Jill Engledow's longtime love affair with the Islands allows her to give newcomers an intimate view of life in Hawai`i.

Jill's story:

I was born in England, raised in Texas, Hawai`i and Guam, and have found the home of my heart on the island of Maui. I moved to Hawaii in 1959 with my family (Dad was a newspaper man who covered events like volcano eruptions and tsunamis on the Big Island), and my life was transformed. Imagine living in a jungle, swimming along Hilo's reefs, and watching record-breaking lava fountains after a childhood spent in a suburb on the edge of the Texas desert! I formed a lifelong love of Hawaii, its music, culture and people.

I moved to Maui in 1968, lived in the country raising goats, chickens and vegetables, then went to work for an alternative weekly newspaper. That led to a job at the Maui News, where I worked for 18 years, covering every aspect of Maui life. Since 1998, I've been a free-lance writer specializing in Maui and the history of Hawaii. My books include Exploring Historic Upcountry, The Spirit Lives On: A History of Old Maui High at Hamakuapoko and several collaborations with other writers.

But the book I want to tell you about is Island Life 101: A Newcomer's Guide to Hawaii. This book, published in 2008, expands on the success of my earlier book, Maui 101: Your Guide to Island LIfe. In Island Life 101, I give newcomers (and those who simply love the Islands and their lifestyle) inside info on the history, culture and community life of Hawaii. If you (or someone you know) are moving to Hawaii, please read this book! In it, I share the accumulated understanding of most of a lifetime dedicated to learning about this beautiful place.

 

In 1790, Kamehameha invaded Maui, at a time when Maui Chief Kahekili was on Oÿahu and his son in charge of the island. In the famous battle of Kepaniwai, the invaders defeated Maui’s warriors through the use of Western cannon Kamehameha had acquired, along with two Western sailors who knew how to use them.

So many of the Maui warriors were killed that their bodies clogged the ÿÏao Stream. The site of the battle to this day is known as Kepaniwai, “the damming of the waters.”

One prize of this battle was the divine chiefess Keöpüolani, Kahekili’s great-niece. This young girl was at the pinnacle of the kapu system, and Kamehameha’s union with her would produce children of the high rank desirable to a chief with dynastic ambitions.

Keöpüolani is known as Kamehameha’s Sacred Wife, because her rank was so high as to be considered divine. It is said her husband had to approach her on hands and knees. The two produced three children.

Their two sons, Liholiho and Kauikeauoli, became Kamehameha II and III. A daughter, Nähiÿenaÿena, was caught in the cultural upheaval as the Western world brought radical changes to Hawaiÿi. Reared to be her brother Kauikeauoli’s wife, she was torn between the old ways and those of the newly introduced Christianity, which forbade such pairings. Nähiÿenaÿena died young, after giving birth to a short-lived child that may have been her brother’s.

Kamehameha had twenty-one wives, of whom the most famous is his Favorite Wife, Kaÿahumanu. Like Keöpüolani, she was born on Maui, the child of a Romeo-and-Juliet union. Her father was from Hawaiÿi Island, and her mother from the Maui royal family. After a battle with Kahekili, Kaÿahumanu’s parents fled to Häna, on East Maui, where their baby was born in a cave.

Kaÿahumanu’s father was a close ally of Kamehameha and gave his daughter to the rising chief when she was ten years old and he was thirty. The girl grew to be tall, beautiful, and brilliant, an appropriate match for the great Kamehameha. Politically well connected on both islands, she held unusual influence for a woman in Hawaiian society, yet still had to obey the restrictive rules of the kapu.

To order Island Life 101, please go to our homepage.