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Kaʻau Palapala (Forty Publications): Some Key ʻŌiwi Texts in Studying Hawaiian Literature

10/28/2021

By kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui

This is the first of a series on foundational readings in Hawaiian literature.

In over three decades of studying, researching, teaching, and writing about Hawaiian literature, I’ve grappled with some key questions in each of these capacities, including: what is Hawaiian literature? What are (or should be) its boundaries? Is there a “canon” of primary and/or critical texts? What kinds of theories and methodologies should be used in evaluating Hawaiian literature? What kinds of theories and methodologies come out of Hawaiian literature? What does Hawaiian literature, and the study of such, contribute to the larger fields of Literary Studies, Hawaiian Studies, and Indigenous Studies? What does Hawaiian literature contribute to the world?
I have struggled with these and other questions over the years. Thus, to see the blossoming of Hawaiian Literature as an integral part of Literary Studies, Hawaiian Studies, Indigenous Studies, and fields beyond these and to contribute to such growth is exciting. Each year, more critical scholarship and important primary texts are produced that add to the depth and breadth of the field, and more importantly to Hawaiian communities. The expansion of Hawaiian literature compliments and enhances traditional Hawaiian knowledge, cultural and political activism and social justice, and Indigenous-centered education.
It is impossible to teach every primary or critical text in any given class or semester. In addition, there is currently no comprehensive scaffolding of Hawaiian literary texts that exists in classes across the board in teaching Hawaiian literature at the pre-college or university level. One question students, peers and community people constantly ask me is, “What should I be reading if I’m serious about studying Hawaiian literature?” Thus, I’ve compiled an initial “let’s get started” list of texts that embody an ʻŌiwi-centered understanding of “Hawaiian literature.”
At the most basic level, “Hawaiian literature” is writing produced or set in Hawaiʻi, written by or featuring characters who are Kānaka ʻŌiwi, that reflect certain themes, devices, styles, language, worldviews, etc. that are culturally-based or derived [1]. This is important to note, as in popular western thought, what constitutes “Hawaiian” literature has far too often been framed by highly stereotyped, often racist haole imagination—the dusky maiden/lusty hula girl, the tiki with “voodoo” powers, or the tragic Noble Savage, set in a “paradise lost” Hawaiʻi. Such stereotyped images have developed from journals of early European explorers and missionaries, carried forward across time in traditional stories collected and edited by haole visitors and settlers, many with no literary training, or authored by haole without fluency in ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi or depth of understanding of Hawaiian knowledge and cultural practices. Traditional moʻolelo, often condensed and mistranslated from ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi as propaganda to support assimilative settler colonial efforts that help transform Hawaiʻi from an independent nation to a U.S. possession. Collectively, the appropriation of Hawaiian moʻolelo, which provided skewed, inaccurate, and misleading portrayals of Hawaiian stories, culture, people, and places, also led to the development of literature about Hawaiʻi and Hawaiians composed in the same manner.
Thus, the recommended primary texts (sections 1-3) are authored by Kanaka ʻŌiwi; secondary text authors (section 4) include Indigenous scholars from the Pacific and North America.
In the list below, I’ve includes a brief overview of some key texts I recommend when engaging in the study of Hawaiian literature. Because counting by fours is a traditional ʻŌiwi practice, I’ve conceptualized the list as a kaʻau, or group of forty—forty titles in four categories with ten entries each: 1. Moʻolelo and Kaʻao (primary texts), 2. Contemporary Literature (primary texts), 3. Life Writing (primary and secondary texts), and 4. Secondary critical texts in and beyond Hawaiʻi. It was challenging to pare it down to these texts, and there are many others that can easily be added to each category. Thus, this is not a complete list, just one starting point. This is the first of many such lists, by me and others in the field, one that will spark enthusiastic and thoughtful conversations. We have conceptualized “kaʻau palapala” as a series for this reason. The next installment of this kaʻau palapala series which will focus on moʻolelo Hawaiʻi that have never been translated into English.
There are multiple ways to begin studying Hawaiian literature, and as the well-known and apt ʻōlelo noʻeau wisely reminds us, ʻaʻole pau ka ʻike i ka hālau hoʻokahi—not all knowledge is contained in one school, and in this case, on one list.

