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Re: True Story(Cont.#5) |
| Name: |
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Troy |
| Date Posted: |
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Sep 12, 05 - 12:39 PM |
| Email: |
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tulroy09@yahoo.com |
| Message: |
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The stone from the discovered water well that was carved into the likeness of a turtle in 1810, was empowered by chants of the King and his Kahunas (Priest) with the ability to direct them to a location in the sea for turtles and fish. To find this location for the King and his family’s feast, the Kahuna would spin the stone turtle around three times, chanting out loud. Where the head of the turtle would stop, is the direction the fishermen would follow. They always caught at least one turtle and an abundance of fish, enough for all. The turtle stone also held mystical powers in the hands of the King. If a person desires to attack the King, the King would chant over the stone turtle. The plotting attacker would fall to the ground and crawl off like a turtle on his belly. This has occurred to one of the Kosrae King’s warriors in the late 1890s.
Puakonakai (Banapa/Ppanapa) Island never was much visited by outsiders. It is not located in the path that most whaling or trading vessel’s traveled in the Central Pacific. The King and his workers would travel throughout the islands which is now called the Kiribati Islands, to Nauru, Kosrae and up through the Marshall Islands and back. In their travels, they traded for goods they needed with the other island Kings and Chiefs. The Puakonakai King would hold meetings with other island Kings. They would gather on different islands each year. Each King would host a general meeting on his own island, in turn. Trade items were weaved baskets, headbands, shell leis, shark fins, shark teeth, wooden swords, clubs of wood, and even young girls and boys. The original discoverers of Puakonakai were from Polynesian, Cook and Samoa. Their basic belief and customs are the same as the other Polynesian Islanders which till today, they practice on the islands in Micronesia. The King, Queen and their original followers, know living in Micronesia had to learn the different dialects and languages in their new sphere. Their Cook and Samoan languages were eventually discarded as men and women from the other islands moved in and out of Puakonakai. Only a few Polynesian names remain on the island today. They are Ooma, Panapa, Awa, Puakonakai, TeMoi and Nei.
The original discoverers being from Polynesia, named the island using the language they knew. Thus it was originally named “Pua-Kona-Kai” which means The Flower of the Calm Sea. There was no written words, only verbal language, and in the mid to late 1800, some Englishmen probably missionary, devised a written language for the islanders. In the translation process, he or she spelled the Polynesian names incorrectly. Thus, Puakonkai was wrongly spelled. The misspelling of the word changes its translated Polynesian meaning. Also the word Banapa was incorrectly translated and spelled. Pa’Napa means “uneven stone wall enclosure” and was used by the Puakonakaians to mean the stone walls they built to enclose their gardens, huts, religious places and villages as whole. Most of Panapas were taken down as the rocks used to build them were made of high grade phosphate rocks. Only a few walls that were replaced with coral rocks remain today.
Originally there was but one village, established by the Polynesians. It is named Ooma which mean the spouting or concave in the Polynesian language. We do not know its meaning today but it well could have been named Ooma due to the spouting that the passing whales made or perhaps the land is slightly hollowed out or it may have even been named after a cave near by. Ooma village is still on present day maps and it was the landing site of the original Polynesians Tutaki (Tutuk) and Timirik (Nei-Kamoa). The pass in the reef by the western side of the south point of the island was called Nuku or natural harbor by which canoes could go through the reef to land on the island. In time two other villages developed as more outside islanders arrived to settle on Puakonakai. The Englishmen that discovered the phosphate in 1900, again incorrectly spelled the village names as they heard them being described, by an inhabitant who they also misunderstood in renaming the island. The southern Royal Family village was translated correctly as it was short to say or write, Ooma; the next village to the west of Ooma was more difficult to say and write as it was a Kiribati name, not Polynesian. This village was named Tabiang, which was originally named by the immigrants from Abaiang Island to the northeast. Next the third village came into being, again misspelled by the Englishmen. He interpreted to be Tepewa or Tapewa, when it was actually named after the immigrants from Tarawa, an island in Kiribati chain to the northeast. It was located on the western shore of Puakonakai island. This Englishmen, in his ignorance, again misinterpreted what the locals were saying to him and got the idea that the locals called the island Banapa, thus Puakonakai became a piece of land later, during the great land rush create |
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