Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 18, Number 6, 1 June 2001 — HANANA KŪIKAWĀ [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HANANA KŪIKAWĀ

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E ho'omana'o kakou ia Pai'ea Kamehameha, mo'i o Hawai'i

By Manu Boyd For many, June means graduations, weddings, eanoe regattas and big parties. And for 129 years, via proclamation by King Kamehameha V, June 11 is King Kamehameha Day, a tribute to his his legendary grandfather. Pai'ea Kamehameha was born at Kokoiki near Mo'okini Heiau in Kohala. According to Samuel Kamakau, the year was 1736 based on oral history and genealogy. Others suggest 1758 for two reasons: Captain Cook's 1778 description of Kamehameha as a young man of about 20 years, and the allusion to a comet in a birth chant whieh could have been Halley's Comet whieh was visible in the Earth's atmophere that year. In any case, June was not the birth month, as 'Ikuwā (closer to October) is also recalled in a birth chant honoring the warrior chief. His mother, Keku'i'apoiwa, daughter of Ha'ae and Kekelaokalani, was a high chiefess of Hawai'i island. Kamehameha's paternal parentd

P ing is described as "po'olua" suggesting not one, » f

but two fathers. This designation wa: acceptable among chiefs and genealo gists, and was thought to augment th« mana or spiritual power of the ali'i. More often than not, Keōuakupuapāikalaninui, younger brother ol Kalani'ōpu'u and son of Kamaka'īmoku, is the acknowledged father, but Kahekili, ruler of Maui, shares the distinction. The name "Kamehameha" itself suggests a Maui connection, as Kahekili's brother was Kamehamehanui. Years later, Kamehameha's strategic eonneehon to Maui was solidified with his hō'ao (marriage) to Ka'ahumanu, daughter of Nāmahana and Ke'eaumoku, granddaughter of Kekaulike, and nieee of Kahekilinui'ahumanu from whom she inherited her political prowess. Kamehameha's highest ranking wife, Keōpūolani, daughter of

Kīwala'ō and Keku'iapoiwa Liliha, bore his royal heirs, Kalanikualiholiho and Kauikeaouli ( KII and III). Two famous battles over whieh Kamehameha was victorious were Kepaniwaio'īao at Maui and Nu'uanu

Pali in 1792 and 1795. Although Kamehameha never conquered Kaua'i and Ni'ihau, the islands were ceded to the newly-formed united kingdom by Kaumuali'i who, after Kamehameha's death in 1819, by prior agreement, took the favored Queen Ka'ahmanu for his wife.

"E pua ana ka makani i nā hala o Malelewa'a" (The winā blows upon 'he pandanus grove of Malelewa 'a, Kaua'i — a mele acknowledging Ka 'ahumanu 's marriage to ^aumuali'i). M