The Oʻahu Nukupuʻu was a species of Nukupuʻu that was similar to its cousins from the Islands of Kauai and Maui. The males were mostly yellow with that color spread across the belly and on the head. As you got to the wings, they turn from yellow to olive green. It lores were a shade of black and the legs were also black. The females and the young had similar coloration except that there was less yellow and the yellow they had was more dull then the males. They had a long decurved bill that would reach about one and a half inch in length. The upper bill was twice as long as the lower one, which was designed to pluck out the insects from the tube that was made into the bark that was made by the lower bill.
It mostly fed on insects in which it found underneath the barks of certain trees. These trees included the Koa and Oʻhia which attracted a large amount of insects because of their nectar filled flowers. It fed on Koa in high elevation forests and fed on Oʻhia in low elevations. In rare cases it fed on the nectar of the Oʻhia flowers.
The Oʻahu Nukupuʻu was last collected in 1837 when Mr. Deppe shot several specimens in the Nuuanu Valley where it was seen feeding on the nectar of several flowers in a plantation. Afterward though, it was never collected but from Perkins, we see that it was still existent in the 1860s. When searches for the species were issued in the 1880s, no specimens ever turned up.
Today we no longer can see the Oʻahu Nukupuʻu in the wild. Instead we can only see it as a few specimens that were collected over the course of the years. It was believed to have vanished as the spread of disease occurred, killing off Nukupuʻu populations across the island. Mongooses and rats were released onto the island and were suspected to be predators that stole chicks from nests, causing the quota increase from chicks to drop.
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There was so many people from the audience that were meaningful and understood the importance of this ceremony. I went there to pray for my people and their lost love ones.
Kamehamha I had three wives! All three women lived in Koolaupoko, one of his wives is buried across of Straub Clinic.
We the women of Koolaupoko must stop suffering and move on with our lives. In so doing one should choose to preserve our culture within our families should one have the resource or able to spare the energy. A simple thought of memory from ones Tupuna would help to understand and bring meaning to his/her ohana.
Yesterday, in the audience that gathered at Nuuanu Na Pali lookout much of that battle at Nuuanu was in the very spirit of the the ancients of Long Ago. The unconsciousness is awakening, however, may we find a more honest leadership to take our younger generation to the future. In otherwords the silence of 'humuliation and suffering' should not be continued by the same fools that existed in the late 1700s. Unification should not be about subjugation of ones own people like the Nukupu'u of Oahu. Disappearing into skulls as a show of leaping faith into the spirit world should not be the final act of justice.
There is an invisible highway which is plain to see on a simple map pf Koolaupoko. Ka'aaina road that highway to Alaska where he lived the out the rest of his life. This story is handed down through generations and his ohana shares their stories through out Alaska.
Missionary accounts of the Nuuanu Battle is not being challenged in the minds of our leaders today, why? Laziness could be an excuse...fear...long suffering...or plain I don't know or the desire to continue the slaughter of our people seems much more plausible. I really don't know what is in the heads of our leadership today.
Schofield, West Point, is NOT what I wanted to hear at yesterday's ceremony. The glorification of Iraq and the soilders being sent off to war is far from what I expected to hear yesterday at the Pali Lookout! The American Civil War was turned away by Na Kamehameha, that war was looked upon as an American ideal of emancipation and enslavement for all times. A never ending story! The people in the audience myself included had a difficult time with such foolish intent to connect Kam I and the unification to the American War thats broad and very deeply cut in the world.
The children present yesterday at this ceremony will grow up and when we are gone will deem the foolishness of this type of ceremony. For they are not stupid children as I said to 'Ohu' at breakfast, "our children search the internet" and it is up to the leaders to use the tools of today wisely. There is only one or two born in Hawaii that goes to West Point hand picked by a congress representative from Hawaii. If this is the depth of these ceremonies who in the audience understood the ramification of yesterday's speech? The set up angle of the camera's was also very questionable as an opposing tool to the audience, however, a highly documentation of the 'West Point' speech related to the war in Iraq. So, typical of local tour conducting for the tourisim industry. The need to unify with the United States of America in their war games is all that I got from the leadership yesterday. Trust me this was not a pivitol turn from Aloha to death and destruction abroad.
We are not the killing machine for the world and that is not what Koolaupoko women beget in 21st Century. We will reach our goals of peace and nurturing of our aina and the entire Pacific Ocean and it's surrounding nations based on Long Ago principles. Deoccupation will come for Hawaii because our children are not stupid fools.