WAILUA — Ten months ago, Native Hawaiian community leaders David Helala, Randy Wichman and 400 volunteers faced the task of clearing jungle growth from the largest heiau on Kaua’i — the Malae heiau. Saturday morning, a pa’ina (a party with
WAILUA — Ten months ago, Native Hawaiian community leaders David Helala, Randy
Wichman and 400 volunteers faced the task of clearing jungle growth from the
largest heiau on Kaua’i — the Malae heiau.
Saturday morning, a pa’ina (a
party with a small dinner) was held at Lydgate Park, across from the two-acre
heiau that is part of Wailua State Park, to celebrate the heiau’s
reemergence.
The heiau has great historical and cultural significance for
Hawaiians as part of a network of seven heiaus built in the Wailua ahupua’a
(land from the ocean to the mountains), once the home of Hawaiian royalty and
the site of a prosperous ancient settlement.
“The heiau site is a flagship
site, an example of the best we have to offer as a historical monument on this
island,” said John Lydgate, president of Kaua’i Historical Society and a board
member of Na Kahu Hikina A Ka La, a non-profit group charged with preserving
major historic sites in Wailua.
The heiaus were used for worship. They also
were a place where fruits were offered to Hawaiian gods to ensure further
growth, good fishing and rain. Heiaus also were places for human
sacrifices.
At the Malae heiau, ancient Hawaiians prayed and gave offerings
to Ku, the god of war, and Lono, the god of peace and bounty, during the
makahiki season from October to January, a time filled with sports and
religious festivities.
Debra Kapule, among the favorite wives of King
Kaumuali’i of Kaua’i and the last queen of Kaua’i, served as custodian and
protector for the Malae heiau and the other six heiaus, according to
Lydgate.
After her conversion to Christianity, Kapule ceremonially broke a
kapu (a prohibition) and created a pen for cattle, signifying the site was no
longer sacred, Lydgate said.
With her death, maintenance of all seven
heiaus halted, and they were swallowed up by the jungles.
Man also damaged
the Malae heiau. Parts of the rock wall were taken away for construction with
the growth of the sugar plantations and Kaua’i in the late 1800s and 1900s,
compromising the site’s historical integrity, Lydgate said.
The work
frustrated Lydgate’s s grandfather, the Rev. John Mortimer Lydgate, and civic
and community leaders of Kaua’i at the time, prompting them to found aua’i
Historical Society in 1914 to protect the Malae heiau and others.
Through
their efforts, the legislative bodies of the day designated the heiaus as
sacred sites worthy of protection, Lydgate said.
The efforts of the
Kauaians discouraged the taking of rocks from the heiau, but that activity
continued until a few years ago, when the practice was stopped due to public
pressure, Lydgate sad.
The Malae heiau has been cleaned up from time to
time, but the latest revival is the largest in recent years, Lydgate
said.
Guava trees, java plum and weeds were removed. Chainsaws were used
to clear away thick vegetation around the rock wall, and jungle growth had to
be “systematically rooted out,” Lydgate said. “It was a Herculean task. All the
credit should go to David (Helala) and Randy (Wichman, a candidate for the
Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees in last month’s election). The
community should be grateful to them. They really pushed for it.”
The job
couldn’t have been done without the help of the community, Helela added.
“It was suggested that the work be done by a contractor, but we preferred
to have it done by the community, to give the community a feeling of
ownership,” Helela said. “The community came out. It was
wonderful.”
Contracted out, the work would have cost more than $200,000, he
estimated.
The challenge to clean up the heiau fell on the shoulders of
volunteers from the community, Aloha International, Kaua’i’s Order of
Kamehameha and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ parks
division.
Smith’s Tree Trimmers cut down trees, inmates from Kaua’i
Community Correctional Center hauled away logs, and volunteers from Kaua’i
County’s Ho’olokahi program removed debris.
Help also came from Kaua’i
Nursery and Landscaping Inc., Smith’s Motor Boat Services and Ameritech
Cellular Services in Lihu’e, which made a donation to help cover the cost of
the cleanup.
The work by Lihu’e Plantation workers inspired
others.
“Two days before Lihu’e Plantation closed (last month) after 150
years of sugar operation, they came with heavy equipment to move debris,”
Helala said. “It was a heartfelt gesture we appreciated.”
The cleanup was
supported by Na Kahu Hikina A Ka La, whose goal is to preserve and interpret
major historical sites in the Wailua River State Park — Hikinaakala heiau,
Malae heiau, Holoholoku with Kalaeokamanu heiau and the Pohakuho’ohanau (a
royal birthstone) and the Poli’ahu heiau.
Na Kahu, a community organization
that formed in 1988, took responsibility for the Hikinaakala and the Poli’ahu
heiau under the state parks curatorship program.
In October this year, the
group accepted the additional responsibility of taking care of the Malae heiau
and the Holoholoku area.
In the future, the state DLNR plans to clear an
additional seven acres around the Malae heiau for a cultural park.
Plans
call for lectures and the installation of interpretative signs, Lydgate
said.
Attending Saturday’s celebration was Martha Yent, supervisor of the
interpretive program with DLNR’s parks division, and Nancy McMahon, a state
archeologist with DLNR’s historic preservation division.
“We want to make
it a cultural place to educate people, a site for visitors to learn about
Hawaii’s heritage, its culture, the story of the Islands,” Lydgate
said.
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225)
and lchang@pulitzer.net
