Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 4, Number 7, 1 July 1987 — Pahukini Heiau Focuses Attention on Need for Historic Preservation [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Pahukini Heiau Focuses Attention on Need for Historic Preservation

Significant architectural features of Pahukini heiau, a Hawaiian temple ruin surrounded by the Kapa'a landfill in Kailua on Oahu's Windward side, were pointed out during a May 17 field trip by 72 people. Archaeologists Earl (Buddy) Neller, cultural specialist with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Paul Cleghorn of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum led the group on a walk through the heiau. They pointed out the massive perimeter wall, intact wall facings, interior rock mounds whieh may have been grave sites, the platform along the mauka wall whieh may have been an altar, the rebuilt corner wall where the heiau slumped into the quarry in the 1970s, the exterior enclosure and the offerings of branch coral. The field trip was organized by Denby Fawcett and Jocelyn Linnekin, members of the education committee of the O'ahu Heritage Council whieh counts 15 organizations on its roster as being interested in historic preservation. Among those on the trip were Office of Hawaiian Affairs Trustee Clarence F.T. Ching and several media people who gave it good coverage. Ching is also a member of the eouneil. The heiau is a rectangular stone platform whieh measures 110 feet by 175 feet. It is the ruins of a sacrificial heiau built by the famous chief Olopana about 800 years ago. The stone walls have tumbled into an amorphous mass of rock and the platform is overgrown with weeds, trees and bushes. Another reason behind the trip was to alert the eommunity to the historic preservation needs of the site and to get some organization interested enough to adopt and care for it. T rips to other endangered sites are being considered by the eouneil.

Pahukini Heiau as it looked in this 1974 photo. It is located at the top of the hill covered by brush.