Inappropriate Volcano Offerings Prompt National Park Statement (Mar. 23, 2024)

HAWAIʻI VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK - Park rangers have collected an overload of non-traditional hoʻokupu (offerings) left at various places surrounding the Kīlauea summit.
MORE: www.bigislandv...
FULL NPS VIDEO: www.nps.gov/ha...
A synthesized voice was utilized in the narration for this story. Photos and video courtesy National Park Service.

[@handimanjay6642]

During our visit a long term resident showed us how to find seeds from native plants at the summit and how and where to plant them to honor Pele. We then helped her pick up inappropriate offerings (trash) from the area. She said a chant in native Hawaiian after we collected the trash and disposed of it properly.

[@PaulKruszka]

I'm happy for you that you met someone native to the island to show you the culture and beliefs. I was saddened as much as we came humbled wanting to learn the same but it didn't happen, as much as we tried. We explored on our own for 9 days. From one side of the island to the other. 1200 miles total. Mahalo

[@AhJodie]

I thought this was going to be something different, as it turned out, I learned a lot, and want to say thank you for informing us! I like the idea of an equal exchange rather than a thank you to the area!

[@janetsecchi5070]

Aloha! I really enjoyed hearing the wisdom of the Hawaiian traditions and language. Told and teaching with grace. Mahalo.

[@rayfujimori9833]

We need more national park rangers with Hawaiian back round, not just someone from the mainland just putting in time to pad their resume.

[@connorm3457]

Respectfully honoring a place, that was honorable to you.💪❤️🤙

[@TheKablue]

This should be shown to every single person flying onto our island and on every cruise ship that docks for visitors on this island.

[@ThatOpalGuy]

or, just stop encouraging it.

[@annemiura7767]

Very good explanation of the correct protocol

[@YamIa3gypsy]

Mahalo for this and all of the content you post for us!

[@panoptos4163]

Imo, this is such a vital concept to, literally, perpetuating the life of the land in a mindful way. Obviously, most people haven’t taken that lesson in just yet.

[@Nature.Lover.1016]

Mahalo nui HuiHui Kanahele-Mossman for sharing knowledge, protocal and translation of Ho'o Kupu.

[@Mr.Spanky]

I just realized two things we're the name of the island comes from from the Lego Bionicle movie it means many thanks or it's a knockoff of that the second the island is that based off the island off of Oahu that looks like a moon the inventor of Legos must have had a really nice vacation

[@SC_327x]

This is a great offering give the famous Amos and the volcano won’t burn the island.

[@Wekeslayer]

To me if your not of kanaka decent or any Polynesian descent, Or understand what’s Ho’o Kupu means you shouldn’t be doing it. You’re just leaving your trash all over the place, Tutu pele doesn’t like that.

[@ThatOpalGuy]

well if it wasn't encouraged it would fade away.

[@ElleLillian]

@@rangefinderz5135 chill out, o mighty edgelord

[@tchaiamnajdust]

Stupid is as stupid does....

[@Phoenixhunter157]

I feel like this was not left by tourists, but rather locals. I’ve heard about the bottles of gin that used to be left

[@svensorensen7272]

I remember years ago when Hawaiians offered up gin to Pele

[@effinhaoli808]

Mahalo Hui Hui Kanahele 🤙🏽

[@johnstamos4629]

Oreos says on the box "Biomedically engineered product". you should not offer it to ANYBODY. especially kids

[@njzeigler4370]

Um...no. Genetically engineered is what it says... Not bio-medically engineered. That is a lie.

[@njzeigler4370]

@@johnstamos4629 some proof?

[@chaimomma9198]

It has genetically altered soy flour too.

[@philoctetes_wordsworth]

Thank you. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💐

[@punapeter]

The difference between "tourists" and "visitors". Visitors come to a new place with respect for the culture they are visiting, emerse themselves and learn. Tourists trash everywhere they go with their "entitled, I paid for my vaca so I can do what I want" attitude. Leaving opala everywhere. No different here as anywhere else in the world.

[@PaulKruszka]

My wife and I will be visitors to the Big Island at the beginning of May. We will come humbled and staying away from the 'tourist' thing. This for us is the trip of our lifetime. We have no plans except to experience as much as we can during our 10 day stay. Mahalo and thank you.

[@7531monkey]

Thats not a difference , bro.

[@punapeter]

@@7531monkey how would you know how many countries have you been to?? kid

[@lightclawshadowmarsch8167]

So I guess virgin sacrifice is out of the question 😅

[@ThatOpalGuy]

best of luck finding one.

[@mirjanoland]

This so beautyful to let people know what to do and what not to do, and also how. Thank you. I often visit Big Island because my family lives over there. I can see also how this can be used in other special places around our beautiful Earth.

[@kittyfantastic7681]

Some of the offerings shown are Santerian in nature. In some traditions you leave offerings like that in nature. Many faiths leave offerings in spaces like this. Maybe a compromise could be the park setting up an official offering place. A place where they can safely dispose of the offerings when the people leave.

[@punapeter]

There are trash cans up there.

[@annemiura7767]

For crying out loud, your respectful presence is all that is needed if you don’t know or understand the Hawaiian protocol.

