Sam Peralta
HWN 261
2/9/19
Hawaiian Literature in Hawaiian: Moʻolelo
There are generally two types of styles of storytelling in Hawaii. One type is called “kaʻao” which are found to be novels, tales, usually fanciful and known as fiction. The other type is called “moʻolelo”. The word moʻolelo can be split into two words “moʻo” and “ʻōlelo”. Moʻo can be defined as a succession, series, or lineage, and ʻōlelo defined as the word(s). In european thought it can be defined in the category as non-fiction. The moʻolelo of Hawaiʻi are narrative histories, historical narratives, cosmogonical, genealogical, and interestingly is layered and intertwined with the mythological and spiritual dynamics of the Hawaiian world view. Sometimes it can be hard to come to conclusions about whether a story is a Moʻolelo or Kaʻao, but quite possibly that is why Hawaiian literature can be very interesting reads.
In this paper I would like to explore the idea of how Hawaiian moʻolelo, fuses the empirical worldview (sense based experience) with the mystictical worldview (beliefs in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the the intellect) or at least try. I would like to take a look at Liliuokalaniʻs interpretation of the Kumulipo and the classic for some ideas and connections that can be found in seemingly polar opposite views (empirical and mystical). The empirical worldview that influences many of the west, has a strong tendency to find “truth” in only what your senses can provide (see, touch, smell, hear, etc.), while the mystical worldview (meditation, revelation, intuition, subjective, etc.) that influences many of the east makes sense of the world through images or stories connected to the divine. Letʻs take a quick look at how Liliuokalani's interpretation of the Kumulipo has been able to fuse the two.
The Kumulipo : He Pule Hoʻolaʻa Aliʻi
In the Kumulipo one of Hawaiiʻs creation stories tells the history of the creation of spaces, dynamic beings and creatures, and their connection to a realm which is referred to “the places the gods may enter, but not man.” Here I find it highly interesting that this moʻolelo is a combination of evolution (how creatures evolved), physcology (how we came to be conscious), geology (landscape and names), and mythology. On one layer the kumulipo can be used in the scientific world and compatible with the theories of evolution, and on the other hand it is embedded in a realm where our human natural senses are not able to comprehend (places gods may enter but not man).
On Liliuokalani interpretation of the kumulipo she traces the realm of the divine to the natural man. And the mystery and connection of how this came to be. Here the mythical images and stories are tangible within the family lines of the Aliʻi. In what seems to have many deeper layers up for interpretation there seems that one thing really isnʻt too open for interpretation that those in the Aliʻi line are truly sent from the gods. And to disagree may have been something very devastating to the disagreeing. In that case the myth or non empirical parts of the kumulipo are just as real as the parts that are.
Another interesting to look at the Kumulipo in moʻolelo is how the Kumulipo is multidimensional in nature. From the perspective of Moʻolelo and more specifically non-fiction literature in most western european literature, divine beings and unseen realms are not considered something to be in the category of “true”. But in most indigenous and ancient cultures the realm outside the physical universe it is almost always assumed. From weaving into epochs or wā from the natural world to ones outside of this physical one, to mixing in divine beings with the natural man, the moʻolelo of the Kumulipo is of most importance holding very deep historical, genealogical, and mythical mysteries, secrets, and wisdom from the ages.
References:
Kumulipo:
He Pule Hoʻolaʻa Aliʻi https://www.sacred-texts.com/pac/lku/lku02.htm
Wehewehe.org
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