KOʻA HEIAU HOLOMOANA: VOYAGING SET IN STONE A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAIʻI AT HILO IN PARTIAL FULLFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN HERITAGE MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY MAY 2017 By Nicole A. Mello Thesis Committee: Joseph Genz, Chairperson Peter Mills Milton Bertelmann Noe Noe Wong-Wilson Copyright © 2017 by Nicole A. Mello All Rights Reserved i Dedication Nā Kālai Waʻa ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to first acknowledge Nā Kālai Waʻa. Mahalo nui loa for including me in your community and for trusting me to partake in this collaborative thesis project with you. It has been an honor to learn about Makaliʻi, the organization and Koʻa Heiau Holomoana. It has been an honor working with you. I would also like to thank you for your dedication to the spreading of knowledge regarding wayfinding and all you do as an organization. With that said, mahalo nui loa for becoming my ʻohana, especially Aunty Patti Ann, Uncle Shorty Bertelmann, Uncle Chadd Paishon, Mike Manu, Bebe Maielua, Aunty Keala, Kalani, and Leiʻohu Colburn. Special thanks to you, Leiʻohu, for endlessly opening your home to me, for your warm friendship and for teaching me so much. Mahalo Nā Kālai Waʻa for opening your friendship, hearts and homes to me. I would like to acknowledge my thesis committee: Joseph Genz (chair), Milton Bertelmann (Uncle Shorty), Noe Noe Wong-Wilson and Peter Mills. I would especially like to thank Joseph Genz for consistent guidence and the patience to carefully read draft after draft of this project. I would like to acknowledge the time and effort you put into this project such as coming with me all the way to Māhukona on more than one occassion and always being available when needed. I always felt supported and reminded of my abilities while under your advisorship. Words cannot thank you enough. Mahalo nui loa to Uncle Shorty Bertelmann for your input, guidence, advice and teachings while also agreeing to sit on my committee. A special thank you to Peter Mills for creating this Heritage Management program. I respect your persistence and dedication to getting this program started. I appreciate you taking the time to teach me skills in EDXRF analysis, for helping with that aspect especially in this project and for the comments, feedback and help on this thesis. I would like to acknowledge Noe Noe Wong- iii Wilson for your advice and guidence on my thesis. Your comments and input helped teach me things I had yet to learn about Hawaiʻi and Nā Kālai Waʻa, in turn, making this thesis better. I would like to thank Peter Mills, Matthew Clark, Uncle Shorty Bertelmann, Aunty Patti Ann Solomon, Mark McCoy and his students from Southern Methodist University, and Mara Mulrooney from Bishop Museum for coming out to dedicate your time, skills and equitpment for the field work day at Koʻa Heiau Holomoana. I would like to acknowledge my friends and family. I would especially like to thank my parents for encouraging and supporting my decision to pursue a higher degree in Heritage Management, even being over two thousand miles away from you both. This was possbile because you raised me to work hard, to believe in myself and to follow my dreams. Obrigado to all of my grandparents for your participation in my upbringing, interest in my project, your belief in me and for teaching me my Portuguese heritage but especially in teaching me the significance of heritage. I would like to thank my sister, Karlene, for checking in everyday, for your encouragement and for always being there for me. I would like to thank my brothers, Johnathan and Thomas, as well. Thank you to my best friends Andrehina Salinas and Autumn Edwards for listening to me plot out my ideas and for reminding me “I got this.” I would like to also acknowledge my undergraduate advisor at Saint Mary’s College, Cynthia Van Gilder. Your passion for Hawaiian culture and archaeology led me to this path. I especially would like to thank you for sending me to Peter, to this Heritage Management program. Thank you to the other faculty in the Anthropology Department at UH Hilo for your support. Mahalo nui loa to my cohort: Kalena Blakemore, Lokelani Brandt, Matthew Clark, Tami Halliwell, Kalā Mossman, and Kamu Plunkett. You all welcomed me when I arrived on island iv and guided me through my transition here. All of you have opened your homes and friendship to me. Each of you have taught and guided me in various ways. Your continous encouragement made this thesis possible. The Magnificant Seven is the true definition of a team. I am thankful we could share this passion together. I admire each of you and aspire to reach your skills and knowledge. I cannot thank you all enough. v ABSTRACT Decades of Western influence led to the decline of seafaring knowledge and cultural practices throughout the Pacific. The 1960s and 1970s saw the flourishing of Hawaiian culture. The revival of open-ocean voyaging and non-instrument navigation was a key facet to this reawakening. Approximately 50 years after reincorporation of this practice, wayfinding is once again part of everyday lives for Pacific Islanders. This thesis elaborates on the navigational heiau Koʻa Heiau Holomoana in its centrality to the organization Nā Kālai Waʻa by being their cultural piko and training ground. Interviews, participant observation, EDXRF analysis, and research combine to begin to determine the heiau’s upright stone origins. This community-based collaborative project documents the heiau in its contemporary setting to contribute to its preservation against the influx of tourists. I demonstrate that Koʻa Heiau Holomoana connects Nā Kālai Waʻa to broader Pacific voyaging spheres in the past and in the present while centering community members to their home training ground and spiritual center. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... x CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: HISTORICAL CONTEXT ...................................................................................... 9 Decline and Rediscovery of Long-Distance Voyaging in Oceania ........................................................ 11 Ethnohistories .................................................................................................................................... 12 Ethnographic and Experimental Voyaging ........................................................................................ 16 Debate ................................................................................................................................................ 17 Hōkūleʻa ............................................................................................................................................. 19 Cultural Revival of Hawaiian Voyaging ............................................................................................ 21 Nā Kālai Waʻa and Makaliʻi ................................................................................................................... 25 Regional and Geochemical Context of Kohala ...................................................................................... 27 Navigational Heiau ................................................................................................................................. 39 Koʻa Heiau Holomoana Documentation ................................................................................................ 42 Research Questions................................................................................................................................. 51 CHAPTER 3: METHODS ............................................................................................................ 53 Community-Based Collaborative Research ............................................................................................ 53 Community Involvement Summer 2016 ................................................................................................ 60 Internship ................................................................................................................................................ 60 Participant Observation .......................................................................................................................... 61 Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence................................................................................................. 63 Interviews ............................................................................................................................................... 71 Methodological Summary ...................................................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS .............................................................................................................. 77 Koʻa Heiau Holomoana Through Time .................................................................................................