Puuloa

Thelma Genevieve Parish, a.k.a. Sister Parish, was born in 1918. She descended from prominent families in the history of Hawai‘i, and shared generational ties to the ‘ili of Pu‘uloa in Honouliuli Ahupua‘a. She was educated as an anthropologist, and became a Catholic nun serving for 50 years as a teacher and school administrator with the Order of Sacred Hearts. Sister Parish was a lifelong student of history and until her passing in 2004, she was working on a manuscript of Hawaiian history. Unfortunately her work has been left incomplete.

Below are two interviews conducted by Kepā and Onaona Maly with Aunty Arline Wainaha Puulei Brede-Eaton. Aunty Arline grew up in Pu‘uloa and has been an incomparable resource. The first interview was done in 1997 and the second was in 2011.

Six members of the Shibuya-Dayanan family gathered together for a small family reunion at Kualaka‘i-White Plains Beach in September 2012. Barbara Shibuya, one of the younger members of the family, coordinated the opportunity for the interview to take place. While a 33-year difference in ages between the eldest interviewee (born 1933) to the youngest (born 1966) existed, the interviewees shared strong familial connections, and memories with elders who have now passed on.

Mark ‘Ehukai Kwock Sun Yoshio Kahalekulu was born in 1956 along the Honouliuli coast, at ‘Ewa Beach. His kupuna father worked for the Dowsett-Parish Ranch on the Pu‘uloa lands, and lived at various locations between Pu‘uloa, One‘ula, and Kualaka‘i. The Kahalekulu line originated in the Ho‘okena-Ho‘opūloa Region of South Kona, and were displaced by the 1926 Mauna Loa eruption. Mark’s entire young life from toddler through high school was connected to the ocean and nearshore lands of the Honouliuli  Ahupua‘a.

Wilcox and Richards leased some grazing land at Puuloa outside of the salt works to John Meek and James I. Dowsett in 1863.

This is a lease of Puuloa Salt Works from M. Kekauonohi to I. Montgomery. It is a conveyance record on file at the Bureau of Conveyances.

Olelo Hoolimalima

Mawaena o M. Kekauonohi ma kekahi aoao a me Isaac Montgomery ma kekahi aoao.

Ke ae aku nei o M. Kekauonohi e lilo ia Isaac Montgomery kona Loko paakai ma Puuloa, Mokupuni o Oahu, no na makahiki eono mai keia la aku.

In addition to naming traditional residents and noted places of Honouliuli, the records of the Māhele ‘Āina also provide us with important information on residency, land use practices, physical features—today’s cultural sites, and some of the plants or resources which were tended as food crops by the people who lived on the land.