Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 12, 1 December 1988 — Napoleon Joins NHCAP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Napoleon Joins NHCAP

Newest member to join the staff of the Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts Program (NHCAP) is Nappie Noela Napoleon, who last month began work for the institute as a secretary. Ms. Napoleon, 24, is the sister of cemetery researcher Nanette Napoleon Pumell, and a 1987 graduate of the University of Hawaii. She attended Kailua High School. Napoleon is very involved in Hawaiian activities, and looks forward to sharing her skills in Hawaiian language and graphic arts/public relations studies in her work for NHCAP.

David Malo, Kepelino and Abraham Fornander. Out of the mating of Wākea, our sky father, with Papa, our earth mother, arose everything in the Hawaiian cosmos. One early issue was a daughter Ho'ohōkūkalani. When she had grown to early womanhood, Wākea desired kau'i (the beautiful) Ho'ohokūkalani, but he could not avoid the everwatchful Papa. A kahuna advised Wākea to propose a periodic system of separation from his wahine Papa during four nights of eaeh lunar month for special worship rituals. Papa agreed. Pēlā, Wakea mated with his daughter Ho'ohōkūkalani. The first born was a keiki alualu (aborted deformity). It was buried in the ground. But from it sprouted the taro plant whieh was named Haloa (long stalk). The next born was the first kanaka maoli, also named Hāloa, who became a chief and the eommon kupuna from whom all Hawaiians are descended. Pēlā, ke kalo is our hiapo, eldest sibling, or kai kua'ana (senior), while we kānaka maoli are kai kaina (junior). Kalo is superior to man by birth. Kalo has greater kapu. Kalo has greater mana. Kalo is Kāne. As kānaka maoli, our pili (closeness) to kalo is also evident in terms given to the growing lā'au kalo (taro plant) (Fig. 1). The central older taro plant is called makua (parent), with its kalo (corm), hā (stalk), lau (leaf generically) or lū'au (specifically), piko (junction of hā with lau), mahae (leaf indentation), a'a lau (leaf veins), mōhala (young folded leaf), pua (flower), huluhulu (hairy roots), makamaka (lateral shoot from the corm), 'ohā (keiki plant developing from makamaka), and 'ohana for the collective family of central makua and multiple lateral budding 'ohā. Pēlā, in the growing taro, we also see ourselves as proliferating 'ohana. Kawena Pūku'i also described kalo as the prized food of nā ali'i. Since kalo was Kāne, it could be kanu 'ia (planted), huki 'ia (harvested), mo'a 'ai (cooked), and ku'i 'ai (pounded) only by kāne. Kāne (men) were la'a (elean, pure, sacred), in contrast to wāhine who were haumia (defiled) by their periodic menses. Kalo cultivation was long, complicated, difficult, required fine soil and wellwatered regions, and yet prospered under a wide variety of conditions. We will pursue these aspects at a later time.

Ka mo'olelo of Hāloa provides the basis for the traditional 'aikapu, whereby sacred kāne ate separately from profane wāhine, pēlā creating pono or order, as shall be elaborated on in a future eolumn, from the modern writings of Lilikalā Kame'eleihiwa. The metaphor of Hāloa also explains the role of incest in preserving the divinity and the high rank of the ruling chiefs. This too will be detailed ma hope. Pūku'i describes Ka Wai Ola a Kane (the lifegiving water of Kāne) coursing through kahawai (streams) and 'auwai (irrigation ditches) whieh patterned the entire subsistence economy, and through this, the whole cycle of individual and society. The kahawai and 'auwai were "the regulators, the law-givers, in eommunal relationship, because upon their water depended the taro, and upon taro depended man." Kēia mahina a'e (next month), we will describe the medicinal p_roperties of kalo. 'Oiai, e hā'awi mai nei i he mau ninau ola, ke 'olu'olu.

Fig. 1. He mau lāau kalo (taro plants) showing ka makua (central parent), with its parts, and two 'ohā (lateral keiki) collectively forming 'ohana.