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Mo'olelo
KUʻIALUAOPUNA is dedicated to making a lasting impact through education and traditions in the Hawaiian fighting art of Lua. We look to our stories, our history, and ancestral practices as sources of knowledge in the profession of Lua.
Every month we will be sharing stories so that connections can be made with the different cultures in our Pacific family group. These short stories are told here to inspire our thinking about ourselves. They reveal the thoughts and history of a people.
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Ka Pali Lele Koa'e
Kii: Volcano National Park Service- Koae kea Kii: Pada Photo Journey - Koae ula Traditions and knowledge are recorded in various ways for all indigenous people. These important events can be passed down in many ways, including song, dance, stories and chants. Hula and Lua are similar in style yet unique to the many individual halau of old. One's specific practice, such as hula, lua, or other arts, employs specific styles to commemorate past events, which may be in danc
Kuialuaopuna
3 days ago2 min read
Pepeiu
Kii: Sophie Morgan The story of Pepeiu is from Taiohae, Nukuhiva. It appears in E.S. Craighill Handy’s Marquesan Legends (Honolulu: Bishop Museum, 1930); pp. 127-129. https://www2.hawaii.edu/~dennisk/voyaging_chiefs/pepeiu.html Toni [a tau‘a, or inspirational priest] lived at Taiohae; Te-pua-i-mohui, a fisherman, was his son; Pepe-iu was his daughter. When the son went fishing, the daughter stayed up in the valley with her father. Three times when Tepua-i-mohui returned from
Kuialuaopuna
3 days ago5 min read
Hawaiian Pastimes
Kii: Webber Hawaiian Antiquities David Malo HONOLULU HAWAIIAN GAZETTE CO., Ltd. 1903 https://hawaiian-grammar.org/resources/Malo-Hawaiian-Antiquities.pdf Pgs. 304- 306 CHAPTER LV. MOKOMOKO 1. During the Makahiki season, when the Makahiki god made his rounds, the people of different districts gathered at one place and held boxing matches. 2. The multitude being seated in a circle, the backers of one champion stood forth and vaunted the merits of their favorite, who thereupon
Kuialuaopuna
3 days ago4 min read
Kūlou ma Ke‘ei, Hawai'i
Kii: Beth Young HE WAHI MO‘OLELO NO NĀ KE‘EI MA KONA HEMA, HAWAI‘I A COLLECTION OF TRADITIONS HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS AND KAMA‘ĀINA RECOLLECTIONS OF KE‘EI, SOUTH KONA, HAWAI‘I PREPARED BY Kepā Maly & Onaona Maly JULY 26, 2002, Kumu Pono Associates Pg 20-21 https://www.kumupono.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2002_07_26_Keei-Kona-Hema-Hawaii-PDF.pdf One of the lesser-known traditions of the Ke‘ei vicinity is one that documents the origin of the naming of Kūlou, the white sandy beac
Kuialuaopuna
Dec 44 min read
Oronā
Kii: East Maui Watershed Olona is said to be found only in Hawaii, but there was a plant termed orona in ancient Tahiti that is not known today. It is thought to be a variety of mamaki that looks similar to olona. Handy and Handy (1972) reported that olona grows in "boggy interior valleys" and "upland areas", and Kamakau (1976) described olona habitat as rainy, marshy, mossy, in mountainous areas, often near banana trees. Although it is not common today, this rain forest shru
Kuialuaopuna
Dec 29 min read
E Ho'i No 'Ai i Kou Kahu
Certain akua took the form of fire and flew; these balls of flaming fire were and are still called akualele or flying gods by Hawaiians. Moolelo of our kupuna states these gods entered the kauila, nioi or ʻohe trees growing on Maunaloa on the island of Moloka'i. These trees became poisonous only at the Molokai location at Maunaloa. These same three trees found anywhere else are noa and remain harmless. One moolelo states that this grove of trees was inhabited by the spirits o
