These cultural stories are written to do a number of things for those of us who now call Kapolei home. It is to help us understand that it is a place with a colorful history. Not just that of a plantation past, or of its military role during the closing moments of WWII or that of an industrial center. It is a place with a history of over 2000 years of human habitation.
We are speaking of an island in the middle of the Pacific. Our ancestors were in these waters when the Roman Empire ruled much of Europe and the countries surrounding the Mediterranean. These stories are to help us see beyond the facade of concrete and wooden structures. To see beyond the roads and highways of today. To feel the winds of the past. To allow us to see that which cannot be seen. To once again see the manu O`o feed on the None fruit at Kanehili (formerly Barbers Point NAS). To taste the waters brought forth by Kane and Kanaloa from the sinkholes at Kanehili. To see the breadfruit tree planted by Kahai-a- Ho`okamali`i at Ku`alakai (Nimitz Beach in Kalaeloa). To see Hi`iaka as she admires her reflection at the Spring of Hoakalei. To be able to see Kapo as she stands on the hill known as Puuokapolei. For here lies the importance of these stories.
Maybe as we are all rushing about in our daily lives we can take of brief moment and find satisfaction and try to listen and see if we can hear those voices of the past. Like the chatter of the birds in the uplands or the sound of raindrops on the leaves of ancient koa. Such is the story of Kaupe`a.
The significance of ancient place names is that these are the names that are Kupuna gave these places. These names are important because they tell us something about these places. The role they played in the daily lives of the Po`e Kahiko. These names were given with a lot of thought and purpose. Although much of our ancient past has been lost due to the loss of so many lives. People whose fragile bodies could not deal with the many physical challenges tossed at them. A piece of that past can be found in our ancient place names. He inoa O Kaupe`a;…Kaupe`a is the name.
Before we try to understand this name let’s first try to determine where is this place geographically. No one alive today can say with any kind of certainty where the exact boundaries of Kaupe’a may have existed. Much of the cultural landscape of these islands that we have come to love was lost with the invention of the light bulb by Thomas Edison.
There was no longer any demand for whale oil for lighting oil lamps. The thriving whaling town of Lahaina slowly lost its prominence as the business center of these islands. The capitol of these islands moved to Honolulu. Up until this period in island cultural history much of the cultural landscape was still intact. Although Kaahumanu had attempted to destroy many of our ancient heiau and sacred cultural structures some still could be found scattered amongst the landscape.
It was widespread agricultural interest that brought about the demise of many cultural sites and ahupua`a and Ili boundary markers. It was agriculture that changed our cultural landscape so completely. The plowing over of thousand of acres of lands. The stones of many of our cultural sites and boundary markers were pushed into piles within these agricultural lands.
Today many of these stone piles can still be seen as one drives along the H-1 Freeway to and from Makakilo and Kapolei. Some line our freeway between Waipahu and Kapolei. As one is driving in the Wai’anae direction along the H-1 many of these sacred stones can be seen on the mauka side of the H-1 just after you pass the Makakilo Drive overpass and before the Waterpark. Many of them are just beyond the backyards of the perimeter homes in lower Makakilo. Many can still be seen on the makai side of the H-1 just pass the Waterpark and before Honokai Hale.
A hint as to where Kaupe`a once existed can be found in several ancient traditions or mo`olelo (stories). One such story is the Travels of Pele and Hi`iaka. Pele fell in love with Lohiau and chose her youngest and favorite sister Hi`iaka to seek and find Lohiau on Kauai and bring him back to her on Hawai’i Island. As she was traveling across the island of O`ahu by land she made a brief stop at Pu`uokapolei.
This place, Puuokapolei, is located adjacent to the Kapolei Regional Park today. The story indicates that when Hi`iaka left Puuokapolei she set out for Ku`alakai. As she travels from Puuokapolei for Ku`alakai she first passes through Kaupe`a then Kanehili before she reaches Ku`alakai. Kanehili is the area defined by the former Naval Air Station at Barbers Point or today Kalaeloa. Ku`Alakai is known today as Nimitz Beach in Kalaeloa.
We shared many stories associated with Ku`alakai in a previous cultural essay so I will not dwell on it further. There is no question that Kaupe`a is the area that surrounds Pu`uokapolei and extend seaward perhaps to the fence line of the former naval station. We also know that it extends quite a distance in the ‘Ewa and Ko Olina direction.
Mary Kawena Pukui with Samuel Elbert wrote the Hawaiian Language dictionary which is used today by most language teachers and students. She spent many years working for the Bishop Museum as a Hawaiian language expert and is credited for translating many articles found in the Hawaiian language newspapers written during the 1800s.
Ms. Pukui shares a story that she claim as true and really happened to her. She never heard of Kaupe`a until one day when she was visiting her cousin and aunt who lived in Puuloa. They were walking along the beach from Puuloa to Kalaeloa, not the Kalaeloa that we know of today but rather just beyond the former Naval Air Station to the area where Germaine`s Luau is located in Campbell Industrial Park.
They were accompanied by a true native dog whose name was Teto. Teto had belonged to Mary`s aunt. Teto was small with upright ears with a body the size of a fox terrier. As they were walking along on their way to Kalaeloa something strange had happened. Teto for no understandable reason fell to the ground and laid still. They all thought the dog had died. Mary Kawena Pukui`s aunt shouted out to her to run to water and get some sea water.
