Historical Perspective and Reproduction of Hawaian Crops
Jerry Konanui
Native Hawaiians had an extraordinary affinity with and knowledge of the land and the water. For Hawaiians, food is life and food is medicine. I can make Hawaiians drool just by calling out the names of their foods. Hawaiians have the ability to eat almost anything—the main thing is to have food on the table and to make sure your stomach is full. These are the lessons that are passed down to me from my kūpuna. Over eight generations of my family have been farmers.
Being isolated on these islands, we needed to learn to read the waters, the winds, and the lands and to survive on what we could grow on this land. Resistance to pests was learned at home, and knowledge of the unique varieties of taro and other plants meant life and death to the Hawaiian people. Their survival depended on their ability to grow food.
The Hawaiians knew which varieties to grow at the cold headwaters of the streams and which varieties to grow down by the beach or in the desert of Ka‘u. There were kalo for every micro-climate, even kalo that could survive in brackish water. There are windswept varieties and salt-tolerant varieties. The farmer just needed to know where to grow which varieties. Traditional Hawaiian knowledge helps farmers know which varieties mature fastest and which to place near the edge of the lo‘i where people walk, so that no one would damage the roots.
In Puna, we had names for seven generations of taro plants. Each generation has its story; each generation serves its purpose. The huli is the part you plant and it becomes the makua, or the parent. The corm develops and a keiki comes out, this is the oha (the plural of oha is ohana, or family). We learned to harvest each generation so there was never an empty spot in the row.
Hawaiians knew how to create dirt where there was none. They raked up all the leaves from kukui nut trees and laid them in volcanic depressions in the ground. When the branches separated from the leaves, the ground was ready to plant.
In swamps, Hawaiians floated branches and put dirt on top, allowing the swampy water to filter out so the taro would taste good. We did not have rich opala (weeds) to use as fertilizer, so we used what we had. We used pandanus leaves to fill puka and burned pandanus to fertilize the young taro. That’s how we survived in the dry lands of Puna.
There’s a lot to learn—our Hawaiian ancestors left so much knowledge it permeates the land. If you live there long enough, the land will give you the answers.
They knew that minerals and deposits from aged rocks fertilized the taro. The kūpuna knew how to grow kalo in the rocks.
They were intimately familiar with the seasons of lunar year. The calendar of the mahina and moon phases dictated when we worked, when we repaired our tools, when to grow what crops, what prayer to say when planting. The full moon is planting time for us. It takes a lot of work to prepare the plots and the huli so all is ready for planting when the moon is full. There was a moon phase for long vines and one for short vines. Fishing times were governed by the moon phase, and what fish you will catch when. If you fish during the wrong tide and wrong moon, you will starve. Every Hawaiian knew this. The Hawaiians were incredible observers. During the rainy season, rest and relaxation was mandatory. This was a special time to rejuvenate, to slow down and blend in again with the ‘āina.
The cultural and spiritual connection between Hawaiians, their land, their fishes, their plants, and their environments tied them intimately to these islands. Each banana had a story that accompanied it. There was a time to plant and a time to harvest. Each family had its own fishing beat on the drum, each canoe had its own song for the fish—if you didn’t know the song, the fish wouldn’t come.
The koa‘e kea, a white-tailed bird, circles the crater where he lives with the lava beneath. ‘Ahi, the fish, and ahi [fire, here represented by] the bird, are connected. When the koa‘e bird circles over the ocean, the ‘ahi fish are below. The Hawaiian people still carry this knowledge in their genes.