'Io, the true god of the Hawaiians

My "I" post is about 'Io, the true god of the Hawaiians. Since my husband has included some information about 'Io in our next book, "4 Spiritual Tsunamis," I decided to take excerpts from what he has already written and expand on them just a little to clarify some of the details. So here goes.

"In my short visits to Hawaii I have learned that many native Hawaiians would like to return to their “native” religion. But the religion they want to return to is that oppressive religion which Pa’ao introduced to the Hawaiian people, not the original worship of the one true benevolent creator God – 'Io. (More details about Pa'ao will be in my "P" post.)

"Daniel Kikawa, author of Perpetuated in Righteousness and God of Light, God of Darkness said that the Polynesian peoples, of which the Hawaiian people are a part, had oral traditions passed down from generation to generation even to the present day. He was able to interview some of the elders or Kahunas who told him some of these stories. They had oral genealogies going back all the way to Adam. In fact, in their ancient stories they go all the way to the story of Jonah in the Old Testament. They worshiped the One Supreme Benevolent Creator God named 'Io. 'Io is a linguistic variation of the Hebrew name for Jaweh. Genesis 25:6 says that Abraham had other sons after his wife Sara died, and they were sent off to the East. Daniel Kikawa says that the proto-linguists, and proto-anthropologists (these are the people who study the historical roots of languages and cultures) have determined that the Hawaiian people originally came from the Middle East. This is confirmed by their oral tradition in some of the stories that they tell. Then they migrated to India, and from there to Burma. From Burma they began stretching out into the ocean. Over a thousand years before Jesus was born, the Proto-Polynesians were navigating their canoes and finding isolated islands in the middle of the Pacific. They had navigational charts made out of reeds, shells, and rocks. They studied the waves the winds and the birds and other things to determine where they were going. Around 400 A.D. the first Marquesans reached Hawaii and also Easter Island.  

"Around 1300 A.D. the Hawaiians were invaded by a great chieftain king and high priest from what is known today as Bora Bora in Tahiti. His name was Pa’ao. Kikawa writes in his book that the historian, Rudy Mitchell, says that "Pa’ao was a kahuna nui (high preist), ali’i nui (high royalty), famous navigator and a sorcerer of great power. Although this family knew of 'Io, they established a new oppressive religious system with it’s chief place at Taputaputea.” This system, according to Kikawa’s research was a system of taboos, idolatry, human sacrifice, and slavery, things which did not exist in their religion before Pa’ao invaded."

In the same way that Yaweh was never mentioned by name by the Hebrew people, the Hawaiians had many paraphrases they used to refer to 'Io. Some of these were Most Excellent Supreme, The Power of Death, Eternity, Beyond Vision and The One Established. Kikawa says, "These names were titles of the One True God, his true name being too sacred to mention; his name was 'Io." (Perpetuated in Righteousness, p.55.)