Where did Hawaiians come from? Depends who you ask. We weren’t officially Hawaiʻi (Hawaiians) anyway until we were conquered and unified by Kamehameha in 1810. Prior to that we had our own unique distinctions according to the islands from which we hailed.
But where did the first people to settle here come from and how did we evolve into the modern people we are today? Scientists will cite the migration theory showing that the central Pacific was colonized thousands of years ago from people of S.E. Asia. Over many more thousands of years, they moved out, settling other islands. There were two major migrations to Hawaiʻi. The first from Nukuhiva in AD 300-600. The second from Tahiti in AD 1000-1300. Dates will vary especially now as new data continues to be collected but these are the dates I run with for now.
But what of the indigenous perspective? If you asked a kanaka of say Kamehameha’s time, he or she would likely reference the Mele a Pakuʻi, otherwise known as the story of Papa & Wākea. Within this moʻolelo, you find moʻokūʻauhau or genealogy of the gods (ancient ancestors). You’ll also find cultural understandings of our familial link to the ʻāina and our stable food the kalo. It is here that we find lessons of aloha ʻāina and mālama ʻāina.
The relationship between humans and the entire universe is expressed in the Kumulipo. In this cosmogonic chant of procreation, we examine the beginnings of our world and everything in it. Some say that it demonstrates a higher level of thinking of time, space & evolution. Kumulipo differs from evolution however in that we don’t evolve from one species to the next. We are simply born in a certain order. The fact that humans do not arrive until the second half of the mele shows that we are subservient to nature, not born to dominate or control it. We are junior to all plants and animals that come before us but as humans we have a special kuleana to respect and mālama them. We can speak for them. We can protect them and should continue doing so especially today in this modern, somewhat messed up world we have created.