Uka Kava Big Island Organic Hawaiian Mo'i Kava ('Awa)

HAWAIIAN WOOD WORKING
Koa, Milo, Norfolk Pine

There is a fantastic new book out:
Hawaiian 'Awa
Views of an Ethnobotanical Treasure
Edited by Ed Johston and Helen Rogers
Association for Hawaiian 'Awa
The below has been reproduced with permission
Aloha, Cliff

UKA KAVA
P.O. BOX 7207
HILO, HAWAII 96720

Mo'i

'Awa Mo'i is another of the dark, sacred 'awa varieties so important in Hawaiian religious and ceremonial life. Kawika Winter points out that "certain offerings reserved for the gods were often black in color' (2004, 36). For instance, the gods might be offered a black pig along with a dark 'awa like Mo'i or Hiwa.

H.E.P. Kekahuna describes Mo'i as having "dark stems and internodes not quite as long as those of the Awa hiwa. The drink from these varieties was especially offered to mighty Volcano-Goddess Pele and other deities" (see the full quote under 'Hiwa," p. 36; Kekahuna unpublished papers, quoted in Winter 2004, 87).

Oscar P. Cox, in his 1930 letter to George R. Carter, stated that "the skin or bark of the stem of this variety of awa-root is red or sort of brownish. The priests of old use this kind of Awa in the sacrificial ceremonies to Pele." According to Kawika Winter, "Pele is one of the very few akua who is offered 'Awa in all three forms—as drink, whole plant, and whole root section' (2004, 47).

In all probability, the chiefs could also partake of this 'awa, and it had its place in medicine. Mo'i is one of the varieties most effective against urinary problems. It was also used to treat "splitting headache" (Chun 1994, 53-54).

Kamakau ([1869] 1976, 41) says "the stems of the mo'i [variety] grow straight up, with sections like those of the honua 'ula sugar cane." It has a normal growth habit.

Cuttings were collected along a high ridge in the Waima area of Waipi'o Valley in 1988 by Joel Iau and Ed Johnston.

Reproduced with permission from
Hawaiian 'Awa
Views of an Ethnobotanical Treasure
Edited by Ed Johston and Helen Rogers
Association for Hawaiian 'Awa
Hilo, Hi
©2007

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