Noenoe K. Silva is Professor of Indigenous Politics at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa and author of
Ngugi wa Thiong’o is the author of numerous works of fiction, poetry, plays, and criticism, most recently,
Singing (to) the ʻĀina
-
Published:March 2017
This chapter looks at Joseph Poepoe’s moʻolelo of Hiʻiakaikapoliopele through a selection from its hundreds of mele about the ʻāina. The bulk of the moʻolelo concerns Hiʻiaka’s epic journey across almost the entire archipelago from its easternmost point on Hawaiʻi to Kauaʻi in the west, and back again. At each place she stops, she and/or others sing or chant mele to or about the ʻāina, and ʻāina characters sing or chant back to her. The purpose of this chapter is to examine selections of these mele for their artistry and what they tell us about the ʻāina and the worldviews or epistemologies and ontologies of our kūpuna. These mele serve as examples of our kūpuna’s moʻokūʻauhau consciousness, including Joseph Poepoe’s care to record the moʻolelo and explain some of its many mele for generations of Hawaiians in a future he foresaw.
Advertisement
