Voices of Fire: Reweaving the Literary Lei of Pele and Hi‘iaka by Ku‘ualoha Ho‘omanawanui (review)

Voices of Fire: Reweaving the Literary Lei of Pele and Hi‘iaka is based on ku‘ualoha ho‘omanawanui’s decade-long research on and study of Pele and Hi‘iaka literature published between 1861 and 1928, and it is “the first book-length study of Hawaiian literature that engages the discourse of Indigenous literary nationalism interwoven with Indigenous Pacific-based literary theory” (xxviii). For those unfamiliar with Pele and Hi‘iaka, ho‘omanawanui clarifies that Pele is “the Hawaiian akua [god] associated with volcanic activity, land formation, and hula” and her “favored youngest sister, Hi‘iakaikapoliopele,” is “a primary hula deity” (xxiv). The work that went into this project is impressive: ho‘omanawanui collected thirteen versions of the Pele and Hi‘iaka tradition, several of which are epics that were published as daily or weekly series for a year or more in Hawaiian-language newspapers; prepared typescripts for each version; extracted hundreds of chants and identified key episodes; created charts to facilitate a comparative analysis of the same; and tracked each version’s literary genealogy.

The book’s design and organization are significant from a cultural and methodological perspective. Intellectual endeavors and aesthetics are tightly intertwined in many indigenous cultures, and Voices of Fire reflects this tradition. It is also a brilliant demonstration of how Indigenous oral and performance art are loci of Indigenous aesthetic and literary theory and methodology. Not only does ho‘omanawanui offer an expert analysis of Pele and Hi‘iaka literature, she also draws on the literature itself, the connections between Pele and Hi‘iaka and hula, and the aesthetics embedded in the same to frame her work. To begin, each chapter is prefaced by chants belonging to the Pele and Hi‘iaka tradition that speak to the chapter’s main topic. Most significantly, immediately after the table of contents, the book opens up with two pages dedicated, respectively, to a chant requesting entry and a chant granting permission to enter. The first chant is “Kūnihi ka Mauna (Steep Stands the Mountain),” which, ho‘omanawanui explains, “is performed within multiple Pele and Hi‘iaka mo‘olelo [hi/stories] in different contexts, including Hi‘iaka asking for permission to enter the Kaua‘i lands where Lohi‘au lives” (xli). The next page offers a response, “E a‘e e ka lā ma ka hikina (The sun rises in the east),” which was “composed by Kaua‘i native Makana Garma” (xli). “Kūnihi ka Mauna” is well known to hula practitioners and scholars of nā mea Hawai‘i (things Hawaiian). Hula practitioners typically offer this chant to their kumu hula (hula teacher) as they stand just outside of the hālau hula (a school/place dedicated to teaching, learning, and practicing hula) to request entry. The kumu hula responds with a chant that grants them permission to enter.

The entrance to hālau is a liminal point that marks the boundary between two spaces: profane and sacred. The request and permission chants are part of a ritual that not only allows the entrance to the sacred space but also signals the beginning of sacred time—a time dedicated to learning and practicing hula. Thus, ho‘omanawanui’s use of these chants at the opening of Voices of Fire can be understood as a signal that the reader is about to enter a sacred space—a space dedicated to a treatise on Kanaka Maoli intellectual history and nationalism through the analysis of Pele and Hi‘iaka literature—and a sacred time—a period spent reading about the same. As such, ho‘omanawanui’s approach is a powerful response to literary colonialism, a practice that has eclipsed Kanaka Maoli understandings of Pele and Hi‘iaka literature and appropriated this literature for...