I Ulu I Ke Kumu: The Hawai‘inuiākea Monograph

The Poetry of Kamehameha I: Jewels in the Dust

Column from page 4 of Ka Hoku o ka Pakipika, October 3, 1861. The Poetry of Kamehameha I: Jewels in the Dust Puakea Nogelmeier A chant composed by Kamehameha I as part of a trilogy of compositions honoring Kauikeaouli was published in the Hawaiian-language newspaper Ka Hoku o ka Pakipika in 1861, almost five decades after it was composed, highlighting the growing movement to use the newspapers as an intentional repository of older, traditional knowledge. This movement paralleled the shifting role of newspapers from a unilateral process of education and information delivery to one of national engagement and interaction. The Hawaiian-language newspapers, spanning 114 years of Hawai‘i’s transition from pre-constitutional monarchy through territorial control, have long been acknowledged as an invaluable source of history, language, and Hawaiian knowledge. Interest in the manyfaceted resources to be found in these newspapers has grown exponentially in the last decade, fueled by increasing access to the original materials and expanding research and recognition of the information they contain. The archival corpus of the newspapers is still incomplete, with just over half of the originals compiled.As access to this portion is developed, insights into different periods, newspapers, and perspectives continually come to light. Kamehameha I was Ka Na‘i Aupuni, The Conqueror, and he was also a royal poet. Kamehameha I united the Hawaiian Islands in 1795, taking the islands from Hawai‘i to O‘ahu by conquest and then gaining Kaua‘i by treaty in 1810. After his death in 1819, the nation was ruled first by Liholiho, Kamehameha II, his eldest son with the sacred chiefess Kepolani, and then by the second of their sons, Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III. A chant by Kamehameha I was published in 1861 as part of a trilogy of compositions 1 These mele, though perhaps long forgotten, are an invaluable part of the Hawaiian cultural treasury. But their worth today goes far beyond the chants themselves. Like jewels pulled from the debris, light gleams through their facets to illuminate the dusty environs where they were found—the history of how they were kept, published, known, and then forgotten. The searcher’s light also brightens the setting in which they were found, the social and cultural frameworks in which the mele were created and held, and the impetus of the time to share them once again. The three mele are presented here in their original published forms, and translations will inevitably emerge, but I address them here more as symbols than as poetry, for they highlight an important transition in process. The poem composed by The Conqueror was published in the sweep of an emerging consensus that the newspapers would become an intentional national repository of knowledge. honoring Kauikeaouli, his second son of the ruling line. The mele inoa, or name song, follows a composition by Liholiho, his first sacred son and heir, and precedes one by Kuakini, who, as advisor to the king, was a member of the royal court and also the brother of Kamehameha’s favorite queen, Ka‘ahumanu. The shared style of the mele inoa and single honoree indicates that the three mele were composed at the same time, possibly at Kauikeaouli’s birth in 1813.1 That would have been just three years after the unification of the islands and almost a decade before Hawaiian was formalized in writing. Pre-‘ai noa,2 pre-literacy, pre-Christian, and largely pre-Western, these chants are like precious jewels lying in the archival dust for a century and a half. 2 | I Ulu I Ke Kumu Three mele composed by Kamehameha I and his court. The Poetry of Kamehameha I | 3 The Hawaiian-language newspapers, where these mele were published, have been acknowledged as an important resource for over a century, but only in the last decade have the presence, extent, and importance of the newspaper archive become tangible to more than a tiny audience. Early territorial historians sifted through them for facts, researchers and teachers have searched them for information or examples, and selected serial columns have been extracted and published as books in English.3 Yet after more than a century of intermittent research and extraction, less than 2 percent of the archive has been brought into use today, published in either English or Hawaiian.4 The archive had never been mapped and measured until recently, so usage has been random and disconnected—the result...