Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 25, Number 11, 1 November 2008 — N I H O A [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

N I H O A

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I'm one of the lucky few to ever step foot on Nihoa - a remote, mysterious little island whose closest neighbor, Ni'ihau, lies beyond the horizon, about 120 miles southeast. The ancestors of my people, Native Hawaiians, somehow lived, fanned and worshipped on Nihoa - in the middle of nowhere - where their remnants still stand, frozen in time. Accessing Nihoa - whieh lies within the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument - is tricky. There's a tiny sandy heaeh in the south bay that may have onee been used for access. But endangered Hawaiian monk seals currently haul out there, and federal laws protecting endangered species prevent people from using the heaeh. Inaccessibility combined with a stringent permitting process has prevented humans from visiting - and thereby

impacting - the island. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, just 26 groups have been onto Nihoa in 28 years, and the vast majority of these visits were by U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff. The result is an island landscape that looks like it was frozen in time. The hillsides of Nihoa are covered in a carpet of native 'ilima. Hundreds of flying seabirds create a floating canopy over the island. And the stone house sites, agricultural features and heiau, remain in an amazing state of preservation, as if its former inhabitants could return at any moment and piek up right where they left off. Archaeologists theorize that the island's limited resources could have supported about 125 inhabitants, who probably collected potable water from three small seeps (producing less than the trickle typical of a small air eonditioner) and pools that fonn during stonns, grew sweet potatoes on 16 acres of terraced fields, and fished the rich offshore waters. But several questions have perplexed researchers for years. First, from where did the island's inhabitants get their wood? (The loulu pahns found on Nihoa are probably not enough to provide wood for frre, canoes

and other hnplements.) And how long did the inhabitants live there and why did they leave? Expedition member Kekuewa Kikiloi is trying to answer some of these questions on Nihoa and its neighboring island to the northwest, the 46-acre Mokumanamana, for his doctoral dissertation. Kikiloi has done cutting-edge thorium-230 dating on coral heads found on shrines on Nihoa. His findings suggest that the inihal colonization of the island was sometime in the 1400s. However, the settlement was abandoned by the thne Westerners arrived in Hawai'i in the 1 8th century. One theory explaining the abandomnent suggests that as societies across the Pacific began to focus more on developing the resources on their main islands, there was a general decrease in voyaging and the maintenance of remote sehlements. But the most baffling question for me is: why would Hawaiians challenge themselves by living on this remote, resource-poor island that's so small it could fit within Diamond Head crater, with room to spare? It would have been a tough life - heek, I had a tough

I two hours there. ] It's been suggested that Nihoa's settlement is connected with I Mokmnanamana. Located on the I Tropic of Cancer, Mokumanamana j may have been a critical plaee

in Hawaiian religious practices, partly because during the smmner solstice the sun hangs overhead longer here than anywhere else in Hawai'i. In Hawaiian culture, a person has the most mana when their shadow re-enters their body. Kikiloi also believes that Mokmnanamana marks the boundary between the spirit world of Pō, and the world of the living, called Ao - two realms mentioned in the epie creation chant, the Kmnuhpo. Bolstering the argmnent that Mokmnanamana was an extremely important plaee

is the island's high concentration of shrines, believed to be the highest concentration in Hawai'i. The island is covered in Tahitian marae-style heiau with upright stones that are very unique in Hawai'i and may be eonnected to the movement of the sun. Kikiloi believes that Nihoa served as a staging area for religious pilgrimages to Mokumanamana, with people from the main Hawaiian Islands replenishing supplies on Nihoa during their long jomney to Mokmnanamana. Nihoa is truly one of the most amazing places I've ever visited. Onee I returned home, I inunediately began to think of creative ways to get a permit to retmn to the island. That's when I realized one more thing about going there: it's even harder to retmn. Sterling Wong, of OHA's Native Rights, Land and Culture Hale, visited Nihoa in July as a media liaison ofthe International Year of the ReefEducator Expedition. one ofseven members of the Monument Management Board, the Office of Hawaiian Ajfairs represents the interests of Native Hawaiians. This is part two of a two-part series.

MO'OMEHEU - CULĪURE

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Above: UH doctorate student Kekuewa Kikiloi warns our education expedition members about Nihoa's crumbly soil and falling bird guano. Our expedition was one of jusf 26 groups allowed on the remote island in the last 28 years. - Photos: Sterling Wong

Left: Mokumanamana is covered in Tahitian marae-style heiau with upright stones that are very rare in Hawai'i. - Photo: Courtesy of the Hationa! Oeeanie and Atmospheric Administration