A morsel for you

In Hawai’i, the people made many advancements in life that aided an easy lifestyle and prosperous and healthy families.  Traditionally, native Hawaiians were a decidedly agricultural society, having an innate understanding of the natural processes and life cycles of the plants and animals they used for sustenance.  Traditional “kapu”--edicts passed from the gods through the Kahuna (priestly class) and Ali’i (chiefly class)--managed the behavior of the people and the times and ways in which they harvested their foodstuffs.

Hawaiians not only farmed the land (producing food crops like kalo (taro), ‘uala (sweet potato), mai’a (banana), ulu (breadfruit), and ko (sugarcane)), they also “farmed” the ocean.  One way in which they did this was by paying careful observation to where animals prospered the most and often moving animals closer to the source of this abundance—like moving ha’uke’uke (a type of sea urchin) closer to stream mouths. 

But, the most famous and ingenious way of farming the ocean was the construction of loko i’a, fishponds, something done nowhere else in all of Polynesia.  This passage from “Na Mea Makamae” succinctly explains the use of fishponds and their importance to our people,

“On all islands, fishponds are still visible today, where Hawaiians raised fish by providing a safe habitat for the young fish to grow, separate from predators.  Creating such ponds was hard work, as it involved enclosing a portion of the coast to prevent larger fish from entering the ponds.  The ponds were stocked by means of a gate system that would allow smaller fish to enter.  In addition, people would catch the small fry and put them in the ponds to grow.  Patrick Kirch lists the total of recorded fishponds for each island….Maui, 16.  This fish farming was done nowhere else in the Pacific”.

There are two fishponds within proximity to our property, one of them being worked on and revitalized to one day provide food for our community once again.  Ko’ie’ie fishpond, in the ahupua’a of Kaonoulu, is actively being restored by daily workers and the help of the community on volunteer workdays. 

This fishpond rests approximately 6 miles `Akau of our property and is about 3 acres large in its current state.  Many different ali’i have participated in the construction and re-construction of this fishpond since the 16^th century and should you have the chance to help rebuild this important part of our past, you will have the chance to carry the same pohaku carried by high chiefs and commoners alike from hundreds and thousands of years ago.  Most recently, upon his conquest of the island of Maui, Kamehameha enlisted people from around the island to help rebuild the pond and participated in the work himself. 

For a further point of connection, one of our Valet Captains, Vene Chun, is the Konohiki or the manager of the fishpond and can be found there many a weekend passing stones hand over hand and slowly rebuilding this amazing connection to our past…and hope for our future.  Last year Vene spoke about the fishpond and the work being done in a short web video segment called Making Over Maui, http://youtu.be/HKN9sn824YM .  Volunteer workdays are usually on the 2^nd and Last Saturday of  the month,  additional information can be found at  their website, www.mauifishpond.com.

E hopu keia la!

Kainoa Horcajo

Hawaiian Cultural Director