Native Hawaiian Cultural Heritage

As Native Hawaiians, each of us has the ability to tap into a preconscious reservoir of past experiences and to access all that exists in a storehouse of knowledge called ancestral memories. Our lives are filled with opportunities and choices that can either allow or inhibit us from embarking on a path of remembering.

Kekuewa Kikiloi

Ancestral Native Hawaiians discovered the Hawaiian Archipelago and have continued to inhabit these islands for thousands of years. During this time, Native Hawaiians developed complex resource management systems and a specialized set of skills to survive on these remote islands with limited resources. Native Hawaiians continue to maintain their strong cultural ties to the land and sea and continue to understand the importance of managing the islands and waters as inextricably connected to one another (Beckwith, 1951; Lili‘uokalani, 1978).

In Hawaiian traditions, the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are considered a sacred place, a region of primordial darkness from which life springs and spirits return after death (Kikiloi, 2006). Much of the information about the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands has been passed down in oral and written histories, genealogies, songs, and cultural resources. Through these sources, Native Hawaiians are able to recount the travels of seafaring ancestors between the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the main Hawaiian Islands. Hawaiian language archival resources have played an important role in providing this documentation, through a large body of information published in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language) over a hundred years ago in local newspapers such as those authored by Kaunamano in 1862 in Hōkū o ka Pakipika; Manu in 1899 in Ka Loea Kalai‘āina; and Wise in 1924 in Nūpepa Kūʻoko‘a. More recent ethnological studies (Maly, 2003) highlight the continuity of Native Hawaiian traditional practices and histories in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Only a fraction of these have been recorded, and many more exist in the memories and life histories of kūpuna.

Hanohano Nā ʻĀina Kūpuna: Honoring Papahānaumokuākea Kūpuna (Ancestral) Islands

Mai ka puka ʻana o ka lā i Haʻehaʻe a hiki loa i ka welo ʻana o ka lā i Hōlanikū, kāhiko hoʻowewehi ʻia kākou a pau i ka lei aloha o ka pae moku o Kanaloa. Hanohano nō ʻo Papahānaumokuākea, he ʻāina akua nō hoʻi ia o ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina. ʻO Wākea ke kāne, a ʻo Papahānaumoku ka wahine. Noho pū lāua a hānau ʻia maila ia mau ʻāina kūpuna mai loko aʻe o ka moana nui kūlipolipo i puka aʻe ai, a e hiki mai ana nō i kekahi wā e hoʻi hou ana ia mau moku lēʻia i loko o ka ʻōpū moana kai hohonu. Mau loa nō ka pilina paʻa o nā Kānaka ʻŌiwi i loko o ke kaʻā o ka moʻokūʻauhau i ke au o Kanaloa, nā mokupuni, nā moku ʻāina, me nā moku pāpapa, a me nā akua me nā ʻaumākua ma nā ʻano kino mea ola like ʻole i Moananuiākea. Kahu a mālama kākou o ke au nei i ia pilina koʻikoʻi ma luna hoʻi o ka ʻike kūpuna ma o ka hana kūpono ʻana, ke mele ʻana, ke aʻo ʻana, ka noiʻi ʻana, a me ka hoʻōla ʻana i ia mau moku kūpuna. Mai iō kikilo mai nō, hāʻenaʻena ka lamakū o ka ʻike kūliʻu o ka poʻe hulu kūpuna i ahi koli ai iā kākou, he ahi pio ʻole ia e ʻā noʻao wenawena loa nei. Alu like nō hoʻi kākou ma lalo o ia ahi pio ʻole, a na ia poʻe kūpuna nō e hoʻokele alakaʻi mau nei iā kākou a pau i ke alahula o ka ʻimi naʻauao i kēia ao mālamalama. I ka wā ma mua, ka wā ma hope. I ko kākou mālama ʻana i nā moku kūpuna o ka Pō, mālama pū ʻia nō nā mokupuni o ke Ao, pēlā nō e ola mau ai ʻo Papahānaumokuākea a ma ka pae moku holoʻokoʻa i nā makamaka ola o ko mua me ko hope, a mau loa aku nō.

