawa, on the northern coast facing Maui. Remnants of their village are still there today.



“One of the neat things about Kaho’olawe is we didn’t have large scale agriculture like the other islands. So a lot of the cultural artifacts are still sitting in the same place where people live, walked up walked away maybe 300 or 400 years ago.”

In fact, there were so many artifacts and historical sites, that the entire island was given a special distinction.


“… So you know like Iolani Palace you have George Washington Memorial those are individual places. There were so many of these things on Kaho’olawe they listed the whole island as a historic place so we’re on the national register.”


“You can feel the mana of all those before us that came here. It may not be kupuna but still, the oiwi and how much they cared for this land.”


At the end of the 1700’s, Kahoolawe entered a harsh evolution...

Goats were introduced, a penal colony was established, and sheep and cattle ranching took over… which led to uncontrolled grazing... causing devastating erosion.

But what was coming next, would forever change the island.