Ho‘onā‘ū - Prolonging an Ancestral Breath: Kū'auhau

Article III. Kū‘auhau

A Holistic Genealogy

Na Kahaka‘io Ravenscraft

Featuring excerpts from Kumulipo, a cosmology preserved from ka wā kahiko

Pictured here in the halau wa'a are Papa Mau Piailug (left) and Papa Tava Ta'opu (right) preparing their ko'i (stone-adze) for the carving of the canoe Mauloa. 'Auhau is a word deep with meaning and symbolism, here used as the term for the wooden handle of the canoe builder's ko'i.

To be a part of an island world is to live within a seamless web of existence, one that extends across the tangible limits of the physical world and into metaphysical depths of thought, spirit, and deeper understanding. An island world is one built upon the issue of countless interactions and countless experiences. Each experience in itself becoming a progenitor of new forms of thought and life, in a genealogy of conscious existence. An island world represents an ever changing expression within a sea of creation.

Mo‘okū‘auhau in the Oceanic tradition are the records of genetic expression and genealogical succession; a registrar of human existence. To know one’s mo‘okū‘auhau is to know the ancient and endless expression of which one is an extension of in this life. In this understanding kanaka Maoli see each individual as an extension of one’s ancestry; illustrated again in the word ‘mo‘o’; to continue, continuation, succession. Kū‘auhau is genealogy, pedigree, lineage, and old traditions. In fact it is the title given to the genealogists, historians, and record keepers. Hear the roots of the word to understand it further. ‘Kū’, to stand, stop, mount, or anchor; to land as in a sea or air going vessel. To be Kū is to remain, to exist; to reach, to extend; to be upright and to erect. It is a stand, pedestal, or base, it is to appear or reveal, and it is to achieve that which is required. ‘‘Auhau’ are the femur and humerus bones of the human skeleton; the bones of the thigh by which we can run and leap forward, and the bones of the upper arms by which we extend our reach, and together the bones by which we complete our labors. ‘Auhau is also a branch off the hau tree from which the handle of a ko‘i – the stone adze – is crafted. And it is also the stalk of a plant from which the bark material may be collected to produce kapa barkcloth. These things illustrate a fundamental value through the words and implements so named. The ko‘i is the tool that builds a nation and the kapa is the fabric used to clothe a nation.

So the mo‘okū‘auhau is a record of existence in this world in thought and material form. Mo’okū‘auhau is the genealogy holistic of a human; his being, his thoughts, and his actions. It is the idea that within a human being, there resides an imprint of one’s own ancestors, through countless generations past and countless generations yet to be. In this thought mo‘okū‘auhau is more than just a list of names, it is a cosmological echo; it is a human expression giving voice to a universal constant.

O Haumea wahine o Nuumea i Kukuihaa

O Mehani nuu manoanoa o Kuaihealani i Paliuli

Liholiho eleele panopano lani ele

Ka meha no lani o Kamehaikaua

Kamehaikaua akua o Kauakahi

I ke oki nuu i ke oki lani o Haiuli

Haalele i ka houpo huhu lili punalua

Kau i ka moku o Lua. O Ahu a Lua noho i Wawau

A visitor to our sands once expressed the sentiment toward our native people that “{our} ancestors are dead” and that we “must move on” and “abandon {our} heathen ways”. Yet ancestors may only be dead to one who has forgotten their names, their traditions, and their expressions; in Hawai‘i nei many have not forgotten. Kanaka Maoli have not forgotten. To be kanaka Maoli is to remember the names of our ancestors. It is to remember our ancestral traditions and the expression of it. For an island world teaches one to remember. To remember those who walked before, their triumphs and their failures, and to remember the wisdom cultivated in those experiences. That is ‘ike pāpālua; the inherent wisdom of a people who know and speak their own history. Every time we speak the ancestors’ names in story, in prayer, in chant, they are given life anew. When we call their names upon the grounds they once dwelt in, before the houses they once prayed at, they are given life anew. When we speak of their traditions and their trials and from that recollection shape our own decisions, our own destiny, they are given life anew.

