Aloha kākou!
Moʻolelo by Kauwila
In celebration of Kamehameha Day we dedicate this hat and moʻolelo.
Kamehameha I has many monikers which appear in moʻolelo and mele (songs). One of those names is “Amamalua” which could be interpreted as “The Double Sacrifice.” Amamalua is a traditional ceremony to “shake up the system.” Kamehameha I with some guidance from his kahuna made the surreptitious move to sacrifice Imakakoloa at the same time as Kiwalao (who had higher rank) was offering up a pig. This is the first human sacrifice Kamehameha I made and activated Ku who would later become his war-god. The Amamalua was one of the key ceremonies that activated his forceful uniting of the Hawaiian Islands. When the sacrificing was completed, the body of Imakakakoloa was returned to Kiwalao. In this way, the ceremony and Kamehameha became named Amamalua. In this telling of the moʻolelo of Kamehameha, the nights that the Amamalua ceremony are used are omitted. This portion of Ka Moʻolelo Hawaii (The History of Hawaii) was published months after the coup d'état of Queen Liliuokalani in the Hawaiian Kingdom.
In the moʻolelo of Makalei which takes place in Kawainui, Oahuakakuhihewa, the ceremony is celestialized. The ceremony pops up in a chant done by Haumea for her grandson Kahinihiniula, the younger brother of Kamapuaa. Haumea is sprinkling special water into the eyes of Kahinihiniula so that he could see and understand star practices while looking down into a ipu (gourd) Kiloʻopua of Lono. The mele suggests, the ceremony is done on two nights of the “kauila kapu”, a kapu for Ku and for Hua to whom Hoʻohokulani’s kapu is broken.
To read more about these Moʻolelo in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi check out these Newspaper Articles:
Kamehameha I:
Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Volume VI, Number 7, 16 February 1867
Nupepa Puka La Kuokoa, Volume I, Number 160, 31 October 1893, Pg. 1.
Makalei:
Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Volume LXII, Number 20, 17 May 1923, Pg.3.
Ka Nupepa Kuokoa, Volume LXII, Number 21, 24 May 1923, Pg. 7.
To celebrate Kamehameha Day, weʻre releasing a black Kamehameha 9FIFTY snapback featuring black trucker mesh around the sides and back, along with white embroidery on the front, black and white embroidery on the side and back, and a white snap enclosure to finish the look.
