Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation grant trains a new generation in uhau humu pōhaku — 410 feet of ancient wall restored at the Poʻipū cultural site.
KOLOA, Hawai, Aug. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Hui Mālama O Kāneiolouma announced today the completion of the Uhau Humu Pōhaku Reconstruction Project, an eighteen-month traditional Hawaiian dry-stack masonry training program that restored approximately 410 linear feet of the ancient inner walls of the Kāneiolouma Heiau Complex in Poʻipū. The project was funded by a $50,000 grant from Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation's Native Hawaiian Organization Preservation Stewardship Training Program.
Across eleven training workshops between January 2025 and July 2026, Kumu Peleke Flores led a rotating crew of Native Hawaiian practitioners averaging seventeen per session — including Alakaʻi trainees preparing to lead future crews — supported by community volunteers. Each session opened with pule and wove oli, ʻōlelo noʻeau, and cultural protocol into hands-on stonework, guided by a training workbook created for the program. In the tradition of the craft, key wall sections were deliberately dismantled and rebuilt until the work was pono — correct — making the rebuilding itself the deepest form of instruction. In the project's closing weeks, the Grand Hyatt Kauaʻi Resort & Spa stepped forward as well, donating a catered lunch in support of the crew — a gesture of aloha from the Hui's neighbors in Poʻipū.
The Kāneiolouma Heiau Complex, dating to at least the mid-1400s, is a pre-contact Hawaiian village site containing house sites, taro fields, fishponds, shrines, and the only intact makahiki sporting arena in Hawaiʻi. The restoration follows the 1959 documentation of Hawaiian archaeological expert Henry Kekahuna, whose maps remain the guiding vision for the site. Hui Mālama O Kāneiolouma stewards the complex under an agreement with the County of Kauaʻi extending through 2037. The restored walls stand in the heart of Poʻipū, visible to the thousands of residents and visitors who pass the site's public viewing platform.
"The Kanaka Maoli set these stones six hundred years ago," said Rupert Rowe, Poʻo of Hui Mālama O Kāneiolouma. "This knowledge was nearly lost to us. Today it lives again in the hands of a new generation, on the very walls their ancestors built — and it will not be lost again. If you don't have the past in a culture, you'll never have a future."
The project itself began with the Foundation's initiative: during a 2024 visit to the site, Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation staff encouraged the Hui to apply to the Stewardship Training Program — an invitation that opened the door to the first true cultural restoration work within the interior of the complex. The completed project marks the close of that grant and the beginning of the site's next phase, with continuing restoration supported by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the State of Hawaiʻi — led in part by the program's own practitioners, now advancing through Alakaʻi leadership training to guide new recruits and community volunteers.
The Hui also credits the County of Kauaʻi, its partner under the stewardship agreement, whose steady support has anchored the restoration from the beginning. And with Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation's grant showing what private philanthropy can accomplish at Kāneiolouma, the Hui welcomes foundations and community partners to help carry the village's restoration forward.
"There's more to learn," said Kumu Flores. "We got it started. One pōhaku closer to restoration. E kū ana ka paia — the walls shall stand upright." His closing words are drawn from a pule wānana — a prophecy prayer for change.
About Hui Mālama O Kāneiolouma
Hui Mālama O Kāneiolouma is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the restoration and stewardship of the Kāneiolouma Heiau Complex in Poʻipū, Kauaʻi, guided by cultural protocol and the vision of restoring the village as a living center of Kanaka Maoli knowledge. Learn more at kaneiolouma.org.
About Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation
Since 1974, Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation has been a statewide leader in historic preservation, encouraging the preservation of Hawaiʻi's historic and cultural places. Its Native Hawaiian Organization Preservation Stewardship Training Program supports NHOs in building capacity to care for significant cultural sites. Learn more at historichawaii.org.
Media Contact
Moani Tolentino, Hui Mālama O Kāneiolouma, 1 (808) 635-5949, [email protected],
SOURCE Hui Mālama O Kāneiolouma
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