Kahu Kāhealani with her daughter and granddaughter beside a tide pool

Moʻokūʻauhau

The lineage

In Hawaiʻi you are not what you claim. You are who you can name.

A genealogy is a chant, not a certificate.

Moʻokūʻauhau is the Hawaiian recitation of descent — the line of people through whom something reached you. It is how authority was established, and it is checkable. Here is hers.

At the kiʻi palisade of Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau

Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau

These photographs were made at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau — the place of refuge.

Anyone who reached it was absolved and could return home. That is what the practice is for.

Learn it from inside the line.