In ancient Hawaii, grieving death was a public affair. Mourners would often compose and recite chants to show grief.
With Westerners came a new means of communication in writing, as well as a tool to rapidly spread writing among the general public in the form of newspapers.
Over time, Hawaiians adopted these new technologies of writing and newspapers and produced eloquent obituaries for those who had gone on “ke ala hoi ole mai“, or the road of no return, and a constant theme of these obituaries is the love of the land.
Background
The first Hawaiian newspapers were published in the 1830s as missionary-run publications, but obituaries did not start appearing until decades later with the rise of independent newspapers.
Once obituaries began, they became a staple of Hawaiian newspapers from the 1850s until the last of these newspapers closed shop nearly a century later.
During this period, Kaupo was densely populated with an educated public, with schools at Mokulau, Puuomaiai and Nuu. Because of this, many obituaries for Kaupo residents appeared in the newspapers.
The style of obituaries was not static. The format changed over the years. What started as brief death notices in the 1850s gave way to lengthy poems of lament called kanikau that were popular until the end of the 1800s. In the early 1900s, the biographical style of obituary common today replaced the traditional kanikau.
But though the styles of obituaries evolved over time, the affection for the land is ever present, as can be seen below.
Death Notices
In 1856, Ka Hae Hawaii began publication as a government-run newspaper to promote readership among native Hawaiians.
Ka Hae Hawaii began printing death notices and other vital statistics (births and marriages) in 1857, and the first death notice including Kaupo residents was published on July 1 of that year for two people at the opposite ends of the age spectrum:
Mei 21, ma Kaupo, Maui, make o Kamakakoa k, 9 ona mau malama.
Iune 6, ma Kaupo, Maui, make o Waiulaula w, 78 kona mau makahiki.
(May 21, at Kaupo, Maui; Kamakakoa, male, died, 9 months old.
June 6, at Kaupo, Maui; Waiulaula, female, died, 78 years old.)
In the 1860s, independent papers emerged that were not church or government mouthpieces. These papers, such as Ka Nupepa Kuokoa and Ka Hoku o ka Pakipika, also printed death notices. For unknown reasons, newspapers stopped publishing death notices and other vital statistics by the end of the 1860s; the last death notice for Kaupo residents appeared in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa in September 1869.
From 1857 to 1869, approximately 30 death notices mentioned Kaupo residents. Although brief, the format did expand slightly over time to include additional information apart from the date/name/gender/age of the initial notices.
One such addition was the inclusion of the specific location in Kaupo that the deceased had resided, such as in the September 18, 1862, edition of Ka Hoku o ka Pakipika:
Iulai 10, ma Kumunui, Kaupo, make o Poliokeawe w, he kaikamahine i aloha nui ia.
Iulai, ma Maua, Kaupo, make o Kanuka.
Iulai 17, ma Kalaeoaihe, Kaupo, make o Aarona.
Aug. 4, ma Kakio, Kaupo, make o Poakahi.
Aug. 4, ma Nuu, Kaupo, make o Hakalaau.
Aug. 5, ma Kuuunui, Kaupo, make o Kamaka.
Aug. 6, ma Halekii, Kaupo, make o Muolo.
Aug. 10, ma Kepio, Kaupo, make o Opanui.
Aug 13, ma Hikiaupea, Kaupo, make o Wahapua, i lele i ka pali.
Aug. 21, ma Maua, Kaupo, make o Kalaahaaina.
Aug. 22, ma Papaakeana, Kaupo, make o Kekahuna.
Aug. 22, ma Waiu, Kaupo, make o Kuuku.
Aug. 23, ma Kau, Kaupo, make o Kapewa.
Aug. 25, malaila no make o Mahoe.
(July 10, at Kumunui, Kaupo; Poliokeawe, a beloved daughter, passed away.
July, at Maua, Kaupo; Kanuka passed away.
July 17, at Kalaeoaihe, Kaupo; Aarona passed away.
Aug. 4, at Kakio, Kaupo; Poakahi passed away.
Aug. 4, at Nuu, Kaupo; Hakalaau passed away.
Aug. 5, at Kumunui, Kaupo; Kamaka passed away.
Aug. 6, at Halekii, Kaupo; Muolo passed away.
Aug. 10, at Kepio, Kaupo; Opanui passed away.
Aug 13, at Hikiaupea, Kaupo; Wahapua died by jumping off a cliff.
