In some places it is not strange to see what cannot be seen by others. Often times I find myself seeing beyond what most of us see as I spend my day driving to and from doing all the things we all do as families living and working in Kapolei. Maybe it is the aspirations of a dreamer. Not sure how it happened or when it started but I find myself often seeing beyond mere walls, buildings, roads, shadows of people with no faces. To see it as it once was ……through the eyes of one who has passed this way before. It grows out of a sincere and genuine relationship with the aina upon which we lay our head.

I think most of us today have developed a talent to ignore those things that frustrate us and dwell on that which comforts us. One can find peace in the past. When life was simple. I think we all feel at times if only we could go back to when we were young. When days were long and sunny. When we found pleasure in simple things. To dwell on how life once was. To see the O’o as he feeds on the Noni at Kanehili. To see Hi’iaka as she admires her reflection in the pond of Hoakalei. To see Namakaokapao’o as he seeks his father’s mahiole (feather helmet) and ahuula (feather cape) beneath the standing breadfruit tree at Kualaka’i. To see Kahai-a-Ho’okamali’i at Kualaka’i. Seeing is what these articles are all about. Our Kupuna had another way of sharing that thought, or that ability……or talent. I have heard it referred to as the “Makakolu”, or the “third eye”. To see what cannot be seen….to appreciate and embrace that which we cannot understand.

This is what this essay is about…..it is about those who have passed this way before us……before we came along. It is about choices. That which defines lives………even today. Maybe there is a lesson here…………………

I remember while growing up how my kupuna always told me that life was all about choices. She always made it seem so simple. We are the choices we make. One can define oneself in terms of these choices. I can hear those words as if it was just yesterday. This is a story I will share with you. This is another story of Kaupe’a and those who those who “eat spiders and moths” in an attempt to seek their aumakua and their way to the “Leiwalu ‘O Leilono”. Maybe it is they who are the shadows with no faces that we see……

I have shared in other essays the ancient beliefs of our kupuna regarding the two separate forces of energy that inhabited our physical body. Hawaiian Historian Sam Kamakau informs us that they called these two energies “Wailua”. One was referred to as a “dream spirit” and the other was that energy which sustained our lives and carried on the life-sustaining processes of the body such as the functions of the heart, brain, lungs and breathing. It was believed that life, death and sleep overlapped. When one went to sleep and dreamed this “dream spirit” leaves the body and travels. “Dream spirits” can resolve problems and visit departed family members. If one was a practitioner of the arts and he dreamed he met with someone who shared information he would take this advice seriously. If the person does not wake up, or in their beliefs the “dream spirit” does not return to the physical body that defines death. In death if this person lived a good life and was respectful of all the Kapu, he respected the wishes of his parents and basically lived a good life he would have the advantage of his aumakua or family guardians (guardian angels?) to help him find his way to a “Leina Ka Uhane” or leaping places into the next world. If however he was not a good person and was not able to find an aumakua or family guardian who would help him he would be banned and doomed to wander in desolate and barren places. He would wander and exist by eating spiders and moths in places referred to as an Aokuewa or “Places of Wandering Spirits”. So therefore there are two places, a “Leina Ka Uhane” and an “Aokuewa”. On the island of ‘Oahu the Leina Ka Uhane is at Kaena Point and perhaps also at Pu’uokapolei based on a kanikau by Kekuapo’i. Every island has an Aokuewa, Kama’oma’o on Maui, Mana on Kauai, Halali’i on Ni’ihau, Uhana on Lanai, Ma’ohelaia on Molokai and the wiliwili groves of Kaupe’a on O’ahu or as we know it today as Kapolei……..

In an effort to get an appreciation out of what we are sharing today there is one fundamental Christian belief that we need to understand. From this I will draw some parallels to bring some kind of clarity to this. In a Christian sense there are three places in death. There is a heaven, hell, and a third place known either as limbo, purgatory and which other cultures may have different names. This third place is where one’s spirit, soul or “dream spirit” goes to make up. It is his second chance. If you are not good enough to find your way to a better place or not so bad so as to be condemned to pain and suffering for eternity, it is purgatory where you would go to make up for past deeds or poor choices. However most of us believe that purgatory is somewhere else. In a Hawaiian cultural sense…………purgatory……….is here. In places known as an aokuewa.

