Puako Petroglyphs
Hawaii April Travelog #30
Puakō - Fri, 15 Apr, 2022, 5:30pm
We took it easy around the resort in the morning and the afternoon today in exchange for going out later. Our first plan was to visit Puakō Beach, recommended by semi-local friend, Dave. Then we saw on the map a petroglyphs reserve and decided to visit that first. So the beach would be our second plan. Well, first plan, second act. 😅 Anyway....
The petroglyphs area was near a beach parking lot. At first we wondered, "Is this really the right place?" as all we could see facing away from the beach was The Floor Is Lava.
This is part of what I described as my first impression upon landing in Kona-Kailua earlier in the week. The floor is lava. Here at least it's only a small patch of lava. There are also trees around the edge of it.
A gravel path wound through the piles of lava rock. It all looked... a little too manicured. There were a few stones with etchings on them tilted up on display. An informational sign openly cast doubt on whether these were genuine artifacts or... modern reproductions. I thought about giving up on this park as being hokum- it was clearly a concession created by a high-dollar resort nearby in exchange for permission to build- but then the trail turned sharply and narrowed as it ducked into a thicket of trees.
When I say these trees were thick, I mean they were thick like the stunted trees of the Blight in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Their trunks and branches twisted around in crazy patterns. We had to duck and dodge in many places, and even with many of the trees being scorched by fire and mostly bare, the canopy overhead was so thick we sometimes couldn't tell what color the sky was.
Suddenly the thick stand of stunted trees gave way to a volcanic clearing.
Here the lava rocks were oddly smooth and all tilted in the same direction. Petroglyphs were carved into most of the "tiles" separated by surface cracks. And they all seem oriented toward the Kohala volcano.
What do the sigils mean? The signs say we don't know. That's really sad because it's not like the Hawaiian people disappeared 800 ago. Hawaiians still live in Hawaii. And even the last Hawaiian royal, Queen Lili'uokalani, lived until 1917. Coudln't we, uh, ask Hawaiian people what these Hawaiian symbols mean? Well, we can, but that's where the sad part comes in: they don't really know, either. Through the 19th and 20th centuries foreign powers (Britain, US, and Japan) sought to control Hawaii. One form of control was to replace their education with colonial schools. Even Lili'uokalani learned in a school run by Christian missionaries who sought to suppress her cultural heritage as being primitive and ungodly. Now we're all poorer for it.
Puakō - Fri, 15 Apr, 2022, 5:30pm
We took it easy around the resort in the morning and the afternoon today in exchange for going out later. Our first plan was to visit Puakō Beach, recommended by semi-local friend, Dave. Then we saw on the map a petroglyphs reserve and decided to visit that first. So the beach would be our second plan. Well, first plan, second act. 😅 Anyway....
The petroglyphs area was near a beach parking lot. At first we wondered, "Is this really the right place?" as all we could see facing away from the beach was The Floor Is Lava.
This is part of what I described as my first impression upon landing in Kona-Kailua earlier in the week. The floor is lava. Here at least it's only a small patch of lava. There are also trees around the edge of it.
A gravel path wound through the piles of lava rock. It all looked... a little too manicured. There were a few stones with etchings on them tilted up on display. An informational sign openly cast doubt on whether these were genuine artifacts or... modern reproductions. I thought about giving up on this park as being hokum- it was clearly a concession created by a high-dollar resort nearby in exchange for permission to build- but then the trail turned sharply and narrowed as it ducked into a thicket of trees.
When I say these trees were thick, I mean they were thick like the stunted trees of the Blight in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Their trunks and branches twisted around in crazy patterns. We had to duck and dodge in many places, and even with many of the trees being scorched by fire and mostly bare, the canopy overhead was so thick we sometimes couldn't tell what color the sky was.
Suddenly the thick stand of stunted trees gave way to a volcanic clearing.
Here the lava rocks were oddly smooth and all tilted in the same direction. Petroglyphs were carved into most of the "tiles" separated by surface cracks. And they all seem oriented toward the Kohala volcano.
What do the sigils mean? The signs say we don't know. That's really sad because it's not like the Hawaiian people disappeared 800 ago. Hawaiians still live in Hawaii. And even the last Hawaiian royal, Queen Lili'uokalani, lived until 1917. Coudln't we, uh, ask Hawaiian people what these Hawaiian symbols mean? Well, we can, but that's where the sad part comes in: they don't really know, either. Through the 19th and 20th centuries foreign powers (Britain, US, and Japan) sought to control Hawaii. One form of control was to replace their education with colonial schools. Even Lili'uokalani learned in a school run by Christian missionaries who sought to suppress her cultural heritage as being primitive and ungodly. Now we're all poorer for it.