19th-century Hawaiian mele recorded for upcoming documentary Ea released on digital platforms

A powerful new recording of the 19th-century Hawaiian mele “E Hoʻi ka Nani i Mokuʻula” is now available, performed by  Keʻeaumoku Kapu and Uʻilani Kapu and created as part of the forthcoming  documentary film Ea.

Originally composed in 1862 by P.H. Kekuaiwa, with music attributed to Akoni Akana, E Hoʻi ka Nani i Mokuʻula is a place-name song that calls forth the beauty, winds, hills, and sacred presence of Mokuʻula, the former royal and spiritual center of Lahaina, West Maui. First published in Ka Nūpepa Kūʻokoʻa on June 14, 1862, the mele emerged during a period of profound cultural and religious change in Hawaiʻi.

The song traces a landscape alive with memory—Waineʻe, Kauaʻula, Kaʻalani, Lānaʻi, Molokaʻi, Hāʻupu, Kaʻana, Kalae, and the winds of Mikimiki—invoking not only geography, but genealogy, ʻike kupuna, and ʻike ʻāina. Its refrain names Mānoanoa, a name song spoken in tranquility.

Keʻeaumoku Kapu and Uʻilani Kapu taught this mele for many years at Nā ʻAikāne o Maui Cultural Center in Mokuhinia, Lahaina, sharing its history with friends, visitors, and international delegates alike. In 2017, more than 140 representatives from every Hawaiian island and from 16 Pacific nations learned the mele while visiting Mokuʻula, grounding their gathering in the presence of this sacred place. While the physical Center was destroyed during the August 2023 Lahaina fire, it continues in regenerated form and the call to hoʻi ka nani perseveres.

Documentary director Noah Keone Viernes and producer Lance D. Collins produced the recording with the assistance of engineer Joel Katz. This version of E Hoʻi ka Nani i Mokuʻula is offered as both a remembrance and a return—an invitation to listen deeply to what still lives beneath the coral fill and former ball field and to imagine Mokuʻula once again in its fullness.

An English translation by Nicholas Kealiʻi Lum as well as chords and  sheet music are available in the Lei Nāhonoapiʻilani: Songs of West Maui song book distributed by Kamehameha Publishing.

Artist: Keʻeaumoku Kapu & Uʻilani Kapu
Song: “E Hoʻi ka Nani i Mokuʻula”
Words: P.H. Kekuaiwa (1862)
Music: Akoni Akana
From the documentary Ea
Streaming links: https://ehoikanani.hearnow.com