Hawaiian religion
[11] The kahuna were well respected, educated individuals that made up a social hierarchy class that served the King and the Courtiers and assisted the Maka'ainana (Common People).
Selected to serve many practical and governmental purposes, Kahuna often were healers, navigators, builders, prophets/temple workers, and philosophers.
Kahuna Kūpaʻiulu of Maui in 1867 described a counter-sorcery ritual to heal someone ill due to hoʻopiʻopiʻo, another’s evil thoughts.
[citation needed] Kapu refers to a system of taboos designed to separate the spiritually pure from the potentially unclean.
Prohibitions included: Hawaiian tradition shows that ʻAikapu was an idea led by the kahuna in order for Wākea, the sky father, to get alone with his daughter, Hoʻohokukalani without his wahine, or wife, Papa, the earth mother, noticing.
Tradition says that mālama ʻāina originated from the first child of Wākea and Hoʻohokukalani being deformed so they buried him in the ground and what sprouted became the first kalo, also known as taro.
Prayer was an essential part of Hawaiian life, employed when building a house, making a canoe, and giving lomilomi massage.
When healers picked herbs for medicine, they usually prayed to Kū and Hina, male and female, right and left, upright and supine.
At some point, a significant influx of Tahitian settlers landed on the Hawaiian islands, bringing with them their religious beliefs.
It is a wonderful thing how the spirits (ʻuhane) of the dead and the ‘angels’ (anela) of the ʻaumākua can possess living persons.
Subsequently, two of his wives, Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani, then the two most powerful people in the kingdom, conferred with the kahuna nui, Hewahewa.
Without the hierarchical system of religion in place, some abandoned the old gods, and others continued with cultural traditions of worshipping them, especially their family ʻaumākua.
Protestant Christian missionaries arrived from the United States from 1820 onwards, and eventually gained great political, moral and economic influence in the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Most of the aliʻi converted to Christianity, including Kaʻahumanu and Keōpūolani, but it took 11 years for Kaʻahumanu to proclaim laws against ancient religious practices: Worshipping of idols such as sticks, stones, sharks, dead bones, ancient gods and all untrue gods is prohibited.
The hula is forbidden, the chant (olioli), the song of pleasure (mele), foul speech, and bathing by women in public places.
Surviving traditions include the worship of family ancestral gods or ʻaumākua, veneration of iwi or bones, and preservation of sacred places or wahi pana.
Hula, at one time outlawed as a religious practice, today is performed in both spiritual and secular contexts.
Charging that the practice disturbed important cultural and religious sites Aluli et al. v. Brown forced the Navy to survey and protect important sites, perform conservation activities, and allow limited access to the island for religious purposes.
[32] Since 2014 an ongoing series of protests and demonstrations have taken place on the Island of Hawaii regarding the choosing of Mauna Kea for the site location of the Thirty Meter Telescope.
Protests began locally within the state of Hawaii on October 7, 2014, but went global within weeks of the April 2, 2015, arrest of 31 people who had blockaded the roadway to keep construction crews off the summit.