[@Nirrrina]

That sounds reasonable to me. Also they could suggest simple things that would be a better offering. Perhaps even sell something already made up & give the profits to a local charity that helps locals.

[@John_Weiss]

@@NirrrinaYou wouldn't walk into a church and turn towards Mecca and start praying to Allah, would you? Then how is practicing Santeria on a Hawaiian religious site any different?

[@Raycheetah]

Also, can we talk about bottles of gin? Not a traditional offering, but many visitors are led to believe they are. ='[.]'=

[@davidedgar2818]

To tell the truth, I'm definitely offended by the wrong kind of offerings. I've seen many of the organic offerings, rarely inorganic ( more often gin bottles) but this more recent problem offends me for sure.

[@haven_lady675]

The gesture is sweet but there is a better and ecologically friendly way

[@krakatoainc2809]

If we do not modernize our beliefs, then we will be doomed to repeat the past.

[@lightclawshadowmarsch8167]

They practiced it on Easter Island

[@malachiteofmethuselah9713]

"My offering is sacred. Your's is garbage." -Every tribe in history

[@crystals36]

If they leave garbage, it’s garbage! Who going to throw away it away? That’s not Biodegradable and should not be left.

[@malachiteofmethuselah9713]

@@crystals36 The same people who used to remove the bottles of gin that were encouraged?

[@river4462]

Ho'okupu is not last I knew Chips Ahoy and rotten fruit to me sounds pilau

[@lisatirkot7210]

People ruin everything.

[@Andy_Holmes]

You could try deleting yourself, see if that helps.

[@mirgrant]

White people

[@kealalikolehuaopanaewarosario]

Haolesʻ😡

[@xyladivine]

If you want to make a real impact, then show some respect! If you are not a native or born and raised in the culture, then the best thing you can do, is to leave Pele the way you found her. You can go there, be in quietness, then from you're heart, send out love peace, & gratitude to Pele. Then, if you want, you could thank her for all that she is. (Life/ death, and birthing new land, home to all life on the Island.) She would love it too, if you see trash, and pick it up, & thow it in the trash cans. Do not touch the sacred items left by the Hawaiians either. That will be disrespectful, to both the person who left the offering, and to Pele, who's gift it is. Respect the culture/ land, and beaches. Leave no mark that you were ever there. This goes for the beaches and the rest of the island. Keep Hawaii beautiful. If you do this, perhaps one day, she will call you to come back to her. I send my Love and Aloha to you Pele, from my heart to yours, and to all life that lives on you!

[@punapeter]

Mahalo Nui Loa, very well said. I was "baptised" by fire, down in Kalapana when she fwent off in the early 80s and you had to go all the way down to the end of CoC Road and walk out 5 miles to flow. I crossed over the flow on floating plates and cracks you could see the river flowing through. Not knowing each step could have been my last. #1 From the North side I went down to where the lava was pouring into the ocean so I wouldn't be in the plume rising from the "Birth of Earth" as I called it. A gas that would have ended me as well. #2 I want to tell you, I've walked into St. Peter's in Rome and didn't feel the 'spirit' move me like stepping onto that warm virgin black sand newly forming beach. Realizing that any moment could be my last, save for the grace of Pele. That fire hose pouring into the water could have spit at me and I would have been over. #3 The sound! of crystline lava breaking like glass on the shore, down the beach as every waved crashed was a memeory I still carry 40 years later. Middle of the night, tiny key chain flashlight. I was so young and ignorant of lava. The fact I didn't die that night, and no one would have known until my body was floating by the arch, was proof to me I knew what aina I needed to be on. The last quarter century my marriage to my aina has blessed me, or not, with abundance and fertility. Sometimes it can be a curse especially since the introduction of Koster's Curse brought in my a neighor's D-8 destruction work. Not easy keeping a virgin rainforest when all around you the D-9s are raping the aina. Couple lots over full of old growth mango trees was FLATTENED into a rock lot, to stick a couple T1-11 box on a lot spec houses to sell for 1/2 a million to some clueless person from Kansas. I was a steward of those acres for 2 decades keeping the albizias out, shame I didn't own them. They would have remained virgin, it was such a beautiful mango grove. Aloha

[@Wekeslayer]

Yessah aunty keep ka’u beautiful

[@xyladivine]

@@punapeter

[@fredfonebone5108]

It’s a geologic feature. It doesn’t eat or drink anything. Stop littering.

[@ThatOpalGuy]

Tradition: peer pressure from the dead.

[@HwnDragon1]

Omg 😱 😂

[@Jazzfestn]

Are HISTORICALLY ACCURATE HUMAN SACRIFICES ok?

[@jamiegallier2106]

❤

[@AuntyLaniLee]

Madam Pele likes GIN! But don't leave the bottle. Pour it over the edge.

[@imonearthnow1903]

Thoughtless visitors. They come over knowing nothing of the islands and our island ways.

