The Kahuna in Pono

The novel Shark Dialogues by Kiana Davenport is centered on the life of Pono, a Hawaiian woman who has shamanistic powers, what the Hawaiians call Kahuna. As seen through the lens of her four granddaughters Pono is a callous woman who does not know how to love but through the lens of her lover Duke, Pono is powerful in all aspects of her life which means that she can also love and care almost too much. Pono has learned to live with the power she was given, as have many Kahuna before her, but finding the balance between power and human emotion is not always simple, as the novel and history have shown.

Traditionally Kahuna are people who connect to the gods. They have knowledge that most people cannot fathom. They fall into two categories, dark magic, kahuna ʻanāʻanā and light or healing magic kahuna lapaʻau. The kahuna ʻanāʻnā was known to curse people, often for some form of profit, while the kahuna lapaʻau would try to save those who were cursed (Rodman 12). All kahuna have special knowledge and many would share this knowledge with their village or town and occasionally with people who have specific questions or requests. They relayed messages from the gods to the people who worshipped them, telling people how to appease the gods and not break kapu (Miyares 515). The words of a Kahuna are quite powerful as they can bring health and love to a family or they can kill and destroy lives. Thus, those who seek the help of a Kahuna must be very careful of what they seek.

Within Shark Dialogues, Pono frequently received Filipino men asking when they would be able to return home. She would dream for them and receive the answer that most of them would never return home. When she told the men the news many of them were saddened but they still paid her and went on their way; they never yelled at her or asked her to check again. She would sell her dreams to interested parties in exchange for a place to sleep and food. Sometimes she would lie, telling people they would not contract leprosy when her dreams revealed otherwise, other times she would tell the people the truth and give them advice on how to spend their last days together (Davenport 146-147).

When a Kahuna gives information to a person their word was normally respected because of the power the Kahuna held over normal people; sometimes this could be the power between life and death. Ancient chants tell stories of Kahuna who were able to bring fish to starving villages or bring stillborn babies back to life for those deserving (Pukui 1949). The Kahuna connected to the gods by chanting and making offerings, thus they contained innumerable chants for various situations. There was always great care taken when chanting because of the power of the words, the power of the situation, and the intention behind the chant (Pukui 250).

Pono embodies this when she and the girls go to the volcano as Kīlauea is beginning to rumble. She, as well as many others, leave offerings for the goddess and Pono chants while standing near the smoldering crater. To the tourists this seems like an odd spectacle, however the passage states that they simply did not understand that in the morning the offerings would be gone; the goddess pleased with her gifts. Pono also stated that her actions would help calm the goddess and spare villages as well as human lives (Davenport 238-241).

This action is almost expected from the Kahuna, who holds a connection to the gods and is required to share information between the realms of gods and men. Kahuna also hold much more knowledge than those around them. Pono seems to know more about her granddaughters than they would like; she can smell the white men on one granddaughter and the sickness and drug addiction in another. She also has a connection to the land and sea that few others have, such as the ability to turn into a shark when she eats a specific type of seaweed and enters the water (Davenport 100-103). Traditionally Kahuna were healers and knew the secrets of both land and aquatic plants which allowed them to cure many of the ailments that naturally occurred in the islands (Fosberg 18).

However, when Europeans began introducing other diseases the natural remedies did little to help the people (Fosberg 21). Pono also encountered this distressing situation when her lover, Duke, contracted leprosy and she was unable to help him even though she disinfected the sores with the sap of a ti root and a banana leaf and rubbed his body with kukui oil and aloe, a treatment that would have worked on regular wounds (Davenport 113-115).

In 1901 the “Hawaiian Gazette” published an article about a Kahuna from Tahiti named Papa Ita who was able to walk on fire. The article dismissed the powers of the Kahuna as witch craft and “devil-doctors” but it also stated how praised and feared Kahuna were by the general public. According to the article the visit by Papa Ita in 1901 began a ripple effect in which traditional medicine and religious practice saw an increase in interest. People began visiting local Kahuna more often whereas before Kahuna were mostly visited in times of desperation. The same article states that Papa Ita was well received and praised by Queen Liliʻuokalani, who believed in his powers (Polynesian Fire-Walkers 60-61).

Those who came to Pono as a Kahuna often came to her because they had no other option or they accepted her dreams as a payment for using their homes and eating their food. For a while Pono stopped using her powers and would focus more on Duke or the coffee plantation, however eventually she remembered what it meant to have her powers and what a connection she was able to have with her beloved land. She began using her powers more just as people began believing in her again (Davenport 477-478). This change in Pono reflects the historical change in belief systems back to that of the old days.

However much the Kahuna is revered by people and trusted for what they are capable of very few Kahuna seem to have lasting friendships and even fewer romantic ones. Traditional Kahuna were chosen as small children when they showed promise in their fields and were taken as apprentices to Kahuna. They were trained in the ways of the ocean and land, taught what plants were cures for what ailments, what words could calm or kill, and above all else, how to properly respect and commune with the gods (Rodman 38-47). Pono has never received this kind of formal training which could mean there is a lack in her powers even though she exhibited amazing abilities from the time she was small. By offering her urine as a drink she was able to drive a chicken mad so he would win in fights but it also caused him to tear out his own intestines. She was very young at the time this happened. She began speaking shortly after birth and began having visions while she was just a child (Davenport 80-84).

Because of the rigorous training that most Kahuna received they were usually unable to forge relationships with their peers. Pono was unable to relate to many people because she lived on her own for a very long time and floated from place to place looking for work. She never received much care from her own parents and did not really have a surrogate figure to look after her as other Kahuna would have had in the form of their mentors. When Duke entered Pono’s life he was willing to care for her despite the baggage that she carried with her and her immense powers. Being that he was the first person to do this, it is understandable why she attached to him so strongly.

The Kahuna that exist as a part of Hawaiian culture are deeper characters than what Davenport has portrayed for readers of Shark Dialogues. Kahuna are people with immense powers that can kill or give life and were fervently respected by those who interacted with them. Their knowledge and training often scared the general public which made relationships difficult to maintain. This is what Pono embodies within Shark Dialogues; the confusion about where the Kahuna fits into a family and society in general. Pono is aware that she holds a lot of knowledge about the world but has to struggle to find out how it is relevant in modern times and how to share this knowledge as her ancestors have done for generation. However, without being properly trained by another Kahuna it is understandable why she finds extra difficulties in accepting who she is.

Works Cited

Davenport, Kiana. Shark Dialogues. New York: Atheneum Press, 1994. Print.

Fosberg, F. R. Uses of Hawaiian Ferns. American Fern Journal. 32. 1 (1942). 15-23. Web.

Miyares, Ines M. Expressing “Local Culture” in Hawai’i. Geographical Review. 98. 4 (2008) 513-531. Web.

“Polynesian Fire-Walkers”. The Journal of American Folklore. 14. 52 (1901). 60-61. Web.

Pukui, Mary Kawena. Songs (Meles) of Old Ka`u, Hawaii. Journal of American Folklore. 62. 245 (1949). 247-258. Web.

Rodman, Julius Scammon. The Kahuna Sorcerers of Hawaii, Past and Present. New York: Exposition Press, 1979. Print.