Palehua

On Monday April 23, 2012 the Tree Huggers, along with many honorary members and members-to-be traveled to Palehua Ranch and learned a lot from Uncle Anu, the forest ranger who resides at the site. Auntie Kehau from Mokauea Fishermen's Association has been working with Uncle Anu and invited us to visit the site to do some service learning, learn about the site, and do some hiking.

The view from Palehua is beautiful. Uncle Anu said on a clear day you can see all the way to Mauan kea on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

Although we had to hold off on the hiking until another date due to time constraints we were able to learn a lot about the Honouliuli Ahupua'a and Palehua as well as remove some invasive Christmas Berry (Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi) and Lantana sp.

Palehua was likely a site where warriors trained in the martial art of Lua. Palehua means "lehua enclosure." Lehua were highly respected as the first warriors to die battles and the enclosure we visited was likely a training ground for those warriors. Although lehua tends to be used as a name for females it was traditionally a name for males.

 


The corner stones of the enclosure represent the cardinal directions of North, South, East, and West. They, and other stones, when lined up with geographical markers, stars, the moon, and the sun, were useful in telling time, marking seasons, and as indicators of knowing when it was time to voyage to other islands in the Pacific.

There are also stones within the enclosure that may have been used to learn about navigation around the island as they are shaped like and may be representative of islands in the Hawaiian archipelago.

This was a great day with a great group of students and we cannot wait to return! Hopefully our next hike will be with Uncle Anu in May.