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 Samoa.

In King Kalākaua's Legends and Myths of Hawaiʻi, he speculated that some Tahitian chiefs—such as Paʻao and Pilikaʻaiea— have ultimately migrated from Samoa. He noted the presence of a village called Upolu on Hawaiʻi Island and suggested it could be named after the Samoan island of the same name, which he took as possible evidence of that connection but also the fact Kaʻu Point was named after one of the Manu'a Islands of Samoa, where voyage had begun after 2,000 years.

Legends suggest that Paʻao introduced certain customs Hawaiʻi including human sacrifice, primary worship of the god Kū, red feathered girdles called Kāʻei, Kāʻeke drums, and veneration of the bonito fish. He is also said to have brought a "pure" chief to rule over Hawaiʻi, deposing the tyrant and highest ranking chief, Kapawā.

At this time in Hawaiian history, the four island kingdoms were Kauaʻi (Kauaʻi and Niʻihau), Oʻahu, Maui (Maui, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, and Kahoʻolawe), and Hawaiʻi. After the overthrow by Pāʻao and Pili, Kapawā fled to the Kingdom of Maui where his royal relatives, through the ancient ʻUlu bloodlines, provided him with shelter and protection. The two bloodlines of Pili (Hawaiʻi) and ʻUlu (Maui) were frequently at war, with the ʻUlu often victorious. It was only under King Kamehameha the Great, a direct descendant of Pili, when Hawaiʻi fully conquered the Kingdom of Maui. Having done so, he achieved unification of the Hawaiian Islands as a single kingdom.