Merrie Monarch Festival 2011 Miss Aloha
Miss Aloha Hula
Merrie Monarch Festival 2011
Miss: Tori Hulali Canha
Hālau: Ke‘alaokamaile
Na Kumu Hula: Keali‘i Reichel
Mele Kahiko: Aia I Maui Ku‘u Lei Loke
Hawaiian History and Lo‘ihi Seamount
Loʻihi Seamount is an active undersea volcano located about 22 miles off the southeast coast of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi. Volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands arise from the Hawaiʻi hotspot, and Loʻihi is the newest volcano in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain that stretches over 3,600 miles northwest.
Loʻihi began forming around 400,000 years ago and is expected to begin emerging above sea level about 10,000 to100,000 years from now. It rises more than 10,000 ft from the ocean floor, but its peak is still 3,199 ft below the ocean surface. The name Lo’ihi means “long” in Hawaiian to describe the elongate shape of the seamount.
When scientists investigated a series of earthquakes off Hawaiʻi in 1970, they discovered that Loʻihi was an active member of the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain following the pattern of development that is characteristic of all Hawaiʻian volcanoes. In the summer of 1996, a swarm of 4,070 earthquakes was altering 4 to 5 sq mi of the seamount’s summit. One section, Pele’s Vents, collapsed entirely upon itself and formed the renamed Pele’s Pit. The new crater is about 2000 feet in diameter and its bottom is 1500 feet below the previous surface. Exploration in the manned submersible Pisces V revealed hydrothermal vents with temperatures up to 390F degrees.
Hokulea Construction
Wooden voyaging canoes have not been used in Hawaii for eight centuries, and there were no examples available to use as a model for Hokule’a. So Hawaiian artist Herb Kane based the design of Hokule’a on drawings of canoes made by artists and draftsmen employed by Captain Cook and other early explorers of the Pacific.
Hokule’a measures 61.5 feet in length, 15.5 feet at the beam, and can carry 11,000 pounds of gear, supplies, and 12 to 16 crew. With two masts and 540-square-foot sail, she is capable of speeds around five knots while reaching in 15 to 25 knot trade winds. She has no auxiliary motor, and is steered with a long paddle.
Traditional voyaging canoes had koa wood hulls, lauhala sails, and sennit lashing made with adzes, bone gouges, coral files, and sharkskin for sanding. Although the Polynesian Voyaging Society wanted the Hokule’a to resemble an early voyaging canoe, relearning the arts of working with such materials and tools would have been too time consuming. Instead, the hulls were constructed out of plywood, fiberglass, and resin, the sails were made from canvas, and the lashings were done with synthetic cordage.
Hokule’a was launched in 1975 on the windward side of Oahu, and made its first voyage to and from Tahiti in 1976. Her name means “star of gladness” in Hawaiian, and refers to Arcturus, a guiding zenith star for Hawaiian navigators. In 1975, no Hawaiian living knew the ancient techniques for open ocean voyaging, so the Polynesian Voyaging Society recruited Master Navigator Mau Piailug from the Caroline Islands to share his knowledge of non-instrument navigation. Mau, who barely spoke English, realized that sharing this knowledge could save it from loss, and as a result helped spark pride in the Hawaiian and Polynesian culture.
Voyaging Canoe Hokulea
Hokuleʻa is a replica of a Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoe (waʻa kaulua). It was built by the Polynesian Voyaging Society to promote the cultural revitalization of Hawaiians, and support the theory of Polynesians as masterful navigators in the Pacific. A year after Hokuleʻa was launched in 1975, she voyaged from Hawaii to Tahiti and back without the use of modern navigational instruments. Since that voyage, Hokuleʻa has completed nine more voyages to Micronesia, Polynesia, Japan, Canada, and the United States, all using ancient wayfinding techniques of celestial navigation.
To simulate a voyaging canoe in shape, weight, and performance, archaeologists, maritime historians, and anthropologists collaborated on the design. Hokuleʻa has two 62-foot hulls, eight crossbeams (‘iako) joining the two hulls, decking lashed to the crossbeams between the hulls, and two masts. She was christened Hokule’a, which is Hawaiian for the bright star Arcturus that passes directly over the island of Hawai’i.