I. Primary Text: Moʻolelo and Kaʻao.
Some Early Publications and Translation of Traditional Hawaiian Literature.

1. Desha, Stephen Langhern. “Moolelo Kaao no [Ke]Kuhaupio, ke Koa Kaulana o ke Au o Kamehameha ka Nui,” Ka Hoku o Hawaii, December 16, 1920-September 11, 1924. Frazier, Frances, trans. Kamehameha and His Warrior Kekūhaupiʻo. Honolulu: Kamehameha Schools, 2000. Available online on www.ulukau.org in Hawaiian and English versions.

2. Haleʻole, S. N. Ke Kaao o Laieikawai, ka Hiwahiwa o Paliuli, ka Wahine o ka Liula. Honolulu: H. M. Whitney, 1863. English translation: Lāʻieikawai, eds. Dennis Kawaharada, Richard Hamasaki, and Esther T. Mookini. Honolulu: Kalamakū Press, 2006.

3. Hoʻoulumāhiehie. Ka Moʻolelo o Hiʻiakaikapoliopele, ka Wahine i ka Hikina o ka Lā, ka Uʻi Palekoki Uila o Halemaʻumaʻu. Hilo: Ka Hoku o Hawaii, 1924-1928. Honolulu: Awaiaulu Press, 2006. Nogelmeier, Puakea et. al., eds. trans., The Epic Tale of Hiʻiakaikapoliopele, the Woman of the Sunrise, the Lighting-skirt Beauty of Halemaʻumaʻu. Honolulu: Awaiaulu Press, 2006.

4. ʻĪʻī, John Papa. “Kalamainuʻu and Punaʻaikoaʻe.” English translation by Marie Alohalani Brown. In The Penguin Book of Mermaids. Eds. Cristina Bacchilega and Marie Alohalani Brown. New York: Penguin, 2019.

5. Kameʻeleihiwa, Lilikalā. He Moʻolelo Kaʻao o Kamapuaʻa (A Legendary Tradition of Kamapuaʻa, the Hawaiian Pig-God), an annotated translation of a Hawaiian epic from Ka Leo o ka Lahui, June 22, 1891-July 23, 1891. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1996.

6. Liliʻuokalani. The Kumulipo, a Hawaiian Creation Myth. Kentfield: Pueo Press, 1978 (originally published in 1898).

7. Manu, Moses. Keaomelemele. English translation by Mary Kawena Pukui. Ed. M. Puakea Nogelmeier. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 2002.

8. Nakuina, Emma. "Kahalaopuna." Republished in Nanaue the Shark Man and Other Hawaiian Shark Stories, ed. Dennis Kawaharada. Honolulu: Kalamakū Press, 1994.

9. Nakuina, Moses. The Wind Gourd of Laʻamaomao. English translation by Sarah Nākoa and Esther Mookini. Honolulu: Kalamakū Press, 1992. Original text: Moolelo Hawaii o Pakaa ame Ku-a-Pakaa, Na Kahu Iwikuamoo o Keawenuiaumi ke Alii o Hawaii, a o na Moopuna hoi o Laamaomao! Ke Kamaeu nana i Hoolakalaka na Makani a pau o na Mokupuni o Hawaii nei, a uhao iloko o kana Ipu Kaulana i Kapaia o ka Ipumakani o Laamaomao. Honolulu: 1902; Honolulu: Kalamakū Press, 1992.

10. Pukui, Mary Kawena and Laura Green. Folktales of Hawaiʻi. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1995 (1928).

II. Primary Texts: Contemporary Hawaiian Literature in English (short stories, poetry, novels, drama)

1. Apio, Alani. Kamau. Honolulu: Palila Books, 1994. (drama)

2. Balaz, Joe. Pidgin Eye. Honolulu: ʻAla Press, 2019. (poetry)

3. Holt, John Dominis. Waimea Summer. Honolulu: Topgallant, 1976. (novel)

4. Kahakauwila, Kristiana. This is Paradise: Stories. New York: Hogarth, 2013.
(short stories)

5. Kanae, Lisa. Islands Linked by Ocean. Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, 2009.
(short stories)

6. Kaʻōpio, Matthew. Written in the Sky. Honolulu: Mutual Publishing, 2005. (novel)

7. Kneubuhl, Victoria Nālani. Hawaiʻi Nei, Island Plays. Honolulu: Bamboo Ridge Press, 2002. (drama)

8. McDougall, Brandy Nālani. The Salt Wind, Ka Makani Paʻakai. Honolulu: Kuleana ʻŌiwi Press, 2008. (poetry)

9. Parker, Lehua. One Boy, No Water. Niuhi Shark Saga. Mendota Heights: Jolly Fish Press, 2012. (novel)

10. Trask, Haunani Kay. Light in a Crevice Never Seen. Corvalis: Calyx Books, 1994. (poetry)

III. Primary and Secondary Texts: ʻŌiwi Non-fiction and Life-writing

1. Brown, Marie Alohalani. Facing the Spears of Change: The Life and Legacy of John Papa ʻĪʻī. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2016.

