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Hawaii Culture and History
Many of the visitors to Hawaii unabashedly seek beaches and sun, especially the winter traveler escaping the wind-chill factor. But a portion of visitors also want further enticements, asking: what do The Islands offer beyond beaches and sun? Where can I learn of the historic story of Hawaii? What are the special experiences of nature available here? |
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The answers begin as your plane touches down at Honolulu International Airport and the magic of the eight major Islands in the Hawaiian group infuses your sensibility. First of all, you have just made a long voyage, fully five-and-a-half hours from the Mainland. After traversing long stretches of ocean, the islands suddenly appear (if you have a daylight flight), as improbable as they must have seemed to the first Polynesians who sailed and paddled their canoes from the South Seas to this site about 750 A.D. From out of nowhere you alight into a fully-realized dream, Hawaii. |
Soon you begin observing the people in this airport. The most striking aspect of the people is that their racial origins are diverse and are primarily from the Orient. The main groups were Polynesians, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, and Korean. The ethnic groups that make up Hawaii are so different from the North American experience that the place is truly exotic, a foreign country, yet English-speaking. The history of Hawaii, an inquiring visitor soon learns, leans culturally toward the Pacific Basin, unlike the U.S. story leaning toward Europe. The people of Hawaii flourished without benefit of any Indo-European contact or religious trappings until the 18th century. They developed their own severe and superstitious, but understandable, religious system, the kapu system, that required death for slight infringements. Like Christianity with its confessional, the kapu system provided a few sacred places where forgiveness was possible
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The natural setting is equally novel. When you enter the airport, a lei may be put around your neck. Leis are sometimes made of vanda orchids, a flower that can be eaten, or of plumeria. The perfume of the lei and the warm tropical air of Hawaii immediately bathe a visitor. A range of bright flowers can be seen everywhere, starting with bougainvillea or hibiscus, the state flower, giving a technicolor aura to Hawaii. Brightly floral aloha shirts, which appear so ostentatious on the Mainland, seem immediately appropriate here. Tropical plants grow luxuriously in the warm, bright sun and moist air. |
Ancient winds effectively dispersed tiny fern spores across Hawaii. Of the 168 native fern species, two are most common: tree ferns ('ama'u and hapu'u), and false staghorn ferns (uluhe). Fern forests are frequently seen blanketing lava flows beside ohia lehua and koa trees. Ferns thrive in high-altitude rainforests within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. More than 120 inches of rainfall annually has transformed many stark lava landscapes into lush fertile forests. Historically, Hawaiians ate certain young fern fronds, and harvested pulu (the silky hairs which cover young frond stems and buds) for bedding materials and medical supplies. Sometimes uluhe tea was taken as a laxative. Today, root masses within the ferns are collected as preferred potting materials for orchids.
Hawaii's state bird is the endangered nene, Hawaiian goose. Slowly making a recovery from the brink of extinction, about 500 are found on the Big Island slopes of Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea and Hualalai. Fewer live on Maui's Haleakala crater and in Kauai's Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge. You can see these gentle creatures scattered throughout Volcanoes National Park, particularly at dawn and dusk along Devastation Trail and around Kilauea's summit caldera. Please remember not to frighten or harass the nene - they are protected by state and federal laws.
Endangered Hawaiian hawks ('io) are found only on the Big Island. They construct nests of sticks and leaves primarily in the trees on the slopes of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, below 9,000 feet in elevation. Look for these open country birds gliding overhead throughout Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Early Hawaiians believed the 'io was a symbol of royalty. The 'io's dwindling population is slowly recovering.
Fewer than a dozen Hawaiian crows (alala) remain, and they are scattered on the slopes of Hualalai and Mauna Loa, above 3,000 feet. Resembling a raven, this melodious, dark brown or black bird is social and used to travel in large family groups. Alala are very nervous while nesting, and any disturbance will cause it to abandon its young - please use caution.
On the slopes of Mauna Kea, a few remaining clusters of mamane trees sustain the endangered palila, a six-inch, bright yellow Hawaiian honeycreeper. All Hawaiian honeycreepers are descended from one species of finch which became established in the islands long ago. The honeycreepers' most striking adaptations are their bills, which vary from short, sturdy seed crushers to long, slender nectar sippers. They are at home above 6,000 feet.
A common native bird is the apapane, a chubby, bright red honeycreeper frequently seen throughout Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The bright red feathers from these chirpy songbirds were sought by early Hawaiians to adorn royal garments.
You'll also find Hawaii's only land mammal on the Big Island (and Kauai). The hoary bat's habitat stretches from sea level to over 13,000 feet, although they prefer dry forests at an elevation of about 4,000 feet. Occasionally, the creatures are spotted in lava tubes.
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