The Bicker Board

[MyManao]

All of the stories have the same evidence - the existence of the islands themselves. How can you know how they were made?

He's an idiot. He knows nothing.

But hey.. let's watch him dig that hole..

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In this case, I want answers.

As with any historical “data” ours is limited by our own evolution in record keeping. But where white men have a spotty few thousands of years before the “facts” become obscure by inefficient methods of keeping them, for many people of the Earth the written word is but a new means of remembering the past. 

For instance, in Hawaii, there were no such records pre-contact, and all we "know," in the white man’s sense of the word, before that fateful day when James Cook sailed his ships over the horizon into these waters is in verse verbally passed from one to another through generations. As such, as in all facets of scientific enquiry into our origins, we are left putting together pieces, interpreting myths. 

Even the life of Jesus, who is so central to many, is but a collection of stories that to this day scholars wrestle with to try and tease out the bare bones, the facts from the embellishments. As is the history of mankind everywhere. And here, again in Hawaii, with contact only being 250 years old, and the Hawaiians oral history embellished in a telling by minds so different than the white listeners, even those are hard to comprehend by many. And yet, for the true scholar, that is the task.

For anyone who asks what is the origin of the Hawaiian’s creation, of the way they have ordered their thoughts and ideas, the record of the events that serve as the story of their beginning, which in essence is your question, the Kumulipo is where everyone must begin to unravel the answer for themselves. And, I would suggest if your question is sincere you begin by reading, and discussing the words as you find them recorded online at Kamehameha Schools website here

If you find having a real in hand copy more preferable, and patronizing Basically Books (where you can order it online here if you no like just drop by) is always a good thing.

And, of course, as you read the Hawaiian's creation chant you may have questions, though I'd recommend, if you really are serious in your quest for knowledge, you address them to a Hawaiian scholar, maybe one at the UH Hilo Department of Hawaiian Studies rather than to anyone here.

Bump