Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 38, Number 10, 1 ʻOkakopa 2021 — A Change of Name [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A Change of Name

By Bobby Camara "O ka manu ai aku laahia Keiki ehu, kama ehu a Kanaloa Loa ka imina a ke aloha" "The elemental acrid aroma [ofthe volcano ] Is the predictor for an ehu child ofKanaloa The wait to greet this new island is long. " - Excerpt from a Pele chant translated by Pua Kanahele and Ku'ulei Kanahele About 19 miles off the southeast coast of Moku 0 Keawe, and approximately 3,200 feet helow sea level, an active underwater volcano is slowly making its way to the surface. Back in 1955, scientists named the volcano "Lō'ihi" (long) based solely on its physical characteristics. This past July, the Hawai'i Board on Geographic Names (HBGN) voted unanimously to rename the volcano "Kama'ehuakanaloa," whieh Ku'ulei Kanahele of the Edith Kanaka'ole Foundation explains, "is a powerful name that invokes the name of Pelehonuamea and her birth out of Kanaloa." HBGN includes representatives from the Board of Land and Natural Resources, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, the Office of Planning, the University of Hawai'i, the Bishop Museum and the State Land Surveyor, and has kuleana for designating the official names and spellings of geographic features in Hawai' i. Hanalei Marzan, Bishop Museum cultural advisor and HBGN chair said, "Members of the Board are excited to revitalize the use of traditional plaee names such as Kama'ehuakanaloa. This is part of our kuleana

to ensure uniformity in the use and spelling of names of geographic features within our cherished pae 'āina." The move to change the name of the volcano to Kama'ehuakanaloa was initiated by cultural practioners, like Kanahele, who noted the name "Kama'ehu a Kanaloa" while researching and translating mele recorded in 'ōlelo Hawai' i newspapers from the I9th and early 20th centuries. One example is Hulihia ke Au, a mele Kanahele found in Ka Mo'olelo Ka'ao 0 Hi'iakaikapoliopele, and printed by Poepoe in Kuokoa Home Rula on May 22, 1908. This is an excerpt from the mele that Kanahele translated: Keiki ehu, kama ehu a Kanaloa Loa ka 'imina a ke aloha Ua mokuhia ka makamaka, ka lino Ua ka'a 'ia e ka Ua lena a Lono ē Na Lono, na ka Manō Niuhi kia'i moku E moku kapō e wehe kapawa 0 ke ao E ao ho'i Ruddy progeny, glowing child ofKanaloa ( an undersea uoleano) The searchfor salutation isfar ( the volcano's growth to the oeean surface is long; when it finally surfaces it ean be greeted) The umhilieal cord is severed (it has broken the surface) Run over by the yellow rains ofLono Lono, the great niuhi shark who guards the islands Darkness has broken, dawn has unfurled (the volcano, surfacing, receives light) It is light Another mention of Kama'ehuakanaloa is found in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, in a similar mele submitted by S.

W. K. Kekalohe of Kipahulu Maui, on Oct. 1, 1862. The mele is attributed to Namakaeha, an ali'i at the time of Kamehameha I. According to Kanahele, "Kama'ehu a Kanaloa" is a reference to any undersea volcano, a child born in Kanaloa, the oeean. There are several Pele genealogies in whieh different male entities are listed as her father - depending on the site of the eruption or the type of eruption - indicating where or how Pele was born. Because an undersea volcano is the birth of Pele from the oeean, the undersea volcano is a kama 'ehu a Kanaloa, a reddish child of Kanaloa. One may wonder why it has taken nearly 70 years to give this undersea volcano a culturally relevant SEE CHANGE 0F NAME ON PAGE 14

Collections of rock somples ore taken during 0 deep-sea expedition to Kama'ehuakanaloa. - Photo: Schmidt Oeean lnstitute

Guest author Bobby Camara, born and raised on Moku 0 Keawe in Honoka'a, hos lived in Volcano for 40 years and worked for Howai'i Volcanoes Notional Park before retiring. - Photo: Courtesy

Kama'ehuokonoloo is 19 miles off the southeast coast of the island of Hawai'i and about 3,200 feet below sea level. It began forming opproximately 400,000 years ogo and scientists estimate that it will emerge above sea level in 10,000 - 100,000 years. - Photo: Courtesy

CHANGE 0F NAME

Continued from page 8 and appropriate name. Part of our kuleana today is to supplement earlier research with current knowledge. Researchers in the 1950s did not have easy access to newspapers or other resources written in 'ōlelo Hawai'i. Such is the case with the naming of Lō'ihi in 1955. Marine geologist Dr. Kenneth O. Emery (not to be confused with Dr. Kenneth P. Emory, the noted Bishop Museum archaeologist/anthropologist) sought to confirm the presence of seamounts (underwater volcanoes) in 1955. From June 29 to July 2, aboard the USS Patapsco, Emery conducted echo-soundings of the oeean floor south east of the Island of Hawai'i to confirm the presenee of seamounts. His work was published in great detail in Pacific Science in July 1955. He identified five seamounts. One was long, one

eonieal, one irregular (with peaks), one was deep, and the last was shallow. Emery reached out to renowned cultural experts Mary Kawena Pukui and Martha Hohu from the Bishop Museum, and Dr. Gordon A. Macdonald, then director of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Pukui, Hohu, and Macdonald conferred five names, based solely on the physical characteristics of eaeh, a practice that follows the naming convention of many cherished places for features that make eaeh unique. For the long seamount, "Lō'ihi" was selected. Today we have access to 'ike Hawai' i from primary sources to help in our naming processes. Accounts of the journey of Pelehonuamea and her elan from Kahiki to Papahānaumokuākea, to her current home in Halema'uma'u, have been told and retold. We know that she used Pāoa, her divining rod,

as she looked for suitable dwellings along our pae'āina. So it seems completely reasonable that Pele continues her explorations offshore of Kīlauea, seeking to bring new land to the surface. And that new land, still submerged, is the reddish child of Kanaloa. E ola Kama'ehuakanaloa! ■

Bobby Camara was born and raised in Honoka'a on the Island ofHawai'i, and has dwelt in Volcanofor 40 years. Retiredfrom Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, hispassion has been learning and sharing about the natural and eultural resources ofhis 'āina aloha, with emphases on botany, ethnobotany, geography and plaee names, geology, archeology, and ethnography. He studied with many different kumu, and remains insatiably curious about his island home.