Hawaiian culture is embodied in the concept of ‘Aloha aina’. In addition to being used to say ‘Hello’ (and sometimes ‘Good bye’), the word ‘Aloha’ means Love.

When greeting or departing the notion of expressing Love simply says it all.

However, ‘Aloha’ is more than a word. It is a feeling of mutual respect and caring affection that acknowledges the importance of contributing to community and extended family.

It extends warmth and Love, without expectation or obligation.

‘Aina’ refers to the resources that sustain the people: the food they grow in the soil, the fish they catch at sea, the raw materials they harvest from the forest to make clothing, houses or canoes, and the spiritualism that nature provides.

‘Aloha aina’ means loving the land. It is expressed in the respectful way that Hawaiian manage their resources. They know that if they damage the land and water, it will reciprocate by injuring them.

Living off the land and water, ancient Hawaiians practiced a low impact subsistence form of living and they believed everything was connected, with the people in relationship with nature.

The notion of land ownership was foreign to them, but they did divide the land into slices of the island.

These land sections extended from a mountain top, down through a fertile valley, to the shoreline and out onto the reef.

The chiefs governed the land and water, deciding what to grow and take from it, but the commoners lived and worked the resources within each slice as a separate social community.

People shared openly within each slice and if they needed more, they may have traded with neighboring slices.

Each member of the community knew their role in contributing to the greater good, and by doing so, they would increase their mana, power and spirituality.

Carbon-dating evidence puts the arrival of the Polynesians settlers of the Hawaiian Islands at around A.D. 940 – 1130.

Polynesians trace their origins to Island Southeast Asia and are part of the Austronesian ethnolinguistic group with an Urheimat in Taiwan.

They speak the Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic subfamily of the Austronesian language family.

The history of the ancient Polynesians was passed down through genealogy chants that were recited at formal and family functions.

The genealogy of the high chiefs could be traced back to the period believed to be inhabited only by gods. The ‘pua aliʻi’ (flower of royalty) were considered to be living gods.

Religion in Hawaii is much the same as most other Polynesian cultures, with a theology, ritual and a code of conduct.

There are many gods and heroes. Wākea, the Sky Father, wed Papahānaumoku, the Earth Mother. From their union came all others, including the other gods.

James Cook led three separate voyages to chart unknown areas of the globe for the British Empire.

On his third voyage he encountered Hawaii. He first sighted the islands on 18th January 1778.