Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 6, 1 Iune 2011 — Hanohano Lānaʻi -- Lānaʻi is Distinguished [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hanohano Lānaʻi -- Lānaʻi is Distinguished

This month 's article is written by Kepa Maly, Executive Director of the Lāna'i Culture & Heritage Center.

"Ke noho nei makou me ka hoomanawanui i ka wi no ko makou, no ko makou aloha i ka wahi i maa ia makou, a mai ko makou mau kupuna mai, a mau makua, a hiki wale ia makou ..." We live here in pahenee though we are yet in famine, it is out of our love for the plaee with whieh we are famihar, coming from our ancestors, to our parents, and to ourselves ... — Native Lāna'i residents ofPaoma'i to King Lunalilo.

Mei 16, 1873 The Office of Hawaiian Affairs generously provided the Lāna'i Culture & Heritage Center with a grant to undertake an ethnographic/ traditional cultural properties study and a limited archaeological reconnaissance survey on the island of Lāna'i. The work being conducted focuses on the Ka'ā Ahupua'a, whieh is the largest of 13 ahupua'a on the island of Lāna'i. It also draws on hundreds of traditional and historical accounts from the island of Lāna'i - many of whieh have never been previously translated from Hawaiian to English - dating from the early 1800s to the 1970s. Most of the OHA funds were dedicated to conducting a limited archaeological reconnaissance survey under the direction of Cultural Surveys Hawai'i working with a team of Lāna'i residents. The inihal field work consisted of four days of aerial surveys (Dec. 14-17, 2010), with transects llown across Ka'ā and lands whieh adjoin Ka'ā (the ahupua'a of Paoma'i and Kamoku). GPS points and photographs of sites were taken from the air. Pedestrian surveys were conducted between lan. 24 to March 4, 2011. Team members followed the GPS coordinates to eaeh of the sites identified during the aerial surveys. They then took GPS coordinates of the sites, photographed them, prepared site sketches and investigated the adjoining area to

detennine the extent of the features. The team also recorded other sites and features they encountered while traveling between the sites identified from the air.

One hundred and eleven (111) sites with 439 contributing features were identified during the course of this limited survey. It is significant that an area such as the Ka'ā landscape, whieh has been largely overlooked for more than a century, could reveal itself as a remarkably rich plaee of tradition, cultural resources and practices as a result of only limited fieldwork. It is clear that a full archaeological study would lead to a rewriting of the history of settlement and residency on the island of Lāna'i.

Though the history of Lāna 'i has generally taken a backseat to the history of its larger neighbors one finds that Lāna'i indeed has a distinguished history. The island figures in the accounts of the gods, the great voyaging epics of Polynesian seafarers, the development of agricultural stock and resources, the making of island kingdoms, the development of significant plantation interests, and the broad history of Hawai'i's people. The Ka'ā ethnography will help bring Lāna'i's history to the modem stage, and was further supported through the generosity of the Agape Foundation, Cultural Surveys Hawai'i Ine., Kumu Pono Associates LLC, and a broad crosssection of Lāna'i's community members. For more infonnation, visit lanaichc.org or email info@lanaichc.org. Hanohano Lāna'i i ke kauna'oa, Kohu kapa 'ahu'ula, kau po'ohiwi, E ola Lāna'i iā Kaululā'au, Hea aku mākou, e ō mai 'oe! Lāna'i is distinguished by the kauna'oa, Whieh rests like a feather eape upon its shoulders, Let there be life for Lāna'i of Kaululā'au, We eall to you, now you respond! — "He Wehi Hooheno no Haalilio," Nupepa Kuokoa, Dekemaba 28, 1922 ■

V LEO 'ELELE V > TRUSTEE MESSSAGES "

www.oha.org/kwo | kwo@OHA.org NATIVE HAWAIIAN » NEWS | FEATURES | EVENTS

Cūlette Y. Machade ChairpErsūn, TrustEE Muluka'i aud Lāua'i