By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Offerings have become a nuisance for those
who maintain heiau sites.

‘Rock laulau’
ungodly pain for some

Heiau, those magical ancient Hawaiian constructions, don't need any help looking cool. But people can't resist. At almost any heiau site, on any given day, you'll find rocks wrapped in ti leaves, or tiny cairns of upended stones, an ancient Hawaiian tradition carried on to this day.

Except that it's hooey. And we don't mean hui.

As near as anyone can tell, the tradition goes way, way back; maybe a quarter of a century or so. It has really blossomed in the last decade, though, and has become a major headache for the folks trying to maintain the sites.

Hawaiian specialist Kalani Flores of Kauai has dubbed the ti-wrapped stones as "rock laulau."

"Think about it for a second," said Nancy King Holt, Bishop Museum's cultural resources specialist. "And think realistically. You make an offering to the gods, and it's usually food, whether it's plant or animal. But a rock wrapped like food? What god would want that?"

As for upending stones, she thinks that perhaps visitors are applying their own cultural traditions, or "maybe they're just getting off on the idea of rocks in general."

The problem, said state parks interpretation specialist Martha Yent, is that visitors are moving rocks around to where they shouldn't be, and stripping ti leaves off surrounding plants. "Or they're bringing in new rocks to where they don't belong," she said. "From a resource management standpoint, they're messing up the resource."

The state is considering one of those international DON'T signs at each site. In the meantime, we'd like to hear from anyone who can prove ancient Hawaiians made such offerings to the gods.

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Burl Burlingame, Star-Bulletin