Moloka’i has an abundance of significant cultural and archaeological resources. Most of these cultural sites are stone structures that date back as far as 1,500 years. Hawai’i’s second most sacred historic site, the kukui tree grove of the prophet and healer Lanikaula, is located on Moloka’i, as is one of the largest heiau (religious temples) in the state, ‘Ili’iliopae Heaiu. Moloka’i is renowned in legend as the island where the goddess Laka created the hula, and as the place where the last remaining symbol of the ancient sorcerers’ powers was fashioned: the Kalaipahoa, a weapon carved from a deadly enchanted tree. These many sites are of great significance to anyone interested in Hawaiian history, and Moloka’i is one of the few places left in Hawai’i where such sites exist undisturbed.
Moloka’i is known today as the last Hawaiian island. Here, the culture of Hawai’i’s first inhabitants still flourishes. Children flock to Hawaiian language schools, and their parents take night-classes in order to converse with their pre-schoolers. Annual Makahiki (Fall harvest festival) rites are held each year, with traditional Hawaiian games ceremonies. Moloka’i also annually hosts a Hawaiian dance festival devoted to the birth of hula, which legends say occurred on this island. Traditional Hawaiian fishing, hunting and gathering practices are still a part of everyday life for many of the island’s families. And numerous intact historic sites remain, including the fishponds that contemporary Hawaiians hope to restore to productive use.
All of these features distinguish Moloka’i from most of the rest of modern-day Hawai’i, and of course from the rest of the world. Moloka’i was the seat of the Hawaiian Renaissance movement that began in the mid-1970's, when native Hawaiians began realize that their language, religious traditions, and native customs were on the verge of extinction. In the two decades since, the island has become a cultural touchstone for native Hawaiians everywhere, a unique and very endangered vestige of the Hawai’i that existed before immigrants from all over the globe arrived to turn Hawai’i into a fabled cultural melting pot.