de Silva, Lorna Pi‘ilani Theresa Pratt

Nā Pua o Moanauli: Kahikina, Kapalai‘ula, Keolewa, and Kanoelehua de Silva; Kainui and Pi‘ilani Smith; Kainoa and Pōnahakeone Kamaka‘ala.

Name: Lorna Pi‘ilani Teresa Pratt de Silva
Date of Birth: March 16, 1927, Hilo, Hawai‘i
Date of Death: February 5, 1987, Honolulu, Hawai‘i
Parents: Helen Laulani Kekuewa, b. November 6, 1904 and
Robert Clark Pratt, b. December 4, 1891
Maternal Grandparents: Annie Pā‘ū Kapahukula, b. May 5, 1876
Henry Kalā Kekuewa, b. May 18, 1873
Paternal Grandparents: Joseph George Pratt, b. May 24, 1856
Sila Persis Brown, b. January 1, 1860
Siblings: Matilda Ku‘ulei (Ercel Hart), Helen Laulani Elizabeth (Sam
Kamakau, Joseph Kamakau), Jane Leilehua Roberta (Harry Lono Bray)
Spouse: Edwin A. de Silva Jr., b. September 28, 1925, in Hilo
Married: December 13, 1946, in Reno, Nevada
Places of Residence: Hōnaunau-Hilo, Kailua-Oʻahu

Children, Grandchildren:

• Kīhei Clark (m. Leslie Māpuana Howell)
  • Kahikina Kawaiponoakekīpuka, Kapalai‘ula Kamākāleiakawainui
• Kauka Henry (m. Kathleen Ka‘iulani Browne)
  • Keolewa Ko‘olau, Kanoelehua Chiaki
• Kapu Carrie (m. Kimo Michael Smith)
  • Kainui Michael, Pi‘ilani Theresa
• Kalei Edwina (m. Thad Sun Yee Kamaka‘ala)
  • Kainoa Lee Kwai, Carrie Pōnahakeone

Surnames: Kekuewa, Kapahukula, Pratt, Browne, de Silva, Smith, Kamaka‘ala, Hart, Kamakau, Bray

Our tūtū, Lorna Pi‘ilani Pratt de Silva of Hōnaunau, Kona, Hawai‘i, is a direct descendant, through her maternal great-grandparents Keolewa Moanauli Kekuewa (k. born 1845) and Loika Kama‘ilohi (w. born 1847), of both Keawe‘īkekahiali‘iokamoku, the 17th century chief for whom Hale o Keawe was built and named, and of Keawe‘ai, the priest who founded that house and fathered the five generations of sons and grandsons who served as its keepers.

Although we are 11 generations removed from the first chief and priest of Hale o Keawe, six generations removed from Ka‘ahumanu’s dismantling of the temple in 1829, and three generations removed from permanent residence at Hōnaunau, we are still responsible for maintaining, as best we can, our family’s connection to our ancestral homeland. This oli given below is meant to honor our tūtū and her kulāiwi. Composed by her hiapo Kīhei, it is meant as a loving recitation of the names of those Hōnaunau connections—people, places, guardians, winds, cliffs, birds, lei, mists, waters, rocks, sunsets, activities—that hold us to her and that hold her, in turn, to the place in which she was raised and in whose waters, 16 years ago, our parents and grandfather scattered her ashes.

She is the "Ku‘u aloha" of the oli. In its opening lines, she rises to the ridgepole of her ancestors at Kīlaulani, and in its closing lines, she returns to warm us in the streaming rays of the setting sun. In between, we find her in the lei of generations strung at Ko‘olau and placed at Pu‘uehu; we find her in the ‘iwa-shadowed cliffs of Alahaka, in the life-giving waters that flow into and bubble up from Kapuwai, in the touch of the cooling Kēhau mists, and in the rise and fall of the tide pools at Keawewai. Hō‘ihi mākou i ka inoa ‘o Pi‘ilani.

Ku‘u aloha, ku‘u aloha lā
Ku‘u aloha pi‘i i ka lani o Kīlaulani
‘O ia lani kūkūohi a Kahinaaola
Kalāmainu‘u, Kamaunuihalakaipo
He ipo aloha na ka Hau o Mā‘ihi
Mai māihi mai ‘oe i ka pili ua pa‘a
Ua nu‘a ka hala o Mo‘oiki Keawe‘ai
I mānai ‘ia na Ko‘olau i Pōnahakeone
Nē uē hone i kai o Kauwalomālie
E au mālie ana i Pu‘uehu, Pu‘u o Ka‘ū
Ku‘u ‘iwa kiani, malu iho ka pali o Alahaka
‘O ka haka nō ia e kau ai ka molimolī aloha
Ku‘u aloha ho‘okē wai o Waiho‘i
Inu wai o Waiakapua‘i i Kaihiuwa‘e
Kākele kai o Pōhānoholio i Kapuwai
A ‘ai loli me nā wāhine o Ka‘elehuluhulu
Ku‘u aloha moe lōli‘i i kahi huluhulu
Moe kēhau i ke ala lani ‘ula o Moanauli
Nāu nō ka wai hā‘ule naoa a ke kēhau
Nauane, ‘o ia ka uwalo o Kekuewa nā‘ū lā
Naʻu ke aloha hi‘ikua, hi‘ialo i Pōhaku Nānā Lā
Nāna ka lawe mimiki o ke au i Keawewai
Aweawe ku‘u lā, ku‘u aloha koili i ka ‘ili kai
I mehana ai ka ‘ūlili i ka hikina mai
He inoa no Pi‘ilani.

My beloved, my beloved
My beloved who ascends to the heights of Kīlaulani
The steep-gabled heights of Kahinaaola,
Kalāmainu‘u, and Kamaunuihalakaipo
You who are loved by the Hau breeze of Mā‘ihi
Do not undo the bond that holds fast
Heaped are the hala of Mo‘oiki Keawe‘ai
Strung in lei by Ko‘olau at Pōnahakeone
Murmuring, sighing softly below Kauwalomālie
Floating peacefully off Pu‘uehu and Pu‘u o Ka‘ū
My soaring ‘iwa casting shadows on the Alahaka cliffs
The shelf on which love’s imprint rests
My beloved who turns away from the water of Waiho‘i
Who drinks at Waiakapua‘i at Kaihiuwa‘e
Who slips and slides in the water of Pōhānoholio at Kapuwai
Who eats loli with the women of Ka‘elehuluhulu
My beloved who lies at ease on a blanket
Spread on the mist of the red, heavenly path of Moanauli
Yours is the cool, falling mist of the Kēhau
"Nauane" is the call of Kekuewa who chants nāʻū to the sun
Mine is the love carried on the back, carried in the front, at Pōhaku Nānā Lā
That rock for which the tide rises and falls at Keawewai
My sun’s rays stream outward, my beloved resting on the ocean’s surface
At your coming, the ‘ūlili finds warmth.
A mele inoa for Pi‘ilani.