One of the unanticipated side impacts of moving the Land Court Award testimony for the Ahupua’a of Waititi into Google Earth was the need to transcribe the scanned images of the 1840-1850’s handwritten testimony into usable text to add to the individual award information. We came to the realization that there was a obvious need to convert all (or at least as much as possible) of all the LCA testimonies into functional text. Currently (as of 2026) the testimony only exists as scanned images-while there have been several attempts to convert these to text via software, the end results have been largely unreadable and highly inaccurate. The scanned images are script, and while the penmanship is often of high quality, they are difficult to read and impossible to search for name, number or other categories.

Our efforts have focused on the Foreign Testimony volumes, initially those related to the Ahupua’a of Waititi, transcribing them into functional pdf text form which was then added to the Google Earth Waititi files. The complete volumes can be found below as pdf files for download. Given that various recorders (secretaries) wrote the original accounts, and a formal Hawaiian dictionary did not exist, original text is often phonetic and can vary from one recorder to another. For this reason we have largely avoided trying to transcribe the Native Testimony volumes as we do not feel confidant in the accuracy either of our transcriptions, or the original intent of the recorder, much less an accurate translation into English.

Transcribing these initial files made us aware of the incredible richness of the the LCA Testimony which to my knowledge is unique in historical geographical documentation-we essentially have a snapshot not only of land use, but also political relationships, social relationships and social networks for a very specific point in time that spans an entire society. It’s worth remembering that for any other location (regardless of whether United States, France or Japan) documentation will pretty much be limited to bureaucratic records (such as taxation or land transfer) or wills (handing down property) and as such are place and/or individual specific. As an example, with my current work on the Comstock region of northern Nevada-at almost exactly the same time (1850-1875) there are no coherent records of land use or relationships. This in one of the most famous (and wealthiest) locations in the United States at the time (and a State from 1864).

So just a short note on the Mahele. By the 1840’s the Hawaiian Kingdom had experienced a wide number of threats to its sovereignty, largely from the British and the French (1815 Russia of Kaua’i-Shaffer; 1839 French-Laplace; 1843 British-Paulet; 1849 France-Tromelin). It had become clear to the Monarchy that for Hawai’i to remain a sovereign nation (note that the British and later French interference were despite existing treaties between Hawaii and those countries), it would have to shift to a more Western-Colonial model of governance and land ownership.

In Hawai’i because of the decision of Kamehameha III’s government the entire country and all the population went through a formal collective process of defining people and place, which became called the Mahele. For a number of reasons, it was a highly flawed process and a large percentage of the population, specifically the maka’ainana (common people) were not fully involved in the process. As a result it’s not by any means a complete ‘snapshot’ of land and people in Hawai’i in the 1840-1850’s. But it was relatively comprehensive, involving all islands and a wide variety of land use. If you are interested in looking at the views from this period, Thrum’s Annuals are a great source of period material (https://a.co/d/06eI8lh7), available as downloads from Amazon.

As we have been transcribing the volumes we’ve noted that the Mahele testimonies are much more inclusive than has been generally been espoused by historians. We suspect that this is due to focus-most historians have (legitimately in many cases) been focused on who actually acquired property through the process, where as we’re more interested in who applied. If you would, the testimony given versus the property handed out. This has been most clearly manifest in Sahlins and Kirch’s excellent 1992 Anahulu: The Anthropology of History in the Kingdom of Hawaii which to date is the only study using the full potential of Mahele testimony.

As a result we feel that this incredibly rich and also historically unique resource needs to be available in a functional form to all interested parties, so we are now transcribing all the Foreign Testimony volumes into standardized pdf format that is freely available (see below for completed volumes for download). I would like to specifically thank AvaKonohiki for making all the testimony volumes digitally available as that has made this expansion of their work possible: http://avakonohiki.weebly.com/about-ava.html

At this time (2026) all the relevant Foreign Testimony claims (from vol.1-3 and 14) related to Waititi have been transcribed.

All of Volume 1 (O’ahu-largely Honolulu) of the Foreign Testimony has been completely transcribed.

All of Volume 2 (O’ahu-largely Kalihi-Honoruru but some Waititi) of the Foreign Testimony has been completely transcribed.

Volume 3 (O’ahu-largely Waititi) Foreign Testimony has been completely transcribed.

Volume 4 (Hawai’i Island-Kohala) Foreign Testimony has been completely transcribed.

Volume 5 (Hawai’i Island-Hilo) Foreign Testimony has been completely transcribed.

Volume 7 (West Maui) Foreign Testimony has been completely transcribed.

Volume 8 (Maui) Foreign Testimony has been transcribed-with the exception of the Native Testimony portions.

Volume 9 (O’ahu-Ewa through Wai’anae) Foreign Testimony has been transcribed.

Volume 14 (all islands-later submissions) Foreign Testimony has been transcribed with the exception of the Native Testimony portions.

All the pdf files are available below and you should be able to download them for your own use:

Volume 1 Oahu Foreign Testimony Complete Transcription:

Volume 2 Oahu-Ewa-Kalihi-Honoruru Foreign Testimony Complete Transcription:

Volume 3 Oahu-Waititi Foreign Testimony Complete Transcription:

Volume 4 Hawaii Island-Kohala Foreign Testimony Complete Transcription:

Volume 5 Hawaii-Hilo Foreign Testimony Complete Transcription:

Volume 6 Molokai Foreign Testimony Complete Transcription:

Volume 7 West Maui-Lahaina Foreign Testimony Complete Transcription:

Volume 8 Central-East Maui Foreign Testimony Transcription Complete (foreign testimony only):

Below is the just completed Maui Foreign Testimony Vol. 8 (Central-East Maui but also other locations). The latter portion of this volume is not completed as it was completely Native Testimony so due to time constraints will be dealt with in the future.

Volume 9 O’ahu (Ewa through Wai’anae) Foreign Testimony Complete Transcription:

Volume 14 All Islands Foreign Testimony Complete Transcription:

Below are a set of working documents, including the extent Waititi LCA awards first by Name (alpha), the second run by LCA number. The third is a tabulation of all the LCA claims for the moku of Lahaina (taken from the Mahele Index), the last being a compilation of all the claims made by the Government for themselves and also those given (or given up) by the various ari’i as part of the Mahele (from the Buke) for both the moku of Lahaina and also for Waititi. Of interest is the number of “Fort” claims made for Waititi by the Government.

Waititi Ahupua’a Claims compiled transcription All Alpha

Waititi Ahupua’a Claims compiled by Number

Below is my selection of quotes from Bryan Farrell’s 1982 Hawaii, the Legend That Sells. Apologies to the author but this very important work is nearly impossible to locate and despite my searches there is no e-doc version out there. This should be required reading for anyone involved in tourism and tourism development, especially those as decision-makers in the public sector. It would be interesting to see who (if anyone) at DBEDT has read this work.