Kohala and the Mo`okini heiau comprised a spiritual home for Kamehameha. (see: “To Celebrate the King: Kamehameha Day and Kamehameha’s Legacy of Aloha” / Ke Ola, May/June 2017). On their way to Awini, an easily defensible plateau three valleys past Pololū, he enlisted the help of the entire Kohala populace in what Fred Cachola calls the “grand Kohala conspiracy” to protect the infant. The great warrior, Naeʽole was selected by Kekuʽiapoiwa to be kahu for the child and immediately after the rituals were completed, he whisked the infant away with Alapa`inui’s forces following soon after.

She laid down and put her feet up on the flat rock and that worked,” related Mealani.

“She was having trouble with the afterbirth so they brought her on shore and she used the rocks. Kekuʽiapoiwa was taken to the birth stones, where she birthed the placenta. You had to have birth rituals and you had to have priests of a high enough order you could trust to put those secrets away, never to be told,” explained Oliver. “You have to have birth rituals because the mana was in the blood and in the piko. By the time the canoe landed at Kapakai in Kokoiki, Kamehameha was already born and he was taken immediately to the heiau. But it was imperative that Kekuʽiapoiwa get to a luakini class heiau in order that her ali`i child could receive his birth rituals. With winds howling, waves crashing and pelting rain, one can only imagine the skill of the men who sailed the canoe across the channel that stormy November night. It’s been suggested that the king of Maui at the time, Kahekili was his biological father and indeed, Kamehameha was born on a canoe on its way from Maui, according to Oliver Lum, as related to him by his great Uncle Heloke Lum. However this date has been challenged by the claim that a bright and beautiful star, thought to be Halley’s Comet, appeared the night before Kamehameha’s birth, which would put his birth year at 1758. Kamakau, Kamehameha was born in 1736 during Alapa`inui’s reign. There is much mystery surrounding the year of Kamehameha’s birth as well as his paternity. On hearing the prophesy and fearing for his position, Alapaʽinui, decreed that the infant should be killed at birth. When Kekuʻiapoiwa, wife of Keoua became pregnant with Kamehameha, the kahuna, perhaps seeing the need for a unifying force, prophesied that he would be a great unifying king and a killer of chiefs.

Alapa`inui was high chief of Kohala and Kona and there was war between Hawai`i Island chiefs and between Hawai`i and Maui.

Royal order of kamehameha 1