Pana O`ahu: Sacred Stones, Sacred Land, edited and compiled with photographs by Jan Becket and Joseph Singer. Contributions by Kehaunani Cachola-Abad, J Mikilani Ho, and Kawika Makanani; foreword by Marion Kelly. Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8248-1828-8, cloth; xxx + 186 pages, map, photographs, notes, bibliography, glossaries, index. US$42.

The most disturbed of the Hawaiian islands, O`ahu, still retains a large number of cultural and historic sites that provide a measure of the nature, complexity, and accomplishments of Hawaiian society before the beginning of extensive contact with the western world. Through a remarkable collection of photographs and accompanying texts, Pana O`ahu offers a visual reminder of the presence and activities of the Kanaka Maoli or Native Hawaiian people when this and the other islands of the group were theirs alone. Born out of protest against the desecration and destruction done to Hawaiian lands by the construction of the H-3 freeway in the last decades of the twentieth century, this compilation of photographs offers stunning testimony to what has been lost and to what might yet be regained through political resurgence and cultural revitalization. This is a book well worth viewing, reading, and reflecting upon. In addition to the history it tells, this book also suggests other ways of doing history, of reading that part of the past that is imprinted on the terrain by the actions of godly beings or recorded in the ruins of structures that Native Hawaiians built on the land. In short, this book is both about the past [end page 293] and about the ways in which a native past might be more appropriately and accurately appreciated. In my opinion, it succeeds at both levels, and honestly. There is no attempt to hide conflicting evidence from different primary sources; no effort to replace uncertainty about the Hawaiian past with groundless speculation; no aversion to mentioning the hardship visited on O`ahu by the invasion of conquering chiefs from Maui and later Hawai`i in the latter half of the eighteenth century.

The black-and-white photographs taken by Jan Becket and Joseph Singer form the core of this book; they are of sixty heiau or shrines, most having been built between the fifteenth and late-eighteenth centuries. Some of these heiau were extensive edifices on which elaborate ceremonies took place, involving the ali`i nui or highest order of chiefs. Others, according to Marion Kelly, were constructed by the maka`ainana or common people to procure divine assistance in securing the bounty of the land and bordering sea. The more modest sites left behind by the maka`ainana are of special interest to the photographers and authors of this book. Heiau, then, could be places for high ceremony, quiet reflection, religious worship, or ancestral commemoration. Of particular note is Kehaunani Cachola-Abad's point about the great diversity in the size, shape, environmental settings, and functions of heiau`a diversity demonstrated graphically by the photographs. Whatever their specific form and function, however, all heiau were considered sacred sites.

The photographs and accompanying texts are organized under the pre-mahele division of O`ahu into six moku or districts; these, beginning in the southeast and moving in a clockwise direction, were Kona, `Ewa, Wai`anae, Waialua, Ko`olauloa, and Ko`olaupoko. Such an ordering allows the creators of this book to demonstrate the extent of heiau construction on the island, and the disturbance and destruction caused to most of those heiau by massive changes in population, government, commerce, agriculture, and economy over the last two centuries. I found particularly dramatic and moving those photographs that show the damage done to Pu`upahe`ehe`e in Wai`anae, Kahokuwelowelo in Waialua, and Kukuiokane in Ko`olaupoko. This last heiau once stood as the principal shrine of the district, and was clearly visible and imposing from miles away. Pineapple farming in the early decades of the twentieth century and, more recently, the construction of the H-3 freeway have resulted in the near-total demolition of this sacred site. It is now entirely covered by the roadbed of the highway.

Foreign intrusion could also result in the appropriation of sacred Hawaiian sites. The twelve-foot-high standing stone Pohakuloa, once worshipped by Hawaiian women who sought strength and wisdom for their children, was divided and its pieces moved in 1856. One segment was taken to the school for missionary children at Punahou; another was placed at what has now become the Kapi`olani Medical Center for Women and Children. Amidst this largely sad chronicle of colonization, there do survive, and largely intact, heiau such as Ulupo in windward O`ahu, a massive, well-maintained platform and one of the [end page 294] most ancient structures on the island. Heiau defined by natural features rather than by stone walls or high platforms also continue to exist. The pohaku or standing stones that make up the Alala and Wailea heiau in Ko`olaupoko, both associated with fishing activities and themselves worshipped as gods, offer silent testimony to a past that has not been completely forgotten, neglected, or overgrown.

As a non-Hawaiian and with no expertise in Hawaiian history, I am unable to evaluate the quality of the historical essays that preface each chapter. I find them well-written, enlightening, and persuasive. Overall, and impressive as it is, the volume does have some flaws. Not all of the pages are numbered, and the appearance of different fonts and print size in the text is distracting. The archaeological survey of O`ahu heiau carried out by J Gilbert McAllister between 1930 and 1933, and from which this book draws heavily, is given only sporadic mention. Lacking too are biographies or at least more extensive treatment of those Hawaiian historians who acted as "informants" for McAllister, and whose engaging pictures open each of the book`s six main chapters. These shortcomings aside, Pana O`ahu is a remarkable achievement that advances an appreciation of the deeper Hawaiian past, and of the sacred sites and stones from that past that are still very much about and around.

David Hanlon
University of Hawai`i at Manoa