2. Holt, John Dominis. Recollections, Memoirs of John Dominis Holt, 1919-1935. Honolulu: Kūpaʻa Press, 1993.

3. Iaukea, Sydney. The Queen and I, a story of dispossession and reconnection in Hawaiʻi. Oakland: University of California Press, 2011.

4. Irwin, Bernice Piʻilani. I Knew Queen Liliʻuokalani. Honolulu: Bernice Piʻilani Irwin 1960; Honolulu: First Peoples' Productions, 2000.

5. Koʻolau, Piʻilani and Kahikina Kelekona. The True Story of Kaluaikoʻolau, as told by his wife Piʻilani. English translation by Francis Frazier. Līhuʻe: Kauaʻi Historical Society, 2001.

6. Liliʻuokalani. Hawaiʻi’s Story by Hawaiʻi’s Queen. Honolulu: Hui Hānai, 2013 (1898).

7. Naone Hall, Dana. Life of the Land, Articulations of a Native Writer. Honolulu: ʻAi Pōhaku Press, 2017.

8. Sheldon, John G. (Kahikina Kelekona). Ka Buke Moolelo o Hon. Joseph K. Nawahi (The Biography of Joseph K. Nāwahī). Honolulu: Bulletin Publishing Co., 1908. English translation: M. Puakea Nogelmeier, trans. The Biography of Joseph K. Nāwahī. Honolulu: Hawaiian Historical Society, 1988.

9. Silva, Noenoe K. The Power of the Steel-tipped Pen, Reconstructing Native Hawaiian Intellectual History. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.

10. Trask, Haunani Kay. From a Native Daughter, Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaiʻi. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1999 (1993).

IV. Secondary Texts: Indigenous Literary Studies Scholarship in and beyond Hawaiʻi

1. Dudoit, Mahealani. “Against Extinction: A Legacy of Native Hawaiian Resistance Literature.” The Ethnic Studies Story: Politics and Social Movements in Hawai’i; Social Process in Hawai‘i 39 (1999).

2. Hereniko, Vilsoni and Rob Wilson, eds. Inside/Out, Literature, Cultural Politics and Identity in the New Pacific. Landham: Rutledge, 1999.

3. hoʻomanawanui, kuʻualoha. Voices of Fire, Reweaving the Literary Lei of Pele and Hiʻiaka Literature. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014.

4. Hopkins, J. Uluwehi. "Moʻolelo as Resistance: The Kaona of ʻKahalaopuna' in a Colonized Environment." Narrative Culture, vol. 6, no. 2, Thinking with Stories in Times of Conflict (Fall 2019): 229-250. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/narrcult.6.2.0229

5. Justice, Daniel Heath. Why Indigenous Literature Matters. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2018.

6. King, Thomas. The Truth about Stories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.

7. McDougall, Brandy Nālani. Finding Meaning, Kaona and Contemporary Hawaiian Literature. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2016.

8. Thaman, Konai Helu. “Of Daffodils and Heilala, Understanding (Cultural) Contexts in Pacific Literature. In Navigating Islands and Continents, Contestations and Conversations in and around the Pacific, eds. Cynthia Franklin, Ruth Hsu, and Suzanne Kosanke. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2000.

9. Weaver, Jace, Craig Womack, Robert Warrior, and Lisa Brooks, eds. American Indian Literary Nationalism. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2006.

10. Wendt, Albert. “Tatauing the Post-Colonial Body.” SPAN 42-43 (April-October 1996): 15-29. Web. http://www.nzepc.auckland.ac.nz/authors/wendt/tatauing.asp.

NOTES

[1]. hoʻomananawanui, “He Ahu Moʻolelo: E Hoʻokahua i ka Paepae Moʻolelo Palapala Hawaiʻi (A Cairn of Stories: Establishing a Foundation of Hawaiian Literature),” Palapala: A Journal for Hawaiian Language and Literature, 1 (2017), 54.

