NĀ KIʻI LĀʻAU, THE GODS AND GUARDIANS AT PUʻUHONUA O HŌNAUNAU NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK, SOUTH KONA, HAWAIʻI

Abstract

The kiʻi lāʻau (wooden images) stationed at Hale o Keawe on the grounds of Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park represent various meanings and significance to community members in South Kona, Hawaiʻi and malihini (visitors) who venture to this destination from abroad. This research endeavored to understand the contemporary cultural meanings and significance of the kiʻi lāʻau through the lens of ʻŌiwi (Native people). Through collaborative community engagement utilizing oral history methods and archival research, stories were gathered, analyzed, and interpreted. In this MA thesis, I argue that the contemporary significance and meaning of the kiʻi lāʻau to cultural and lineal descendants of Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau is the maintenance of a profound spiritual and sacred connection to the puʻuhonua through ritual ceremony and revitalization of cultural practices. In my capacity as both scribe of ʻŌiwi voices and ʻŌiwi anthropologist, I contend that the kiʻi lāʻau represent a foundational platform of symbolism for ʻŌiwi and descendants of Hōnaunau, Kiʻilae, and Kēōkea who express generational pride in the legacy left by the carvers of the 1960s by organizing their understanding of the world through ritualized spiritual maintenance and continued knowledge exchange in order to perpetuate their heritage.