Volume 1, Number 1
May, 2024
Lahaina: Restoring An Ancient Site By Jill Engledow
Editor's Note: This story is a historical recap of one of Lahaina's sacred sites..
O
ne of the most significant archaeological sites in Hawai‘i—Moku‘ula—was for years the kingdom’s capital, where historic documents like the Mahele (the great land division of the 1840s) and Hawai‘i’s constitution were drafted. Moku‘ula was the focal point of a royal neighborhood in the area that now includes 505 Front Street, Kamehameha Iki Park, and the parking lot, tennis courts and abandoned softball field of Malu Ulu o Lele Park. Pre-fire Lahaina coastline: Moku‘ula , buried for many years, is located near 505 Front Street. Before 19th century sugar planters diverted mountain waters to irrigate In Hawaiian culture, the royal brother and The Friends grew out of Ka‘anapali Beach cane fields, many streams and freshwater sister were perfect mates, destined to produce Hotel’s Project Po‘okela, a pioneer program springs kept the area cool and green. Those children whose mana, or divine power, would begun in 1986 and taught by Hawaiian scholar springs created a large loko, or freshwater be magnified by their parents’ merging. Dr. George Kanahele. Po‘okela’s purpose was fishpond, called Loko o Mokuhinia. It was Missionaries who arrived in 1820 were to teach the hotel’s employees about Hawaiian named for a daughter of one of Hawai‘i‘s horrified by this ancient custom and fought to culture and history. Their studies led them to greatest rulers, the fifteenth-century unifier keep them apart. But when Nahi‘ena‘ena died rediscover the sacred area that had been home of Maui, King Pi‘ilani, who lived near the after bearing a short-lived child (possibly her to Maui chiefs for centuries, and to work pond’s edge. Kihawahine Mokuhinia was brother’s), Kauikeaouli went into mourning. toward its restoration. transformed upon her death into a mo‘o, or He turned the house his sister had been The Friends (Editor’s Note: the organization sacred lizard, a powerful guardian spirit who building on Moku‘ula into a shrine and sought dissolved in 2017) envisioned a heritage/ made the pond her primary home. refuge there from the change that surrounded education center: the pond restored and The worship of Kihawahine and the him. the island uncovered, accessible only for power she represented descended through In what visitors described as “a large ceremonial use but visible to everyone, a living the Pi‘ilani royal line to the divine chiefess chamber elegantly furnished,” he placed three reminder of the royal history of Lahaina. Keopuolani. When conqueror Kamehameha I coffins draped with scarlet velvet, containing Led by founding Executive Director Akoni claimed this sacred princess as his wife in the the bodies of his mother, his sister and Akana, the Friends lobbied for funding 1790s, he also acquired Kihawahine. The area her child. But Honolulu’s great harbor was of a 1993 archaeological excavation that around Mokuhinia remained a headquarters becoming a center of commerce, and in 1845 unearthed, among other things, a wooden pier for the royal family for decades. the capital moved to that growing town. where it’s believed chiefs boarded canoes to It was particularly important from 1837 By the late 1800s, Mokuhinia was essentially cross the pond. A second archaeological study to1845, when Lahaina served as the capital abandoned. With stream water diverted in 1999 recommended careful excavation to of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i during the reign for sugarcane, the lake became a stagnant, find the boundaries of the island, thought of Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III), son of mosquito-breeding swamp. to encompass part of the ball field and an Kamehameha I and Keopuolani. In 1914, Lahaina businessmen filled the adjacent parking lot. With his sister Nahi‘ena‘ena, Kauikeaouli swamp with harbor dredgings and dirt. Before Visit online: www.mokuula.com struggled to navigate the turbulent transition the Friends of Moku‘ula began campaigning to between ancient Hawaiian ways and those restore the lost island and the pond that once Jill Engledow is the author of “The Story of of newcomers who brought Western culture surrounded it, almost no one remembered it Lahaina” and other books about Maui history. and religion. existed. Jillengledow.com. Y
See related article on page 4.