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The Oral, Performative, and Visual Roots of Moʻolelo as Hawaiian Literature

10/28/2021

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By kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui

NOTE: Readers unfamiliar with Hawaiian language can access wehewehe.org, the online archive of Hawaiian dictionaries. It automatically loads in Hawaiian, but there is an “English text” button at the top right of the page to switch access to English.

Until 1822, when the first printing press was established in Hawaiʻi, moʻolelo (history, story, orature, literature, narrative [1]) was transmitted across generations through oral performance modes, including storytelling, recitation, chant, song, and dance, and via other culturally-informed practices, such as tattoos, printed textiles, and intricate lashing patterns. In traditional times before western invasion (beginning in 1778) and the onslaught of settler colonialism (beginning in a deliberate manner in 1820), moʻolelo were recorded and transmitted in many ways prior to the introduction of western literacy and the printed word. All of these performative and visual methods of recording, remembering, and transmitting moʻolelo are still practiced, in traditional and modern ways. But the initial introduction of ka palapala, the printed word, incorporated a new and innovative way to record, compose, and transmit moʻolelo and other kinds of information, particularly important in a time of mass population collapse due to a plethora of introduced foreign diseases that accompanied exploration by and settlement of foreigners into Hawaiʻi, resulting in the catastrophic loss of knowledge committed solely to memory, the loss of the experts trained in the application and transmission of such important ʻike (knowledge), and the unrelenting pressure on the remaining native population to convert to Christianity and assimilate to haole (Amer-European [2]) culture, the true impact of which is unknowable.
Folklorists have grappled with what to call certain kinds of stories, particularly those without specific authors, prior to being written down. Terms such as oral traditions, orature, oral literature, and traditional literature have been suggested to describe these kinds of narratives. The Hawaiian word moʻolelo is a contraction of the term moʻo ʻōlelo, a “succession of words” that indicate a narrative of some kind, such as a story, that is told. Thus, the Hawaiian word for literature, or written stories is directly related to the orality of story telling.
Once western literacy (reading and writing) was introduced and taught beginning in the 1820s, the mode of storytelling expanded to include not just the moʻolelo being told mai ka waha—from the mouth, but also on the page; moʻolelo could now be read, not just heard, and distributed to much wider audiences transcending any single storytelling event. Moreover, the printed page became a new means of storing and archiving moʻolelo, an additional method of “remembering” and revisiting moʻolelo beyond the immediacy of the storyteller’s performance. Prior to modern means of recording and storing information, such as photography, video recorders, audio recording devices, computers and the internet, for example, the printed page was a marvelous means of passing on moʻolelo mai ka pō mai (from the ancient past) and mai nā kūpuna mai (from the ancestors), and ʻŌiwi (one of several Hawaiian-language descripters “Hawaiians” use to identify as “Hawaiians”) began writing prolifically. Currently, there is an estimated 1.5 million pages or more of written ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi, including moʻolelo, the majority of which is not indexed or catalogued. And while around 100 newspapers were published in the span of just over one century, only forty-eight are available as digitized text available online.[3] Collectively, the Hawaiian language archives is impressively the largest Indigenous language archive in writing across the Pacific and North America.
Ironically, much of what is known about pre-nineteenth century oral traditions come from nineteenth to early twentieth century written moʻolelo published in Hawaiian-language newspapers. They contain an array of Hawaiian moʻolelo, as well as moʻolelo from myriad other cultures and nations. A handful of moʻolelo Hawaiʻi were published in English language newspapers. One example is “Hiiaka: A Hawaiian Legend by a Hawaiian Native,” by Kaili (Emma Kaʻilikapuolono Notley Nakuina) in the Pacific Commercial Daily Advertiser from August 5, 1883–October 13, 1883. At least one Hawaiian moʻolelo, “The Battle of the Shark Gods,” was published in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 10, 1904. [4]
The vast majority of Hawaiian moʻolelo were published in newspapers classified as independent nationalist papers, meaning they were free of missionary, church, and government control, and encouraged aloha ʻāina—ʻŌiwi nationalism based on cultural traditions and practices, most notably relationship with ʻāina.[5] A few moʻolelo, however, were published in missionary- or government-run newspapers prior to 1861, although many were more summaries and much shorter than later versions. For example, a brief version of a Hiʻiakaikapoliopele narrative, “He Wahi Kaao a me Kekahi Mele Pu” by B. Kalaiohauola, was published in two installments in Ka Hae Hawaii on July 4, 1860 and August 15, 1860. At just over two thousand words, it is much shorter than the later epic-length moʻolelo that average close to two hundred thousand words.[6]
Mele (chants, songs, poetry) are highly prevalent within many epic-length moʻolelo. The first epic-length Pele and Hiʻiaka moʻolelo published in Hawaiian, “He Moolelo no Hiiakaikapoliopele” by M. J. Kapihenui of Kailua, Oʻahu features three hundred mele, even though it is not the longest or most elaborate version of the moʻolelo at only sixty thousand words. The high volume of mele within the prose text of the moʻolelo point to the emphasis placed, even in writing, on the performative aspect of traditional moʻolelo. Many of the mele are specifically classified within the text by terms such as pule (prayer), kānaenae (a type of supplication or eulogy), or hulihia (a type of chant specifically associated with Pele that refers to a complete upheaval of the established order of things). Specific mele are also identified as hula, and are performed as such within the moʻolelo.[7]
The idea that every minute detail of information, particularly with moʻokūʻauhau, mele, and moʻolelo, were memorized exactly and that errors might be punishable by death is widespread. However, at least in the written archive of moʻolelo available in both published newspapers, and handwritten manuscripts at the Bishop Museum Archives and elsewhere, show that myriad adaptations and variations within moʻokūʻauhau, mele, and moʻolelo exist. I’ve documented thirteen Pele and Hiʻiaka moʻolelo published between 1860 and 1928, by at least twelve different authors. Other than the figure of Pele and her home at Kīlauea, Halemaʻumaʻu, and Mauna Loa, no two of these moʻolelo agree completely on every other aspect of the moʻolelo, including other characters, place names, or even spelling of these names, or episodes that occur, or order of episodes. In addition, there are multiple variants of specific mele within and outside of the Pele and Hiʻiaka moʻolelo; for example, I’ve found seventeen variants of the mele beginning with the first line “Kūnihi ka mauna i ka laʻi ē” (steep stands the mountain [Waiʻaleʻale] in the calm), commonly used today as a mele kāhea (chant seeking permission to enter a space, such as a forest to gather foliage, a hālau, or a hula performance space, such as a competition stage), no two variants exactly alike.
How does such diversity of printed and written text inform our understanding of moʻolelo? For one thing, it reflects the well-known adage, ʻaʻole pau ka ʻike i ka hālau hoʻokahi—not all knowledge is contained in one school; in extension, by one individual. It also reflects diversity of thought, both intellectual, creative, and interpretive. It also invites us to delve deeper into comparative work. Rather than look inter-culturally or inter-linguistically solely within the realm of translation studies, comparing ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi to English translations, for example, or seeking a singular “authentic” version of the moʻolelo, the practice of makawalu, literally “eight eyes,” and metaphorically multiple perspectives, allow us to ask different kinds of questions that can elucidate more culturally relevant interpretation and understanding of ʻike kupuna (ancestral knowledge) contained within the moʻolelo.
The written moʻolelo also provide a foundation for new variants and adaptations. One excellent example is the stage production, book, and DVD Holo Mai Pele produced by Hālau o Kekuhi and the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation. Another is Hālau Hanakeaka’s ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi stage play Lāʻieikawai (2015). Pacific Resources in Education and Learning (PREL) has also produced an animated film focused on Pele’s migration to Hawaiʻi called Pele Finds a Home. These are just a few examples of how written moʻolelo have inspired twenty-first century ʻŌiwi artists to continue the performative and visual roots of moʻolelo that reach back to the origins of moʻolelo mai ka pō mai, mai nā kūpuna mai, mai ka waha mai in new ways rooted in traditional practice for modern audiences.

