Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 3, Number 2, 1 February 1986 — Key Forges Link with Ancient Past [ARTICLE]

Key Forges Link with Ancient Past

By John W. Kaikainahaole III

The Rev. Abraham Akaka, pastor of Kawaiahao Church, broadcast his Sunday service from the church on Nov. 2, 1969 over radio station KHVH. During the service he welcomed me back from the mainland where I had been living for some years After the service, Rev. Akaka handed me a key . . . the key that would unloek the door to our family tomb on the hallowed burial grounds of Kawaiahao Cemetery. The "ritual of the key", he said, was formal acknowledgement of the Kaikainahaole ali'i lineage. Later that day, as I stood before the tomb with Rev. Akaka, I could sense the history of ancient Hawaiian royalty whose names onee conjured up the romance of all the islands in the Hawaiian archip>elago. I meditated on the continuity of human life and felt that in claiming the key to the tomb I was forging a link with my ancient past. Fortified with Rev. Akaka's support, I have since acted on his initial suggestion that I write a story on the history of the Puhalahua/Kaikainahaole family tomb. Thus began my journey into the past . . . into the musty aisles of the State Archives . . . into the homes of kama'aina historians and elders on the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui and Kauai . . . to wean from them the !ong-buried ancestral names concealed in my genealogical tree.