Volcano Watch: ʻAilaʻau or Kualoloa? Hawaiian chants suggest lava flow name change
Native Hawaiian oral traditions record a rich history of the changing volcanic landscape in Hawai‘i. Interweaving cultural knowledge with scientific disciplines can provide a more complete understanding of past events, including the largest known lava flow eruption of Kilauea.
During the 1970s, Robin Holcomb conducted his doctoral field work and research on Kilauea while working at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. His work included mapping a series of lava flows (now called a flow field) that began erupting in the early-1400s from a vent near the eastern end of what is now Kilauea Iki crater, in the summit region of Kilauea volcano. Now, we know that the flow field was active for about 60 years and traveled in a northeast direction (as well as a small south branch), covering most of the Puna District north of the East Rift Zone of Kilauea. Holcomb referred to this flow field as “‘Aila‘au” after a reference he found in William D. Westervelt‘s “Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes,” published in 1916.
In ‘Olelo Hawai‘i (the Native Hawaiian language), ‘Aila‘au is to “consume trees.” Trees can be consumed by rot, or can topple during windstorms, lightning strikes, floods, and lava flows. ‘Aila‘au is also thought, by some, to have been an elemental force associated with volcanic activity prior to the arrival of Pelehonuamea (Pele of the reddish earth) in the Hawaiian Islands.
Holcomb noted that his choice of ‘Aila‘au as a name was provisional given that he only found it in one reference, and he was under a publication deadline. Hawaiian language sources during the last 40 years have rapidly become more available. Recently, researchers have been reminded of “Kualoloa,” a chant that accurately describes the emplacement of the flow field that Holcomb named ‘Aila‘au.
The chant “Kua loloa,” published in 1915 by Nathaniel Emerson in “Pele and Hiiaka, A Myth From Hawaii,” describes an eruption that began in the upland (ma uka) portions of the ahupua‘a (Native Hawaiian land division) of Kea‘au. The chant describes a broad geographic area affected by the eruption. The forests of Pana‘ewa and ‘Ola‘a were destroyed, with “a blanket of smoke” covering Puna all the way to ‘Apua.
Much of the District was devastated, according to the chant, which documents Pele destroying forests belonging to her sister, Hi‘iaka, as a result of a serious misunderstanding between them. Examining familiar place names in the chant, compared to the geographic extent of the flow field mapped by Holcomb, suggests that the chant chronicles the lava flows that he had named ‘Aila‘au. However, there is no mention of ‘Aila‘au in the Kualoloa chant.
The upland border of Kea‘au ahupua‘a, where the Kualoloa chant notes the eruption began, is near the eastern end of Kilauea Iki, where the mapped vent of the lava flows is located. The chant describes Pele moving northeast into Puna, through ‘Ola‘a and Pana‘ewa, following the mapped lava flow paths. A relatively small flow moved southward from the vent to ‘Apua, just as the chant implies.
A modern understanding of the timing of this eruption and its geographic extent, as well as more detailed knowledge of Native Hawaiian traditional place names, allows us to correlate the 15th-century eruption to the Kualoloa chant. This is an example illustrating the complex relationship between Native Hawaiian oral traditions and specific volcanic events and lava flows as documented in the geologic record.
Native Hawaiian oral traditions and scientific papers have different intended audiences and use their own vocabularies. Events described in chants are not “time-stamped,” but careful study of them, together with knowledge of place names, and clues from scientific evidence of natural phenomena, sometimes allow us to construct correlations between seemingly disparate sources of knowledge. What Holcomb had provisionally referred to as the ‘Aila‘au flow field, we now know should be labeled in future publications the Kualoloa flow field.