Kumulipo

In Hawaiian religion, the Kumulipo is the creation chant, first recorded by Westerners in the 18th century. It also includes a genealogy of the members of Hawaiian royalty and was created in honor of Kalaninuiamamao and passed down orally to his daughter Alapaiwahine.

Creation chant

In the ''Kumulipo'' the world was created over a cosmic night. This is not just one night, but many nights over time. The ancient Hawaiian '' kahuna'' and priests of the Hawaiian religion would recite the ''Kumulipo'' during the ''makahiki'' season, honoring the god Lono. In 1779, Captain James Cook arrived in Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawaii during the season and was greeted by the Hawaiians reciting the ''Kumulipo''. Some stories say Cook was mistaken for Lono, because of the type of sails on his ship and his pale skintone.
In 1889, King Kalākaua printed a sixty-page pamphlet of the ''Kumulipo''. Attached to the pamphlet was a 2-page paper on how the chant was originally composed and recited.

Years later Queen Liliuokalani described the chant as a prayer of the development of the universe and the ancestry of the Hawaiians. Liliuokalani translated the chant under house arrest in Iolani Palace. The translation was published in 1897, then republished by Pueo Press in 1978.

The ''Kumulipo'' is a total of 2,102 lines long, in honor of Kalaninuiamamao, who created peace for all when he was born. There was a lot of fighting between his ʻI and Keawe family, who were cousins so his birth stopped the two from feuding. The ''Kumulipo'' is a cosmogonic genealogy, which means that it relates to the stars and the moon. Out of the 2102 lines, it has 16 "wā" which means era or age. In each ''wā'', something is born whether it is a human, plant, or creature.

Divisions

The ''Kumulipo'' is divided into sixteen ''wā'', sections. The first seven ''wā'' fall under the section of ''pō'' (darkness), the age of spirit. The Earth may or may not exist, but the events described do not take place in a physical universe. The words show the development of life as it goes through similar stages as a human child. All plants and animals of sea and land, earth and sky, male and female are created. Eventually, it leads to early mammals.

These are the first twelve lines of the ''Kumulipo'', in Hawaiian, in Liliuokalani's English translation and in Bastian's German translation. Two other significant English translations - Rock's translation of Bastian and Beckwith's translation - appear in Beckwith's 1951 book ''The Kumulipo''.

:

The second section, containing the remaining nine wā, is ''ao'' and is signaled by the arrival of light and the gods, who watch over the changing of animals into the first humans. After that is the complex genealogy of Kalaninuiamamao that goes all the way to the late 18th century.

Births in each ''wā''

The births in each age include:Hawaiʻi: Center of the Pacific, Lilikalā Kameʻeleihiwa. ''Kumulipo''.
# In the first ''wā'', the sea urchins and ''limu'' (seaweed) were born. The ''limu'' was connected through its name to the land ferns. Some of these ''limu'' and fern pairs include: ʻEkaha and ʻEkahakaha, Limu ʻAʻalaʻula and ʻalaʻalawainui mint, Limu Manauea and Kalo Maunauea upland taro, Limu Kala and ʻakala berry. These plants were born to protect their sea cousins.
# In the second ''wā'', 73 types of fish. Some deep sea fish include ''Naiʻa'' (porpoise) and the ''Mano'' (shark). Also reef fish, including ''Moi'' and ''Weke''. Certain plants that have similar names are related to these fish and are born as protectors of the fish.
# In the third ''wā'', 52 types of flying creatures, which include birds of the sea such as ʻIwa (frigate or man-of-war bird), the Lupe, and the Noio (Hawaiian noddy tern). These sea birds have land relatives, such as '' Io'' (hawk), '' Nene'' (goose), and ''Pueo'' (owl). In this wā, insects were also born, such as Peʻelua (caterpillar) and the Pulelehua (butterfly).
# In the fourth ''wā'', the creepy and crawly creatures are born. These include ''Honu'' (sea turtle), ''Ula'' (lobster), ''Moʻo'' (lizards), and ''Pololia'' (jellyfish). Their cousins on land include ''Kuhonua'' (maile vine) and ''ʻOheʻohe'' bamboo.
# In the fifth ''wā'', ''Kalo'' (taro) is born.
# In the sixth ''wā'', ''Uku'' (flea) and the ''ʻIole'' (rat) are born.
# In the seventh ''wā'', ''ʻĪlio'' (dog) and the ''Peʻapeʻa'' (bat) are born.
# In the eighth ''wā'', the four divinities are born: Laʻilaʻi (Female), Kiʻi (Male), Kāne (God), Kanaloa (Octopus), respectively.
# In the ninth ''wā'', Laʻilaʻi takes her eldest brother Kiʻi as a mate and the first humans are born from her brain.
# In the tenth ''wā'', Laʻilaʻi takes her next brother Kāne as a mate after losing interest in Kiʻi, she then had four of Kāne's children: Laʻiʻoloʻolo, Kamahaʻina (Male), Kamamule (Male), Kamakalua (Female). Laʻilaʻi soon returned to Kiʻi and three children are born: Haʻi(F), Haliʻa(F), and Hākea(M). Having been born during their mothers being with two men they become "Poʻolua" and claim the lineage of both fathers.
# The eleventh ''wā'' pays homage to the Moa.
# The twelfth ''wā'' is very important to Hawaiians because it honors the lineage of Wākea, whose son Hāloa is the ancestor of all people.
# The thirteenth ''wā'' is also very important to Hawaiians because it honors the lineage of Hāloa's mother Papahānaumoku.
# In the fourteenth ''wā'' Liʻaikūhonua mates with Keakahulihonua, and have their child Laka.
# The fifteenth ''wā'' refers to Haumeanuiʻāiwaiwa and her lineage, it also explains Māui's adventures and siblings.
# The sixteenth ''wā'' recounts all of Māui's lineage for forty-four generations, all the way down to the ''Moʻi'' of Māui, Piʻilani.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, anthropologists Adolf Bastian and Roland Burrage Dixon interpreted a recurring verse of the Kumulipo as describing the octopus as the sole survivor of a previous age of existence. In her 1951 translation of the Kumulipo, ethnographer Martha Warren Beckwith provided a different translation of the verse, although she does discuss the possibility that "octopus" is the correct translation and describes the god Kanaloa.

Comparative literature

Comparisons may be made between marital partners (husband and wife often have synonymous names), between genealogical and flora-fauna names, and in other Polynesian genealogies.

Cultural impact

The supermassive black hole M87*, captured by the Event Horizon Telescope, was informally given the Hawaiian name "Pōwehi", a poetic description of generative darkness or the spirit world taken from the ''Kumulipo''.

In 2009, the poet Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio performed her poem, Kumulipo, at a poetry event at the White House.

Notes

References

{{Reflist

External links

The Kumulipo
Another copy of "The Kumulipo" with commentary and translations by Martha Warren Beckwith.

The Kumulipo: a Hawaiian creation chant
Another online copy of the Beckwith book, Paperback edition 1981. University of Hawaii Press
Into the Source
Article about Kumulipo translations by Shannon Wianecki. '' Maui No Ka 'Oi Magazine'' Volume 12 Number 6 (November 2008).

Hawaiian mythology
Creation myths