Native Hawaiians

Native Hawaiians (Kanaka Maoli), Polynesians of the Hawaiian Islands settled at least 800 years ago from the Society Islands, grew a civilisation apart: new gods, new chiefs, new ways to live with the land and pass knowledge on. Ahupuaa land divisions ran each valley from mountain to sea, feeding taro pondfields, fishponds and dryland sweet potato; kapu taboos ordered work and worship. Kamehameha the Great united the islands into the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1795; missionaries, whalers, sugar planters and American marines followed, and the 1893 overthrow still wounds. Hula, oli chants, voyaging canoes like Hokulea, lo'i restoration and the Mauna Kea protectors keep Kanaka Maoli standing in the land: land is chief, man its servant. Society Islands canoes still visit Hawaiian waters. Hawaiian shares words with every Polynesian tongue. The 1795 kingdom united all islands but one. Land-and-community religion still orders Hawaiian life. Knowledge still passes generation to generation as designed.