This season brings a time of rain, peace and the Makahiki games of athleticism and strength. But for those who observe the opening of Makahiki on the island of Kahoʻolawe, it means something deeper.
Kānaka Maoli on Kaho’olawe have been gathering for the opening and closing of Makahiki season since 1982, centering around a religious ceremony.
“Hōʻoluʻolu means to appease, appease the gods. Hōʻoluʻolu ke akua,” said Dr. Kaliko Baker, Kumu ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i at University of Hawai’i Mānoa.
“And what we do is we give our offerings upon our lele, our altars, and we entice Lono to stay a while on Kaho’olawe, bring his winds that bring the misty dew and the moisture in the air to Kaho’olawe so that the nahelehele, the bushes and the low shrubbery, the plants, can grow and flourish.”
Baker is also a Moʻo Lono — keeper of Makahiki ceremonies. He is third in the line of Moʻo Lono, and his son is training to be the fifth generation responsible for ensuring chants and protocols are properly carried out on Kahoʻolawe.
Each year, observances of the Makahiki season are held around Hawaiʻi. For Molokaʻi resident and cultural practitioner Kanoelani Davis, gathering on Kahoʻolawe brings heightened awareness and readiness for the seasons to come.
“We get to celebrate Lonoikamakahiki in our own ways on our respective islands,” she said. “When we go to Kaho’olawe, it's a collective of Native Hawaiians across the state of Hawai'i that are also practicing in their respective spaces and they go there because there isn't [anyone] who lives there to do the ceremonies for that island."
"So it's almost like we get to hānai that island during Makahiki season and be responsible for everything that happens there," she said.
The long journey
Davis has brought all four of her daughters with her to Kahoʻolawe since she first went to the island for Lonoikamakahiki in 2008. Though she doesn’t consider herself a Makahiki expert, she shares her experience of participating.
The journey to Kahoʻolawe involves packing all the gear they need to camp on an island without infrastructure. Then, Davis said, they must get up at 3 a.m. on Maui to jump on boats to Kaho'olawe.
“We get into Hakioawa [on Kahoʻolawe]. It's jump off the boat, swim all your gear in, and we pass it to each other to help one another,” she said. “And then we're carrying all that gear into the valley so that we have it readily available and then we're setting up tents and starting our five day passage.”
There’s a lot to do when they arrive, including readying themselves for the ceremony and clearing the paths they’ll walk.
“What we're doing is removing all the kuku, or the thorns, off of the ground because we walk barefoot from the bottom of the valley, up into these two spaces that flank the valley," she said.
"We have the Hale O Papa, which is the women's house. And then we have the Hale Mua, which is the men's house. And then at the bottom of the valley, we have a ceremonial place where we put all of our ho’okupu to then offer to Lono."
And the hikes are no small feat.
“We hike up to Moa’ulaiki and to pull on the proverb, 'You better have eaten your Wheaties,' that's all I got to say,” laughed Baker. “I clocked that at 10 miles on my iWatch. That's not for the faint of heart.”
Davianna McGregor is Professor Emerita at UH Mānoa, a kupuna of the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana, and life partner of the late Dr. Noa Emmett Aluli.
“We call upon the Lono form to come and help, as Emmett said, to call the winds that carry the clouds that brings the rain that raises the water table so that the plants can thrive, and so the whole Makahiki and Lono ceremony is essential for the healing of the island,” McGregor said.
Healing Kaho’olawe for a new generation
Healing Kaho’olawe from the U.S. Navy’s use of the island as a bombing range between 1941 and 1990 is important to today's Makahiki observances there.
In 1980, following decades of protests and the lawsuit Aluli v. Brown, the court ruled that the Navy had to allow the Protect Kaho’olawe ‘Ohana on the island to conduct religious ceremonies.
Dr. Aluli, along with George Helm, initially researched and reached out to kūpuna like Aunty Edith Kanakaʻole, who had carried on and kept the chants and ceremonies of Makahiki from being lost, said McGregor.
They enabled a reconnection for a new generation to transmit those rituals into the future through the line of Mo’o Lono.
“There had been forms of Makahiki observances on all the islands, in Makahiki games and Makahiki gatherings. But what is different about the Kaho’olawe Makahiki which then spread to other islands is to conduct the religious ceremonies to acknowledge these natural life forces and entities as gods and deities,” McGregor explained.
“In January of 1982, we conducted the first Makahiki. What was distinct about the 1982 ceremony on Kaho’olawe was that we again called upon our spiritual entities to renew the land — something that hadn't been done, or had been suppressed, for generations," she said.
The annual ceremonies also honor the efforts of those who have passed. George Helm and Kimo Mitchell disappeared off Kaho’olawe in 1977 while protesting the bombing. Dr. Aluli, whose death marked one year this November, was also honored during Makahiki ceremonies for his key roles in protecting and healing the island.
The start of the season
How do you know when Makahiki season starts? Baker says many have thought it to be marked by the Makali’i star cluster rising at sunset. But he explains more is now known about the seasonal indications.
“Everybody that writes in Hawaiian about when the Makahiki starts doesn't talk about this, 'Oh when the sun is setting and Makali’i rises in the east, that is when the Makahiki starts.' There's none of that,” Baker said.
“What we find is specific nights of the Kaulana Mahina, where the Makahiki starts. In the month of Ikua, which generally correlates with October for the South Kona folks — Moloka’i is going to be different or Oʻahu is going be different for the month of Ikua — on the hua nights when the moon starts to get big and full, that's when the Makahiki ceremonies really begin.”
That roughly correlates to opening in late November and closing the season in January or February.
For those who make the annual journey to Kaho’olawe — usually between 20 and 60 people each year — it’s a chance to renew their commitment to aloha ‘āina and their culture.
“It also is an incredible way of invigorating that mauli, that life force within us as Kanaka,” Baker said. “I don't know anybody who has gone to a Makahiki on Kaho’olawe and hasn't been sort of changed or inspired in some way.”
