Background

Informant is the mother of the Interviewer, she has been the mother of the Interviewer since the ii    Interviewer has existed and has raised them ever since.

Context

Informant recalls childhood memory regarding a potentially haunted rock and how they dispelled the evil spirits plaguing them.

Transcript

Informant: “So there was this rock that grandpa got from a neighbor up the street, he was doing one of those moss rock walls. Anyways, grandma would always be watering outside and she always thought it always reminded her of a gravestone, and we had a pomeranian, Fluffy, Fluffy would always pee on it. And one day grandpa was taking her for a walk, and um, Fluffy got ran over by a truck, and her entire, her entire organs fell to her hind legs, yeah, and-”

Interviewer: “This is the one that survived, right?”

Informant: “Yeah, and the, doctor Higa at the time said that it would be a miracle if she survived, you know? It’d be a miracle, pretty much, if she survived surgery, and she survived, yeah. She had bladder problems after that, but then she ran away. And then grandma would always have this weird feeling, whenever she, she watered and would pass this rock, cause the rock was right outside of the garage, ok? So so then anyway, so she was feeling funny, so she went to all these Hawaiian, she went to Japanese ones, and like-

Interviewer: “Like priests and stuff, right?”

Informant: “Yeah, and she asked grandma if there was a rock in front of the house? Like she could visualize it. And what she told grandma was that that was the rock of the Ali’i, like a gravestone, the Ali’i, so that grandpa had to return the rock, with his friend, and they had to place it on the island, not tell anyone, and give it offerings, like beer and food. So to this day we don’t know where it is, Grandpa won’t tell us.”

Thoughts

This story was told to me since childhood as a cautionary tale to always respect native Hawaiian grounds and never take anything from them. Small rocks are ok, but large, ornamental rocks or any rock transported between islands was always off limits. While traditional Hawaiian culture is sadly a dying practice, the sentiments and influences still factor into the lives of many people who live on the islands. I am not 100% sold on all Hawaiian legends, but I still respect them and have never moved around rocks from island to island, so the story’s intended purpose was successful.