Na Kua`aina

CHAPTER Two. Waipi‘o Mano Wai: Waipi‘o, Source of Water and Life

49 During a spell of great drought, when a great famine was experienced all over the lands from Hawaii to Kauai all the wet lands were parched and the crops dried up on account of the drought, so nothing remained even in the mountains. Waipio was the only land where the water had not dried up, and it was the only land where food was in abundance; and the people from all parts of Hawaii and as far as Maui came to this place for food. —abraham fornander, Fornander Collection of Hawaiian Antiquities, vol. 4 W AIPI‘O MANO WAI (Waipi‘o, source of water and life) is a popular saying about Waipi‘o because of its ability to sustain the people of Hawai‘i and Maui during an early thirteenth-century drought and enable them to survive. Located on the Hämäkua Coast of the island of Hawai‘i, the remote, lush, and peaceful Hawaiian valley of Waipi‘o is rich in natural resources, of which water is the most significant and abundant. For 650 years, from the time of ‘Umialïloa, around 1450 ce, through to the twenty- first century, Waipi‘o has been renowned as one of the premier wetland taro valleys of the Hawaiian Islands. Picturesque Waipi‘o Valley lies across nine square miles, or 6,100 acres. At the river’s mouth, along the ocean shore, Waipi‘o is a little more than threefourths of a mile wide, and its floor continues broad and nearly flat for about three and a half miles inland. There the valley narrows to 600 feet wide and then extends into a deep gorge for another five miles.1 At the mouth of the valley, the walls of Waipi‘o are 1,000 to 1,300 feet high. Two miles inland they are 2,000 to 2,300 feet high, and six miles inland the valley walls rise to 3,000 feet. Five tributary streams form ‘ili or smaller valleys that make up the greater Waipi‘o Valley—Hi‘ilawe, Waimä, Kuiawa, Alakahi, and Kawainui. These streams cascade down the sheer Waipi‘o cliffs in long, silvery, majestic waterfalls. Hi‘ilawe, the largest and most prominent of these waterfalls, is  two  Waipi‘o Mano Wai: Waipi‘o, Source of Water and Life chapter two widely celebrated in two famous songs about Waipi‘o—“Hi‘ilawe” and “Waipi ‘o.”2 Two large streams and several small ones traverse the valley floor, depositing the fertile alluvial soil that makes the land ideal for the planting of taro. The streams converge into one large river about half a mile inland before emptying into the ocean. The primary natural hazards in the valley are high winds, floods, and tsunamis. Historically, water for all of the taro land was plentiful. It ran through ‘auwai or irrigation ditches and flumes into the taro pond fields. Frequent rains kept the streams and ‘auwai running steadily. Only wetland taro was raised in Waipi‘o. Numerous great old trees grow along the stream and at the base of the hillsides. Overall, the valley is wet and cool. A Traditional Center of Spiritual Power The natural beauty and abundant natural resources of Waipi‘o are celebrated in legend and oral tradition in accounts of the many spiritual deities who are believed to have lived in the valley during their time on the earth. These spiritual forces are honored as ancestors of great, powerful, and prominent Hawaiian chiefs. The productive kua‘äina of Waipi‘o cultivated and sustained the 50 Figure 9 Waipi‘o mano wai, source of water and life—past, present, and future. 1974. Franco Salmoiraghi. WAIPI‘O MANO WAI: waipi‘o, source of water and life valley’s rich resources and enabled their chiefs to prevail against and ultimately dominate the chiefs and people of the entire island of Hawai‘i. Wäkea, God of the sky, mated with Papa, Goddess of the earth, and she gave birth to the islands of Hawai‘i. In his old age, Wäkea is said to have retired to Waipi‘o to live out the rest of his days.3 The godly Milu succeeded Wäkea as chief in Waipi‘o. The brother Gods Käne and Kanaloa, who traveled throughout the islands opening up freshwater springs to mix with their ‘awa, dwelt at Alakahi in Waipi‘o in company with lesser Gods.4 Maui, the demigod...