Ni‘ihau Place Names

Ni‘ihau Place Names
by John R.K. Clark

The story of Ni‘ihau has been told many times by many people, but Ni‘ihau Place Names adds new information to the island’s history from a unique source: Hawai-ian-language newspapers. From 1834 to 1948, approximately 125,000 pages of Native Hawaiian expression were printed in more than 100 different newspapers. John R.K. Clark has gathered and edited a large collection of invalu-able articles that recorded daily life on Ni‘ihau, events and topics of in-terest, and the island’s place names. Additionally, Keao NeSmith, a Native Hawaiian of Kaua‘i and an applied linguist, translator and researcher fluent in ‘olelo Hawai‘i, translated each passage into En-glish. Most of these excerpts have not appeared in any other publica-tion.

Ni‘ihau Place Names contains over thirty kanikau (dirges, poetic chants) written and published from 1845 to 1931 to honor deceased Ni‘ihau residents. These composi-tions of deep emotion are treasuries of language, history, genealogy, cultural knowledge, and especially place names. Another important contribution in the volume is the identification of `olelo no`eau,
(proverbs and poetical sayings) with demonstrations of their use in everyday conversation.

John R.K. Clark is a former life-guard and retired deputy fire chief of the Honolulu Fire Department. His is the author of eleven books about Hawai‘i’s beaches, surf breaks, and place names.