Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Hawaiian residents, government officials, occasional US Navy personnel and in-
vited guests, Niʻihau is the last bastion of traditional Native Hawaiian culture.
Captain Cook anchored off Niʻihau on January 29, 1778, two weeks after 'discov-
ering' Hawaii. Cook noted in his log that the island was lightly populated and largely
barren - a description still true today. His visit was short, but it had a lasting im-
pact. Cook introduced two things to Niʻihau that would quickly change the face of
Hawaii: he left two goats, the first of the grazing animals that would devastate the
island's native flora and fauna, and his men introduced syphilis, the first of several
Western diseases that would strike the Hawaiian people.
In 1864 Elizabeth Sinclair, a Scottish widow who was moving from New Zealand
to Vancouver when she got sidetracked in Hawaii, bought Niʻihau from King Kame-
hameha V for $10,000 in gold. He originally tried to sell her the 'swampland' of
Waikiki, but she passed it up for the 'desert island.' Interestingly no two places in
Hawaii could be further apart today, either culturally or in land value. Mrs Sinclair
brought the first sheep to Niʻihau from New Zealand and started the island's long-
standing, but now defunct, ranching operation.
Today the island is owned by Mrs Sinclair's great-great-grandsons Keith and
Bruce Robinson, brothers who also own a vast expanse of former sugarcane land,
which they now lease to big chemical corn-growing operations on Kauaʻi, where
they live. The Robinsons, an old Kauaʻi family that inspired the topic and filmThe
Descendants, are outdoorsmen and are fluent in Native Hawaiian. Keith, who
worked for years in ranching and fishing, is often found in red-dirt-covered jeans,
driving a beat-up pickup or doing heavy labor to save endangered plants. Bruce,
whose wife is Niʻihauan, holds top management positions in the family businesses
- while also leading hunting tours and efforts to safeguard Niʻihau's monk seals.
Population & Lifestyle
Niʻihau's population is predominantly Native Hawaiian. Over the years the popula-
tion has dropped from 600 in the early 1980s, to 230 in the 1990 census, to 160 a
decade later. Today Niʻihau's population is a mere 130, and it is the only island
where the primary language is still Hawaiian. Business is conducted in Hawaiian, as
are Sunday church services. In its two-room schoolhouse, three teachers hold
classes from kindergarten through 12th grade for the island's 40 students. Al-
though courses are taught solely in Hawaiian up to the fourth grade, students learn
English as a second language and most are bilingual.
Residents are known for being humble, generous and mellow, and most live in
Puʻuwai (meaning 'heart' in Hawaiian), a settlement on the dry western coast.
Their lifestyle is extremely rustic, with no sense of hurry. The island has no paved
roads, no airport, no phones and no running water. Rainfall is collected in catch-
ments and toilets are in outhouses. While there is no islandwide electricity, homes
