Ka Papa Loʻi o Kanewai (UH loʻi) by Bryant, Aidan B, and Kira

We went to Ka Papa Loʻi o Kanewai on Thursday the 20th. There we learned many things and we have written it down for you to read, so please enjoy.

What did we learn at the loʻi?

Here we learned about the farming culture of ancient Hawaiians. There is a story for the area of Kanewai, which we have retold below.

At the loʻi, volunteers had to restore the walls and the water canal for the loʻi. Today, many schools, families, and people help keep the lo'i alive.

                                                  The Story of the Land of Kanewai

There were two Hawaiian gods named Kane and Kaneloa; they were brothers. Kane was the god of freshwater and life and Kaneloa was the god of saltwater and fisherman. they sailed to kohala on the big island There kane learned his powers. From there they sailed to kahala on oahu there they swam and played then The walked all the way to kanewai. There, Kaneloa wanted to take a drink so he asked Kane to bring freshwater from the ground. Kane said "Not now, we need to go further." When they went further, Kane said, "Here's water" and stomped the ground with his o'o, or digging stick and freshwater bubbled out. Kaneloa took a drink and bath. As Kaneloa took a bath, salt and sand traveled to a field that remains rich in sandstone and salt.

The Lo'i Experience

When we got there, we met three teachers who told us the story of Kanewai inside their hale. This hale was built 11 years ago in 2002.

After, we traveled upstream to check the water at the makawai, which is the water source. Makawai means "eye water." When we were there, we walked along the rocks and took leaves away from the crevices of the rocks so that the water could flow.

After that, we went back to the loʻi and picked up leaves so that we could fertilize the loʻi. We collected a whole wheel barrow and divided the leaves in half between to loʻi patches.

The girls took one side and the boys did the other. We all hehi hehi'd the leaves into the mud so that the soil could be fertilized and aerated.

After we finished that, we picked the weeds out of another loʻi, which was growing kalo. We pulled the weeds out of the mounds and scrape the mud off the roots, and threw it on the side. We also hehi hehi'd weeds that were away from the mounds. This helped get rid of the weeds because it could not see the sunlight AND it became fertilizer for the kalo. Once we took the weeds off the mounds, we added more mud to them because the crayfish eat away at the mounds. Finally, we went to wash off in the stream and said goodbye!