Akahi-a-Kuleana, High Chiefess of Waipio

Akahiakuleana was a commoner who was the mother of King Umi. Yet her own inherited lineage was very much ali'i-related.

Sometimes reffered to as Akahi-Kule'ana or Akahi 'a Kuleana. Lptm

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Liloa 12th Alii Aimoku lusted after Akahi 'a Kule'ana, who was a commoner, and she gave birth to Umi-a-Liloa. She was also known as Akahi-O-Kuleana.

Liloa's first wife was Pinea or Piena, a Maui chieftess, with whom he had a son, Hakau, and a daughter, Kapukini. Later in life, while travelling near the borders of the Hamakua and Hilo districts, (The legend says that he had been to Koholalele in Hamakua to consecrate the Heiau called Manini, and that, passing from there, he stopped at Kaawikiwiki, and at the gulch of Hoea, near Kealakaha, he fell in with Ahakiakuleana.)

He spied her and he became deeply enamoured,and he seduced her, and the fruit of which liaison was a son. She named him Umi, and who afterwards played so great a role in the annals of Hawaii. The mother of Umi was named Akahiakuleana. She has often been spoken of as a person of no aliiblood, but the fact is that she was of the same alii line as Liloa himself. She was a lineal descendant in the sixth generation from Kalahuimoku, the son of Kanipahu, with Hualani of the Nanaulu-Maweke line, and haft-brother to Kalapana, the direct ancestor of Liloa.

When parting from Akahiakuleana, Liloa gave her the ivory clasp (Palaoa) of his necklace, his feather wreath (Lei-hulu), and his Malo or waist-cloth, [One legend has it that, instead of the Lei, Liloa gave her his Laau-palau, a short instrument for cutting taro tops, a dagger] and told her that when the child was grown up, if it was a boy, to send him with these token to Waipio, and he would acknowledge him. The boy grew up with his mother and her husband, a fine, hearty, well-developed lad, foremost in all sports and athletic games of the time, but too idle and lazy in works of husbandry to fuit his plodding stepfather. When Umi was nearly a full-grown young man, his stepfather once threatened to strike him as punishment for his continued idleness, when the mother averted the blow and told her husband, 'Do not strike him; he is not your son; he is your chief;' and she then revealed the secret of his birth, and produced from their hiding place the keepsakes which Liloa had left with her. The astonished stepfather stepped back in dismay, and the mother furnished her son with means and instruction for the journey to Waipio.

Reference

David Malo, Hawaiian Antiquities, Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1951.

Samuel M. Kamakau, Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii, Revised Edition, (Honolulu: Kamehameha Schools Press, 1992).

Abraham Fornander, An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origin and Migrations, Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1969.

Akahiakuleana was the mother King Umi. Sometimes reffered to as Akahi'akuli'ana or Ahakiakuleana. She was also known as Akahi O Kuleana.

Liloa's first wife was Pinea or Piena, a Maui chieftess, with whom he had a son, Hakau, and a daughter, Kapukini. Later in life, while travelling near the borders of the Hamakua and Hilo districts, (The legend says that he had been to Koholalele in Hamakua to consecrate the Heiau called Manini, and that, passing from there, he stopped at Kaawikiwiki, and at the gulch of Hoea, near Kealakaha, he fell in with Ahakiakuleana.)

He spied her and he became deeply enamoured,and he seduced her, and the fruit of which liaison was a son. She named him Umi, and who afterwards played so great a role in the annals of Hawaii. The mother of Umi was named Akahiakuleana. She has often been spoken of as a person of no aliiblood, but the fact is that she was of the same alii line as Liloa himself. She was a lineal descendant in the sixth generation from Kalahuimoku, the son of Kanipahu, with Hualani of the Nanaulu-Maweke line, and haft-brother to Kalapana, the direct ancestor of Liloa.

When parting from Akahiakuleana, Liloa gave her the ivory clasp (Palaoa) of his necklace, his feather wreath (Lei-hulu), and his Malo or waist-cloth, [One legend has it that, instead of the Lei, Liloa gave her his Laau-palau, a short instrument for cutting taro tops, a dagger] and told her that when the child was grown up, if it was a boy, to send him with these token to Waipio, and he would acknowledge him. The boy grew up with his mother and her husband, a fine, hearty, well-developed lad, foremost in all sports and athletic games of the time, but too idle and lazy in works of husbandry to fuit his plodding stepfather. When Umi was nearly a full-grown young man, his stepfather once threatened to strike him as punishment for his continued idleness, when the mother averted the blow and told her husband, 'Do not strike him; he is not your son; he is your chief;' and she then revealed the secret of his birth, and produced from their hiding place the keepsakes which Liloa had left with her. The astonished stepfather stepped back in dismay, and the mother furnished her son with means and instruction for the journey to Waipio.

Reference

David Malo, Hawaiian Antiquities, Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 1951.

Samuel M. Kamakau, Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii, Revised Edition, (Honolulu: Kamehameha Schools Press, 1992).

Abraham Fornander, An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origin and Migrations, Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1969.