kapa kulture

This blog is dedicated to Hawaiian kapa and matters related to Hawai'i nei…kuku kapa e!

Archive for the tag “Hawaiian History”

28 Aug 2013

Hawaiian Word of the Day: heiau

heiau: Pre-Christian place of worship, shrine; some heiau were elaborately constructed stone platforms, others simple earth terraces. Many are preserved today. Several types are listed below. On the island of Kauaʻi where I live, there are 17 heiau located in the Na Pali district, 22 in the district of Haleleʻa, 20 in the Koʻolau district, 13 in the Puna district, and 81 in Kona district. Dedication of these heiau were to the four major gods; KU, KANE, KANALOA, and LONO, who represented Akua in natual phenomena. ʻAumakua were also honored by prayer and offerings.

Hale heiau, house of worship.

heiau hoʻōla: Heiau for treating sick.

heiau hoʻouluʻai: Heiau where first fruits were offered to insure further growth. Lit., heiau for the increase of food crops.

heiau hoʻoulu ua: Heiau where offerings were made to insure rain.

heiau hoʻoulu iʻa: Heiau where fish were offered to insure good fishing.

heiau kālua ua: Heiau for stopping rain, or (less frequently) for bringing rain. One such heiau named Imu-Kālua-ua (rain-baking oven) was in the Kaunakakai quadrangle, Molokaʻi; a land section in Puna, Hawaiʻi, also has this name. Rain in leaf packages is said to have been baked in an oven.

heiau maʻo: Small temporary heiau covered with tapa stained green (maʻo). Used for the hoʻouluʻai ceremony to bring food.

heiau poʻo kanaka: Heiau where human sacrifice was offered.

heiau waikaua: Heiau used for services to bring success in war.

luakini: Temple, church, cathedral, tabernacle; large heiau where ruling chiefs prayed and human sacrifices were offered; to perform temple work.

Luakini-type heiau were the largest and most complex and were sacrificial to KU. The KANE heiau were the simplest and were accessible to commoners. LONO heiau were dedicated to agriculture, and KANALOA heiau were associated with fishing. KU and LONO required complex worship and offerings.

Puʻu honua were places of refuge and restoration of pono when kapu was broken. The puʻu honua were consistent with Hawaiian protocol and would not be adjacent to heiau where human sacrifice was conducted. For example, at the puʻu honua at Wailua, Kauaʻi were for royal birth and burial. At such a place of mana and esteem, respite and peace was sought and mau haʻa lelea or repentance was made.

heiau tower

http://www.kaimi.org/heiau.htm

Moʻokini Luakini

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10 Jul 2013

Tongan Tapa: Ngatu

Ngatu is the name for tapa in the kingdom of Tonga. As is common among other bark cloth throughout Oceania, it is made from the paper mulberry or hiapo, the Hibiscus, or the breadfruit tree.

Ngatu is still manufactured in Tonga today in large amounts. Women work together in groups to pound out large sheets using a long log as the anvil on which to beat the fibers of the tree bark. This wooden anvil is called a tutua. The beater used to pound the inner bark fiber is called an ʻike. Small pieces, called fetaʻaki, are joined together to make the full sized ngatu. Joining the sheets is done simultaneously while applying the design. Kupesi are placed underneath the fetaʻaki. Kupesi are the design tablets that transfer a design motif to the ngatu. First the kupesi is rubbed with brown pigment from bark of the koka tree (Bischofia javanica). Arrowroot is used as paste to attach the fetaʻaki together. The next stage in the process after the first rubbing with brown dye is to rub the entire surface again putting a new layer of dye. This makes the patterned design of the kupesi emerge like rubbing on a coin. The rubbed layer can also be over-painted with darker colors for more definition in the design.

Eventually, the cloth will become stiff and water repellant from the process of joining, pasting, and rubbing, which continues until the piece becomes as large as needed. Usually ngatu can be made 50 to 100 feet long or even longer. Some pieces have been known to be one mile long (!) and are carried and presented by long lines of women who support it on either side.