NOTES
1. There are many more definitions listed in the Pukui-Elbert dictionary; these are primary definitions relevant to the purpose of this blog. See wehewehe.org.
2. Native American scholar Jace Weaver draws from earlier work by John Joseph Matthews in distinguishing “Euro-American,” meaning “an American of European descent” from “Amer-European,” because the two terms better reflect “the difference in worldviews between the two peoples, Native and non-Native. Born of and shaped by a different continent, Amer-Europeans will never truly be of this continent, never truly belong here, no matter how many generations they may dwell here” (Weaver, That the People Might Live: Native American Literatures and Native American Community, Oxford U P, 1997, Kindle loc. 123-126). This definition extends appropriately to the Hawaiian term “haole.”
3. See Papakilo Database, www.papakilodatabase.com.
4. See nupepa-Hawaii blog, March 26, 2019. https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2019/03/26/mikololou-and-kaahupahau-reach-far-away-new-york-1905/. 5. See Helen G. Chapin, Shaping History, the Role of Newspapers in Hawaii (U of Hawaiʻi P, 1996); Noenoe Silva, chapter 2, “Ka Hoku o ka Pakipika, Emergence of the Native Voice in Print,” in Aloha Betrayed, Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism, Duke U P, 2004.
6. Comparative notes for Pele and Hiʻiaka moʻolelo were part of my research methodology in completing my dissertation on these moʻolelo. See “Pele’s Appeal: Moʻolelo, Kaona, and Hulihia in ‘Pele and Hiʻiaka’ Literature, 1860-1928,” Proquest Dissertation Publishing, 2007.
7. For example, see Silva, “Talking Back to Law and Empire, Hula in Hawaiian Language Literature in 1861,” in Law & Empire in the Pacific, Fiji and Hawaiʻi, eds. Sally Merry Engle and Donald Brenneis, Oxford U P, 2003, 101-121.

