Hawaiian Retention of Polynesian Migration History Rubellite Kawena Johnson
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Hawaiian Retention of Polynesian Migration History Rubellite Kawena Johnson Prepared for Awanuiarangi Wananga, Whakatane, Aotearoa 2006 1 2 Introduction The renaming of places settled by migrant Polynesians in East Polynesia for homelands in West Polynesia seems to have continued with equivalent recitation of ancestral genealogies continuing descent lines originating in West Polynesia. [Note: February 7, 2011 by author, RKJ: The source of many West Polynesian names retained in East Polynesia, such as Hawai’i in these islands the north of the equator, as the “Hawaiian Islands” may refer to earlier place names than Sawaiki/Savaiki, as in Indonesia, i.e., Sawai, etc]. These family, clan, and tribal relationships were investigated in earlier studies by Sir Percy Smith, W. H. Gudgeon, Edward Tregear, and John B. Stair (among others) in the Journal of the Polynesian Society a century or more ago in order to comprehend how migrations from West Polynesia into East Polynesia B.C. reached New Zealand (Aotearoa, Te Ika a Maui, Te Waka a Maui) about the 7th century A.D. Smith deduced then that the early Polynesians were still in Indonesia or Southeast Asia in a place Maori traditions called Atia-te-varinga-nui when Maori-Rarotongan groups were still actively settling Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and the New Hebrides (Melanesia) as their genealogies indicate occupation of Fiji and later, Rarotonga. from both West (earlier) and East Polynesia (later) before the most recent settlement of New Zealand from East Polynesia [ Marquesas, Austral Islands, Tuamotu, Rapanui, and Hawai’i above the equator]. Sir Percy Smith makes the important statement that “If Polynesian traditions cannot be reduced to the proper periods to which they have reference, they will never serve the purposes of history. They will remain a series of incongruous stories... such an event occurred long ago, or very long ago, or in the time of such an ancestor. If we are ever to arrive at dates in Polynesian history we must trust to the genealogies” [Smith, S. Percy, “Hawaiki: The Whence of the Maori: Being an Inroduction to Rarotongan History, Part II. Idenitification of Place Names in Maori Traditions” [Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 7, 1898: 201]. This effort is a reexamination of the compiled record in order to coordinate these studies from the present Hawaiian perspective on the related notebook. How far back does migration history go and what quotient identifies significant homelands before what is ancient Polynesia is determined by the occupation of Samoa (1500 B.C. carbon date) and Tonga (1100 B.C. La Pita pottery date). In what direction does that information go to identify a true point of origin. Most Polynesians, including Hawaiians, looked for those origins in the sky, as many others did elsewhere. 3 I. The Dominance of Atea-Papa Cosmogonic Recitations in the Genealogies of East Polynesian Chiefs From Hawaiian scholar, David Malo, is an introduction to the Wakea-Papa tradition written at Lahainaluna Seminary on the island of Maui in the mid-nine-teenth century [Malo, David, Hawaiian Antiquities (1903: 3-6]. [Note: David Malo was a student at Lahainaluna Seminary in the 1830s before he became a teacher on location]. “...In the genealogy of Wakea, it is said that Papa gave birth to these islands. “...Kupulanakehau was the name of Kahiko’s wife; they begot Lihau’ula and Wakea. “ [*Note: Malo does not mention Wakea’s other brother, Makulukulu, whose name was also that for the planet Saturn] . “...Wakea had a wife named Haumea, who was the same as Papa. “...In the genealogy called Pali-ku it is said that the parents and ancestors of Haumea were pali, i.e., precipices. With her the race of men was definitely established. “...When Wakea and Papa were divorced from each other, Papa went away and dwelt in Nuu- meha-lani...” “...It is said that from Wakea down to the death of Haumea there were six generations, and that these generations all lived in Lolo-i-mehani; but it is not stated that they lived in any other place; nor is it stated that they came here to Hawaii to live. “...Following these six generations of men came nineteen generations, one of which, it is supposed, migrated hither and lived here in Hawaii, because it is stated that a man named Kapawa, of the twentieth generation, was born in Kukaniloko, in Waialua, on O’ahu...” “...