What better gift than a journey to ancient Hawai'i. If you purchase Wai-nani on my site I will provide gift wrapping and free shipping anywhere in the U.S., including Hawaii. I will also include Wai-nani's Wayfinder, a map I created that takes you to sacred historical sites on the Big Island. I visited almost all of them in my research for Wai-nani. Reading my book and having the map in hand will enhance any visit to the Islands.
Wai-nani's Wayfinder
Adventure-travel writer, Linda
Ballou, has a host of travel articles on her site, along with information about
her travel memoir, Lost Angel
Walkabout-One Traveler’s Tales, her historical novel Wai-nani, A Voice from Old Hawai’i and her latest action-adventure
novel The Cowgirl Jumped over the Moon
at-www.LindaBallouAuthor.com.
Mo’okini Heiau sits
high on a knoll and enjoys a panoramic view of the Upolu Point of Kohala and
the distant shores of Maui. It stands in the
center of a once-royal complex that was a vital center of sacred and secular
power. It is one of the first luakini heiau (temple of human sacrifice) built
by the Tahitian Priest Paao in the 12th century. Legend has it that
it was the site of countless thousands of human sacrifices to the gods. The current site includes remains of the
sacrificial temple measuring 250' x 130' with an open stone paved court
enclosed by 20-foot-high stone walls and the sacrificial stone. According to
oral tradition itwas built in one night by
15-20,000 men passing stones to one another from the Niuli’i, nine miles away.
The Tahitians believed that there was not enough respect on
the part of resident Hawaiians for the gods, and they set out to strengthen the
kapu system by building this temple and enforcing the strict laws of the land
(kapu). Paao summoned the warrior chief Pili who brought stones from one of the
most sacred sacrificial temples in Tahiti and
placed the bodies of fresh victims beneath these stones used as pillars to
consecrate Mo’okini Heiau. Mu, or body catchers, collected the humans to be
sacrificed. These were most often conquered warriors or members of the slave class.
Women and children were generally spared. The bodies of the victims were then
baked and the flesh removed from the bones. The bones were used for fish hooks
or parts for weapons.
The oldest, largest, and most sacred heiau in old Hawaii is all that
remains of the royal Kohala complex dismantled by sugar plantation owners in
the 19th century.To
Hawaiians it is a living spiritual temple and not a cultural artifact.
It was long held to be strictly kapu to visit, but In
November of 1978 Kahuna Nui Leimomi Mo'okini Lum rededicated the Mo'okini
Luakini to the "Children of the Land" and lifted the restrictive
Kapu. In doing this she made it safe for all persons to enter the Heiau and
created a new legacy for the Mo'okini Luakini as a place of learning for future
generations to discover the past. Kahuna Nui Lum followed closely the wishes of
her father Kahuna Nui Dewey O. Mo'okini who visualized this sacred site as one
for the children of Hawai'i and the entire world.
Take Highway 270 north from
Kawaihae. Near Mile Marker #20 turn left at the sign to UpoluAirport.
Just before the airport, turn left on the unmarked dirt road and travel
approximately 2 miles. The site is on hill to the left.
Research for Wai-nani, A Voice from Old Hawai’i
became a beautiful obsession that called for numerous trips to the Islands. I
visited sacred sites, interviewed elders, spent nights in Waipio Valley where
the bones of ancient chiefs are hidden in caves in steep walls framing the
canyon. .www.lindaballouauthor.com
Ano Ano (the seed) for Wai-nani
- A Voice from Old Hawai’i took root in my heart when
I lived on the north shore of Kauai. I
became smitten with the great personage of Ka’ahumanu, the childless bride who
was the favorite wife of Kamehameha the Great. This was in the late 70’s, a
time when women were breaking the traditional mold. Ka’ahumanu faced down the
all–powerful priests and ended the 2,000-year-old kapu system that called for
harsh penalties for infractions. Writing the story of this empowered woman,
mostly overlooked by western historians, became a beautiful obsession.
Ka'ahumanu
Readers of Wai-nani are amazed at the authentic detail and depth of my
research. I went to most of the places described in my book, including the
sacred Waipio Valley now closed to overnight stays. I hiked across the smoldering
floor of Iki Crater in Volcano National Park, and spent hours in The Place of
Refuge on the Big Island trying absorb the mana of the ancestors. I read old
and new chronicles on Hawaiian history, spent hours at Bishop Museum and hired
a Hawaiian scholar to read my manuscript. In short, I did everything in my
power to stay true to the culture and re-create an authentic portal into a
world that is lost to us now.
Place of Refuge
Free shipping and a copy of Wai-nani's Wayfinder-a map to sacred sites on the Big Island if you purchase Wai-nani on my site www.LindaBallouAuthor.com
Debate over whether or not early Polynesian voyagers were able to navigate their double hulled canoes back to homelands to gather supplies and recruits to colonize the Islands raged for years. The canoes paddled by the ancients were dug out from tree trunks and made from planks sewn together with cordage of coconut fiber twisted into strands and braided for strength. Cracks and seams were sealed with coconut fibers and sap from breadfruit or other trees. An outrigger was attached to a single hull for greater stability on the ocean; two hulls were lashed together with crossbeams and a deck added between the hulls to create double canoes capable of voyaging long distances. Scholars could not believe that these canoes navigated without instruments by seafarers who depended on their observations of the ocean currents, scent on the winds, clouds in the sky and messages from birds could follow these clues to an intentional landfall. Legend has it that a migrating whale led early voyagers to the Hawaiian Islands.
In the 1970’s these doubts where overturned when the Hokule’a, named after the “Bright Star of Happiness” that rests over Hawaii, a reconstruction of an ancient voyaging canoe made the return voyage to Tahiti. This remarkable re-enactment, chronicled in An Ocean in Mind by Will Kyselka, put to rest any disbelief about the abilities of ancient Wayfinders. The Hokule’a and her crew continue to make voyages. You can learn more about them and follow the triumphant Hokule’a on the Polynesian Voyaging Society site.
Ko’a holo moana, is an ancient voyaging heiau – sometimes called the Stonehenge of the Islands. The existence of this little known site is more proof that the “people of old” knew a great deal more about navigation than once believed. The heiau that consists of a set of standing stones that led the way for ancient Polynesian sea voyagers. It is the only heiau of its kind in the Islands. It is located at Mahukona Point near mile marker 15 on the Akoni Highway on the Kohala Coast.
Get past the incongruous bagpipe opening of this informative video by Donnie MacGowen and witness this little known voyaging heiau.
Floating face up in the Watsu pool at the Kalani Ocean Retreat that is tucked into a remote corner of the Big Island in Hawaii, I drifted in a state of embryonic innocence. Sylvie, my provider, massaged my spine gently and rotated my limbs to release joint tension. This was the first of many experiences on my quest of a healing Hawaiian holiday that would include traditional lomi-lomi massage; interviewing Kumu Dane Silva, a respected native Hawaiian healer; a swim in a hot pond used for centuries by the ancestors to cleanse body, mind, and spirit; feeling the power of Pele, the volcano goddess; this is topped off with and an open air massage by the sea where wind, water, and sun stir the senses. On the Big Island, the nexus of the plexus for healing gurus of all stripes, there is a choice to fit every pocketbook.
