"Stone by Stone" Feature Story in Hana Hou Magazine
Until a few years ago, anyone driving by this spot would see nothing but a tangle of haole koa trees and cactuses. Billy Kaohelauli‘i, on the other hand, has always known what’s hidden behind the thicket.
A fisherman who grew up on the edge of Kāneiolouma, Kaohelauli‘i had heard the stories passed down among his family, which has lived here for generations. Since he was a kid, Kaohelauli‘i knew the location of the chiefs’ residences, the sports arena (possibly the only intact structure of its kind in Hawai‘i), the heiau (temple). His family drank the water that flowed from the spring of Waiohai.
Ke Kahua o Kāneiolouma is an ancient Hawaiian village and heiau just inland from Po‘ipū Beach Park, on the south shore of Kaua‘i. It dates back to at least the fifteenth century, and the eleven acres of county land on which it sits are all that’s left of a huge complex of agricultural and habitation sites that numbered well over a thousand features—a highly sophisticated society that prospered for centuries before the village was abandoned in the early nineteenth century.
Ke Kahua o Kāneiolouma, the village of Kāneiolouma, is an eleven-acre complex of ancient temples, homes, sports arenas and agricultural sites on Kaua‘i’s south shore.
Kāneiolouma’s rebuilt Manokalanipō Royal Observatory, where four sixteen-foot tall ki‘i (statues) mark the position of the rising and setting sun on the winter and summer solstices.
Mostly untended since it was abandoned in the nineteenth century, Kāneiolouma fell victim to vandalism and neglect until a passionate group of volunteers and Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners took it upon themselves to restore it.
Rupert Rowe and Billy Kaohelauli‘i initiated the restoration effort in 1998. “We visualized, I saw the obstacles that would come forth and I knew we would have to be patient, humble and compassionate,” says Rowe.
Taro farmer and cultural practitioner Kane Turalde plays the pahu (drum) during a ceremony at Kāneiolouma. Two phases of the restoration have been completed, but much remains.