Kuialuaopuna
Nov 267 min read
E Kahea ana
Kii: Ku'ialuaopuna Neneikahuluiokaimu is the name and energy of this land In tradition, it is expected that we introduce ourselves to our environment and the energies that abound within the space. This includes the divine energies of nature, of elements and of the spiritual. These energies have been around for many lifetimes, since even before the land's formation and that of this world. We are all just using the space for our needs, as we do not own it, but care for it s
Kuialuaopuna
Nov 253 min read
Kahea
Kii: Kawainui Kane In the past, it was customary for travelers to announce their arrival upon entering certain destinations. It was the normal expectation for all kanaka. The kahea from these visitors would be answered with a response from the host. If no kahea was given, then it was considered rude and inapropriate for one to enter into the space of the host. For those in the practice of lua, death would be the response from the host if no kahea was given before entry. If t
Kuialuaopuna
Nov 241 min read
Legends of Olohe and Dog Men
Kii: Jack Becket HAWAIIAN MYTHOLOGY Martha Beckwith with a new introduction by Katharine Luomala UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS HONOLULU Copyright © 1970 by University of Hawaiʻi Press pgs. 344-351 Kapakohana, after killing the kupua Kalae-hina who has terrorized the island of Maui, goes on to Oahu to challenge the hairless cannibal (olohe) of Hanakapiai. Finding himself unable to overcome the olohe in wrestling, he pretends friendship and gathers men to burn him while asleep
Kuialuaopuna
Nov 2110 min read
Palila, the Warrior of Koloa
Kii: Abbie Matthews FORNANDER COLLECTION OF HAWAIIAN ANTIQUITIES AND FOLK-LORE THE HAWAIIANS' ACCOUNT OF THE FORMATION OF THEIR ISLANDS AND ORIGIN OF THEIR RACE, WITH THE TRADITIONS OF THEIR MIGRATIONS, ETC., AS GATHERED FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES By ABRAHAM FORNANDER Author of "An Account of the Polynesian Race"WITH TRANSLATIONS EDITED AND ILLUSTRATED WITH NOTES BY THOMAS G. THRUM Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Volume V‒Part I HONOLULU H.I. BISHOP MUSEUM PRESS 1998.
Kuialuaopuna
Nov 198 min read
A KINGDOM TO GOVERN Kamehameha’s Life on O‘ahu
Kamehameha and his warrior Kekūhaupi‘o Written in Hawaiian by Reverend Stephen L. Desha Translated by Frances N. Frazier Kamehameha Schools Press Honolulu • 2000 Copyright © 2000 by Kamehameha Schools Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate. Pgs 453-469 Kii: Ku'ialuaopuna When some maka‘āinana sailed out to the forei gn ships, taking their produce to sell to the foreigners, they received something of value from the foreigners. Kamehameha never asked that person to give him a portion of
Kuialuaopuna
Nov 1823 min read
Wehiatua
Kii: Ben Thourad Kaulana keia Aumakua Mano ma Hawaii kahiko a hiki i keia la. Kapa mākou i kēia kupuna hanohano ʻo Wehiatua. Aia kona wahi noho ma ka mokupuni li'ili'i o Tahiti ma kahi i kapa ia o Teahupo'o. He mano mea nui ʻo Wehiatua i ka wā kahiko. ʻO ia ke aliʻi kiʻekiʻe o Teahupo'o i hele mai i Hawaiʻi i hoʻokahi kaukani makahiki aku nei. ʻO kāna huakaʻi i Hawaiʻi i hele mai ma hope o kona kipa ʻana i na moku o Tahiti a pau, e holo ana i na moku o Te Henua Enata, i lai
Kuialuaopuna
Nov 173 min read
Ku laua o Hina
