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

IN THE OPENING PAGES of Voices of Fire, the author shares a personal experience that reveals her connection to this work in genealogical, spiritual, and academic terms. While immersing herself in the knowledges of her ancestors as an undergraduate at the university, ho‘omanawanui experienced an intimate visit with Pele and her flow of molten fire and earth. Afterward, ho‘omanawanui stood under the midnight sky and shared her personal mo‘olelo with those present. As ho‘omanawanui finished, under the light of a full moon, sky completely free of clouds or rain, a “shimmering night rainbow arched across a deep aubergine sky” (xxiv), providing clear evidence of spiritual and ancestral acceptance, approval, and encouragement.

I begin this review with the above recollection because, as one of the classmates present that evening, I too witnessed this fully formed, not a cloud in the sky, midnight rainbow, and can attest to the power of that experience to stretch nearly three decades and continue to inspire work that is centered around the revitalization of our language and our historical, political, and cultural knowledges. As understated as ho‘omanawanui’s recitation is of the above event, so is the magnitude of what she has achieved with this book. As she states in the subtitle, this is a “reweaving of the literary lei of Pele and Hi‘iaka,” which seems straightforward enough. However, her use of the word “lei,” even for those who understand its meaning, may contribute to overlooking the complexity of the mo‘olelo she has created. Similar to a well-made lei, whose components of flower and fern are carefully selected, placed, and secured, so are the components of ho‘omanawanui’s text interwoven to increase our understanding of the political, historical, and cultural power found within the literatures of Kānaka Maoli and other Indigenous peoples.

As a central component, ho‘omanawanui has chosen quintessential mele (songs, poetic texts) from the hundreds that are a part of the literature of Pele and Hi‘iaka and used them both as chapter titles and to form the foundation of that portion (or chapter) of the lei. In addition, she has interwoven the literary analysis and historical genealogy of the multiple versions of the mo‘olelo of Pele and Hi‘iaka, helping to contextualize the motivations, needs, purposes, and effects of the literature. Another component still is her contextualization of this literature from a nationalist perspective, contributing significantly to our understanding of the historical and political contexts of the mo‘olelo’s publication, thereby broadening and deepening our understanding of the mo‘olelo’s impact on the community that received it. Each of these pieces are essential to the lei she weaves, ensuring that Pele and Hi‘iaka and their mo‘olelo are not reduced to the status of one-dimensional travelogue or love story, but to remind us that the differences in detail contribute to a deeper, richer, albeit more complicated, understanding of Pele and Hi‘iaka, our mo‘olelo, and our ‘āina.

Ho‘omanawanui’s work makes an important contribution to a larger intervention aimed at the reclamation and revitalization of Hawaiian knowledges from the ancestral times, and the creation of Hawaiian mo‘olelo for this and future generations. I find her discussion and use of the word “mo‘olelo” especially effective when she asserts that the term is “a more culturally appropriate designation to interpret and analyze [Hawaiian] literature as it incorporates both history and story, oral traditions and literatures, intertwining these disciplines in ways that are impossible to unravel, and references to history, oratory, or literature as separate practices is inadequate” (xxxvii). I think her assertions here absolutely add to our understanding of the meaning of “mo‘olelo” and the expansion of knowledge of Hawaiian concepts beyond one-to-one corollaries. The impact of this assertion is lessened, however, and made problematic from my perspective, through ho‘omanawanui’s inclusion and use...