These are the places whose stories we are all very familiar with. It is not to say that strange things do not happen elsewhere. Of course they do. However it is places such as Kaupe’a where they happen most often. I will share just a few from a personal perspective. I have had strange unexplainable things happen to me on other islands but these are just those that have occurred here in Kaupe’a…………Kapolei.

We lived at one time at the bottom of Makakilo at a relatively new subdivision named Kapolei. Not the Kapolei that we know today, but one that is just adjacent to Hawaiian Waters Water Park on the eastern slope to Pu’u Pala’ila’i. We had a perimeter house lot facing the H-1 Freeway. Our house was on Akaawa Street. The front door and back door was perfectly aligned such that you could see through the house out the back when standing on the front porch. You could see the kiawe and interesting rock walls in the brush. Many things happened there which is perhaps one of the reasons we moved to where we are living today. I will share only a few in an effort to keep this as short and brief as possible. It was a perimeter lot where the dry kiawe trees and dry brush at certain times of the year came right up to our house so there was always the concern of brush fires especially on New Years. To keep the brush back I kept my horse and a goat in the back. Hoping that they would enjoy eating the many different grasses growing out of the rock walls. There were many times when my horse would behave in a manner that led me to believe that children were playing in the area. As most of us would do I brushed it off as not meaning much since in most cases I could not see anyone. And as most of us know horses can be unpredictable. However I started paying a little more attention to incidents involving my goat whose name was “Blah”. I often found it strange that his 5-gallon bucket of water was often found empty. I assumed that he enjoyed drinking a lot of water. The empty bucket would be found still standing with the ground surrounding the bucket dry. It got to a point that it was happening too often to make much sense. After having stretched my garden hose over the wall one day to fill his bucket with water I returned to check the filled bucket immediately after I had rolled the hose back up. To my amazement the bucket was empty. The bucket was still standing and the ground surrounding the bucket was dry. A chill went up my back that I can still remember clearly to this day. This is a true story that I have never been able to explain. There have also been many occasions when in the middle of the night my wife would wake to see a shadow of a woman standing at the foot of our bed. At one time I had a dog, whose name was Ali’i, that I kept under my house directly beneath our bedroom. He was not an old dog but he was always a well mannered quiet dog. One evening in the middle of the night he kept waking us up with all the noise and running around. It got so bad I woke up and went to check. I got dressed, turned on the light under the house and walked and peeked under the house to see that it looked like he was playing. His tongue was hanging out and his tail was wagging excitedly as if he was playing with someone he knew. I dismissed the behavior of the dog as nothing unusual and went back to sleep until the next day. When I went to check on him in the morning I found him dead. Ali’i did not belong to me. His owner who was a family friend had passed away about a month prior. He and his owner an elderly Hawaiian man had lived in Punalu’u and had routinely walked almost daily together on the beach. That dog’s behavior had changed drastically since the day his owner passed and became very withdrawn. I personally believe it was his owner that he was playing with under my house on that night before he died. There are many more stories as the many stone walls between my house and the freeway. I think those walls are still there today and can be seen from the freeway.

When Hawaiian Waters Water Park first opened they had a difficult time keeping the same security guards. Guards frequently found themselves chasing what they thought were children but could never find them. When Barbers Point NAS first closed in 1999 it was the same situation with security guards. Security guards were chasing what they thought were children through the abandoned buildings but never finding them. Kapolei Middle School had incidents of unexplained shadows of children playing and of a woman who would disappear behind closed doors. Many office buildings in Kapolei were blessed by Hawaiian Kahu many times because of unexplained incidents. Many unexplained accidents along the freeway by Honokai Hale. Incidents of drivers trying to avoid what they thought was an individual standing on the road. Many stories of new home owners in Kapolei seeing shadows. One story was shared with me by a woman whose family recently moved from Maui to a new house in Kapolei. Her young son would wake up in the middle of night crying saying a man with something red on his shoulders and something red on his head standing at the foot of his bed staring at him. The boy was only about 3 or 4 at the time. I have been asked many times to help bless new homes in Makakilo, Kapolei and Ewa for similar reasons. The stories are many. The concern was real.

