Perle Besserman
AKAKA FALLS
The Legend of Chief Pa’ao The least beneficent of the islands, Hawai’i—or the “Big Island”—with its flaming volcanoes and icy storms, is perhaps also the most mysterious. Dominated by the perpetual battle between the tempestuous fire goddess Pele and her equally combative icy sister Poliahu, it is a world born of divine and human strife, merciless toward those who would dare to settle on or near its sacred mountains. Its tribal clashes and conflicts first embodied in the legend of the chief Pa’ao, a Tahitian high priest believed to have settled Hawai’i, continue to this very day in the form of culture wars as Western scientists face off against Native Hawaiians protesting the addition of a mammoth-sized telescope to the already existing protuberances sprouting like giant white mushrooms from the glistening snows blanketing Mauna Kea. As told by elders claiming direct descent from Pa’ao, the master navigator who led the voyage to Hawai’i across the sea by following the stars, the story of the island’s first settlers begins with a violent family quarrel. In this version, Pa’ao’s older brother, the chief priest Lonopele, accuses Pa’ao’s son of stealing fish from the royal fishpond. To prove his brother wrong, the outraged Pa’ao kills his son and rips open his stomach disclosing no sign of the boy’s supposed transgression. The breach between the brothers widens to the point where Pa’ao, feeling he can no longer remain, takes steps to migrate across the seas to a new land. Preparing three large canoes and gathering a group of retainers to accompany him on the voyage, he decrees that the “sacred” canoes remain untouched by anyone without his permission. Now it is the turn of his brother Lonopele’s son to transgress when, stealing out at dusk unaware that Pa’ao is watching, the boy touches the lead canoe. Instantly, the vengeful Pa’ao kills his nephew and buries him in the sand under the canoe. As flies begin buzzing around the corpse, Pa’ao hurriedly gathers his crew and launches the three canoes, unaware that in his haste, he’s left behind the aged astronomer-priest Makuakaumana. Climbing a cliff high above the water, the old priest cries out but is told it’s too late; there is no more room in any of the canoes. At this, the master stargazer Makuakaumana leaps from the cliff and miraculously lands in the stern of Pa’ao’s canoe to guide him across the ocean.