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 TRADE - Ku'ai Aku Ku'ai Mai Hawaii
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 The
Hawaiian island chain is the most geographically isolated archipelago in
the world. By the late 1700s, however, the Hawaiian Islands had become one
of the most important stopping points in the Northern Pacific. Hawai'i served
as a midway point for trading vessels involved in the China Trade network
among Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, California, and China. Merchant ships
sailed to Alaska and the Pacific Northwest of America in search of sea otter,
whose fur was highly prized by the Chinese. Once stocked with furs, these
ships would sail for Canton to trade for Chinese teas, silks, and porcelains.
After weeks or months at sea, Hawai'i was a welcomed site-a "port of
call" for ship captains seeking provisions and respite for their crews.
Stopping in Hawai'i they traded for fresh water and many foods such as pigs,
chickens, sweet potato, fish, bananas, coconuts, and other fruits. They
also traded for Hawaiian-made items, including useful items such as cordage
for repairing their ships.
Ko'i or adzes were the traditional Hawaiian tool for wood working. It was used for cutting trees, carving canoes, surfboards, calabashes, and temple images. It was also used to make house poles and the 'ö'ö digging stick. The dark dense stone called basalt was most often used for making ko'i. These stone ko'i were lashed to wood handles. Ko'i were also made from wood, shell, coral, and coconuts. Foreigners tried to trade iron ko'i but Hawaiians preferred to make their own. They made them to fit on the same wood handles they used for their stone, shell, and coral ko'i. These new ko'i were useful, but the olds one still were very valuable for making many things. When foreigners first arrived, iron was so valuable that in 1787 men on the ship named Imperial Eagle were able to trade a nail for a whole pig. This was a very good trade for the captain. He could feed many of his men for the price of one nail. However, what was valuable in Hawaii wasn't necessarily valuable other places. When Ka'iana, the first Hawaiian chief to travel to China, wanted to buy a bag of oranges from a Chinese street merchant, he gave him a nail. The merchant rejected the nail and Ka'iana's friend had to offer the merchant something else instead. Perhaps one of the trade items most valued by Hawaiian ali'i was ivory. The highest ranking chiefs wore lei niho palaoa-necklaces with a pendant made from a sperm whale tooth. The ivory tooth was carved in the shape of a tongue. These lei signified the absolute authority of the wearer to speak. The lei or necklace portion was made of braided human hair collected from family members. The lei provided the wearer with mana or power from his or her ancestors. Hawaiians valued many trade items and named some foreign ships on the basis of the trade items they brought. The Queen Charlotte, one of the first vessels to arrive after Captain Cook, came in 1786. Among its cargo were glass beads. Hawaiians named this ship, Olo, the Hawaiian word for bead. Another ship was called Kanikani, meaning sound, because of the noise made when the knives traded on board were opened. Yet another ship was named Lõkea for the special type of knife brought for trade. Hawaiians assigned Hawaiian names to many foreign trading ships instead of using foreign names. The ali'i also renamed the ships they purchased for their use in the sandalwood trade and to travel between the various Hawaiian islands. With the increase in trade ventures throughout the Pacific, Hawai'i's role as a "port of call" became more and more important. Hawaiians became more experienced at trade with foreigners. No longer could a nail be traded for one pig, but instead required three spikes or an entire iron hoop. Moreover, savvy sea captains, knowing they would have to return again and again to the Hawaiian islands, left plants and animals on the islands, hoping they would be available for them on their return. This is how goats, sheep, cattle, turkey, and many fruits and vegetables found their way to Hawai`i. While much of what we see around us today has been introduced to Hawai'i through trade, so too have many cultural items from Hawai'i found their way to far reaches of the world. Beautiful feathered helmets and capes, as well as lei niho palaoa, once worn by Hawaiian ali'i, are in far away places such as England, Germany, Switzerland, and New Zealand. They stand as vivid reminders of Hawai'i's importance to the Western world in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century. Perhaps, more importantly, they signify the lasting mana of the Hawaiian people. |
Copyright © 2001 New Trade Winds |
Hawaiians
had a long history of trade before foreigners arrived. They traded amongst
themselves within their ahupua'a, as well as with people in other ahupua'a
and on other islands. What would foreigners have that would be of value
to Hawaiians? Of particular interest to Hawaiians were new materials they
could use for making tools, clothes, and other everyday items. Iron, cloth,
and new plants and animals were items foreigners often traded. Iron was
valuable because it could be made into traditional Hawaiian tools like
fishhooks and adzes. Cloth was used for bedding and making malo, pä'ü,
and foreign styles of clothing. Decorative objects like beads also were
often traded.
Hawaiian
cloth was made mostly from the bark of the wauke tree or shrub. The finest
kapa was used for malo and pä'u, kïhei or cloaks, and for important
ceremonies. Kapa moe or bed coverings were thicker. Kapa was also used
for mats. Some kapa was highly decorated. Foreigners brought cloth from
China, India, and other places to trade for fresh water and food. Although
some Hawaiians acquired imported cloth and pieces of clothing, many women
continued to make kapa. They were very creative and made many new decorative
kapa styles. The making of kapa largely ended about 1860 when most clothing
in Hawai'i was made from foreign cloth.
Hawaiians
valued ivory and beads made of glass that were traded by foreigners. The
ali'i used theses beads in making the lei for the lei niho palaoa. How
might the use of beads instead of human hair affect the mana of these
necklaces? As more and more foreign ships stopped in Hawai'i, they brought
more and more items like beads and ivory to trade. Before foreigners came,
ivory came from beached whales. It was scarce and belonged to the highest
chief in the ahupua'a where the whale died. Foreigners brought lots of
ivory, some from whales. Other ivory came from walruses and elephants.
This foreign ivory changed the value and meaning of the lei niho palaoa
tradition. It was no longer worn only by ali'i and no longer represented
the exclusive right to rule and speak. Some even wore lei niho palaoa
as an ornament.