Photo: Art;work titled "Escape From Pele"
This picture entitled "Escape From Pele" by the late renowned artist Herb Kawainui Kāne, may have been inspired by the famous hōlua race between Kahawali and Pele. Artwork used with permission.

By Christina Medina

Our understanding of past geological events is shaped primarily by the discoveries of western-trained scientists using carbon dating and other technologies.

Increasingly, however, connections are being made between the scientific data collected by modern scientists and the data recorded in our oli (chants) and moʻolelo (stories) that detail myriad aspects of our culture and history – including the many geological, hydrological, and biogeochemical processes our kūpuna observed.

For example, there are many Pele moʻolelo, but most do not mention ʻAilāʻau, he who dwelled at Kīlauea before Pele. Perhaps it is because he left peacefully, avoiding Pele altogether.

The ʻAilāʻau flow was named after him. Scientists estimate that the volume of magma within the summit caldera sufficiently provided for the 60–70-year ʻAilāʻau flow, which flowed continuously without heat loss (evidenced by lava tubes) between 1400-1470 CE.

Due to the volume of lava produced, the flow may be linked to the story of the famous hōlua race between Kahawali and Pele, in which she chased him down and turned his students and all the spectators into lava tree molds that can still be seen today.

Or perhaps it is linked to the story of Pele and Hiʻiaka wherein Pele destroys Hiʻiaka’s beloved ‘ōhiʻa grove along with her best friend, Hōpoe – casualties of Pele’s jealousy over Lohiʻau. It is possible that this story described the collapse of the summit.

When the magma supply dropped towards the end of the ʻAilāʻau flow, the vast void left behind couldn’t handle the weight of the summit and it collapsed. The summit caldera fell 1,970 feet, with a diameter of approximately 2 miles. It was an epic event.

The crater floor was close enough to the water table that water seeped in and caused huge pyroclastic explosions – perhaps this was Hiʻiaka throwing boulders far into the sky as she stomped through the crater floor in an effort to destroy Pele by extinguishing her fire.

Another example of the conflation of science and moʻolelo includes the story of a shapeshifting moʻo wahine (reptilian woman) named Meheanu, the guardian of Heʻeia Loko Iʻa (fishpond) on Oʻahu. She was known to swish the water back and forth to circulate in the loko iʻa.

If the hau tree foliage surrounding the loko iʻa was yellow, fishing was prohibited. In her moʻo form, Meheanu urinates in the pond. But if the foliage was green, she is in her eel form, and away visiting her friend Huahine at Kawainui pond, so all can fish and enjoy.

At Heʻeia Loko Iʻa, the water was tested while the foliage was both yellow and green. It was learned that yellow foliage meant the loko iʻa had high ammonia levels and increased nitrogen. This is beneficial for triggering phytoplankton blooms crucial for baby fish growth (hence, fishing was kapu). When the foliage returned to green, ammonia levels were back to normal and the kapu was lifted. Our people were scholars and scientists too.

There are many moʻolelo that align to scientific explanations or geological events. Modern scientists are increasingly looking to native practitioners to help unravel the secrets of ka wā kahiko.


Christina Medina is a student at Windward Community College in the Hawaiian Studies program.