Chapter One
When Worlds Collide
The highest peak on O‘ahu, Mount Ka‘ala rises up like a god at the head of the Makaha and Wai‘anae Valleys and watches over the entire Westside. Ancient Hawaiian kahuna (priests) considered it one of the most sacred sites on the Island and built heiau (temples) at its base. They believed the mountain wore the golden robes of Kane, heavenly father of all living things, who was associated with the sun. Like the clouds that envelop Mount Ka‘ala, the history of the Wai‘anae Coast and its people is shrouded in myth and mystery.
Local legends say that Wakea, Sky Father, and Papa, Earth Mother, first mated on the coast of Makua, which means "parent." Their children were born in a womblike lava tube nearby called Kaneana. It was here that the Polynesian demigod Maui landed his canoe, learned to make fire, and gave the gift of light to the people. Farther down the coast at the northwestern corner of the island, Kaena Point juts out into the ocean like the long, rocky finger of Mount Ka‘ala, pointing toward the endless sea of eternity. Here the souls of the dead would leap from this world to the next. Though poor and isolated, this part of the Island offers rich mythical stories about the supernatural origins of life and the final destination beyond death.
At the base of Mount Ka‘ala and along the Wai‘anae Coast, there are the remains of old heiau. The people of the land once gathered at these stone temple sites to celebrate and make offerings to their gods: Kane, Ku, Lono, and Kanaloa. Wandering among these crumbling ruins, a boy like Richard "Buffalo" Keaulana probably wondered what solemn chants and ceremonies his ancestors had performed at these sacred sites. Touching the lava rocks must have sparked his imagination and given him a glimpse of Hawai‘is ancient past, before the arrival of the white men and their tall ships.
A pure Hawaiian, Buffalo came from a long line of leaders, including some of Hawai‘is great chiefs and ancient explorers. Like most Hawaiians, he revered his ancestors and probably felt like they were watching over him as ‘aumakua, spirits that could take the form of sharks, lizards, sea turtles, or any element of nature. Buffalo knew of kahuna who could recite genealogies going back to the gods and the first humans who walked this land. There were familiar stories from the Kumulipo, the Hawaiian creation story that traced their ancestry back to the origins of creation. The spirit of his ancestors was in the sea, the forests, and the mountains because they were all part of nature and eternally present. Though Buffalo grew up in an increasingly Westernized world, he never forgot the proud origins of his people.
According to the ancient chants in the Kumulipo, Wakeas first child, Haloa (long stalk), was stillborn and buried in the earth. He returned in the form of taro, the sacred plant also known as kalo that became a central source of food in Hawai‘i. His brother was born soon after and also named Haloa. His mission was to nurture his brother, kalo, who would in turn provide nourishment for all their people. Like most Hawaiians, Buffalo grew up eating poi, the purple paste made from pounded kalo. This staple was part of their daily diet, and the stories of Haloa fed their spiritual hunger and love of the land.
These beliefs about their interdependence on nature also helped sustain Hawai‘is people for centuries, ever since the first Polynesian voyagers sailed here in their double- hulled canoes and settled the Islands more than twelve hundred years ago. As a boy, Buffalo would have heard stories about the legendary navigators who guided their canoes all the way across the Pacific. But staring at the seemingly endless sea, he must have wondered if these were just made- up stories, childhood myths. Only later in his life, Buffalo would sail on the Hokule‘a, a modern replica of these voyaging canoes, and retrace the journeys of his ancestors all the way back to Tahiti.
Living on the most isolated island chain on earth, ancient Hawaiians had to be innovative and completely self- sufficient to survive. The people in Wai‘anae had an even greater challenge in that they lived on the driest part of O‘ahu. To conserve their natural resources, they developed a sophisticated plan to divide the land into wedge- shaped districts called ahupua‘a that stretched from the mountains to the sea. Instead of having individual ownership, each district was communally managed by the ali‘i (chiefs). The people worked hard and played hard, and many of their activities revolved around the sea.
The name Wai‘anae may have originated from the fact that fishing became their main source of food, wai meaning "water" and ‘anae being the large mullet so abundant in the area. Besides being talented fishermen, the people on the Leeward Coast felt at home in the ocean and excelled at sailing, surfing, and paddling canoes. When the surf was up, almost all work came to a standstill as people rushed to the shore to ride the waves. The commoners generally rode shorter wooden boards on their stomachs, while the chiefs stood up to ride their long, heavy boards. During the Makahiki season, they held festivals on the beach. The chiefs would compete against each other, and people would gamble on who would win. A similar festival would later be resurrected in the form of the Makaha International Surfing Championship during the 1950s and 60s, and Buffalo would become one of its early champions.
The past is interwoven into the present, and the Makahiki season is still celebrated today in Hawai‘i. Sponsored by Quiksilver, the annual Makahiki surf contest in Makaha features longboard surfing, canoe paddling, and tandem surfing, where couples perform balletlike poses while riding the waves. But the origin of the Makahiki season came from the fact that war was taboo from mid-October to January because it was prophesied that Lono would return during this time and bring peace. But when the season was over, old conflicts would often resume, and warriors would fight for control over the land and freshwater streams. The people developed their own form of martial art called lua, and bandits who lived in Makaha would swoop down from the hills to beat up and rob travelers along the coast. Theft would continue to be a serious issue on the Westside even in modern times, though later it was less about tribal conflicts and more about a lack of economic opportunities.
For centuries, Mount Ka‘ala and the Wai‘anae Mountains have served as a kind of defensive wall guarding the small Hawaiian villages of the Leeward Coast of O‘ahu. Cutting across the sky like the serrated edge of a stone spearhead, these mountains have kept the people of Wai‘anae isolated from the rest of the world, and its fierce warriors fought to maintain their independence. Yet this isolation could not last. "A gap in the Wai‘anae Range where one can cross over is called Kolekole Pass," writes Bob Krauss in Historic Wai‘anae, "because it was here that the warriors of Wahiawa (the other side) and those of Wai‘anae met in battles that left their flesh kolekole (raw) with wounds." One Wai‘anae kahuna prophesied that "big fish" would arrive one day in the form of foreigners and eat up the natives like little fish.
When the British ships under the command of Captain James Cook first sailed to Hawai‘i in 1778, the local fishermen thought that Cook was the god Lono returning for the Makahiki festival. Sailing, paddling, and swimming, thousands of nati