Kānāwai Māmalahoe - Law of the Splintered Paddle

You can read the story by The Hawai‘i Legal Auxiliary or read the Wikipedia link.
The law and the English translation below is taken from Kamehameha The Great by Julie Stewart Williams, Kamehameha Schools Press. You can read a copy of Kamehameha the Great online at the Ulukau: Hawaiian Electronic Library in either English or Hawaiian.

Kānāwai Māmalahoe

E nā kānaka,
E mālama ‘oukou i ke akua
A e māmala ho‘i ke kanaka nui a me kanaka iki;
E hele ka ‘elemakule, ka luahine, a me ke kama
A moe i ke ala
‘A‘ohe mea nāna e ho‘opilikia.
Hewa nō. Make.

Law of the Splintered Paddle

O my people,
Honor thy god;
respect alike [the rights of] men great and humble;
See to it that our aged, our women, and our children
Lie down to sleep by the roadside
Without fear or harm.
Disobey, and die.

By Fred Long, 12-23-2009
www.wahinoho.net/page_olelo_mamalahoe.html

he official website (www.honolulupd.org) of the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) misinterprets why Kamehameha the Great proclaimed the Law of the Splintered Paddle and makes him out to be a complete jerk. I respect the HPD with aloha, but it is disappointing that the HPD website would make such a significant error about an issue on which they should be an absolute authority. The website relies on a booklet called The Legacy of Kapu Kānāwai 1750-2000 which was published in 1992 “...to commemorate the formal opening of the Hale Mākaʻi [Police Station]....”, the HPD headquarters on South Beretania Street. It is a history of law enforcement in Hawaiʻi from the year 1750 to the 2000 with specific emphases on the history of the HPD. It is a 30 page booklet, but I am only concerned with page four, which gives an incorrect and erroneous explanation of Kamehameha’s motivation for proclaiming the Kānāwai Māmalahoe or the Law of the Splintered Paddle.

n or about 1785, Kamehameha and a small contingent of his men went by war canoe on a plundering raid of a fishing village on the coast of Puna near Hilo. Seeing some fishermen and their families, Kamhameha ran ahead of his men, spear in hand, to chase a couple of fishermen, one reputed to have a young child strapped to his back. Unfortunately for Kamehameha, he accidentally lodged his leg in a lava hole. The two fisherman seeing that Kamehameha was stuck and restrained by his misfortune, turned back to defend themselves and give the other villagers time to flee. One fisherman struck Kamehameha so hard with his paddle that it splintered. Kamehameha’s men were closing in on the scene, so the fishermen fled. Kamehameha would later proclaim his best known edict, The Law of the Splintered Paddle.

n English, here is the Kānāwai Māmalahoe:
O my people, honor thy god; respect alike [the rights of] men great and humble; see to it that our aged, our women, and our children lie down to sleep by the roadside without fear or harm. Disobey, and die.

he Kānāwai Māmalahoe was meant to protect the innocent and helpless from attacks like Kamehameha had perpetrated and incited, but the HPD webpage titled Law Enforcement in Pre-Contact Hawaii (http://honolulupd.org/HPDmuseum/history1.htm) has a different interpretation and claims the law “...was designed to protect the innocent and helpless from wanton attacks such as the one he [Kamehameha] had been subjected to.” Kamehameha would have to be a complete jerk to portray himself as a victim. First of all, Kamehameha was not innocent, he was the “perp”, as the police like to say, slang for “perpetrator.” Sure he became helpless during his attack only because he was unlucky enough to get his leg stuck in a lava hole. However, how helpless the innocent fisherman would have been and what would have been their fate if Kamehameha wasn't so unfortunate?

he truth is that Kamehameha realized he was wrong for attacking a group of innocent and peaceful civilians, but he didn’t compound his mistake by blaming his victims merely because they were defending themselves. In fact, twelve years after the incident, Kamehameha formally forgave the fishermen, blamed himself for the attack and proclaimed the law. An exceptional example of a leader admitting their mistake instead of refuting it. Denial far too often seems to be a defense. I could list dozens of examples, but here is one from recent history. President Obama and his press secretary Robert Gibbs’ claim that Obama did not bow to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in April of 2009, when clearly Obama did bow. It was a deep bow, I guess we should just be grateful Obama wasn’t down on his knees. Some leaders like the great Kamehameha are gracious and big enought to admit a mistake in behavior, while the narcissism of others will not allow the admission of an error.

au.

Sources:
Kamehameha the Great by Julie Stewart Williams, Kamehameha Publishing, 1993. http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=kam1haw&l=en
The Law of the Splintered Paddle: Kānāwai Māmalahoe by the Hawaiʻi Legal Auxillary. http://www.hawaii.edu/uhelp/files/LawOfTheSplinteredPaddle.pdf
Obama bows in slow motion, 2 camera angles, (video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd425zfw5Ew

 

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