Hawaiian Lands

Hawaiian Lands

I attempt to answer the following questions with this essay. How was Hawaii’s environment unique? In what ways were the carrying capacities of Hawaii’s lands increased by the Hawaiian people? How do the western and Hawaiian views of land differ?

Hawaii’s environment was unique in its geographical location and a self sustaining ecological system. Comprised of volcanic islands and surrounded by the sea, it was abundant with natural resources. Orographic rainfall particular to high volcanic islands created a continuous cycle of rain. Water could then be procured from dike rock, porous volcanic rock that stored water. Other sources of potable water could be procured from watersheds, forested areas of land and from the basal water lens using artesian wells (Kelly 1989).

Subsistence was provided through the extensive cultivation of both arable and not so arable land, and from the resources attained from the sea. The carrying capacities of Hawaii’s lands were increased by the Hawaiian people using three main technological achievements: “(a) walled fishponds, (b) terraced pond-fields with their irrigation systems, and (c) systematic dry-land cultivation organized by vegetation zones.” (Kelly 1989) The following paragraphs describe these systems in short detail.

A natural food chain can be expected to produce a ratio of 10:1 in terms of the conversion of one link by another (MacGinitie 1935, 1949). Hawaiians utilized the herbivore link in the food chain in cultivating fish. Grey mullet and milk fish were the herbivorous fish of choice. The fish fed directly on the rich growth of algae in walled seashore fishponds and resulted in providing man with protein 100 times more efficient than the natural food chain (Hiatt 1947).

Stoned-faced, terraced, agricultural pond fields were built and used by Hawaiians for cultivating wetland taro. The pond fields were irrigated by ditches fed by streams originating from the mountains (Nakuina 1894). Hawaiians used loose-rock dams to control the amount of water and the speed of flow into successive terraces. These pond fields were described as luxurious, very extensive, neatly laid out, and ingenious in that the most distant fields were supplied with stream water (Menzies 1920). These pond fields were also used to raise freshwater fish and were 10 to 15 times more productive than dry land taro gardens (Kelly 1989).

Systematic dry land cultivation was used in vegetation zones, areas where a crop would grow best. The Kona Garden System utilized this method of cultivation in areas that didn’t receive irrigation from streams (Kelly 1983). Although it yielded much of the same crops, it had to lay fallow longer than wet gardens (Kelly 1989).

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