FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 19, 2010
COMMUNITY INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN UPCOMING OHA MEETING ON KŪKANILOKO
OHA to hold informational meeting on cultural study of Kūkaniloko
WAHIAWĀ – The Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) is conducting a study of Kūkaniloko, and is encouraging and welcoming the surrounding communities of Wahiawā and central O‘ahu to attend an informational meeting and provide ideas about the site’s importance and management needs. The meeting is free and open to the public on Thursday, July 22, 2010 at Wahiawā District Park in the Hale Ho‘okipa Room from 6 to 8:30 p.m.
OHA beneficiaries, community members and organizations urged OHA to conduct a Traditional Cultural Property Study (TCP study) of Kūkaniloko. A TCP study is a more holistic approach to studying, protecting and perpetuating wahi kapu and wahi pana (sacred and celebrated places) while focusing on why a community values the area. OHA has contracted Hui ‘Imi ‘Ike to perform the study and plans to start documenting collective knowledge of Kūkaniloko through meeting with people in the surrounding communities to gain a sense of Kūkaniloko’s role in Wahiawa, O‘ahu and all of Hawai‘i.
An extremely important cultural site, Kūkaniloko, still survives near the Wahiawā area of O‘ahu. When O‘ahu was a famous and powerful kingdom in these islands from the 1400s until the late 1700s, the area today referred to as the Wahiawā-Schofield–Wheeler area was one of its royal centers, where the ruler and high chiefs often resided. A vital part of this royal center was Kūkaniloko, which had birthing stones where the nobility frequently came to have their children born. This cultural site was one of the most sacred on the island of O‘ahu, famed into the time of Kamehameha and through the 1800s. Today it is little known, and needs better protection.
“Our beneficiaries’ request to do the TCP study was timely and fit into OHA’s vision to develop ways to understand the sacredness and breath of a landscape and its role in informing our collective sense of place. This is especially so in regard to the use of land as a foundation and empowering tool for the heritage of Hawaiian people,” said Kevin Chang, Land Manager of OHA’s Land and Property Management Program, we believe this study will be of great interest to our beneficiaries, cultural practitioners, hula hālau, long term residents, scholars, historians and the greater community alike.”
Contact:
Lloyd Yonenaka
Media Relations and Messaging Manager
Office: 808-594-1982
Cell: 808-754-0078
Email: lloydy@oha.org