Hawaiʻi's people inhabited (and inhabit still) a landscape remarkably dense with place-names, and for those who speak the language of this place, our ʻōlelo, a landscape dense with instruction too.

Our kūpuna, our ancestors, bequeathed us a language born of attention to form and function, a generosity of name-giving to a world that was populated throughout by intimate relationships. In this way, places were loved and named in the particular. Every bay and plain, every headland and hilltop. The swath of reef, the tiny channel, the heap of stones.

Hawaiʻi's place-names anthologize history and oral tradition, they hold bioenvironmental clues and mark ancient land divisions, binding story and meaning to everyplace.

One such place is Pāpaʻanui.

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We are grateful to have made our small baseyard and Maui Nui home on the brow of Puʻu Keʻekeʻehia, a small patch of green within ʻUlupalakua Ranch.

Our headquarters sit within the ahupuaʻa, or the traditional land unit of Pāpaʻanui—a rich sliver of volcanic slope that runs from the Keonehunehune and Keonehelu (Keonenelu) hills in the East, narrowing westward, taking in Waiaokawa Cone, the smaller strips of lands called Pololau, ʻŌhiʻa, Piʻihale and Kānenelu (to name just a few), the lowlands near Oanapuka, and finally looping around Nahuna Point and the old landing at the sea. 

Encapsulated version of Honuaʻula District Map, 1881

Pāpaʻanui translates to a big secure enclosure.

And so it is.

Pāpaʻanui evokes a homeplace that is fixed, lasting, whole. This place-name, this embedded place-memory, helps calls us back to our work and our team time and time again.

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Pāpaʻanui as Place,
Pāpaʻanui as People

Though its name probably derives from some small and ancient stronghold or storehouse along the coast or on the plains, the meaning of Pāpaʻanui spills over into our work here and is reflected in the people who carry it forward, the people who shore up this collective dream we call Maui Nui Venison, who make it a home—our incredible team, a pāpaʻa nui unto itself.

Mahalo nui, gangy!

And in this season, we scoop up this place-message and send it to you.

E paʻa ka pā ā nui.

May the feeling of homecoming find you, in a circle of family, of friends, on a little patch of ground, or even just on the inside—whoever you are with, wherever you might be.