Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hawaii's long-dormant Plantation Village fields.
Kukaniloko Birthing Stones
This is the most sacred site in central Oahu. Two rows of 18 lava
rocks once flanked a central birthing stone, where women of ancient Hawaii gave birth to po-
tential alii. The rocks, according to Hawaiian belief, held the power to ease the labor pains
of childbirth. Birth rituals involved 48 chiefs who pounded drums to announce the arrival of
newborns likely to become chiefs. Children born here were taken to the now-destroyed Ho-
lonopahu Heiau in the pineapple field, where chiefs ceremoniously cut the umbilical cord.
Used by Oahu's alii for generations of births, the pohaku (rocks), many in bowl-like shapes,
now lie strewn in a grove of trees that stands in a pineapple field. Some think the site also may
have served ancient astronomers—like a Hawaiian Stonehenge. Petroglyphs of human forms
and circles appear on some of the stones. The Wahiawa Hawaiian Civic Club recently erected
two interpretive signs, one explaining why this was chosen as a birth site and the other telling
how the stones were used to aid in the birthing process.
Off Kamehameha Hwy., btw. Wahiawa and Haleiwa, on Plantation Rd., opposite the road to Whitmore Village.
