About Pilipili
ʻĀina Momona i ka Pālolo, Land Enriched by the Sweet Clay
Pilipili (sticky) are the lands that most of the upper UH Mānoa campus is situated on. This area was also known for its sweet edible clay, known as pālolo. Pilipiliʻula (also known as mānienieʻula), a native grass that grew abundantly here. The word “pili” is also often translated as “to stick” and used to define close relationships. Pili grass carries these intentions and may be offered in certain ceremonies in hopes that knowledge will “stick” or “cling.”
According to Emma Kaili Nakuina, the large loʻi (wetland farms) that this area was known for were constructed by the chiefess Kamanele, daughter of Kuakini and niece of Kaʻahumanu. Much of the water for the loʻi was diverted from the springs in the neighboring ʻili ʻāina of Wailele. When other aliʻi (chiefs) questioned Kamanele for her proactive development of these lands, she would tell them: “As Kuakini didn’t have a son, I must be both keikikane (son) and keikawahine (daughter).”
“Emma Kailikapuolono Metcalf Beckley Nakuina grew up in the ʻili of Kaualaʻa, with Pilipili, Puahia, and Wailele as her playgrounds. Her father, Theophilus Metcalf, purchased the land two months after Emma was born, with many of their relatives settling nearby. Her mother, Kailikapuolono, was an aliʻi wahine (chiefly woman) descended from Oʻahu’s Kūkaniloko ancient ruling families. Metcalf owned nearly all the lands that comprise this campus today.
“The lands you are standing on are a part of Nakuina’s legacy. She was an accomplished teacher, translator, author, curatrix of the Hawaiian National Museum, and the only woman to serve as a Commissioner of Private Ways and Water Rights. In 1922, her son, Frederick W. K. Beckley, Jr., became the first Hawaiian language instructor at this university. As you walk this campus, you honor the Beckley-Nakuina legacy that lives on in this ʻāina.”
— Uluwehi Hopkins, Metcalf Descendant
Sources
- “The Springs of Wailele.” The Friend. April 1923.