Suggested further reading:

Chapin, Helen Gerocimos. Shaping History, the Role of Newspapers in Hawaii. U of Hawaiʻi P, 1996.

hoʻomanawanui, kuʻualoha. “He Ahu Moʻolelo: E Hoʻokahua i ka Paepae Moʻolelo Palapala Hawaiʻi (A Cairn of Stories: Establishing a Foundation of Hawaiian Literature). Palapala, a Journal for Hawaiian Language and Literature, 1.1 (2017): 51-100.      https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/43988/05_1hoomanawanui.pdf

–––. Voices of Fire, Reweaving the Literary Lei of Pele and Hiʻiaka. U of Minnesota P, 2014.

Mookini, Esther T. The Hawaiian Language Newspapers. Topgallant, 1974.

Silva, Noenoe K. Chapter 2, “Ka Hoku o ka Pakipika, Emergence of the Native Voice in Print,” Aloha Betrayed, Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism. Duke UP, 2004.

Teaiwa, Teresia. "What Remains to be Seen: The Visual Roots of Pacific Literature." PMLA, 125 (3), May 2010, 730-736. http://jstor.org/stable/25704471

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Moʻolelo and Kaʻao—Hawaiian Artistic-Intellectual Genres

10/28/2021

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By Marie Alohalani Brown

NOTE: Readers unfamiliar with Hawaiian language can access wehewehe.org, the online archive of Hawaiian dictionaries. It automatically loads in Hawaiian, but there is an “English text” button at the top right of the page to switch access to English.

This blog post comprises excerpts from Marie Alohalani's book Ka Poʻe Moʻo Akua: Hawaiian Reptilian Water Deities (University of Hawaiʻi Press, January 2022).

MOʻOLELO

Moʻolelo are important archives of ʻike kupuna. They are rich examples of ʻŌiwi aesthetics because they share certain elements and often include yet other genres, which suggests that their structure is informed by a cultural sense of what they should contain. The genre termed "moʻolelo" is predicated on ʻŌiwi ways of knowing and being. Mary Kawena Pukui’s definition of "moʻolelo" showcases the way that it is culturally-informed: "moʻo" and "ʻōlelo" combined denote “series of talks,” a union reflecting a long history of oral tradition as Pukui points out (Pukui and Elbert, Hawaiian Dictionary, s.v. “moʻolelo”). Although this genre is distinctly ʻŌiwi, it is capacious in that it encompasses, incorporates, and weaves together elements from what in English would be termed "story," "history," "myth," "epic", "legend," "origin story," "cautionary tale," "folk tale," and "life writing" (autobiography, biography, and memoir). "Moʻo" also denotes "moʻolelo." Indeed, "moʻo" has many meanings, including "lizard," "reptile," "moʻo akua" (Hawaiian reptilian water deity), and "moʻopuna" (grandchild or descendant).

