[1] Geologic evidence such as core samples containing coral suggest that Kawainui was a wide, shallow bay in prehistory.

[2] Its water content peaked c. 1500 BCE, at which point a barrier reef likely grew between the bay and the Pacific Ocean, but did not fully separate the two.

[9] In 1848, the Great Māhele and the growing economic importance of Honolulu drove much of the native Hawaiian population away from Kawainui and the surrounding area.

Crops including ʻawa, wauke, and sweet potatoes continued to be grown in the area at this time.

Cultivatable areas of the valley floor around the fishpond, which were gradually becoming a marsh, were used as a site for loʻi kalo.

[12] After Kalama died in 1870, her land was sold to American lawyer Charles Coffin Harris, including Kawainui Fishpond which was still intact at the time.

[10] During World War II, Kawainui was used as a training area by the United States Armed Forces, which leased it from Kaneohe Ranch.

[10] Kawainui is a habitat for native Hawaiian water birds including the four endangered bird species ae’o, ʻalae ʻula, ʻalae kea, and koloa,[19] for which the United States Fish and Wildlife Service identified it as a "primary habitat".

The traditional story states that Kauluakalana brought the mud from a foreign place and put it in Kawainui Fishpond, and that it was eaten by the servants and warriors of Kamehameha I during his invasion of Oʻahu in 1795.