Canoe and the Forest | He Makeʻe Waʻa

Plants Used In Canoe
Construction

Before the arrival of Westerners in Hawaiʻi, tools, implements, and canoes were made from materials obtained from the natural environment, including wood and other plant materials, stone, bone, and shell.

Many of the plants used in canoe construction were native to Hawaiʻi. Some were endemic, meaning they evolved in Hawaiʻi and are found naturally nowhere else, while others were indigenous, meaning they also occur naturally elsewhere in the Pacific. Plants introduced by early Polynesian settlers were equally important in canoe construction.

Most native woods used for canoe construction were harvested from the forests and other natural environments where they grew. However, some native plants were deliberately cultivated. Many Polynesian-introduced plants were cultivated at lower elevations, often near settlements, although some also became established in forests.

The Canoe Begins In The Forest

The Hawaiian Islands, isolated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, provided a unique environment for the evolution of plants and animals. Before the arrival of humans, plants and animals reached these islands through natural means, including seeds and spores carried by the wind, seeds transported by ocean currents or birds, and animals capable of flying or rafting across the ocean.

Over millions of years, many of these early colonizing species evolved into forms found nowhere else in the world. The resulting ecosystems were characterized by complex relationships among plants, animals, and the physical environment in which they lived.

In the traditional Hawaiian worldview, the upper forests, particularly the wao akua (realm of the gods), were sacred places where people generally did not live permanently. They entered these forests for specific purposes and were expected to do so with respect and humility.

Hawaiians recognized the vital relationship between the forests, rainfall, and the fresh water that sustained life. Within this worldview, the forest was also understood to possess a collective consciousness and spiritual presence. Disrespect toward the forest and its spiritual nature could bring consequences, either immediately or over time, to the people living makai (seaward) of it.

Indigenous and Endemic Plants Used in the Construction of the Hawaiian Canoe

Koa

The Koa is endemic to Hawaii and is used to build the Ka'ele (Hull) of the canoe. It takes the Koa some 150 to 200 years to reach the size sufficient to make a 40 ft canoe.

Kāwaʻu

Kawa'u is indigenous to Hawaii and also found in Tahiti. It was used to make the mo'o (gunwale) of the canoe.

Hoawa

Ho'awa is endemic to Hawaii and was used to make the mo'o (gunwale) of the canoe

'Ōhi'a

ʻŌhi'a is endemic to Hawaii and is the most common native tree. It is the first tree to grow on fresh lava flows. The 'Ōhi'a was used to make the mo'o (gunwale) on the canoe and 'Iako for large double canoes.

Naio

Naio is indigenous to Hawaii and is also found in the Cook Islands of the South Pacific. It is used to construct the mo'o (gunwale) of the canoe.

Wiliwili

Wiliwili is endemic to Hawaii and is a very light wood. It was used to make the ama (outrigger float) for the canoe.

Āhakea

Ahakea was used for making mo'o and kupe. When dried, it had a yellow color to it. Ahakea is rare in the wild.

Kolea

Kolea was used in the construction of the mo'o

Koa Tree

The native trees and plants of Hawaiʻi provided canoe builders with materials, some of which were unavailable in their ancestral homelands. These materials, together with the plants brought by early Polynesian settlers, allowed Hawaiian craftsmen to adapt traditional canoe-building techniques and develop new methods of construction that contributed to the distinctive design of the Hawaiian canoe.

By far the most favored wood for constructing the hull of a traditional Hawaiian canoe was koa. The exceptional size and abundance of koa trees in certain Hawaiian forests allowed canoe builders to construct large hulls from a single log, with some reaching 60 to 70 feet in length. Historical accounts also describe exceptional Hawaiian canoes exceeding 100 feet, although these were not necessarily made from koa.

In 1792, Archibald Menzies., Botanist on Captain Vancouver's ship, described a trip into the Koa forests in the ahupua'a of Kealakekua in South Kona, Hawai'i Island.

"The largest trees that compose the vast forest, I have found a new species of minosa (Koa). I measured two of them near our path, one of which was seventeen feet and the other about eighteen feet in circumference, with straight trunks forty or fifty feet high. As we advanced the wood was more crowded with these trees than lower down where both sides of the path had been thinned of them by the inhabitants".

Introduced Canoe Plants

The early Polynesian settlers brought plants and animals that were essential to establishing their communities in Hawaiʻi. These introductions, together with the clearing of some native forests and the conversion of certain wetlands to agricultural use, contributed to significant changes in the Hawaiian landscape.

Over generations, Hawaiian communities adapted their inherited agricultural knowledge and developed resource-management practices suited to the islands' diverse environments. These practices reflected a relationship between people and the natural world that became a defining characteristic of Hawaiian culture.

Kukui

The Kukui is found throughout the tropical Pacific but not on the Asiatic continent. Because the seeds/nuts of this tree do not float nor are they resistant to salt water, it seems certain that the early settlers brought the Kukui to Hawaii. The Kukui was easily worked wood and favored for making small canoes, under 15 ft. It was also used for making the kupe. The nuts were used for light Thus the English name Candle Nut Tree.

Ulu

The Ulu, or Breadfruit tree, while sometimes used in the construction of Kaele (hulls), Mo'o, and Kupe, was valued more for its fruit. The round fruit provided a very nutritional food and was made into a form of poi. The sap of the Ulu tree was also used to create a caulking to patch cracks in the canoe hull and fill gaps between parts of the canoe.

Niu

Niu is a tropical tree found from Madagascar in the Indian Ocean and throughout the islands of the Pacific. The Coconut was used as food and the fiber of the coconut used to make cordage and used in making calking to seal cracks in the canoe hull. Niu was so valued that to cut down a Niu tree was considered a declaration of war.

Hau

Hau is native to most tropical countries in the Pacific but brought to Hawaii by the first settlers. Because of its usefulness it was a serious offence to cut any Hau without first obtaining permission from a Chief. Hau was used to make the 'Iako and ama of the canoe along with the spars and mast for the sail. It also was used in making fire.

Settlers Become Hawaiian

Hau

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