Early Hawaiians—A Peek from the Lyman Museum

We explored the island by car, and since it’s quite expansive, we planned to visit it over three days with one exploration each day. I’m passionate about learning everything I can about this island, which is truly the heart of Hawaii. I felt compelled to dive into its geographical history, understand how the people lived, discover their daily routines, learn how they arrived here, explore their livelihoods and origins, and examine their clothing and culture. Ultimately, I was deeply fascinated by the entire civilization of this island.
Through exploring the island, I gained tremendous knowledge, and most importantly, visiting the Lyman Museum proved essential for truly understanding this remarkable place.
Geographically, this island sits about 5000 km from San Francisco in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, positioned between North and South America on one side, and approximately 6000 km from the lands of Japan, Korea, China, New Zealand, Tahiti, Samoa, Easter Island, Tonga, and other regions on the other side.
About 1000 years ago, the Hawaiian Islands were inhabited by Native Hawaiians, a Polynesian people who didn’t originate from mainland America. Their ancestors were extraordinary Pacific Ocean voyagers from Polynesian islands who traveled in large

canoes and settled the Hawaiian Islands after crossing vast ocean distances. The Polynesian people encompass Native Hawaiians, the Maori of New Zealand, Samoans, Tongans, Tahitians, and the Rapa Nui people of Easter Island.
Polynesia is an enormous region of the Pacific Ocean, roughly forming a triangle with its three corners at Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island. The initial settlers arrived in the hundreds, with a second wave arriving in the 12th century.

“Seeking a new home, we sailed in our great double-hulled canoes. Navigating by studying clouds, stars, waves, and birds, we discovered these isolated islands in the middle of the ocean. Our canoes carried people, chickens, dogs, pigs, foods, useful plants, and tools.
We brought the knowledge and skills acquired in our homekand : of our Gods, farming, fishing, forecasting weather, and how to make tools, structures, and household goods. These things will help us survive, but the island will shape our life in this new home.
Our earlier habitation was on the ‘windward’ side of the island, where fresh water flowed from the mountains to the sea.
Settlements greatly altered the island environment, introducing the new plants we brought from the homeland, eradicating many flightless bird species (canoe-borne rats also played a role), and modifying reefs, lowland forests, and gulches to support aquaculture and agriculture.”

It was in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that plantations in Huwaii attracted the dimension of hiring a wide variety of ethnic groups: Chinese, Portuguese, Japanese, Puerto Rican, Korean, and Filipino. Individuals from other countries (such as Scots) immigrated to work on the plantations as managers, bookkeepers, and engineers but did not arrive in groups. Small groups of Germans, Norwegians, Spaniards, and Russians also arrived, but their stays were brief. Hundreds of individual Scots also immigrated to work in the agricultural field, especially in the sugar industry—many of them marrying and settling here.

Till the 1750s, native Hawaiians accounted for more than 50% of the labor force, especially for the sugar industry, but later some laws encouraged foreign workers, though they found them crude and low-wage and based on ethnicity due to the approach of the divide-and-rule policy.

Immigrants brought the observance of their national holidays and festivals to the plantation communities, and many are still found on Hawai‘i’s cultural calendar: New Year Festival (Chinese), Girls’ and Boys’ Days (Japanese), Obon Festival (Japanese), Holy Ghost Festa (Portuguese), Chuseok (Korean), and Jose Rizal Day (Filipino) are a few.

Children on the plantations created their games and toys using imagination and other available resources. Plant seeds became marbles, balls were fashioned of clothes, or Bull Durham tobacco bags were stuffed with rags of guava leaves. Kukui nuts pierced with twigs made excellent tops, and one-piece wooden clothes were transformed into dolls. Boys used bits of wood to create cars, with wooden thread spools or bottle caps serving as wheels.

At the peak of the plantation era in the 1930s, there were 25 movie theaters around Hawai‘i Island. Movie theaters were gathering places where workers and their families could escape into a fantasy world of cowboys or samurai. They also introduced people to the world outside Hawai‘i and helped the various ethnic groups assimilate as Americans.
Sports teams were popular in plantation towns, encouraged by sugar companies to help reinforce group loyalty and increase morale. Baseball teams, such as the Japanese Athletic Club and All-Filipino All-Star Players, were formed along ethnic lines. Plantations also sponsored teams of mixed ethnicities.

Without metal or nails, early Hawaiians relied on plant materials to join pieces together in the construction of hale (houses), wa’a (canoes), and many other necessities to provide food and shelter. Certain plants were twisted into kaula (rope), knotted (hipuu) into ‘upena (nets), and ulana (plaited) into mats and baskets.
Many plants provided fibers that were twisted or braided into kaula. Each plant brings a different texture and color.

Long before the people of Hawai’i mastered the English written language in the 1800s. They preserved and shared knowledge through storytelling, music, and dance. Oli (chants), mele (songs), mo’olelc (legends), and movements of the hula (dance) were media of communicating about creation, genealogy, traditions, migrations, and all that is Hawaiian culture.

Man has always left his mark of presence. Symbols carved in rock were left by many early civilizations. The Puako Petroglyph site is one of the largest and finest concentrations of the mysterious symbols left in Hawaii. It is in the Wimea province of Big Island. It is likely that these petroglyphs were made sometime between 1600 and 1800, which is about 400 years old.
Why were these petroglyphs made? No one knows for sure. Could they have been: Powerful mystical messages to primitive gods or ancestors? plea for protection or survival? a record of travelers passing by? a family tree?
No one knows. Only they can tell who made it.

A few collections of artifacts used by early Hawaiians, which I saw in the Lymans museum.

In the early days, the island of Hawaii was not ruled by one person. Different parts of the island were controlled by different chiefs.

Centuries after

Thus, the Hawaiian Islands were united under King Kamehameha I, and the new kingdom was named the Kingdom of Hawaii.
The Kingdom of Hawaii continued for many decades. In 1898, Hawaii was annexed by the United States. Much later, in 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

During monarchy, a system of Kapu was maintained under which certain religious and social rules were specified and the implementation of which was a kind of acceptance of the power of the king.
Under this system men and women could not normally eat together. Certain sacred places and temples (heiau) were restricted to chiefs and priests. Women could not eat some specific foods such as pork, bananas, coconuts, and some varieties of taro. Fishing, planting, and harvesting were in the control of the king, and on top of it Breaking a serious kapu could be regarded as a threat to the religious and social order and could result in death.

But when Kamehameha I died in May 1819, his son Liholiho became Kamehameha II. He abolished Kapu only about six months after Kamehameha I’s death. Kamehameha II then ordered the destruction of many heiau and religious images.
Christian missionaries took advantage of this abolition period and quickly arrived in May 1820, and first the wife of Kamehameha II became Christian, and this Protestant Christianity spread in Hawaii.

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