The Power of the ʻĀina: Chants of the Land

In her text “Within the Circle of the Sea” Katherine Luomala explores the connection between Polynesian chants and the origins of myths and legends associated with the land. She describes the Maori chief who landed on New Zealand and named the places he discovered as a reminder of home. Later, as each generation memorised and added to the stories and names associated with the landscape, an oral history of the land and people was created (24). This pattern of recording was familiar throughout Polynesia, and when we consider Hawai‘i specifically, the onset of Western contact impacted negatively on the native culture so that the role of chants and oral history became removed from their original source and purpose, leaving a question mark over the significance of these oral traditions in the modern world.

This Polynesian oral tradition of naming the land in order to recognise and commune with it and leave a record of where a people had landed or lived, included the use of spoken charms and poems, as well as songs to appease spirits, acting as a verbal record of the spiritual, social, cultural, medical and historical knowledge of the people. John Charlot, in his text “Chanting the Universe” explains the significant spiritual and physical connection between Hawaiians and the land, and therefore, the importance of naming it:

Knowledge of the land is physical and emotional as well as intellectual.

For instance, when entering a place, many Hawaiians experience peculiar

sensations or feelings, which are attributed to the influence of the locality.

These reactions range from great comfort to holy terror and can be

overpowering. The deepest response are the bases for myths and stories

relating a land and its features to the beginning of the universe and/or gods

and heroes. The love of the inhabitant and the respect of the visitor are

expressed in sayings, chants and songs. A place is extolled above all others.

(56)

Charlot explains that the connection between the sea and the land arose due to the sea-faring experiences of the early Hawaiian navigators, for whom land was a welcome sight after weeks of voyaging from their original island, Kahiki (Tahiti) (57). The natural beauty of the long awaited land was enough to inspire Polynesian chants in praise of nature, however these chants were also a coded form of communication between the composer and the intended audience, e.g. love chants. Luomala describes the dual meaning within the story of Hi‘aka, Pele’s sister, as she journeys across the Hawaiian archipelago; the downpour of rain in the chant that lashes Hi‘aka also represents her tears for her sister’s lover, Lohi‘au:

The rain dances with joy, at Ahuimanu, The bended knee dance…

Rain surrounds houses at Place-of Burdens. I am burdened,

O burdened, With eyes a bundle of tears pouring down. (38)

Not only were the early settlers inspired by the beauty of nature, but as Scott Cunningham explains in his text “Cunningham’s Guide to Hawaiian Magic and Spirituality,” the very formation of the islands affected their consciousness. The primeval energy from volcanic lava imbued the land and everything within it, with a vibrating energy, better known as mana:

Hawaii truly is a world apart…a land of rain and deserts, innumerable

waterfalls, healing stones and phallic rocks…This phantasmagorical setting

gave birth to a culture unmatched in modes of spiritual expression and

environmental concern…Glorious isolation produced a rich multi-layered,

all-encompassing spirituality deeply rooted in the land, the wind and rain and

ocean. (xii)

These special qualities, the mana or spiritual essence of the island, plants and animals, affected the Hawaiians when they first encountered the archipelago and elicited a sense of reverence for their natural surroundings. This was reflected in place-names, songs, chants and dances, some of which according to Luomala acted as good luck charms and protection against danger:

Boys of later generations, as they trudge with their fathers and grandfathers

over the land…..are told that when they travel…and come to natural shrines, an

unusual tree or stone….they must recite their ancestor’s charm and make a

little offering….this will make them safe…they need not fear, then, that they will

be transformed into a mountain. (23)

Names could often have several layers of meaning, in both a literal and symbolic sense. In the song “Wai Hu‘ihu o ke Aniani,” “Cold Water of the Clearness,” the poet describes rain drops on pebbles, “Ka‘uhene a ka wai i ka ‘ili” (the delight of water on the pebbles) but as the word for pebbles, ‘ili, is also the word for skin, the meaning is ambiguous, and could read “The delight of water on the skin.” (Charlot 71)

Given this rich heritage of a sense of the sacred towards the land, it is worth considering whether this deep connection has survived Western contact, and if so, in what form? The answer seems to be that Hawaiian reverence for the forces of nature, plant and animal life, and the majesty of the landscape has survived through the resurgence of interest in Hawaiian culture and language and the potential for such knowledge to serve as a lesson in ecology for the modern world. Cunningham identifies these virtuous qualities as:

Respect for the land; ecological farming and fishing techniques, sensible use of

water, strength of the extended family unit, correctness of religious diversity,

sexuality and gender diversity as the norm, and a concept of spiritual power

that permeates everything in existence. (45)

Hawaiian culture is also helpful in modelling a more holistic way of being, as Charlot describes it:

A Westerner must admire and even envy the capacity of the Hawaiian

intellectual for integrating the many elements of his thought and life into a

coherent and beautiful whole. What have become for us only too separate

divisions are for the Hawaiian thinker interrelated members of an organic

cosmos. (139)

The oral based nature of Polynesian charms, songs and chants has also ensured their survival to the present day, so that modern audiences, both in Hawai‘i and globally can appreciate the beauty of ancient poetry such as the example of Hi‘iaka’s description of the loud roar of the ocean at Waialua on O‘ahu, recounted in the text “Within the Circle of the Sea”:

Waialua, the great-voiced sea, resounds in the uplands of Lihu‘e

O it roars at Wahiawa! Deafened, deafened by the voice;

O the voice of the sea! (39) As more rediscoveries are made concerning Hawaiian art, literature, archaeology, music, science, history, religion and philosophy the potential for the culture of the islands to teach new audiences seems limitless, and has particular relevance for those living in Western countries experiencing twenty-first century technological melt-down. Observers of Polynesian wisdom are in agreement that there is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from observing the unique relationship that Hawaiians have with nature and the land: “Hawaiian culture is especially valuable because several of its peculiar strengths can help us with problems facing us at this point in our history” (138).

Works Cited

Becket, Jan and Joseph Singer. Pana Oahu : Sacred Stones, Sacred Land. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 4 February 2015.

Charlot, John. Chanting the Universe: Hawaiian Religious Culture. Hong Kong: Emphasis International Limited, 1983. Print.

Cunningham, Scott. Cunningham’s Guide to Hawaiian magic and spirituality. Woodbury: Llewellyn Pub., 2009. Print.

Kirch, Patrick Vinton, and Green, Roger C. Hawaiki, Ancestral Polynesia: An Essay in Historical Anthropology. West Nyack: Cambridge University Press, 2001. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 4 February 2015.

Kirch, Patrick Vinton. Shark Going Inland Is My Chief: The Island Civilization of Ancient Hawai'i. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 4 February 2015.

Luomala, Katherine. Voices of the Wind: Polynesian myths and chants. Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1986. Print.