Aloha kākou e nā hoa makamaka. What up gang?
Thought I would talk about a healing chant that Samuel M. Kamakau shared in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, on Feb. 2, 1867, for two reasons. The first reason is to learn a pule hoʻōla (healing prayer) together and the second reason is to direct you towards the original article where Kamakau published it.
True to the Hawaiian style of teaching, the article comes with a whole bunch of stories that are featured to help the reader formulate a pilina or relationship to the pule hoʻōla.
When it was published, Kamakau made sure to say that it was a healing chant used during difficult days and not a pule ʻanāʻanā or the workings of the devil. In fact, Kamakau talks about an event where this pule hoʻōla was used when a ship was sinking. Everyone who chanted survived and those who did not perished.
Kamakau also explains that part of the lines of the pule hoʻōla are older, used during a time when men went to the hale mua or the heiau to pray for the good health of their main chief, leaders, and community once in the morning and once in the evening. At that time this practice was called papaiaawa, or a place of worship or for family prayers.
Kamakau goes on to say that the ancient prayer mentions the famous sands of Laʻamaikahiki, from Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu. Kamakau states (and I paraphrase here): “When you travel from Koʻolauloa to Waiāhole, you will pass Hakuikukui. Turn towards ʻAuliʻiliʻi Point on the edge of the road and when your foot steps into the sand, that is the sand of Mahina. Shuffle a bit and that’s Onehuna and Onehali of Kaipuiolea. Then, look for the wind, it is there that you will see the stones shaped like canoes called “Nawaʻaliʻiliʻiakiolea. Those are the markings of the canoes that arrived from the sands of Tahiti, mentioned in the chant.”
I’m not sure if these natural features still exist today out in Kaʻalaea, Oʻahu, but I do know that we tend to point towards those areas as the famous lands connected to Laʻamaikahiki and his canoe travels.
Kamakau’s article reminds me again how important it is to document the stories and natural features we see around us today. Who knew that 158 years later we would be talking about this chant?
- E Kāne, e Keleakiu. Listen Kāne, the moving Kiu winds.
- E Kāne, e Kelekeleakiu. Listen Kāne, the swift Kiu winds.
- Onehuna, i Onehali. Orange hued twilight, signs of particle filled winds,
- A Keleakiu, Kelekeleakiu, Aloft Kiu winds, the Swift Kiu winds,
- Ke one i Māhinahina, Particles aloft in the white moonlight,
- Ka ipu i ʻoʻoleʻa — a. The unyielding wind gourd.
- E ola. Heal!
