Hōlanikū Update #5

I started learning about Papahanaumokuakea when I was a 22 year old senior at Ka Haka ‘Ula o Ke’elikolani College of Hawaiian Language at UH Hilo. I can still remember listening to the Kumu of our Ola Na Iwi research class, Kalani Makekau-Whittiker, speak with passionate excitement about Kekuewa Kikilois dissertation that revealed the names of these elder atolls, reefs, bays, and shoals to the north west of our main eight islands, saved throughout time and space in the written words of Kanaka ‘Oiwi keeper of knowledge, Kai’aikawaha.

I can still remember listening to Kekuewa present his research with such deep reverence for this ‘aina. I can still remember the feeling of coming home to myself and my mauli as I learned more and more about Kuaihelani. We were charged with the kuleana of researching the ancestral name of what we know today as Midway Atoll. We could choose what kind of resources we wanted to delve into so thus my hoa papa, my classmates, and I dove into the vast sea of Hawaiian Language Newspapers, into our legends, stories, songs, and chants. I chose to focus my research on Kanikau, sacred lamentation chants uttered at the passing of loved ones. These chants are beautifully composed dirges, often times reaching hundreds of lines, that honor the transition from life to death with a reverence so deep and profound that it only be described it in our language. I found myself completely immersed in the brilliantly crafted poetry and prose that my eyes met with every single day our research unfolded. I read the Mo’olelo Ka’ao of Keaomelemele and began to dream in ka’ao. I can still remember a dream I had where I all I could hear were voices speaking ‘olelo Hawai’i in a way that we don’t speak it today and a piece of an ‘olena dyed kapa floating in the tide of a whitewashed ocean in its winter season.

I am only now seeing that that wasn’t just a dream. It was showing it me where I was going to go back to before I even knew I was going to make the journey into po in more than one season of my life.

VC: @dwight_on_kure_atoll

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