AbstractsLaw & Legal Studies

M.A. University of Hawaii at Manoa 2014. For years the Waiʻanae moku has been portrayed as a 'wasteland,' and it has been taken for granted that this district has been perpetually void of water. The name 'Waiʻanae,' asserts that there were two things (among others) that were important in this ʻāina: wai and ʻanae. So where did all the 'wai' in Waiʻanae go? This thesis examines archival and other primary source documents to account for the history of water in the Waiʻanae ahupuaʻa. I demonstrate that Waiʻanae was historically a place of wai and offer a detailed account of critical diversions of water resources in Waiʻanae from the Māhele forward. This thesis argues that at the time of the Māhele, Waiʻanae was a place of wai and that water diversion by the Waianae Company, a sugar plantation, caused streams and many springs to run dry and had adverse affects on kalo cultivation into the 1930s.