Voices of Fire: Reweaving the Literary Lei of Pele and Hi’iaka

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VOICES OF FIRE This page intentionally left blank ◆ Voices of Fire Reweaving the Literary Lei of Pele and Hi‘iaka ku‘ualoha ho‘omanawanui University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis ∙ London Publication of this book was made possible, in part, with a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Portions of the Introduction were previously published as “Ke Ha‘a Lā Puna i ka Makani (Puna Dances in the Breeze): Pele and Hi‘iaka Mo‘olelo and the Possibilities for Hawaiian Literary Analysis,” Educational Perspectives 45, nos. 1–2 (2013): 42–51. Copyright 2014 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 http://www.upress.umn.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data ho‘omanawanui, ku‘ualoha. Voices of fire : reweaving the literary lei of Pele and Hi‘iaka / ku‘ualoha ho‘omanawanui. (First peoples: new directions in indigenous studies) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8166-7921-8 (hc : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8166-7922-5 (pb : alk. paper) 1. Hawaiian literature—History and criticism. 2. Publishers and publishing— Hawaii—History. 3. Literature and folklore—Hawaii. 4. Hawaiian mythology. 5. Hawaii—Folklore. 6. Pele (Hawaiian deity). I. Title. PL6448.H66 2014 899'.4209—dc23 2013028377 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 If Pele is not real to you, you cannot comprehend the quality of relationship that exists between persons related to and through Pele, and of these persons to the land and phenomena , not “created by” but which are, Pele and her clan. A rosy dawn is not merely a lovely “natural phenomenon”: it is that beloved Person named “The-rosy-glow-of-heavens,” who is “Hiiaka-in-the-bosom-of-Pele,” the youngest and most beloved sister of that greater (and loved though awe-inspiring) Person, Pele-honua-mea . . . whose passions expressed themselves in the upheavals of volcanism, whose “family” or “clan” are the terrestrial and meteorological phenomena related to vulcanism and the land created by vulcanism, as actively known in Ka-‘u. The stories that we are about to review are not archaic “legends” to a true native of Ka-‘u: they are living, dynamic realities, parts of an orderly and rational philosophy, now obscured and superseded by the new dynamics and the chaotic values of the sugar plantation, with its mechanical and industrial modernism and concomitant ethnic, social, economic, political, religious, and other “new ways.” These “new ways” are not a New Order for the country Hawaiian, and never will be: for they have exterminated him. He was engulfed and drowned in the tidal wave of Progress which inundated his land, his folks, his life, and his spirit. E. S. Craighill Handy and Mary Kawena Pukui, The Polynesian Family System in Ka-‘u, Hawai‘i ...