length - 4:35

CHANT

O ke au i kahuli wela ka honua
O ke au i kahuli lole ka lani
O ke au i kuka‘iaka ka la
E ho‘omalamalama i ka malama
O ke au o Makali‘i ka po
O ka walewale ho‘okumu honua ia
O ke kumu o ka lipo, i lipo ai......

KEKUNI BLAISDELL: Kanaka Maoli of old were one with everything in their cosmos. And this is clear from the opening lines of he Kumulipo.

So literally those words refer to the turning of the fiery earth against the changing sky.

But the metaphor, of course, is the mating of Wakea, our sky father, with Papa, our earth mother. And out of that mating came and continues to come everything in our cosmos. And we as Kanaka Maoli are just one of the many components of this cosmos.

So we Kanaka Maoli consider everything in our cosmos to be living, communicating, conscious.

And so we communicate with everything and that is why we listen to the wind and the ocean and we observe the clouds and the rainbows, as well as the fish and birds,

And we can communicate with these forces and they guide us in our thinking and in our acts,

And our chants simulate, our chants take on the great forces of our cosmos.

So we Kanaka Maoli are one, we are lokahi with everything in our cosmos, inherently, because we have the same parents and therefore we are all siblings and therefore we must respect, revere, everything in our environment,

And that is why we cannot destroy and pollute, contaminate, because to do this is to hurt ourselves.

So that is the essence of being Kanaka Maoli. And in our thinking and action, the greatest virtue is to maintain proper pono.