KAʻAO

Like moʻolelo, kaʻao are also important archives of ʻike kupuna. In some ways, kaʻao is a genre predicated on moʻolelo. An analysis of metadiscourse can help us to understand how our kūpuna understood the connection between kaʻao and moʻolelo [1]. On the one hand, kaʻao have been characterized as lacking the historicity of moʻolelo. On the other hand, they have also been explained as a narrative approach to relating history. In his dictionary, Lorrin Andrews (1865) explains kaʻao as “A legend; a tale of ancient times,” and “traditional story; a fable,” or a “history in the manner of a story.” Henry H. Parker revised Andrews’ dictionary (1922), and drastically edited his entry for kaʻao: “To recite, to narrate; applicable only to fictitious and traditionary tales: I ua po nei e kaao ana oia ia makou; on that night he was telling us a story.” Pukui (1986) defines kaʻao as “Legend, tale, novel, romance, usually fanciful; fiction.” As we see, several western genres are given as definitions for kaʻao, which suggests that they, like moʻolelo, are a capacious genre [2].
Hawaiian-language newspapers contributors also offered their ideas about kaʻao. In 1882, in his critique of a foreign story published by a fellow Hawaiian, S. N. Haleʻole defined kaʻao as “he mea i hakuia” [something made up]. Elsewhere, he offers a more nuanced understanding of kaʻao, which can be gleaned from the metadata of his works. For his serialized account about the heroine Lāʻieikawai in the newspaper Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Haleʻole used the genre designation moʻolelo, but when he republished it as a book, he changed the genre designation to kaʻao [3]. However, the book’s cover page notes, “Kakauia mailoko mai o na Moolelo Kahiko o Hawaii nei,” which means that this story is inspired by or taken from traditional accounts. The heroine Lāʻieikawai, in fact, appears in several traditions other than the one that bears her name [4].
P. W. Kaʻawa, a Lahainaluna Seminary student who wrote about akua in his installments for the seminary’s series on Hoʻomana in 1865, offers his understanding of kaʻao:

He mea pili i ka noho hoonanea ana o na ’Lii, he mea lealea maoli no. He mea hoopau molowa paha. Malaila ka olu o kekahi poe ma ka paa o na kaao [5].

It is a thing related to the leisure of Aliʻi, something very entertaining. Perhaps a thing to end inactivity. Some people find pleasure there in memorizing kaʻao.

That people enjoy memorizing kaʻao to retell them, underscores their status as traditional stories. Kamakau dismisses kaʻao outright: “Pela ke ano o na Moolelo Kaao, aole oiaio, i haku wale ia no” (That is the nature of moʻolelo kaʻao, they are not true, just made up) [6]. Here, he uses moʻolelo as narrative in a general sense and kaʻao as a type of narrative, in this case fiction.
What these different definitions and commentary that I have thus shared do not provide is a theory to explain how kaʻao come into being. John E. Bush and Simeon Paʻaluhi are notable in that they offer a literary theory about kaʻao in their version of the Hiʻiakaikapoliopele tradition, which they published in 1893. Here, before continuing, a summary of this tradition is helpful. Hiʻiakaikapoliopele is the youngest and most-favored younger sister of Pele, the volcano deity whose name means lava. After Pele meets Lohiʻau, the handsome ruler of Kauaʻi, in her spirit form as she is sleeping, Pele sends Hiʻiaka on a journey to retrieve him. As Hiʻiaka travels across the Hawaiian Islands searching for Lohiʻau whom two moʻo akua have abducted, she encounters and battles adversaries, including many moʻo akua. In their introduction to the first installment of their account, Bush and Paʻaluhi call attention to the relationship between moʻolelo and kaʻao:

E like me ke ano mau o na moolelo o ka wa kahiko, i haawi waha ia mai kahi hanauna mai a kekahi hanauna, ua lilo mau ke ano o ka moolelo, a ua hookikepakepa ia iho hoi i kela a me keia manawa o ka poe malama mookuauhau moolelo, a mai ia wa i kuakaao a ka moolelo io maoli o keia ohana a hiki i keia la, a lilo ai hoi na hana i hookuiia me ka huakai imi kane a Hiiaka i hele ai, he mau hana hookalakupua [7].

As always with moʻolelo belonging to the distant past, transmitted orally from one generation to another generation, the moʻolelo continually evolves, altered each time [it is told] by the people who preserve the continuity of the moʻolelo, and from then on, the actual moʻolelo of that family transformed into a kaʻao, and the exploits of that man-seeking journey upon which Hiʻiaka embarked transformed into wondrous acts.