Kii: Division of Forestry and Wildlife HAWAIIAN MYTHOLOGY Martha Beckwith UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS Honolulu, pages 12-19 KU and Hina, male or husband (kane) and female or wife (wahine), are invoked as great ancestral gods of heaven and earth who have general control over the fruitfulness of earth and the generations of mankind. Ku means “rising upright,” Hina means “leaning down.” The sun at its rising is referred to Ku, at its setting to Hina; hence the morning belongs to
Kuialuaopuna
Nov 1310 min read
Mamao, Te Aho Ura
Kii: https://www.tahiti-rando.fr/rando-raiatea-mont-temehani-en.php Mamao is a fighting art rooted in Hawaiian Lua fighting. It was a term used by the poe kahiko who remembered the connected relationship of Lua entwined within their own family fighting arts. Mamao means remote, far off, distant. Our Hawaiian Lua is a combination of various fighting traditions from ancient Tahiti, Marquesas, Samoa, and other ancient homelands. Hawaiian Lua encompasses many disciplines of fig
Kuialuaopuna
Nov 122 min read
Piimaiwaa and Imaikalani
Kii : nandorszotak MEMOIRS OF THE BERNICE PAUAHI BISHOP MUSEUM OF POLYNESIAN ETHNOLOGY AND NATURAL HISTORY VOLUME IV HONOLULU, H. I. Bishop Museum Press 1916–1917 Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Folk-lore. pg 226 CHAPTER 10. UMI CONQUERS OTHER DISTRICTS . Hua-a was the king of Puna, but it was conquered by Umi and his adopted sons, Piimaiwaa, Omaokamau and Koi, the daring youths and famous generals and also noted ministers during Umi-a-Liloa’s administration of the gover
Kuialuaopuna
Nov 123 min read
Kūʻonoʻono ka lua o Kuhaimoana
Kii: Xpda, Wikimedia Commons XVIII. "Ka Moʻolelo o Kuhaimoana" – Story of the Shark God, Kūhaimoana:Excerpts from an Account of the Shark Gods and Waters of Kaʻula, Lehua, Niʻihau and Kauaʻi (translation by Maly) The story of Kūhaimoana, was given to J.S. Emerson, by W.M. Kinney of Waimea, Kauaʻi on March 4, 1907. The account, in Hawaiian, is housed in the collection of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum (HEN II:94-108). The narratives tell us of guardian sharks and fishes
Kuialuaopuna
Nov 86 min read
Opaelolo
A skilled fisher and wrestler from Waikalua, Oahu, sailed out of his fishing grounds to a nearby district on the Koolaupoko coast. His fame in fishing and wrestling traveled with him as he made many stops along the coast. His canoe came to rest at a shoreline, some miles away from his own, and he soon met up with the native fishermen there. This skilled fisherman of Waikalua, began to boast about his skills in catching octopus and wrestling. The encounter between this tr
Kuialuaopuna
Oct 312 min read
Mo'ikeha
Kii: Herb Kawainui Kane ...
Kuialuaopuna
Aug 1426 min read
Pohaku a Kane
Kii: Ku'ialuaopuna Traditional K.K. Ku'ialuaopuna E hu ia mai ka lani me ka honua e Kanenuiakea Eia na pulapula o ka lani, ka hu, ke kamaaina, me ke alii E hu mai ko kakou aloha no neia aina, me ka aina ala E kapae ke kapu o ke kanaka, ke kapu o ka wa i hala E ho mai i ke ola, e ola mai, e ola mai. e hoola mai! Bring together the heavens and the earth, oh Kane of the great expanse Here are the descendants of the s
Kuialuaopuna
Aug 42 min read
He Moolelo
Kii: Bec Munro This story was told to me in the land of Koolaupoko, O'ahu by a lua man of over 80 years old. I will keep his name silent for now. Here is a short moolelo passed down from a lua practitioner of O'ahu. He is still alive today and is a close friend who continues to practice his art into his eighties. We had trained together for many years, long ago. This Hawaiian man, I will call Ae'a. Ae'a, as a child, comes from a lineage of Hawaiian Lua fighters. His gre
Kuialuaopuna
Jul 253 min read
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