Those wandering souls may still be here. However the oral traditions hint that these lost souls may still have a second chance. There is a place where they could be saved. It was called the Leiwalu ‘O Leilono. A strange tree with only two branches. It is an endless search on their part to find friendly souls or friendly aumakua to help them seek the Leiwalu ‘O Leilono, the breadfruit tree of Leilono. It can only be found at Kapukaki.

Leilono is a place of reprisal. It is the place in the traditions or stories of old that the wandering spirits on the plains of the wiliwili groves of Kaupe’a need to seek in order to be saved. It is long trek from Kaupe’a to Leilono in their attempt to find some friendly aumakua who could help save them from falling into the endless night of Milu. Leilono is described as being at Moanalua. It is described as being on the northern side of Kapukaki at the boundary between the Moku of Ewa and the Moku of Kona. It is also explained as being right in line with a burial hill at Aliamanu. Kapukaki is better known today as Red Hill. Interesting enough it is also described as being on the right side of the North Star. It is said that the Leiwalu ‘O Leilono can be found here. It was a small hole about 2 feet in circumference. This is the hole that the wandering spirits from Kaupe’a have come to seek. If one cannot find a friendly aumakua to help save him, his only chance of being saved is to find the breadfruit tree of Leilono. It is known in the oral traditions as the Leiwalu ‘O Leilono. When one would peer through this ka puka o Leilono, this small hole he will find this tree. It had on it only two branches. It is here that those wandering spirits who had not been able to find a friendly aumakua would have to make a critical choice. He had come a long way from Kaupe’a to be saved. As he peered down into the hole he would see the breadfruit tree of Leilono. Of the two branches he would have to decide which branch would save him. If he chose the wrong branch it would break and he would tumble down into the hole plunging into the pit of total darkness and endless sleep. It is known in the oral traditions as the po pau ‘ole. If he grabbed hold of the correct branch that would hold and not break, it would bring him the help of the friendly aumakua. From that branch the soul would see the aumakua realm and his ancestors. He would thus be saved.

The Leiwalu ‘O Leilono at Kapukaki (Red Hill) however was guarded on the east by a giant caterpillar watchman. On the west it was guarded by a giant Mo’o watchman at the pond of Napeha. I have been told that Napeha was a swimming pond west of Kapukaki (Red Hill). It was a pond that got its name from the Chief Kuali’i who drank water from it. The name came from Kuali’i being out of breath and tired when he came upon this pond to refresh himself. These wandering souls had to get past these giant watchman in an effort of making a choice and thus either be saved or to perish forever in the po pau’o’e of Milu. A place of total darkness and endless sleep.

A last thought to leave you with. There are three realms for the spirits of the dead according to the ancients and we have spoken of all three today. There was first, the realm of the homeless spirits, the “Aokuewa”. Kaupe’a is that place…..limbo……….purgatory we know today as Kapolei. The second realm is the realm of the “Ao ‘Aumakua”. It is a good place that one day we all want get to and restore those acquaintances with our ancestors or those who have already passed. The third place has many names such as the realm of the “Milu”, of Kapokuakini, of Kapokuamano and perhaps that of Pu’uokapolei……….when Chief Kahahana died his wife Kekuapo’i wrote an oli kanikau in honor of his life. She wrote it around 1785 when her husband died from injuries he received from the assault of Kahekili on the island of O’ahu. He died at Pu’uloa or today Ewa Beach. His body was taken to Apuakehau Heiau in Waikiki and sacrificed by Kahekili. In this oli kanikau Kekuapo’i mentions all the names of places that were special to her husband. She however makes an interesting reference to Pu’uokapolei. She states that her husband’s “spirit” entered the Milu by way of Pu’uokapolei.

In addition to hula, Kapo, the older sister of Pele, was also known for sorcery. In some hula rituals and ceremonies……….it is Kapo……………who is summoned…………….it is she who is called to enter one’s body.

I have never questioned any of these stories from people who shared them with me. I only know that I need to share them. They are not mine to keep. We all struggle with them however they are never questioned. We may not understand but can only appreciate them simply because these are the stories and beliefs of our ancestors. They are not to be feared………but to be embraced………These are the stories of Kapolei.

This essay was first published on myadvertiser.com in February 2008.

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.