Aug. 21, at Maua, Kaupo; Kalaahaaina passed away.
Aug. 22, at Papaakeana, Kaupo; Kekahuna passed away.
Aug. 22, at Waiu, Kaupo; Kuuku passed away.
Aug. 23, at Kou, Kaupo; Kapewa passed away.
Aug. 25, Mahoe passed away there as well.)
Also noteworthy from the notice above is the rare hint of grief in the mention of Poliokeawe, “a beloved daughter”. A month later, Ka Hoku o ka Pakipika published a kanikau by three of her siblings.
Kanikau
Kanikau, poems in honor of the deceased, were already an established feature of Hawaiian culture when Westerners arrived in the late 1700s. However, kanikau did not appear in papers until the 1860s when Hawaiian papers began publishing cultural material in addition to religious articles.
There are about 20 known kanikau that mention Kaupo, spanning from 1862 until 1899. The majority were printed in the 1860s.
Unlike death notices, papers charged a fee to publish kanikau. An editorial in Ka Nupepa Kuokoa on April 19, 1862, provided a reasoning for the charge:
Ke ninau mai nei kekahi o na makamaka o makou e noho ana ma ka malu ulu o Lele, i ka uku a me ka ole o na Kanikau. Eia ko makou pane aku no ia mea: he mau hanele ka nui o na Kanikau e waiho nei ma ko makou papakakau, a ua hiki ole ia makou ke pai ia mau mea a pau, no ka nele i kahi kaawale ole, ina paha he paumi ae ka nui o ka makou pepa. A no ia mea, ua hana iho makou i RULA HOU, o ia hoi ka hoouku i na Kanikau a pau, i paiia e makou, he Hapalua Dala no ka aoao pepa hookahi. Pela ka hana ana o na mea e pili ana i ka hoomanao a me ke aloha no kekahi makamaka i aloha nuiia, ke paiia ma na nupepa o na aina haole.
(One of our subscribers residing in the “shade of the breadfruit tree of Lele” [Lahaina] is asking whether or not there is a fee for printing kanikau. Here is our response: Hundreds of kanikau are placed on our desk. Due to lack of space, we could not publish all of them even if our paper were 10 times as large. Because of this, we have made a NEW RULE, that there would be a fee of one-eighth of a dollar per page for all kanikau we publish. This is how it is done for matters relating to memorials and farewells for loved ones published in newspapers in foreign lands.)
By 1864, Ka Nupepa Kuokoa had raised its prices for kanikau significantly, to 4 cents per line. Most kanikau were hundreds of lines long (i.e., costing $10 or more). At the time, a yearly subscription to that paper was $2.
Perhaps to help defray the cost, many kanikau consisted of multiple poems by various relatives. One kanikau in 1881 ran across two issues of Ko Hawaii Pae Aina (June 18 and June 25) and had 12 contributors.
Kanikau are full of dense imagery. The writer lovingly recalls the places visited with the deceased and describes these places with descriptive phrases, as in the three examples below.
The first example is from the October 10, 1862, issue of Ka Hoku o ka Pakipika, where a kanikau appeared for the same Poliokeawe mentioned in the death notices above. Here is an excerpt by Mireta Kaia, Poliokeawe’s sister:
He kanikau aloha nou e Poliokeawe e,
Kuu kaikuaana mai ka po loloa o ka hooilo,
Mai ke kula pili holu o Niniau i ka makani,
Kuu kaikuaana mai ka malu ulu o Pohoula,
Kuuhoa o ka malu hala o Kumunui e,
Mai ka la kukanono o Mokulau la,
Kuu kaikuaana mai ka malu kukui o Manawainui e,
Mai ka ua lu lehua o Haili la,
He haili he aloha ia oe e ke kaikuaana e,
Kuu hoa mai ka makani lauwili o Kumunui
(A farewell poem for you, Poliokeawe,
My sister of the long nights of winter,
From Niniau’s fields of pili grass rippling in the wind,
My sister of the shady breadfruit trees of Pohoula,
My companion of the shade of the pandanus trees at Kumunui,
In the sweltering sun of Mokulau,
My sister of the leafy kukui trees of Manawainui,
Of the rain of Haili that scatters lehua flowers,
A remembrance of love for you, sister,
My companion of the whirling winds of Kumunui)
The second example is from the May 28, 1864, edition of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, which published a kanikau by D. Kahaulelio for P. Kamohai, the father of Kahaulelio. The poem describes the writer and the deceased traveling around Maui. About Kaupo, the poem reads:
Auau aku kaua i kahi wahi o Waiapai,
I nanea i ka pohu lae o Nuu―e.