Mau Piailug, a navigator using traditional Polynesian methods, was chosen to guide the canoe. Mau used the rising points of the stars, supplemented by observations of the sun, moon, and ocean swells, as a natural compass to guide the canoe. Even when days of solid cloud cover hid the stars, sun, and moon from sight, he was able to keep the canoe on course and keep in his mind an accurate picture of the canoe’s progress toward Tahiti. He also used the sighting of white fairy terns skimming over the sea of the approaching atoll of Mataiva, just to the north-northwest of Tahiti, before it could actually be seen.
The Hokuleʻa has shown it was possible for ancient Polynesians to sail and explore the Pacific Ocean, finding new homelands scattered over an ocean of ten million square miles. The fact that the canoe sailed from Hawai’i to Tahiti and back guided solely by traditional navigation, effectively demonstrated that Polynesian settlers were up to the task of planned, long-distance voyaging. Illustration by Herb Kane.
Canoe Plants and Uala
‘Uala is a member of the morning glory family, and was brought by Polynesian settlers in their voyaging canoes as an important dietary staple. This sweet potato required less care to grow than kalo and would mature and be ready to eat in much less time. It was planted from sea level to 1,500 feet elevation, and could grow in areas of poor soil or limited rainfall for a drought-resistant vegetable.
‘Uala (Ipomoea batatas) is a vigorous plant with a vine that grows up to 12 feet long. The leaves are dark green, heart-shaped or five-lobed, and growing close to the ground. They are around 3 to 5 inches long and veined on the underside. The tubular flowers are narrow at the base spreading wider at the top, and lavender to pink in color. The large tubers range in color from purple to pink to orange to white.
The Polynesian settlers brought only a few ‘Uala varieties to Hawaii, but because the cultivation of ‘Uala was one of the few agricultural activities shared by both men and women, early Hawaiians increased the number to around 200 different varieties. Both the greens and the tubers of the sweet potato were eaten. The leaves were usually steamed or boiled, while the tubers were cooked in an imu, and then mashed and stirred with water to make sweet potato poi. The mashed sweet potatoes were also mixed with Coconut cream, wrapped in Ki leaves, and cooked in an imu to make a pudding called piele ‘uala.
The ‘Uala was also used as food for livestock, and used by fishermen to attract baitfish. It also had various medicinal uses in ancient Hawaii, including as a treatment for asthma (hano) and chest congestion, as a laxative, to induce vomiting, for sore throat, and as a tonic during pregnancy to increase lactation.
Canoe Plants and Uhi
The Uhi is one of several yams and sweet potatoes brought to Hawaii by voyaging Polynesians in their canoes. Uhi is a vine that grows in moist forests using tree trunks and branches for support, and only takes a year’s cycle to grow. The vine sprouts in the Spring, grows during the warm Summer months, matures in the Fall, and withers away in the Winter. The large tubers continue to grow underground, and new vine shoots appear again in the Spring.
Uhi (Dioscorea alata) has light green, heart-shaped leaves 3 to 6 inches long growing wing-like on opposite sides of the stem. The stem is square and twines to the right. The flowers are small, with a yellow or yellow-green calyx and no petals. The edible tuber of the yam forms after the female flower is fertilized. Depending on the variety, tubers usually elongated, sometimes lobed, and come in various colors. Two of the varieties are Uhi ke‘oke‘o (white yam) which is white inside and out, and Uhi ‘ula‘ula (red yam) which has a red skin and pinkish flesh.
Like kalo (Colocasia esculenta, taro) and ‘uala (Ipomoea batatas, sweet potato), the tuber was cooked in an imu (underground oven) by early Hawaiians. Uhi was considered inferior in taste and texture, and was not made into poi, so they preferred eating it while still warm. It became a major crop in the 1800′s, and Kamehameha the Great planted a large yam field (pa’uhi) in 1810 to provide visiting ships with an easily stored food supply for their voyages.
