Makuʻu/Moamoa
At the stern of the traditional Hawaiian canoe is a small projection extending beyond the kupe hope, or stern end cover. On the completed canoe this projection is generally known as the moamoa. Although small and easily overlooked, its history reaches back to the first shaping of the canoe in the forest and provides an excellent example of how the practical construction of the Hawaiian canoe became intertwined with language, tradition, and moʻolelo.
When a koa tree was felled and the first rough shaping of the hull began in the upland forest, the canoe carvers did not immediately shape the ends into their finished form. At the stern they deliberately left a heavy neck or knob known as the makuʻu. A similar knob could also be left at the bow. These projections provided strong attachment points for the ropes needed to control and haul the massive unfinished hull from the mountain toward the sea.
A particularly important Hawaiian-language account published in 1922 makes the relationship even clearer. In describing traditional canoe construction, the writer explains that while the canoe was in the mountain, this portion at the stern was called the makuʻu. When the canoe reached the shore, the terminology changed to moamoa.
Older sources also show that Hawaiian terminology was not completely uniform. Nathaniel Emerson, in his notes to Malo, recorded makuʻu and moamoa as alternate names and noted still another term (pau-akaaka) was used on Molokaʻi. The words therefore probably varied somewhat according to place, time, and the traditions of individual canoe builders. Nevertheless, the distinction between the mountain makuʻu and the finished moamoa is strongly supported by the Hawaiian-language canoe-building accounts.
Paʻao and the Moamoa
The moamoa also appears in one of the old traditions concerning the famous kahuna Paʻao who voyaged to Hawaiʻi in the 1300ʻs..
An Hawaiian-language account published in 1865 tells of Paʻao departing Kahiki on his voyage to Hawaiʻi. Among those wishing to accompany him were several kāula, or prophets. Paʻao tested them by challenging them to leap from a high cliff to his departing canoe. One after another attempted the leap and fell to their deaths.
After Paʻao's canoe had sailed so far from shore that little more than its sails could be seen, another prophet, Makuakaumana, reached the cliff and called after him.
Paʻao heard the distant voice and asked who was calling. Makuakaumana answered that he was a prophet and wished to accompany the voyage.
Paʻao told him that the canoe was already full, but there was still one place remaining:
on the momoa. Makuakaumana answered that the place was his. Paʻao commanded him to leap.
Unlike those who had attempted the feat before him, Makuakaumana flew from the cliff, reached the canoe, and landed upon the momoa at the stern. He then grasped the stern portion of the canoe and was accepted aboard. Paʻao and his company continued across the ocean and eventually reached Hawaiʻi.
This account is important because it shows that momoa/moamoa was already understood as a recognizable place at the extreme stern of a completed voyaging canoe. The story also distinguishes it from the manu hope, indicating that the moamoa was not simply another name for the stern manu but a separate projection associated with it.
The Paʻao story adds another dimension to this small canoe feature. The moamoa is literally the last place on the canoe—the small space extending beyond the stern when every other place is occupied. This idea survived in Hawaiian proverbial language. The expression “Eia nō kahi koe o ka moamoa” refers to the little remaining place that can still be offered when everything else appears full.
The moamoa therefore carries both a physical and cultural history.