Pana ia: Ever Heard of It?

Aloha,

This past week I was on the phone with Ekolu (@leo_kuahiwi) just catching up. We were talking about a very integral part of Hawaiian culture, lawaia (fishing). Whether or not you are interested in the topic, there is something here for everyone.

I grew up doing pana ia (spearfishing) and so did Ekolu. He is also very good at hoolei upena (throwing net), and the next time I get to Kauai we will be making some new content together.

You will need a visual for this lesson, so I have included some video links for those who do not know much about pana ia. Disclaimer: if you do not want to see fish being speared, do not click on the links. The word pana is the action word we use for spear, and ia is of course fish. There are at least three kinds of spears you might find in Hawaii. The first is like a sling, the second is a 3-prong, and the last is a speargun. These styles have different names in English, but in Hawaiian it all falls under pana ia.

Why is that? Go back and watch those videos and see what they have in common. It is the trajectory. Each one has a spear that is loaded up, and a releasing mechanism that slings the spear in the same fashion. Fun fact, we say pana pua for archery. Pua here means arrow and not flower.

How else is pana used? I'm glad you asked. Pana can be used to flick someone's ear, snap your fingers, or flick a bugger (we have all done it, don't lie). If you ever played marbles, you can also say pana to shoot a marble.

So far we have gone from spearfishing to archery to naughty behavior to playing marbles. If that is not a diverse word, I don't know what is.

Here are some phrases showing how to use pana:

Ua pana ia oe ma mua? - Have you been spearfishing before?
Akamai ka poe kanaka i ka pana ia - Hawaiians are good at spearfishing.
O oe ka mua e pana i kau mapala. - You are the first one to shoot your marble.
Malihini makou i ka pana pua. - We don't know much about archery.

Was this interesting? What do you want to hear about next?

Owau no,
Maluhia