Anahulu Hoʻonui 12/2 – 12/11/2024

Aloha e nā makamaka heluhelu, 

With Makaliʻi brightly adorning our evening skies, let us turn to the concluding passages of Hiʻiaka’s travels through the area of Kamōʻiliʻili with her companions Wahineʻōmaʻo and Lohiʻau: 

Ua ʻōlelo ʻia ma kēia moʻolelo, ʻo kēia mau ʻāpanapana o ke kino o Kamōʻiliʻili i lele liʻiliʻi aʻela, ma muli o ka loaʻa ʻana i ka ʻehu pāʻū o Hiʻiaka, ʻo ia kēlā mau āhua pōhaku ma uka aku o ka hale pule o Kamōʻiliʻili. 

Ma kekahi mana ʻōlelo Hiʻiaka e waiho nei ma ka waihona hoʻāhu palapala o ka mea kākau, ua ʻōlelo ʻia he moʻo kāne ʻo Kamōʻiliʻili. Akā, ma kēia māhele Hiʻiaka e hoʻopuka aku nei ka mea kākau, he moʻo wahine ia. 

It is said in this story that those little pieces of Kamōʻiliʻili’s body that were scattered by the power of Hiʻiaka’s skirt are the heaps of stone just inland of the church in Kamōʻiliʻili. 

In other versions of the Hiʻiaka story in the author’s archival stacks, it is said that Kamōʻiliʻili was a male moʻo. But in the version being put forth by this author, she is a female. 

Here in this final passage that we will together read of Ka Moʻolelo o Hiʻiakaikapoliopele, Hoʻoulumāhiehie offers his writerly aside to explain some literary/historical context and the methods of his research and writing in this particular account. Although Hoʻoulumāhiehie does not further explicate any details or reasonings as to why Kamōʻiliʻili is gendered wahine in his version, his indicating the multi-gendered accounts of this area is an opening and invitation for the reader to learn more from other moʻolelo and even learn to hold multiple perspectives about one place. 

If we reflect on the portrayal of Kamōʻiliʻili throughout the passages we’ve read together, our understanding of how the ʻāina has changed over time might help us understand, too, the characteristics that currently define this area. The reproductive capacity of the ʻāina to raise fish in the subterranean passages of groundwater is perhaps one example of how the landscape is capable of holding many layers of (hi)stories. There are many other examples, I’m sure, that ʻike kūpuna (ancestral wisdom) can guide our experience, especially as our worlds and landscapes gradually change over time.