O Waolena ke kane. O Mahui‘e ka wahine

O Akalana ke kane. O Hinaakeahi ka wahie

Hanau Mauimua. Hanau Mauiwaena

Hanau Mauikikii. Hanau Mauiakamalo

O ka malo o Akalana i humea

Hookauhua Hinaakeahi hanau ka moa

He huamoa ke keiki a Hina i hookauhua

Hear the names of the ancestors and know that they live on through the conscious practice of tradition. From Kahiki-nui to Hawaiki-nui, mai ka lā hiki a ka lā kau. The essence of one’s ancestors continues in the stones of the earth and the waters that shape it. They are present in every twisted strand of coconut fiber used to make the aho and in the lashings that bind a stone blade to the handle of a ko‘i. Their voice is the sound of the kapa being struck upon the kua, and expressed in the patterns stamped onto the barkcloth. Our ancestors are in our minds and in our voices as we recite the mookuauhau, each name a link in a genetic expression.

So, to remember and recite one’s mo‘okū‘auhau is to carry this ancestral expression into the ever changing world. It is to honor tradition, to honor wisdom and skill. He lima ikaika, lima akamai, lima no’eau. A kāka‘ōlelo uses the expression of voice to speak of wisdom, history, and tradition, his words the vehicle of insight and inspiration. A kālai ki‘i uses the expression of shape to reveal the face of the aumakua, with wood and with stone he reflects in sacred form a human imprint. An ‘ōlapa uses the expression of dance and chant, the visual and the audio, to give life to the ancestral voice and to carry its echo across waves of endless time. In these things there is a conveyance of knowledge and understanding, transmitted through the cultural lens. To be a part of an island world is to exist within a single moment in the limitless expanse of seamless time. It is to understand our existence as individual drops of water in a sea of information.

Aia i laila ka aho ka makau

O Maniakalani o ka makau i‘a

O ka lou ana o na moku e hui ka moana kahiko

Kii ana ka ala‘e nui a Hina

Ke kaikuahine manu

O ka ua ahiku o na ua a Maui

O ke kupua eu nana i hoolou

Ke a ka waha ka opina o Pimoe

O ka i‘a aimoku e halulu ai ka moana

Lilo Pimoe i kaina a Maui

Ulu aloha o Mahanaulu‘ehu

O kama a Pimoe

Lawena uka ai Maui i na i‘a koe ka pewa

I hoohalulu a‘e Kane ma laua o Kanaloa

O ka ua a hikilele iwa a Maui

---

Notes:

Kumulipo remains the most intact intellectual record of Oceanic creation in ka Pae ‘Āina o Hawai‘i. Composed in the form of a chant of some 2,102 lines in length, Kumulipo is a record of both genealogical succession and cosmological origin. Accepted as having been composed in the 18th century for ruling chief Kalani-nui Ka‘ī‘iamāmao, the author entertains the idea that the chant is of a more deeply antiquated origin, amended over time to include the pedigrees of paramount chiefs. In the 18th century this was done by the kahuna Keaulumoku to include the genealogy of the aforementioned Kalani-nui Ka‘ī‘iamāmao. The above selections taken from this Oceanic cosmology can be related as such:

O Haumea, woman of Nuumea at Kukuihaa

O Mehani, the impenetrable summit of Kuaihealani at Paliuli

Deep darkness the greatness of her rank

Secluded the heavenly one Kamehaikaua

Kamehaikaua, god of Kauakahi

Who cut the sacred step, cut the heavens of Haiuli

Felt bitter jealousy of a rival within the breast

Placed upon the realm of Lua. Of Ahu of Lua dwelling at Wawau

Waolena the male. Mahui‘e the female

Akalana the male. Hina-of-the-flame the female

Born was Maui-the-first. Born was Maui-the-middle

Born was Maui-who-leans-back. Born was Maui-of-the-malo

The malo with which Akalana girded his loins

By which Hina-of-the-flame conceived, brought life to a fowl

An egg was that child which Hina delivered

‘Tis there, the fish-line and the hook

O Manaiakalani, the fishhook

For fastening with a hook the lands gathered by the ancient ocean

Seized the great mudhen of Hina

The sister bird

The seventh strife, the rains of Maui

He that hooked the great shapeshifter

Daring the mouth of Pimoe to bend

Of the chiefly fish that causes commotion in the sea

Pimoe is taken by the order of Maui

Compassion sprung for Mahanaulu‘ehu

Child of Pimoe

Maui carried them ashore to eat all but the tailfins

To cause Kane and Kanaloa to roar

The startling ninth strife of Maui

References:

Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii. An Account of the Creation of the World According to Hawaiian Tradition. Honolulu, Hawaii. 1895 / Washington D.C. 1897

Beckwith, M.W. Translator/Editor. The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant. University of Hawaii Press. Honolulu, Hawaii. 1951