House

Maui is part of the Hawaiian island chain, which was settled by Polynesians who arrived 1500 to 2000 years ago on large sailing canoes from the south pacific.  Using advanced celestial navigation models and the winds, waves and sun, they arrived to dense tropical vegetation with plans and animals they had not seen before.  

Planting the “canoe crops” they brought with them, they flourished into the Hawaiian civilization supporting up to a million people with advanced forms of land division, the “Ahupua’a” system which divided the islands into sections from the top of the mountains along the ridge tops out into the ocean.

The sustainability of the Hawaiian culture was maintained by enforcing the “Kapu” system which allowed for fishing grounds to recover through a periodic “kapu”, allowing the fish and reef life to recover.  The Hawaiians invented and maintained an extensive system of fishponds “Loko I‘a”, seen nowhere else in Polynesia.  

One of the main staples of the Hawaiian culture was taro, known as “kalo”, a starchy plant grown in large basins similar to rice paddies.  The entire plant was used, and the kalo figures in the Hawaiian Story of Creation.  Kalo was said to be the stillborn first child of the gods, who was buried and then sprouted to provide sustenance for his younger siblings.  It is the plant, which is cooked and pounded with water to make poi, a uniquely Hawaiian pudding-like starch known for its nutritional and hypoallergenic qualities.

The Hawaiian language is most similar to the Tahitian and Maori languages.  The area on the backside of Maui is known as “Kahiki Nui” which might be translated by changing the “k”s to “t”s, thereby becoming “Tahiti Nui” – or Big or Important Tahiti…