Month: August 2019

Mauna a Kea – Examining a Chant

by Natalie Mahina and Lucia Terallo, copyright 2019

KEA
{Kauikeaouli}


Canto V
Mele Inoa no Kauikeaouli
Name Chant for Kauikeaouli

The Echo of our Song
[Puku’i/Korn pp. 14-28]

So, who is Kea in the chant? Is it Kauikeaouli? Is it Wākea? It seems to me that Wākea is amply defined…and separate from Kea—there is also the possibility that it could also be a double entendre, applying itself to Kauikeaouli, since it is his name chant. However, I believe the Kea spoken of in this first section is an Aspect of Haumea, the Earth Mother {Kea…Keakea… Keakealani; alluding to Nu’a-kea, the patron of lactation}, in which case, then the canto would make perfect sense, for you have the Loina Wahine giving birth and not the Loina Kāne {Nā Pule Kahiko, June Gutmanis, p. 11}. It is the Earth Mother that gives birth to everything upon it, including mountains. Not one and the same, Papahānumoku gives birth to the islands…Haumea gives birth to all that emanates from them.

So, is it…?

O hānau ka Mauna a Kea! 
To Kea {Haumea} was born the Mountain!

‘Ōpu’u a’e ka Mauna a Kea!
From Kea {Haumea} the Mauna was thrust upward!

Back to the classical pairing. In this portion we have the Loina Kane and Loina Wahine clearly defined, for somewhere in the poetry of this chant, there is not one without the other.

‘O Wākea ke kāne, ‘o Papa-o-wali-nu’u ka wahine!
Wākea the kāne, Papa-swelling-and-pliant, the wahine!

Hānau Ho’ohoku he wahine! {Ho’ohoku-o-ka-lani}
Came forth Ho’ohoku-producer-of-progeny, a wahine!

Hānau Hāloa he Ali’i!
Came forth Hāloa an Ali’i!

Hānau ka Mauna he keiki Mauna na Kea.
The Mauna brought forth a child, the Mauna emanating from Kea {Haumea}!

O ka līlī ‘o Wākea, o ka hai i ka hala,
Wākea shuddered—its emissions placed,

O ke kū kukū lā’au ana me Kāne,
Alongside Kāne, the shuddering of his rising hardness was satiated,

I ho’ouka ai iloko ‘o Kahikikū
Conveyed there within the sky above the horizon,

He’e Wākea, kālewa kona ‘ōhua,
Wākea flowed—his offspring moving with the wind,

Kuamū ‘ia e Kāne, ku’awa {‘awa’a} ‘ia e Kāne,
By means of Kāne, the rain-laden wind, by means of Kāne the many hills and vales,

Ho’i mau Wākea a loko o lani momoe,
Wākea returning time and time again to mate within the confines of the sky,

Moe Wākea, moe ‘ia Papa,
Wākea sleeping alongside Papa,

And here is the third break. Wākea brings forth the Sun, both being Loina Kāne. But who is the Sun in this section? Is it perhaps a metaphor for Kauikeaouli?

Hānau ka Lā na Wākea,
For Wākea, the Sun came forth,

He keiki kapu na Wākea,
For Wākea, the sacred child,

O ka uluna a Wākea—no Kea no,
An offshoot of Wākea—resulting from Kea {Haumea} indeed,

‘Oia ho’i hao ka Mauna—hānau ka Mauna,
So it was that the Mauna came forth with great force!

And since this is part of a lengthy Mele Inoa…it is only one segment of the whole of nature that is witness to the birth of Kauikeaouli, for Keauikeaouli is not only likened to the Mauna, but also the Sun.

O ka Mauna {or māuna} auane’i ko lalo nei,
Hereafter, the Mauna shall be below,

‘O wai auane’i ko luna lā?
Who shall be there above?

‘O ka Lā, ‘oia ho’i hā
It is the Sun after all!

The chant itself is a Mele Inoa to Kauikeaouli…there is no question about that…the chant has 7 stanzas…this particular stanza is number 5…although Wakea is mentioned in the canto, along with “his,” mate Papa…there is actually nothing that alludes him to Maunakea or that the mountain mentioned is Maunakea…I believe the poet intended the term Mauna, to be just that…”Mountain,” a collective, rather than a singular. The Kea mentioned at the opening of this canto and sprinkled throughout I also believe references Haumea, for she is also recognized as Kea…it was from the womb of Haumea that the Mauna {collective} is born. This entire epic has a classic signature in that you are taken through elemental signatures…the earth…the night…the island…the clouds…the mountain…the sun…and the ocean…the metaphor being that Kauikeaouli is recognized as part of the whole of nature…part of the birthing, sprouting, growing, flourishing.

Natalie Mahina and Lucia Tarallo are historians and artists specializing in pre-European-contact Hawaiian culture.

Western Science vs Hawaiian Science

In a FaceBook thread, a question was posed: “What is the difference between Western science and Hawaiian science?”

For me, it is this:

In my classes, programs, and lectures, I teach that science is not the tools and technology, but an organized method of questioning, testing, and examining the results.

Our ancestors have employed the scientific method for thousands of years. It is how we got to these islands. Hawaiian science “publishes” the results in poetic form, and incorporates a wholistic world view. Hawaiian science does not separate humanity from the rest of the world, but sees humanity as an integral part of it. We do not have the problem of Schrodinger’s cat, because we do not see ourselves as external to the question.

The great battle of Pele and Poliʻahu is seen in the glaciation and differentiated basaltic layers of Mauna Kea.

In our news today, reports are talking about water pooling in Kilauea. The Pele cycle of chants talks about the battle between Pele of the magma and Namakaokahaʻi of the sea causing cataclysmic eruptions before Pele headed north to Hawaiʻi. Then, after Pele reached Hawaiʻi and settled in, the battle between Pele and Hiʻiaka is described, including a description of the explosive nature of steam eruptions caused by magma interacting with the aquifer, and warnings of what would happen in the event of collapse below the fresh water lens, which would allow the sea to infiltrate the magma chamber.

Chants accurately teach meteorology, oceanography, botany, zoology, sociology, and record the migrations of various family lines.

But these thousands of years old records have been consistently dismissed out of hand in favor of theories like Heyerdahl’s lost fisherman drift voyages, now proven false. As a child, I was taught about Heyerdahl, and told that the ancient legends and migration records of my own ancestors were simply the imaginings of a primitive people.

In the 90s, as a professional journalist, I was told by certain astronomers (who shall remain nameless) that the astronomical sites built by my ancestors were mere superstition and should be bulldozed to put up telescopes.

Only now is Western Science starting to understand that Hawaiian practice, methodology, and recording have equal validity, and are a functional and useful method of exploring our world, and the universe.

Personally, I love the knowledge we gain through the use of the telescopes. It utterly breaks my heart that the telescopes were brought to our islands in the hubristic, dismissive, elitist, impositional manner which set the stage for the situation we have now.