or power over their lifestyle. In particular, the kauw̄a (slaves) had no say in how they lived their lives. It’s unclear how this particular caste came about, but one theory is that they were war captives. Since status was passed down from parents to children, some kauw̄a were born into slavery. Did you know? It’s possible that Captain Cook wasn’t the first European to find the islands after the Polynesians. Maps and accounts from the 1500s suggest that Juan Gaetano, a Spanish explorer, arrived there long before Cook was born. On top of that, the island’s inhabitants had some metal tools, even though they didn’t know how to mine or shape the material themselves — perhaps they traded these with people who came before the English.
11.5.4
Farming and trade
It’s unsurprising that the sea played a huge role in the lives of the people of Hawai’i. While there are hundreds of tiny islands in the volcanic archipelago, much of it was unsuitable for farming and there wasn’t enough to support the needs of the people living there. The knowledge that Hawaiians had of the ocean was astounding, and the tools they used were very advanced for the time. One-piece fishhooks, trolling lures and fish farms were all used by these Polynesians, as they experimented and their skills grew beyond many of their neighbours’. Hawaiians were among the first in
SOURCE2 Today, modern Hawaiians are reviving fish ponds to bolster the population’s food source in an environmentally friendly way.
the Pacific to specifically farm fish from a carefully constructed area designed to make harvesting easier. This guaranteed them food, rather than relying on the wind and weather to be good enough for sailing. They understood how to bait fish in by creating an environment full of food to attract them; they would then put slotted gates at the openings, trapping them inside. This meant that the fish populations would continue to grow and that they could remove any predators from the area. Fish wasn’t the only part of the Hawaiian diet, though. The ali’i were the managers of the land itself; they set the maka’̄ainana to work the land and farm food and materials for the whole island to use. It was believed that no one ‘owned’ the land, but rather that it belonged to the gods, and that the ali’i were just custodians. Inter-island relations Prior to the 1800s, there were many separate communities in Hawai’i. Each island had its own ali’i nui (supreme ruler) who controlled the land and the people on it. There was a great deal of conflict between these tribes, but more often there was trade and collaboration. Families became experts in their crafts and produced high-quality goods to share with each other. Quickly, islands became specialised in certain goods that they wanted to trade.
Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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