English Translation

From the rising of the sun at Haʻehaʻe on Hawaiʻi Island to the setting of the sun at Hōlanikū (Kure Atoll) at the northwestern extent of Hawaiʻi, the love of the land is abundant, greetings to you all. Papahānaumokuākea is honored as a sacred realm of the gods to Kānaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiians). Papahānaumoku birthed these ancestral islands from the ocean through a union with Wākea. Papahānaumokuākea represents deep cosmological and spiritual relationships connected to pō (primordial darkness), a realm where ancestral spirits return to islands that were once birthed from the deep ocean. There are living genealogies and relationships between Kānaka ʻŌiwi and the realm of Kanaloa (ocean deity), the many islands of Papahānaumokuākea, and the akua (ancestral gods) and ʻaumākua (ancestral guardians) represented by the diverse forms of life residing within this vast ocean area, Moananuiākea. These relationships are tended to and perpetuated in a variety of ways as part of a collective journey to care for these kūpuna (ancestral) islands. Since the beginning, the torch of expansive ancestral knowledge and connection has been passed down over generations by hulu kūpuna (esteemed elders) and it continues to burn intensely, lighting the path forward. The kūpuna will continue to lead and navigate the path well-traveled, continuing to seek knowledge as an ancestral practice. The past will guide the future. The undying flame guides us on the path towards the ancestral islands in Pō as an extension of the way we mālama (take care of) the places in Ao (realm of the living).

Hulu kūpuna have strongly advocated for the long-term lasting protection of Papahānaumokuākea, and navigated us towards a shared vision and a collective journey of caring for this sacred place: "I ka wā ma mua, ka wā ma hope," meaning looking to the past to guide the future (Kameʻeleihiwa 1992). In moving forward with a sanctuary designation, we seek to honor their legacy and build upon their foundation, so that Papahānaumokuākea will continue to thrive in perpetuity for many more generations to come.

Papahānaumokuākea National Marine Sanctuary Management Plan (2025)

References

Beckwith, M., ed. & trans. 1951. The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant. University of Hawai‘i Press. Honolulu.

Kame‘eleihiwa, L. 1992. Native lands and foreign desires: Pehea Lā E Pono Ai? Bishop Museum. Honolulu, HI.

Kikiloi, S. Kekuewa. 2006. Reconnecting with Ancestral Islands: Examining historical relationships between kānaka maoli and the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. Report to NOAA for the Kia‘i Kai (Guardians of the Sea) Project, Kamakakūokalani, Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai`i, Mānoa. January.

Maly, K., and Maly, O. 2003. Volume III: Ka Hana Lawaiʻa a me na Koʻa o na Kai ʻEwalu: A history of fishing practices and marine fisheries of the Hawaiian islands. In Compiles from: Oral history interview with Kupuna and Kamaʻaina. Honolulu: Report by Kumu Pono Associates for the Nature Conservancy of Hawaiʻi.

Hawaiian Cultural History and Significance

The Pacific Ocean covers one-third of the surface of the Earth and comprises thousands of islands that are scattered over a vast expanse of water with shifting winds, and strong currents. The movement of ancestral Oceanic people across remote Oceania was one of the most remarkable feats of open-ocean voyaging and settlement in all of human history. These esteemed expert seafarers navigated throughout this immense ocean by traditional wayfinding relying on the sun, stars, moon, ocean, weather patterns, seabirds, and other natural phenomenon to expand their voyaging spheres until islands were discovered. Their legacy of exploration, courage, and innovation brought the first Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) to the Hawaiian Archipelago.