[@beckyd3546]

You may have hit the nail on the head, in a backwards way. It's not 'your' island, you belong to the island. The island gives you life and sustenance. If people visiting there would respect it in that way, and the people living there would respect it in this way, then it would be a better island, and world. It should be a way of life for all humans to humble ourselves and give honor and respect to all living things, most especially the land. The earth is a living being, she is like a mother who nurtures life.

[@josephineosagie848]

Holo..... is therefore some kind of nature because some kind of nature can easily blend right but if not you can respond!!

[@user-Mike8290]

Leaving trash will hopefully leave you with a curse.

[@righteousbyfaithinChrist]

Oh, oh...

[@Mr.Spanky]

Food is for people sage is for the spirits

[@davidlittle611]

You can’t buy an offering with food stamps even if the park service allowed ChopsAhoy cookies because then you are offering someone else’s hard work to your god.

[@punapeter]

that made no sense

[@davidlittle611]

@@punapeter I think they bought their junk food with welfare to offer to the lava god.

[@surfit.]

Wow, that was stupid. Aluminum pans? Cookies? Look at it. That's littering. It's like disrespecting the culture by not learning the proper way to respect the culture.

[@erinrising2799]

maybe donate to a charity in the goddess' name

[@creaturedomes9364]

Pele is not real

[@Wekeslayer]

Yeah and Also Jesus is not white 😂😂😂

[@domeniclocalzo9498]

😂😂😂😂

[@truthforfree2562]

You all need to repent of your demon worship God is not pleased when you worship His creation instead of giving Him thanks for giving you the breath in your lungs You need to find out what the True and Living God desires from you before it’s to late for you Jesus Christ gave His life for you, do you care to find out what He desires from you? It’s Your choice but choose wisely

[@bobbymoss6160]

LMAO, what's the problem? The park rangers can just collect the cookies and put it in the station break room.

[@kikaree]

The National Park Service is in no position to be judging religions.

[@grimmington2569]

Tell me you didnt bother to pay attention to the video, without telling me you didnt bother to pay attention to the video. The lady presenting the information wasnt a part of the national park service. She's a native explaining the practice of offerings and what makes an appropriate offering. Even going into the meaning of the word at its most basic level.

[@kikaree]

@@grimmington2569 Perhaps you didn't remember the very beginning of this video. -better re-listen before making wrong statements.

[@kimm6589]

Fool

[@Vildayyan2003]

HAHAHAHaaaaa

[@punapeter]

@@kikaree perhaps you didn't notice Hawaiians work for the Park Service either huh.

[@Godckr1]

Repent and trust in Jesus Christ. Malama da aina🤙🏽

[@polemeros]

Well, so much for the separation of church and state. I notice this all over the national parks, where the supposed beliefs and practices of the Indians, etc. are treated as if they were a state religion which we must all accept. Just try this with any site connected to Christianity and HEY, WHATTABOUT SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE???

[@ShrimpBarbarian]

all these new age hippies 🙄

[@onekewlbraddah8460]

white pipo lol

[@davidk6668]

They use to sacrifice virgins. I don’t think a few food items is as bad as that.

[@kittenpawsbb]

It would be simpler, if you become a Christian. Don’t have to do these “offerings”, (garbage) left for others to clean up. Jesus Christ is the only way to the Father. # SeekGod 😌🙏🏽🌟🕊️

[@Nirrrina]

People have different religions. That should be respected as their choice. Right or wrong it's their choice to make.

[@kittenpawsbb]

@@Nirrrina So their religion should be "respected", but they don't have to respect the National Park and environment, by dumping their garbage there. Make that make sense. 🤦🏽‍♀️ #SeekGod 😌🙏🏽🌟🕊

[@Nirrrina]

@@kittenpawsbb You can respect their religion while still not allowing trash to be left everywhere. I just don't like it when others push their religion on someone else. That's the part that should be respected. By the way I already go to church when I'm physically able to. I'll even share it if someone asks. But I won't push my version of religion onto someone else. My relationship with God is exactly that mine. Not theirs but mine. They're free to have their own. As long as it's not damaging to others including the environment.

[@kittenpawsbb]

@@Nirrrina Well it is damaging the environment. They are pushing their religion, by placing their garbage in a public park. They have no respect and that's a reflection of their religion. Why you feel to make this about you, well that's a you problem. Don't confess to me, only God can save you. #SeekGod 😌🙏🏽🌟🕊

[@erinrising2799]

you just leave an offering in a collection plate....totally different

[@ThatOpalGuy]

is it not time to evolve past myths?

[@bodhionultimateride2660]

Can’t expect much from people that don’t have a full alphabet.

[@ierdnall]

Icelandic has 36 letters , Russian Cyrillic has 33. English has 26. Burgers are illiterate even with 26

[@punapeter]

and you know only 12

[@ierdnall]

@@punapeterYou're Cheeseburger is getting cold

[@bodhionultimateride2660]

@@punapeter good one simp

[@bodhionultimateride2660]

@@ierdnall you know things. Good job

[@brandonwhittle6762]

From heaven to flood America

[@Biteyourownteeth]

word salad

[@punapeter]

for a small mind like yours, sad

[@Biteyourownteeth]

The National Park Service waste of money freedom of religion

[@punapeter]

did you drop off some Oreos?