For the last few years I, with the help of others, including Jonathan Jay and the late Jean Ileialoha Beniamina, have been trying to identify the names and locations of the historic land divisions in Kauai Nei used by Hawaiians to sustainably manage land for centuries.Since this spring that work has been expanded to include all the eight main islands in the Hawaiian chain. The Western Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Council has contracted with IslandBreath.org to map the moku (bioregional) and ahupuaa (watershed) divisions throughout the state.On June 1st, 2010, we completed a submission that included the latest version of our maps of Kauai and Niihau. Since then we have been working on Maui Nei (Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe). On August 1st we will deliver that submission with a newly revised version Kauai and Niihau. We are scheduled to submit the Big Island of Hawaii on October 1st 2010, and Oahu on December 1st 2010.We will share the results on this website. An interactive GoogleEarth website embed of each island will be provided as well as a reproducible image.Research indicates that historically there have been changes in the mapping of ahupuaa. It depended not only on the cultural, historic and geographic knowledge of the cartographer, but the motivation behind doing the map.
It is likely that the need to manage resources increased as they were utilized by an expanding population. Certainly, over the centuries how they were managed changed. In time kapu (taboo laws) were enacted and taxes based on ahupuaa resources were collected.
After European contact, in the mid 19th century, the concept private property was accepted and it soon secured a foothold for widespread plantation agriculture. Water was diverted out of the valleys and the ahupua land use concept fell into disuse.
In some places, like Maui’s Hamakuapoko Moku (From the airport near Kahaluhi harbor to Haiku) the land was so aggressively managed by western plantation owners that ditches dams and reservoirs completely erased original streambeds. Hawaiian place names disappeared and subsequent maps of Maui had no Ahupuaa names. Instead we have Sprecklesville and Baldwin Avenue.
I have attempted to create a set of maps that have moku and ahupuaa covering all of each island. I have tried to use the earliest printed source material available as a foundation. I have tried to eliminate the distortions caused by conquest and war.
The boundaries for the land divisions is strictly based on topological features of the land: shorelines, streambeds, and mountain ridges. Like the informer Deep Throat advised Woodward and Bernstein to the bottom of Richard Nixon’s machinations; “Follow the money!” In the case of Ahupuaa that advice would be “Follow the water!”
Note: Depending on the island, it may take several seconds to a minute for the data to load.
The following is the content of the “splash” page for the Kauai Nei GoogleEarth Maps.
Ka Mokupuni O Hawaii
Big Island
AHA KIOLE ADVISORY COMMITTEE
of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council
All rights reserved. © 2010 by the Aha Kiole Advisory Committee & http://www.IslandBreath.org • Revision 1.0.0 on 1 October 2010
These Kauai land identifications were delineated and converted to GIS and GoogleEarth KMZ format by:
Juan Wilson – Architect/Planner with the assistance ofJonathan Jay
Criteria:
Samuel P. Kalama Maps (1837, 1838) of moku and ahupuaa were used as a foundation for these map boundaries. All moku and ahupuaa shown on Kalama maps are included in this project. The source for the 1837 Kalama map was the U.S. Librabry of Congress. The 1838 Kalama map was made available from the British Royal Geographic Society. Note, area names are written without traditional Hawaiian diacritical marks, as was the practice of Kalama. The divisions are based also on traditional descriptions of location, with boundaries modified to follow watershed ridges and streams/rivers from available topography.
Procedure:
After identifying Kalama ahapuaa and moko locarions and names the Aha Kiole Advisary Committee Final Report was compared with State of Hawaii DBEDT GIS files (Streams, water bodies and elevation contours) and added to GoogleEarth aerial photography and 3D elevation data to determine final ahupuaa and moku names locations and boundaries.
Sources:
A two letter code for the sources of each ahupuaa can be seen when clicking within its boundary. They are:
(sk) Samuel P. Kalama “Na Mokupuni O Hawaii Nei” maps printed in 1837 and 1838,
(ak) Aha Kiole Advisory Committee Final Report 12/18/08,
(gs) United States Geological Survey Maps 7.5º topographic maps),
(ab) W. D. Alexander island surveys for the Hawaiian Government.
See also:
Ea O Ka Aina: Na Mokupuni O Maui Nei 8/1/10
For background see:
Ea O Ka Aina: Memories of Ileialoha Beniamina 7/17/10
Ea O Ka Aina: Mokupuni O Hawaii Nei 6/2/10
Ea O Ka Aina: Kauai & Niihau Mokupuni 4/16/10
Ea O Ka Aina: Niihau & Kauai Mokupuni 3/3/10
Ea O Ka Aina: Kauai Aina Mapping 12/21/09
Ea O ka Aina: Kauai on GoogleEarth 12/6/09
Island Breath: Moku-Ahupuaa Divisions of Kauai 12/2/08
Island Breath: Kauai Moku District Meeting 3/11/08
Island Breath: Kauai Sustainability Land Use Plan 11/11/07
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Geopolitica 