In the Hawaiian Archipelago, the northwestern region were the most peripheral islands that relied heavily on interaction and networking between larger islands, such as Kauaʻi and Niʻihau. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands were explored, colonized, and in some cases permanently settled by Native Hawaiians in pre-contact times. Nihoa and Mokumanamana, the islands that are closest to the larger Hawaiian Islands, have archaeological sites including agricultural, religious, and habitation features. Based on radiocarbon data, it’s been estimated that Nihoa and Mokumanamana could have been inhabited from 1000 A.D. to 1700 A.D. These islands pose the same dilemma as a score of other islands in Oceania, which were small targets for voyaging and often at some distance from their nearest occupied neighbor. All of these islands were either empty at contact or abandoned, having been occupied some time previously. Due to the environmental constraints of being small, geographically isolated, and not having enough resources to allow self-sustainability, demographic stability (in initial and later stages of colonization) have been thought to be the main reasons why interaction was so vital to these regions.

The sacred area of Papahānaumokuākea is believed to contain Pō, which according to Hawaiian oral traditions, is an entirely divine source of creation, a primordial realm of darkness from which all life emerged and evolved from, and where ancestral spirits went to after death and were deified into gods. Many of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are located in Pō, while Ao is the realm conceived from the emergence of light and consciousness, and associated with the rest of the Hawaiian Archipelago from the island of Hawaiʻi to the island of Mokumanamana which is located on Ke Alanui Polohiwa a Kāne (Tropic of Cancer).

The Kumulipo is a Hawaiian creation and genealogical chant that extensively reveals the initial intersection of these two realms,with life emerging from primordial darkness into light describes Pō and Ao. This ancestral repository represents the immense ingenuity of Hawaiians describing the hierarchical succession of life forms born from Pō and emerging into Ao, the realm of light where all living things reside. Among many deeper layers, it starts with the coral polyp, the foundation of the islands, that gave way to the birth of islands, and the multitude of living entities that followed eventually including kanaka (people).

Historically, Hawaiian religious and ritual practices were rooted in landscapes of power. Mokumanamana and Nihoa Islands were the focal points of ritual ceremonies and human occupation in a continuous sequence from ca. A.D. 1400-1815, extending for intermittent periods that continued well in the 19th century. Associated with the traditional expertise of wayfinding, Nihoa is the only island of all the emergent land areas in the region that has evidence of permanent, year-round habitation by Kānaka Maoli. Archaeologists have uncovered man-made agricultural terraces and other artifacts that indicate the existence of permanent communities living on the island until the 1700s.

Situated on the Ke Ala Polohiwa a Kāne (Tropic of Cancer), Mokumanamana is recognized as a ritual center of power and a unique focal point in the archipelago that provided an axis between the worlds of the spirits of the dead (Pō) and the living (Ao). The island contains the highest concentration of heiau (shrines) in the Hawaiian Archipelago with upright ahu (altars) that align with heavenly bodies at specific times of the year, such as the equinoxes, winter solstice, and summer solstice. Ancestral oral traditions recorded epic sagas commemorating the remarkable journeys undertaken by deities, aliʻi (chiefs), and kahuna (priests) enduring the extreme conditions as a remarkable expression of their immense mana (power). In recent times, on-going research appears to confirm their significant celestial alignments for navigational purposes and other assertions of the island’s cultural significance to Kānaka Maoli.

The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands played an integral role in the social political development of Hawaiian chiefdoms; Hawaiian chiefdoms succeeded in sustaining the long-term use of Nihoa and Mokumanamana as remote satellites; Hawaiian oceanic voyaging expanded simultaneously with the development of terrestrial based economies; and these Northwestern Hawaiian Islands represent some of the earliest and most evident forms of religious monumentality and their overall ritual investment matched or was comparable to the ritual complexes in the main Hawaiian Islands.

Today, Papahānaumokuākea continues to be a significant place for Native Hawaiians and their cultural heritage. Papahānaumokuākea, also referred to as the Kūpuna islands (elder islands), represents the living relationship of kanaka ʻōiwi (Native Hawaiians) to these islands as part of the Hawaiian universe and directly connected to knowledge systems and practices central to cultural identity.