From this perspective, kaʻao are based on moʻolelo, which through multiple retellings across generations, transform historical figures into heroes (or even antiheroes) and their actions into fantastical exploits. In this sense, kaʻao resemble legends, which are accounts believed to contain the seeds of truth even if they cannot be fully authenticated.
There is yet another possibility to explain how kaʻao come into being. Kaʻao based on traditional knowledge about gods, cultural heros, or notable humans, and that have abundant cultural references can also be the product of redaction. John Charlot, who uses form and redaction criticism to analyze the literatures of Hawaiʻi and Sāmoa, notes: “Just as historical subjects could be treated in story form, so such stories can be combined to form larger complexes. . . . A complex is constructed by combining redactionally a number of traditional pieces" [8]. Although Charlot does not reference kaʻao specifically, his observations can apply to them. A redactor might create kaʻao by combining episodes or motifs from different moʻolelo, editing them, composing new data to join them, and then add metadiscursive devices to this framework. In short, kaʻao can be “new” takes on “old” topics, but are rooted in tradition. Those kaʻao that lack traditional figures and cultural references are the ʻŌiwi equivalent of Western fiction genres such as fairy tales, romances, or adventure stories, which perhaps inspired them. These kinds of kaʻao began to appear in Hawaiian-language newspapers in the early 1880s.
An example of a kaʻao as a new composition based on traditional figures and themes is “Kaao Hooniua Puuwai no Ka-Miki” by John Wise and J. W. H. I. Kihe, which ran from 1914 to 1917 [9]. Kepa Maly and Onaona Maly offer their cogent assessment of this account:

The story of Ka-Miki is a long and complex account, that was recorded for the paper by Hawaiian historians JohnWise and J.W.H.I. Kihe—with contributions by local informants. While ‘Ka-Miki’ is not an ancient account, the authors used a mixture of local stories, tales, and family traditions in association with place names to tie together fragments of site specific history that had been handed down over the generations.

The complete narratives include historical accounts for approximately 800 place names (many personified, commemorating particular individuals) of the island of Hawaiʻi. While the personification of all the identified individuals and their associated place names may not be entirely ‘ancient,’ the site documentation within the ‘story of Ka-Miki’ is of significant cultural and historical value [10].

As Maly and Maly’s extensive analysis of Ka-Miki shows, kaʻao composed by informed individuals are valuable. Kaʻao, like moʻolelo, should be collected and studied as significant examples of ʻŌiwi artistic-intellectual production and important archives of ʻike kupuna.
Moʻolelo and kaʻao reflect a distinctly ʻŌiwi approach to narration. Their unfolding is rarely straightforwardunlike the common Western preference for linear explication with little embellishment. For this reason, readers new to this narrative approach may find them difficult to read. Like spiderwebs, moʻolelo and kaʻao are intricate creations, andhow the spider creates its web can be read as an allegory for traditional ʻŌiwi narrative techniques. A spider weaves its web by releasing strands that it then carefully connects as it goes back and forth, up and down, and crosses here and there until it fills out its web. And just as its method for constructing its web is informed by the countless spiders that existed before it, likewise moʻolelo and kaʻao reflect the countless generations of ‘Ōiwi who have, collectively, contributed to the formation of a uniquely Hawaiian poetics, or literary aesthetic.

[1] In its most basic sense, metadiscourse includes an author’s or contributor’s commentary, explanations, clarifications on whatever is being discussed.
[2] Pukui and Elbert, Hawaiian, s.v. “kaʻao”; Andrews, Dictionary, s.v. “kaʻao”; Andrews and Parker, Dictionary, s.v. “kaao.”
[3] Haleole, “Laieikawai,” Nov. 19–Apr. 4, 1863; Haleole, Laieikawai, n.p.
[4] “He Moolelo Hawaii Nani no Kekalukaluokewa,” Apr. 16, 1910–Nov. 18, 1911.
[5] Kaawa, “Hoomana Kahiko. Helu 31,” Dec. 23, 1865.
[6] Kamakau, “Moolelo o Hawaii Nei,” Sept. 9, 1865.
[7] Bush and Paaluhi, “Hiiakaikapoliopele.” Jan. 5, 1893.
[8] Charlot, “Aspects,” 37. See also Charlot, “Application of Form.”
[9] Wise and Kihe, “Ka-Miki,” Jan. 8, 1914–Dec. 6, 1917.”
[10] Maly and Maly, He Wahi Moʻolelo, 15–16.

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