Hoolohe ae o ke ahe makani a ka Moae,
Ku ke’hu a ka makani Koholalele i ka moana,
Ua ana kaua i ka inu i kahi wai o Waiu,
Ake aku ka manao e ike ia Mokulau
(We bathed at that place Waiopai,
Relaxed at the calm headland at Nuu.
Listening to the gentle Moae wind,
As the sea spray of the jumping whales rose in the ocean,
We drank our fill from the water of Waiu,
Yearning to see Mokulau)
The third and final example comes from the August 20, 1881, issue of Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, which contains a kanikau by Kahinu Kahale for her husband Hosea Kahele. A portion reads:
Kuu kane mai ka wai huihui o Punahoa
Mai ke kai nehe i ka iliili o Mokulau
Aloha ia wahi a kaua e noho ai
Kuu kane mai kanahele laau loloa o Ahulili
Biographies
The final form of obituaries in historical Hawaiian newspapers was the biographical obituary. This form is similar to obituaries published in papers today, noting key events of the deceased’s life: birth, schooling, marriage and so on.
The first biographical obituaries for Kaupo residents were published in the 1860s. By the early 1900s, they had displaced all other forms. There are approximately 80 biographical obituaries about Kaupo residents; over 60 of these were published after 1900.
Unlike kanikau, there did not appear to be a charge for biographical obituaries. Biographical obituaries were often printed in the letters to the editor section of the newspaper.
Similar to kanikau, biographical obituaries expressed affection for specific places that the deceased had known. However, a shift occurred where the writer would directly address each place as if it was a person, delivering the news that the deceased would no longer come visiting.
This style of addressing places directly is seen in the three examples below:
Joseph Paele Kalohelani (Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, February 1, 1923):
E ka ulu ohia o Alelele e; a e ka makani kaili papale o Kalepa e, aohe olua e ike hou ana i ke kaalo ae o Joseph Paele Kalohelani mamua o olua, no ka mea ua hele aku oia i ke ala hoi hou ole mai.
(Ohia groves of Alelele and hat-snatching wind of Kalepa, you will not again see Joseph Paele Kalohelani pass by, for he has gone on the road of no return.)
David Bonorparte Haumea (Ke Alakai o Hawaii, December 5, 1929):
E Kaupo e,—i ka ua pee Papohaku e—aole e kikilihune ana kou hunawai maluna ona.
(Kaupo—of the rain that makes one hide behind stone walls—your wind-blown showers will no longer fall on him.)
Keamalu Pihana (Ke Alakai o Hawaii, September 3, 1931):
Aloha no hoi na amokumoku o Mokolau i ka alaalo mai i ka ehu a ke kai aole kuu aloha e maalo hou aku ana i-o oukou ala ua hala no ka wa mau loa, aloha wale. Aloha no kahi wai nahunahu pu o Punahoa, kahi wai a na kupa o ka aina ame na malihini e luakaha ai.
(Farewell, islets of Mokulau that dodge the sea spray. My beloved will no longer pass your way. Alas, she has gone forever. Farewell, biting water of Punahoa, that place where natives and visitors while away the time.)
Final thoughts
From the 1850s to the 1930s, Hawaiian-language newspapers presented heartfelt obituaries in formats that changed over time. Simple death notices gave way to traditional poems called kanikau. Finally, biographies replaced kanikau.
Throughout the changing styles, writers expressed a palpable affection for the landscape of Kaupo.
In a simple death notice, it was not enough to say the deceased was from Kaupo. It was important to note that the person was from, say, Maua (a village in the central uplands) or Waiu (a sheltered bay near Nuu in western Kaupo).
Moving to kanikau, the poems describe areas with sensory-rich details. We can see the grass rippling in the wind at Ninau, feel the sun beating down at Mokulau, and taste the spring water at Waiu.
Finally, biographical obituaries address the land as a living being that must be told that one of its guests would no longer be visiting.
Of course, descriptions of the landscape are just a portion of what we can learn from the historic obituaries. A case in point is the obituary for 16-year-old Robert Piimauna in 1923, which provides touching details of the community banding together to help with the funeral.
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