Ka 'Ohana Au Moana

Nā pule a Kūʻaikauaakama i kona hoʻomākaukau ʻana i ka ʻawa no Keaumiki a me Keaukā (Ka Nai Aupuni, 20 Iune 1907):

E uliuli kai o ka moana,
E ʻōlenalena kai o ke kohola,
Eia he ʻai, e ke kai, e ka uka,
Eia he mōhai, he ʻālana noʻu iā ʻolua,
E kānaka o kai mā—ē, eia ka ʻai
E Keaumiki, e Keaukā,
E Keaulawe, e Keaukōʻieʻie,
E Keaukānaʻi, e Keaukō,
E Keauhākoʻikoʻiokūkuluokahiki, E Keaupiʻi, e Keauemi,
E Keauhulinui, e Keauhulilua,
E Keauhulihuia,
E Keaukū, e Keaumoe,
E Keaunui, e Keauiki,
E oʻu mau kūpuna hoʻi a pau i ke au o ka moana,
Eia ka ʻai, e ʻai a māʻona,
He ola ka i iaʻu, i kaʻu wahine,
I kaʻu poʻe mamo,
I nā mākua oʻu,
A ola hoʻi.

Ocean currents are incredibly powerful forces that are in intimate conversation with the rest of earth’s elements and are constantly on the move. So it is with the currents in the story of Haʻinakolo. Keaumiki and Keaukā are an inseparable team who come to get Haʻinakolo in Waipiʻo and take her to Kuaihelani. They are famous for helping to move canoes back and forth between Hawaiʻi and Kuaihelani and can assume human form when not acting as currents or wave forces. They are actually part of a family of currents—an ʻohana au moana—many of whom are called on in the pule inu ʻawa (prayer for ʻawa drinking) that Kūʻaikauakama does before serving ʻawa to Keaumiki and Keaukā when they reach Waipiʻo (flip for pule). Collaborator Pualani Lincoln Maielua likened Keaumiki and Keaukā (bottom layer of this design) to the deep ocean currents whose constant flow, like that of our tradewinds, is driven by earth’s 1,000 mph easterly rotation at the Piko o Wākea (equator). Pua drew on surface current formations from live feeds to represent the rest of the family of currents (top layer of this design) in their diversity and unpredictability, as these currents are related to continental heat patterns. Kūʻaikauakama calls on these “kūpuna i ke au o ka moana” (relations in the currents of the sea) in his pule before providing their ʻai (sustenance): ʻawa. Like the hand of the kahuna creates currents in the kānoa ʻawa, earth’s rotation and ways of transferring heat create currents in the air and water. As above, so below.