Tongan tapa is ngatu

Tongan tapa is ngatu

Website Blog: Museum of New Zealand – Te Papa Tongarewa

Paperskin-large tapa @ Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand

Paperskin-large tapa @ Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand

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04 Jul 2013

Hawaiian Word of the Day: aloha ʻāina

aloha ʻāina: Love of the land or of one’s country, patriotism; the name of a Hawaiian-language newspaper published 1893-1920; aloha ʻāina is a very old concept, to judge from the many sayings (perhaps thousands) illustrating deep love of the land.

096

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02 Jul 2013

Hawaiian Word of the Day: ʻumeke

ʻumeke: Bowl, calabash, circular vessel, as of wood or gourd. ʻUmeke kāʻeo, a well-filled calabash [a well-filled mind]. ʻUmeke pala ʻole, calabash without a dab [empty bowl, empty mind]. hoʻo.ʻumeke, hōʻumeke. To assume the shape of a bowl; to assume the shape of fruit, to bear fruit. Fig., to have enough to eat. E pua ana ka ʻōhiʻa ʻai a hōʻumeke i ka malama o Hinaiaʻeleʻele, the mountain apple blooms and fruits form in the month of Hinaiaʻeleʻele.

ipu umeke

ʻumeke ʻai: Poi bowl. Fig., source of food, of the uplands.
ʻumeke ipu kai: Bowl, as for serving meat or salty meat.
ʻumeke kepekepe: Bowl with horizontal flat panels. Lit., wedged bowl.
ʻumeke lāʻau: Wooden bowl.
ʻumeke mānaʻai: Very small bowl, as formerly used for poi by favorite children. Lit., poi mouth-fed bowl.
ʻumeke ʻōpaka: Bowl with vertical panels with vertical edges between them.
ʻumeke palapaʻa: Thick-bottomed wooden calabash. Lit., firm-dabbed bowl, perhaps so called because dabs of poi are held firm in this type of calabash that does not upset.
ʻumeke pāwehe: A decorated gourd bowl, as made on Niʻihau.
ʻumeke pōhue: Gourd calabash.

ipu-umeke

Photo found on the Kaʻahele Hawaiʻi Website. Click below to access more information on Hawaiian ipu and more resources for Hawaiian culture and arts.

Na Ipu O Hawaiʻi

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01 Jul 2013

Happenings @ the Kauaʻi Museum

I had the chance to do several demonstrations at the Kauaʻi Museum in April and May. It was interesting to get out in public and showcase the methods and processes of Hawaiian Kapa. My audiences were interested and asked many questions about involvement of youth, natural dyes, longevity of kapa cloth, relationships to other cultures, and more… There were some good discussions that got going. I used the opportunity to survey my audiences to understand better about the impressions kapa had on them. One surprising fact? 95% of people surveyed had no knowledge that Hawaiʻi was annexed to the United States in an illegal coup. Now that surprised me because if Hawaiʻi is indeed part of the U.S. it seems to me that U.S. History curriculum should include the story of the Hawaiian Kingdom in it’s course of study. Just saying…

Museum Poster for my Kapa Revival Project

Museum Poster for my Kapa Revival Project

The Kauaʻi Museum Website

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27 Jun 2013

Hawaiian Word of the Day: loko iʻa

loko iʻa: Fish pond.

Loko Iʻa ʻAlekoko also known as "Menehune Fishpond" on Kauaʻi

Loko Iʻa ʻAlekoko also known as “Menehune Fishpond” on Kauaʻi

Loko iʻa are ecosystems created by Hawaiians for subsistence fishing. One of the most noteworthy Hawaiian innovations in this system of aquaculture is the pani wai, or dam, sluice, levee, dike. Of these, the sluice gate to ponds was a masterful invention. It allows for the minnows or baby fish to swim in, grow large within the pond, reaching a size that is too large to swim out.