[T]he chiefs and the common people of Hawaii nei were the same; they were all of one race...Commoners and alii were all descended from that couple. There was no difference between king and plebeian as to origin...” [Ibid.: 52]. “...Wakea had a kauwa named Haakauilana. We are not informed in what way Haakauilana became a kauwa to Wakea...After Wakea deserted his wife Papa, she lived with their kauwa Haakauilana... [*Note: a kauwa is in a servile class, sometimes identified as a slave class, lower than that of the maka’ainana class of commoners, farmers, tenants on lands of the ali’i class of chiefs]. “...In time there was born to the couple a son named Kekeu. Kekeu lived with Lumilani and they begot Noa. Noa lived with Papa the second and they begot Pueo-nui-welu-welu...and these were the ancestors of the actual and real kauwa in the Hawaiian Islands” [Ibid.:69]. 4 “...We have the following traditions regarding Wakea. He was the last child of Kahiko; the first- born of Kahiko and the elder brother of Wakea being Lihau-ula, to whom Kahiko bequeathed his land, leaving Wakea destitute...After the death of Kahiko, Lihau-ula made war against Wakea. The counselor of Lihau-ula had tried to dissuade him, saying, ‘Don’t let us go to war with Wakea at this time. We shall be defeated by him, because this is a time of sunlight; the sun has melting power” (no ka mea he au keia no ka la, he la hee). “...Lihau-ula, however, considered that he had a large force of men, while Wakea had but a small force; his pride was up and he gave battle. In the engagement that followed, Lihau-ula lost his life, killed by Wakea, the blond one (ka ehu), and his kingdom went to Wakea.” “...We have a fragment of a tradition regarding Haloa. The first-born son of Wakea was of premature birth (keiki alualu) and was given the name of Haloa-naka. The little thing died, however, and its body was buried in the ground at one end of the house. After a while, from the child’s body, shot up a taro plant, the leaf of which was named lau-kapa-lili, quivering leaf; but the stem was given the name Haloa. “...After that another child was born to them whom they called Haloa, from the stalk of the taro. He is the progenitor of all the peoples of the earth.” [Malo, 1903: 240, 244] With that comment David Malo, native Hawaiian historian, included all of mankind in the Wakea- Papa genealogy because there are no men capable of living on the earth unless they breathe air from the atmosphere above, and the ancestors believed that air is the first need common to every human being. Water from the same source, the atmosphere in rain from the sky is the second great need to assuage thirst, also common among all men,that these two physical needs supersede all others. The emphasis on the sky as mankind’s father does not leave out the need of mankind and all other forms of life to subsist upon the earth as mother. From Samuel M. Kamakau, a contemporary of David Malo at Lahainaluna Seminary, is an explanation of the Wakea-Papa tradition emphasizing the cosmic role of the primal pair as dual progenitors of sky and earth, rather than the divine ancestors of ruling ali’i, although the previous history of Wakea and Papa by David Malo portrays the role of Wakea as a Polynesian chief who once physically existed and was forced to engage in a war that took the life of his brother, Lihau’ula. The only human edifice built to Wakea as a physical memorial in Polynesia is the Langiatea tomb on Nomuka Island in Ha’apai, Tonga. 5 [From Samuel M. Kamakau, Tales and Traditions of the People of Old, Na Mo’olelo a ka Po’e Kahiko (1991: 125) “...In the genealogy of Wakea, it is said that his wife Papa gave birth to the islands and so was called Papa-nui-hanau-moku, Great-Papa-who-gave- birth-to-islands. “It was thus that Papa gave birth; she gave birth to a gourd, a calabash with its cover, he ‘umeke a he po’i; Wakea threw the cover up, and it became the sky; then Wakea threw out the inner core, ka haku o loko, and it became the sun; as he threw it up, the seeds became stars. Wakea saw the whiteness of the soft core, the pala haku, of the gourd and threw that up, and it became the moon; the white layer, papa ke’oke’o, of the gourd Wakea scraped and threw up into space and it became the clouds; the juice of the gourd he poured into the clouds, and it became rain. The calabash from the separation of the gourd by Wakea became land and ocean.” 6 A. The Hawaiian Wakea-Papa Cosmogonic Birth Chant of Islands and Chiefs A.1. Ka Mele a Paku’i 1. O Wakea Kahiko Luamea O Papa, o Papahanaumoku ka wahine Hanau Tahiti-ku, Tahiti-moe 5. Hanau Keapapanui Hanau Keapapalani Hanau Hawaii Ka moku makahiapo Keiki makahiapo a laua, O Wakea laua o Kane 10.