Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 1, 1 January 1987 — Kanewai in Waianae Llsted as Historic [ARTICLE]

Kanewai in Waianae Llsted as Historic

By Earl (Buddy) Ncllcr Cultural Specialist

Sccluded deep in Waianae Valley is a closed watershed area with a tributary known as Kanewai Stream. One may require what is significant about a stream. It so happens that at its Nov. 26 meeting, the Hawaii Historic Places Review Board placed the site on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places. It was also recommended for nomination on the Nahonal Register of Historic Places. The site is on state land and was originally placed on the Hawaii Register on 1971 but removed in 1980 because of an Attorney General's opinion. The site is a relatively well preserved system of abandoned lo'i covering approximately 14 acres. Lo'i were irrigated pondfields where wet taro was grown. They were onee a eommon feature of the Hawaiian cultural landscape. Taro was the staff of life in old Hawaii and Hawaiian farmers developed and recognized over 100 different varieties of taro, more than anywhere else in Polynesian. This system of stone walls and terrances has never been mapped or studied. Access to Kanewai Stream is difficult and the site is not open to the public. Waianae contains many other recorded and unrecorded Hawaiian sites whieh should be placed on the Hawaii Register, too.