Halawa Valley heiaus

Halawa Valley heiaus

Posted to OHE on 7 March 2004 by Tom Yoza

Today was a “free” day for the trail maintenance crew, but that didn’t mean we weren’t working. Idle hands cause much mischief, so Mabel volunteered us to help clear the heiau in Hālawa Valley.

About twenty of us met at the first gate to the H-3 maintenance road around 9:00 a.m. We had no trouble passing the Hawaiian Cement picketers—who were actually sitting under the H-3 structure.

The first gate was unlocked, but the next gate—just past a tunnel on the right—had to be opened by the Mālama Hālawa folks. We had planned to drive all the way to the heiau, but due to recent heavy rains there were several landslides blocking vehicular access before the old guard shack.

As a result, we hiked in about a mile with all our heavy-duty tools. The woman in charge of the project—if I recall correctly, her name was Sweetie Maxwell—had bad legs and couldn’t walk in with us. She planned to meet us later with goodies by the Hawaiian Cement area.

Without a guide, the plan was to work only on the men’s heiau (luakini) and not the women’s heiau (haleopapa). We had some difficulty locating the exact entrance to the site, as the vegetation was rapidly overtaking the area. It actually appeared that the women’s side was being cared for much better.

We worked until almost 3:00 p.m. and accomplished quite a bit—perhaps too much. We’ll see if we get invited back!

Wow. These people really know how to keep their workers happy with ono food. We had a kind of chicken soup with diced papaya and rice. Mabel also made some desserts for us.

Back at home, I tried to find more information about this archaeological site but couldn’t locate it in Sites of Oʻahu. The site was apparently discovered fairly recently during surveying for the H-3 freeway. There was a major dispute over its authenticity between the Bishop Museum—contracted by the State DOT—and the Kanaka Maoli.

I finally found information on these heiau in the book Pana Oʻahu: Sacred Stones, Sacred Lands by Jan Becket and Joseph Singer. In fact, the front jacket photo is of the Heiau Luakini that we cleared today.

Aloha,
Thomas