The Hawaiians’ irrigation system rotated water from streams and sometimes through hand built ʻauwai (canals), to irrigate crops in the lo’i (taro patches), then returned it to the stream of origin. This system relies on a steady natural flow of nutrients to course through the stream to the sea, helping limu (algae) to grow, and fish and lobster to feed. Hawaiians took advantage of these stream-nourished coastal areas and streams to build fishponds for bountiful harvests of food. Fishponds on some islands were as large as 48 acres in coastal areas.

Classification of fish ponds at coastal areas:
loko kuapa: fish pond made by building a wall on a reef
loko wai: freshwater pond or lake
loko iʻa kalo: combination fish pond and taro patch
loko ʻume iki: fishpond with lanes leading in and / or out, used for trapping fish

Classification of fish ponds at upland areas:
akuli: to dam a stream with leaves making a forest pool
mano: dam, stream or water source, headwaters, place where water is obstructed for distribution in channels. Mud dams were made for fish and crustaceans; fish shelters were built in mud shoals.

http://sheri-majewski-art-edu.webstarts.com/community_heritage_2.html

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26 Jun 2013

Long Live Kapa! E Ola Mau Ke Kapa!

On Kapa the World
by Anuhea Yagi
June 09, 2011 | 12:15 PM

Two years ago, the following press release was written to announce an event commemorating the annual holiday for King Kamehameha I. The event was held at the Bailey House Museum on Maui…

“Hawaiian historian Samuel Kamakau wrote in 1870, that “all are dead who knew how to make the coverings… that made the wearers look dignified and proud and distinguished.” But the art of Hawaiian kapa-making (i.e. a painstakingly rendered traditional fabric made from the bast fibers of, often, paper mulberry called wauke) was revived some 100 years later—and in 1987, cultural practitioners Wesley Sen, Hokulani Holt and Pua Van Dorpe held kapa-making workshops at the Bailey House Museum.

Returning to the roots of this revitalization—and in honor of Kamehameha Day—Holt and Sen, with the Maui Historical Society and Bailey House Museum, present Hina & Maui: The Story of Hawaiian Tapa Making (Ka Mo’olelo no ke Kapa o Hawai’i Nei) this Friday. Holt has written original hula and chant that tells the legend of Hina and Maui, while Sen has fashioned one-of-a-kind costumes made of traditional kapa for the performers. In addition to the performance, antique kapa from the museum’s collection will be exhibited, plus a presentation on kapa-making by Sen.”

(Pictured: Hawaiian kapa, 18th century, Cook-Foster Collection at Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany)

(Pictured: Hawaiian kapa, 18th century, Cook-Foster Collection at Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany)

Posted in Mo'olelo (stories), Research Project, Wauke (Broussonetia papyrifera) and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment
26 Jun 2013
2 Comments

Hawaiian Word of the Day: kaona

kaona: Hidden meaning, as in Hawaiian poetry; concealed reference, as to a person, thing, or place; words with double meanings that might bring good or bad fortune. Kaona ho’oʻinoʻino, pejorative innuendo. No wai ke kaona o kēlā mele? Who is being referred to in veiled language in that song?

Posted in Hawaiian Word of the Day, Mo'olelo (stories), Research Project and tagged , , , , , , , , ,
23 Jun 2013

Hawaiian Word of the Day: kapaʻau

kapaʻau: Raised place in the heiau where images and offerings were placed, and where the invisible gods were thought to dwell.

Kapaʻau is also the name of a place in North Kohala on Hawaiʻi Island. This is the birthplace of King Kamehameha I and nearby is the Moʻokini Heiau, one of the oldest and most sacred sites of ancient worship in Hawaiʻi. Moʻokini is literally many moʻo or many lineages.

Kamehameha statue in Kapaʻau, with school children from plantation families, 1908

Kamehameha statue in Kapaʻau, with school children from plantation families, 1908

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22 Jun 2013

Hawaiian Word of the Day: kāmau

kāmau: To keep on, continue, persevere, last, add a little more.
Kahi pono e kāmau ai ke aho, some goods to keep life going. E kāmau iho i ka hoe, keep paddling.

paddlers

e ala e

e ala e

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