He ‘ōpū hālau./ “A house-like stomach.”/ A heart as vast as a house, symbolizing kindness, grace, and hospitality./ ‘Ōlelo No‘eau No. 869 as translated by Mary Kawena Pukui
Hula and wa‘a practitioners, led by the ‘Āina organization HŌ‘Ā, conducting the seasonal Wehe Kū ceremony that marks the end of the Makahiki season (the time of Lono) and the moving into Kau (summer). The ceremonies invoke the need to kū, to rise, face our challenges, to plant intentions, and ku mai, raise them up. Image courtesy Lanakila Mangauil.
What does it mean for a memory or a vision of home to emerge from the most remote landmasses on Earth? From places where humans are not considered separate from nature, but are seen as a part of nature? What does home mean on a volcanic island as opposed to on a continent? Where do we return to in order to investigate the concept of home amid Oceanic cosmologies?
In Pae ‘Āina Hawai‘i (Hawaiian Islands), a kauhale, as defined by scholar, writer, and educator Mary Kawena Pukui, is a group of houses comprising a Hawaiian home, with each house serving a specific facet of domestic life. In the past, such homes would include a men’s eating house, women’s eating house, sleeping house, cook house, and canoe house. Unlike a Western home, which typically consolidates domestic life into a single enclosure, the kauhale presents a network of enclosed shelters specifically distributed across areas of land and familial settings. In the tropical climate of Hawai‘i, the kauhale’s spatial organization is particularly idiosyncratic, because it blurs the distinctions between indoors and outdoors and between architecture and nature, inviting the question, Where does a home begin and end?
The epigraph at the beginning of this text is a traditional ‘ōlelo no‘eau, or poetic saying, that provides insight regarding the expansive concept of home in Hawai‘i from a Native point of view, yielding knowledge about people, places, and behaviors passed down by Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) over hundreds of years. An ‘ōlelo no‘eau such as this provides intergenerational guidance on complex ideas, offering clarity, guidance, reassurance, or cultural connection. Similar to how Pwo voyager and navigator Nainoa Thompson describes how the genius of the Native Hawaiian navigational star compass lies in its compacting of information together, ‘ōlelo no‘eau stack numerous interpretations (makawalu) and hidden meanings (kaona) together. This example in particular uses the words ‘ōpū (stomach) and hālau (long house) as dual metaphors for the heart, kindness, grace, and hospitality. The saying could be interpreted as simply describing a hospitality so abundant that guests leave with bellies feeling as big as a house. But with ‘ōlelo no‘eau, the language embodies a layered unfolding of deeper related meaning.
Excerpt from Making Home: Belonging, Memory, and Utopia in the 21st Century, (Cooper Hewitt | The MIT Press, 2025) published in companion with Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial (New York, Nov. 2024-Aug. 2025)
‘Āina Orgs encompass diverse features important for ecological biocultural stewardship in Hawai‘i, including taro fields, fishponds, gardens/farms, sacred sites, combinations of ecosystems, marine/ coastal areas, wetlands, and forests, each fostering sustainability, cultural heritage, biodiversity, and community engagement. Map courtesy ‘ĀINAVIS.
Expert hale builder Nalani Tukuafu demonstrates the system of notching and lashing used in the construction of traditional hale structures, which are held together only with lashing. In this image, a traditional hale currently under construction at Kaumaui in Keaukaha, Hilo, is protected from the elements with a tarp before thatching. Image courtesy Hui Ho‘oleimauluō.
Advancing Hawaiian Architecture: A contemporary hale (structure) takes shape in Hāmākua, Hawai‘i. Designed and built by a hālau (school) of architects, cultural bearers, and traditional hale builders organized by After Oceanic Built Environments Lab and Leong Leong (Sean Connelly and Dominic Leong) in collaboration with Jojo Henderson and Nalani Tukuafu, hosted by HŌ‘Ā (Lanakila Mangauil and Honi Pahi‘ō). Stills by film collective kekahi wahi (Sancia Miala Shiba Nash and Drew Kahu‘āina Broderick), 2024.
A contemporary hale takes shape in Hāmākua, Hawai‘i. Designed and built by a hālau (school) of architects, cultural bearers, and traditional hale builders organized by After Oceanic Built Environments Lab and Leong Leong (Sean Connelly and Dominic Leong) in collaboration with Jojo Henderson and Nalani Tukuafu, hosted by HŌ‘Ā (Lanakila Mangauil and Honi Pahi‘ō). Stills by film collective kekahi wahi (Sancia Miala Shiba Nash and Drew Kahu‘āina Broderick), 2024.