When Mary got back her aunt took the water and sprinkled it over the head of Teto and chanted something in Hawaiian. When she rubbed the head of the dog with the sea water, all the while saying something in Hawaiian, Teto suddenly started to move and wake up. Her aunt then explained and shared stories regarding the wandering spirits of Kaupe`a. She told Mary because Teto was a true Hawaiian dog, the homeless, wandering ghost of Kaupe`a may have wanted Teto for himself because he was a true native dog.
In many of the articles written by Hawaiian Historian Sam Kamakau for a Hawaiian language newspaper of the 1800s, he makes reference to the wandering spirits of the Wiliwili Groves of Kaupe`a. It is a place where these homeless spirits seek spiders and moths for food. We mentioned in an earlier story of how Life, Death and Sleep overlapped. There are two places as explained by Sam Kamakau, Aukewa and Leina Ka Uhane. An Aokuewa is a place of “wandering spirits or homeless ghosts.” Leina Ka Uhane are leaping places into the next world or realm.
When one dies and he is assisted by his aumakua to a Leina Ka Uhane he is assisted into the next world by his aumakua. However if one does not have an aumakua he does not have the advantage of being assisted in finding the Leina Ka Uhane. He is thus banned to barren and desolate place to eat spiders and moths.
These are places of the Aokuewa. These are places where one comes to make up for not having been a good person. He is given another chance. Some Chrstians today refer to this place as purgatory or limbo. Although most Christians believe that limbo is somewhere else. The Po`e Kahiko believed it is here…on the island of O`ahu it is Kaupe`a.
However they further believed that although they were doomed to seeking spiders and moths they still had a chance to redeem themselves. Their only hope was to seek the Ulu`o-Leiwalu tree at Leilono. Leilono is at Moanalua on O`ahu.
Historically Ulu-o-Leiwalu was known to be close to the rock Kapukaki and said to be line with the burial mound of Aliamanu and facing toward the right side of the North Star or Hokupa`a. In the ancient stories the Ulu-o-Leiwalu was a hole in the ground about 2 feet in diameter.
In this hole was said to be a breadfruit tree or the Ulu-o-Leiwalu. There were only 2 branches on this tree one on the east side and one on the west side. It was said that the branches were deceiving. It was also said that the Ulu-o-Leiwalu was guarded by a huge caterpillar on the east and a large Mo`o on the west.
Even after having come this far these homeless spirits had to get past these “watchmen” to get to the Ulu-o-Leiwahi and be saved. Having arrived they had to make critical choice. They would need to chose which branch to leap for. If they chose the correct branch and found an aumakua who would help them they would be saved and no longer wander the “Wiliwili Groves of Kaupe`a.” If, however they chose the wrong branch after having leaped on to it with no aumakua to help him, the branch could not hold his weight and would break he would fall into total darkness of night.
From all descriptions of the location of Leilono and the Ulu-o-Leiwalu it would have been in the area just mauka of Moanalua Highway in the area of Ala Kapuna or more commonly known as “Red Hill.”
Like many Hawaiian words and place names there are dual meanings. So is Kaupe`a. With the travels of the Hokule`a we today have accepted that our history is one of a migrating people from the southern latitudes to these northern waters. They were able to do this with their knowledge of the stars, constellations, sun, moon, wind and ocean currents. It is a story that overwhelms all of us and a credit to men and women of the Hokule’a.
However the story did not stop with the arrival of those foreigners from the land of the southern stars. With their arrival to these northern latitudes whose stars they were not familiar with their first challenge was to mark their way back home. On the leeward side of every island they marked that path home by identifying those stars that gave them that sense of direction.
The Southern Cross is that constellation that was very familiar to our kupuna in the southern skies. They referred to the Southern Cross as the “bat`s perch” or Kaupe`a simply to them because it looked like an upside down cross. They however realized that as they traveled further north of the equator the “bat`s perch” slowly descended beyond the southern horizon such that from the area of the new city of Kapolei only one star can be seen.
It is believed by most cultural thinkers of today that although the boundary markers that once marked the geographical area of Kaupe`a can no longer be seen they may have marked or pointed out the location of that lone star. The navigational significance of the Southern Cross is it gives one a sense of direction. As it rises it is indication that one is moving into the southern latitudes. As it descends it is an indication that one is moving toward the northern latitudes. Thus to our ancestors or the Po`e Kahiko Kaupe`a pointed to the lone star and the way home to Kahiki.
There are many Tahitian associations that define the ancient history of the new city of Kapolei. Perhaps the most important is this. Hawaiian Historian Sam Kamakau identifies ‘Ewa as the “Celebrated lands of the ancestors.” He makes this statement because Kamaunauniho who is considered one of our first migrant ancestors from Kahiki lived at Pu`uokapolei.
In 1930 H. Gilbert McAllister who was an archaeologist at Bishop Mursem did the first archaeological survey on O’ahu. He said that in 1930 the foundation of Kamaunuaniho`s home, the stone wall that surrounded her home and her grave could still be seen at Pu`uokapolei. In 1998 an archaeological survey identified an elevated platform in the area of where Kamaunuaniho`s house site would have once existed.
Where at one time many stories were once considered myths and legends, today our voyaging traditions such as that of Kane and Kanaloa, Pele and Hiaka, Kamapua and the travels of Olopana, Moekeha and La`a and more are now considered a historical record of our ancient past. Kaupe`a is clearly a part of that voyaging tradition…this has been a part of that story…Kaupe`a.
This essay was first published on myadvertiser.com in March 2007.
