Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 11, 1 November 2010 — The foods of the Gods [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The foods of the Gods

By Claire Ku'uleilani Hughes, Dr. PH„ R.D. t is makahiki, the season of thanksgiving and celebration. A mo'olelo of Papa and Wākea reveals the appropriate foods for Hawaiian celebrations. These foods sustained the ancestral kupua chiefs, and were eaten daily by our ancestors. The foods contain the mana of the gods who cared for our ancestors and gave them heahh and strength. This mo'olelo is about Papa and Wākea who left Kahiki to heeome the parents of the Hawaiian people. Papa was a mortal

woman, a kupua, who was also known by the names Haumea and Kameha'ikana. Wākea was also mortal and was the husband of Papa when she was called Haumea. Upon arrival in Hawai'i, these gods made their home at Kilohana, on the hills high above Kalihi Valley. They gathered bananas that grew in the uplands, yams from the soil and wild kalo that made delicious poi. They ate freshwater 'o'opu

('o'opu moe wai) and spineless shrimp ('ōpae kala 'ole), fern root, (lau hō'i'o) of the forest, hlaek crab ( 'alamihi) from the Ko'olau area, fragrant seaweed from He'eia and crab (pāpa'i). One day, as Haumea looked down toward the oeean at Mōkapu and the waters of He'eia, she

longed for crab and limu

from these places. She went

to get some, walking through the hala

groves of Kekele. Meanwhile, Wākea went after wild bananas

to eat with the seafood his wife would bring home. Men who served the chief of the area noticed that fruit had been taken and pōpolo plants broken, so they started searching for the

thief. The men watched as Wākea cut bananas down. They seized Wākea and took him to the pool of Waikahalulu. They tied Wākea to a big tree on the north edge of the pool and waited for their chief to arrive. Haumea felt a sudden wave of longing for her husband at the moment he was seized, and hurried home. Wākea was nowhere to be found. Looking down the hill, she saw Wākea being led away, with his hands tied behind him. In haste, Haumea dropped her container of crab and limu and pursued her husband and his captors. It is said that, the crabs crawled into the underbrush and the seaweed crept up the trees, where both ean be found to this day. Haumea hurried along the route that Wākea was taken. Haumea was beautiful and, that day, she was stunning in her skirt of yellow hanana leaves with wreaths of kl around her head and neek. Haumea reached the plaee where her husband was tied, awaiting his execution by

burning. She asked for permission to give Wākea a last embrace. And as she did, the tree opened up, Wākea's ropes fell away, and the two disappeared into the tree. In an instant, the tree returned to its former shape. When chief arrived, he ordered his men to cut the tree down. The first man to attempt it, fell dead. A second man was killed the same way. And, so it went until the chief consulted a kahuna, who told them the woman was none other than Haumea, the mysterious one, who had eome from Kahiki. She was the woman of many bodies and was of the lineage of the gods. The chief ordered ceremonies to be performed to appease the gods. And, the mountain dwellers returned to their home at Kilohana, high above the Kalihi valley. The mana-filled foods that sustained the ancestral kupua chiefs also sustained our Hawaiian ancestors, giving them heahh and strength. Rediscover these foods and begin to improve heahh. ■

MO'OLELO HIST0RY

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