In the shadow of the Ko'olau Mountain range, Kukāo'o heiau commands a stunning view of Mānoa valley. - Photo: Liza Simon

Shrine in the city

By Liza Simon / Ka Wai Ola

One turn off of Mānoa Road leads to the Cooke family estate and a backyard where you find yourself transported back in time – because here sits an ancient Hawaiian heiau. The structure occupies a hillside with a breathtaking view. Its every rock seems perfectly wedged. Its four sturdy walls appear to stand sentry over the adjacent gardens, including one devoted solely to the cultivation of native plants. Even in the noonday heat, the site is pleasantly sheltered in the shadows and breezes of nearby Konahuanui, the highest mountain of the Ko'olau Range.

“You cannot stand here without getting the sense the that ancient builders knew that this location offered a feeling of harmony suited to the rites of propitiation that took place in a heiau,” said David Lee, who conducts tours of the heiau as a volunteer for the Mānoa Heritage Center—or MHC.

MHC is a nonprofit group that promotes stewardship and site interpretation at the heiau. The group's work began after the heiau walls were reconstructed a decade ago. Today MHC offers a “living classroom”, using the heiau as a touchstone to teach history of Kanaka Maoli and the 'āina of Mānoa. This is a fruition of a vision that belongs to Sam and Mary Cooke, whose forebears founded the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The couple in 1992 purchased the land that included the heiau and gardens. By that time, it had deteriorated into little more than stone rubble and a tangle of overgrowth.

Motivated by their passion for historic preservation, the Cooke's launched the reconstruction project. They brought in historic preservationist expert Nathan Napoka to begin the work with the appropriate 'oli and other forms of protocol. Enough research had been done to confirm that the Hawaiian name of the heiau is Kukā'o'o, which means “digging stick.” This suggests an agricultural heiau. One legend would seem to confirm this, crediting the heiau's construction to a chief who climbed the heights of the Ko'olau cliffs and thrusted his 'ō'ō – or digging stick, to land at this spot. According to the late Bishop Museum anthropologist Kenneth Emory, the original structure dates back nearly 1,000 years.

Hawaiian history experts generally agree Kukā'o'o played a purposeful role for ancient Hawaiians, who had a thriving community in Mānoa Valley, which appears to have been a fertile breadbasket providing taro and other staples for a large ahupua'a that likely included the area we know today as Waikīkī.

A restored heiau in Mānoa. - Photo: Liza Simon

While many mysteries of Kukā'o'o remain unknown, it's safe to say – based on general knowledge of Hawaiian history – that if its stone walls could speak, they would probably tell the story of the turmoil that befell the heiau and its original stewards after the arrival of Captain Cook. In the two centuries that followed, Kanaka Maoli died from the diseases introduced by the Westerners. In the same time period, Hawai'i's ruling monarchs embraced Christianity, rejecting the old forms of spirituality where heiau played a prominent role. In the midst of the epic upheaval, foreigners seized control of Mānoa Valley and eventually used the land for a variety of new enterprises including dairy farms and coffee plantations. Management of self-sufficient ahupua'a and the practices of heiau were eclipsed.

To restore the physical majesty of Kukā'o'o, Sam and Mary Cooke also sought out Billy Fields, a specialist in pā pōhaku, the dry stack masonry of old Hawai'i. Fields rebuilt the heiau walls using only the original rocks, scattered in disarray in the Cooke's yard. Lee is enthusiastic in pointing out how Fields and crew preserved Kukā'o'o's subtle architecture, such as the slight inward angling of the wall wedged into the hill, structured to withstand all kinds of environmental stress.

The Cooke estate had included several European-style gardens, where colors are coordinated to please the eye. As part of the heiau renovation, an agricultural garden was added, comprised only of the plants carried to Hawai'i in canoes by the first Polynesian voyagers. Tropical agricultural specialist Anthony Ortiz was hired to look after the health of native varieties of well-known crops like taro and sweet potato and lesser known ones such as Papāla Kepau, which has a sticky sap once used by Hawaiians to catch birds. MHC guides receive training so that in conducting tours they can include plant lore and botanical information that add to the picture of a once sustainable Hawaiian community that flourished in this valley.

MHC has also developed teacher resource material that emphasizes experiential learning at the heiau site. More and more school groups have taken advantage of this unusual educational retreat. As might be expected, visitors of all kinds express astonishment at finding a historical gem in urban Honolulu.

“Many come in with questions about why there are few material remains of Hawaiian history on O'ahu, but they leave here asking how it was possible that so much of the past actually remains intact,” said Lee. He believes the answer lies in the heiau itself, which he calls “a monument to the ingenuity of the Native Hawaiian culture.” Most would also agree that some credit should also go to MHC, its founders and perhaps the many local teachers who troop through these days with groups of students in tow – some of them sure to be stewards of Kukā'o'o in what is hoped to be a better future for the preservation of Mānoa's Native Hawaiian history.