Introduction
As you visit the island of Kauai the small rock in the middle of the sea that no one conquered within the hawaiian chain. There are beautiful mountains and nice beaches. Sit back and think a few hundred years ago before cars, and roads what did the natives do for travel? How did they know what town or community they were from. How did they travel horses, cow, camels, canoes, bikes, what could it be?
Lets take some time and research what we think it could be?
In this webquest we will reseach and look at the geography of the island back in the 1800's before cars, and roads, running water, and electric. We will learn about water sources, food supply, and ways of living for native Hawaiian on the island of Kauai.
Task
The color areas Napali, Halele'a, Ko'olau, puna, and Kona are the five different moku that Manokalanipo or also known as Kauai is made of. Can you see where your community is on this map?
According to the native Moku (community) chart where does your community you live located?
How did Hawaiians travel? Airplanes, cars, trucks, bikes, etc. Look at the next photo and explain how the natives traveled.
Traveling on single and double haul canoes were the main source of travel between islands. All main islands were hten broken down into chunks or Moku. Within the wach Moku individual ahupua'a were created. Ahupua'a were runned by individual families. The chief ultimately rules of each island but gave permission or what native would call it kuleana or the responsibility of individual ahupua'a.
Canoe traveling was the main source of travel and when hawaiian grounded themselves to the different moku of the island they would situate themselves in Ahupua'a also known as communities. Referred to many as Mauka or mountain to Makai ocean. Everything needed could be found from the mountains to the oceans, food sources, animals, fishing, planting, weaving, dancing, everything hawaiians needed could be found within their ahupua'a or community.
Below is a colorful imagine of what a typical ahupua'a could look like.
Running water from the mountains for planting, and drinking. The natives relied on the wild pigs for meat sources. Only hunting at certain times a year to allow the wild animals to reproduce for many years to come. Taking only what the families could eat was a main Kapu in Ahupua'a. Families in other areas that struggled with fish or taro would trade from their ahupua'a to the near by ahupua'a. When items in your ahupua'a was plentiful sharing with the nearby families and ahupua'a so nothing goes wasted.
Cooking was done in under ground ovens or also known as Imu. Unlike the traditional ovens with tempeture control, imu are all made underground with rocks, banana stumps, tileaves, fire woods. Kalo or taro was a main source for starch, poi, fish, and kalua pig.
Fishing by the men brough food from the sea. Squid, and the different fishes in the sea, lobsters, crabs, what ever is found in the ocean could be foudn in a luau.
The men had kuleana or responsibilities as so did the women. Men did most of the hunting, fishing,and farming. While the women weaved hala for sitting mats and blankets, pounded kapa for clothing and cared for the young. Preparing of the food and entertaining while eating. Both women and men partaked with the night festivites celebrating a hard day of work. Each day the same routine would take place everyone had their own kuleana and made sure to perform they work before the nights end.
Within the ahupua'a eating was done together with all members. Dancing hula, eating together, sharing of food and dance, and stories was a main focus of hawaiians. Many hands make light work meaning if everyine helped out work would be easy.
Process
After knowing the main sources of the moku and ahupua'a system. What moku do you live in and what resources are around your community that could have been used?
Your techer will break the class into groups of different backrounds. Everyones opinion matters. The supplies that can be used for this assignment is creativity, and perspective.
Some supplies that are available to use is cardboard boxes, playdoe, clay, paint, dirt, mud, leaves, sand, papers, crayons, and sticks.
With in your group sketch your ideas of an ahupua'a. Remembering from mountain to ocean what can be found to help to create your version or model of an ahupua'a.
Evaluation
1: How many moku does the island of Manokalanipo (Kauai) consist of?
2: Ahupua'a are runned by_____________.
a: Cheifs
b: King and queens
c: individual families
3: Where did the water supply come from?
4: Did hawaiian use a GPS system to travel from moku to moku?
5: What was the main way of travel for native Hawaiians?
Conclusion
After a quick snap shot of living as a native hawaiian. We can now see the simplicity of lifestyle they lived? Sharing, farming, dancing, surfing, playing, hunting, and weaving. Each individual had kuleana and kept to it. When work was completed all played together.
Eating and luau was a staple for native hawaiians. There was no such thing as being to hard to do. Eating was done by all hula, and story telling was done daily between family members.
Sharing of food, dance, and stories was done by all within the moku (district), ahupua'a (community), mokupuni (island).
Credits
"Resource B What Can Go Wrong." Effective Teacher Evaluation (2006): 100-02. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.
"Ahupua`a - Hawaii History - Ahupua`a." Ahupua`a - Hawaii History - Ahupua`a. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Oct. 2015.
"Ahupuaa." Personal interview. 15 Oct. 2015.
"Ahupua'a." Telephone interview. 19 Oct. 2015.