Paʻao

Paʻao is a prominent figure in Hawaiian tradition, often regarded as a historical person whose story has been preserved and retold through oral narratives and chants. He is typically described as a kahuna nui (high priest) who arrived in Hawaiʻi from a distant land known as Kahiki. In Hawaiian language and tradition, Kahiki refers broadly to lands outside of Hawaiʻi, particularly the ancestral homelands of the Polynesians. Linguistically and culturally, the term is most closely associated with Tahiti and the Society Islands, part of Eastern Polynesia.

In King Kalākaua's, Legends and Myths of Hawai‘i, King Kalākaua speculated that some Tahitian chiefs—such as Paʻao and Pilikaʻaiea—may have ultimately descended from Samoa. He noted the presence of a village called Upolu on Hawai‘i Island and suggested it could be named after the Samoan island of the same name, which he took as possible evidence of that connection. However, this theory was speculative and not supported by traditional Hawaiian oral histories or later scholarship, which generally identify Paʻao’s origins with the Tahitian region.

Legends suggest that Paʻao introduced certain customs (such as human sacrifice, primary worship of the god Kū, red feathered girdles "Kāʻei", Kāʻeke drums and veneration of the bonito fish) to Hawaii. He is also said to have brought a "pure" chief to rule over Hawai'i Island, deposing the tyrant and highest ranking chief, Kapawā.

At this time in Hawai'i's history, the four island kingdoms were Kauaʻi (Kauaʻi and Niʻihau), Oʻahu, Maui (Maui, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, and Kaho'olawe), and Hawai'i. After the overthrow by Pāʻao and Pili, Kapawā fled to the Island Kingdom of Maui where his royal relatives, through the ancient ʻUlu bloodlines, provided him with shelter and protection. The two bloodlines between Hawai'i (Pili) and Maui (ʻUlu) would often go to war, with Maui usually remaining victorious. It wasn't until the time of King Kamehameha the Great, who was a direct descendant of Pili, that Hawai'i fully conquered the kingdom of Maui. Having done so, Kamehameha was able to complete his conquests, bringing about the unification of the Hawaiian islands under one rule.