Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 6, 1 June 2012 — Ancient Kakaʻako [ARTICLE]

Ancient Kakaʻako

By Sarah Paeheeo The area of Kaka'ako on O'ahu is today looked upon as an urban hub of eommerce and industry largely associated with car dealerships and retailers, dotted with popular surfing spots along the shoreline. But to look back at its history tells a dramatically different story. Kaka'ako was onee a plaee from whieh ancient Hawaiians would gather food. According to Bishop Museum historian DeSoto Brown, what we think of today as a plaee where many of us live, work or simply drive through, was onee marshland and, in some cases, shallow offshore oeean areas rich with oeean life. "It would have been an eeosystem that was a mixture of freshwater and salt water, and a lot of shallow ponds and offshore shallows in the oeean," Brown says. Shallow, rocky soil, a brackish water table and inadequate rainfall or natural springs limited what ancient Hawaiians could grow in Kaka'ako. However, there were a few hardy crops, such as coconut, that were able to tolerate the eonditions and enabled agricultural terraces to take root within the district's interior. But it was the oeean waters just off Kaka'ako's shoreline that brought the greatest opportunities for food and other important resources. The shallow and protected coastal waters were rich with fish, limpets and seaweed, and salt was readily available from the flats near the sea. "Hawaiians needed to find food wherever they could - they cultivated food, they grew food, but they also took food from

the natural environment, and the shallows of the south shore of Honolulu were a very good source for limu and for whatever other creatures that lived in those waters," says Brown. Onshore fishing was done primarily by women and children, while men performed the more labor-intensive offshore fishing. Brown notes that ancient Hawaiians also created fishponds, and Kaka'ako, specifically in the area around what is today Honolulu Harbor, would have been very appropriate for these man-made structures. "We think of ourselves today as being the people who make huge changes to the environment, and of course that's true, but Hawaiians altered and exploited the environment to the best of their abilities to support themselves," Brown says. "And when I say the word 'exploit' I don't mean that in a negative way; I mean they used the natural resources as best they could to keep themselves going." Ancient Hawaiians did indeed utilize these resources wisely, and eventually Kaka'ako grew into a flourishing coastal eommunity. However, according to Brown, Kaka'ako did not have many of the same natural amenities and cultural splendor of Waikīkl, where many ali'i would build their vacation homes and kama'āina would congregate to play. And by the 1800s, when mueh of 0'ahu's governmental and commercial resources heeame centered in the fledgling downtown Honolulu, Kaka'ako had heeome known more as a stopover than anything else. ■

Sarah Paeheeo, an O'ahubased freelance writer, is a former assistant regional editor for MidWeek