Martha Noyes

Independent

Abstract

Astronomy in the Oral Literature of Hawaii

Hawaiian chants, myths, and legends incorporate the sky and the objects in it, personify them, make husbands, wives, lovers, and mischief-makers of them, use them to tell the months and seasons, use them to make records of events and entwine them with seasonal appearances of plants and animals. Hawaiian literature is full of celestial significance, composed by gifted weavers of words whose art employs analogy, punning, metaphor, riddles, allusions, rhythm, and that particularly Polynesian device – internal rhyme – that listeners of old could enjoy, but only those gifted with understanding and intellect could fully hear. We moderns are far from that older culture and are eager to quickly grasp the meanings of phrases whose value lies often in the difficulty of interpreting them. But it is worth the time and patience and the frequent bouts with ambiguity to experience the Hawaiian sky, not just as stars, sun, and moon, but as players, even friends, family, and ancestors, whose lives above us tell the stories of our earthly time and seasons. This paper discusses how Hawaiian oral literature presented the sky, its structure, and its objects, and what methods of analysis and interpretation may be useful to those seeking to understand Hawaiian cultural astronomy. 

 

PowerPoint of Martha's presentation

Biographical Details

Writer and artist Martha Noyes has researched and written about Hawaiian culture for thirty years. She is an avid student of the ancient Hawaiian sky and is working towards a graduate degree in the subject.