Talk and book signing Oct. 13 at the Lyman Museum

From 7-8:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 13, the Lyman Museum will host a special talk and book signing with archaeologist and author Patrick Kirch.

The presentation, titled “The Land of La‘amaikahiki: Ancient Hawaiian Life in the Kua‘aina of Kahikinui, Maui,” describes the land and early inhabitants of Kahikinui on the southeastern slopes of Maui’s Haleakala.

Kahikinui remains one of the last places in the Hawaiian Islands where the landscape of an entire moku (district) is preserved intact.

Despite Kahikinui’s being an arid land, lying in the rain shadow of Haleakala, the ancient Hawaiians living there successfully adapted their farming techniques for growing sweet potato and dryland taro, eventually supporting a population of several thousand people.

The prehistory of Kahikinui reveals in exquisite detail the patterns of ancient Hawaiian life across an entire district, from sea to uplands. Drawing on 17 years of research on thousands of house sites, heiau, agricultural fields and other vestiges of ancient life, kamaaina archaeologist Kirch (University of California, Berkeley) traces the little-known history of Kahikinui from the first arrival of Polynesians in the 11th century A.D. to its final abandonment at the end of the 1800s.

He includes the saga of Ka Ohana o Kahikinui, a grassroots group of Native Hawaiians who successfully struggled to regain access to these Hawaiian lands.

Copies of the recently published “Kua‘aina Kahiko: Life and Land in Ancient Kahikinui, Maui” will be available for purchase and Kirch will be inscribing copies after the presentation.

The nationally accredited and Smithsonian-affiliated Lyman Museum showcases the natural and cultural history of Hawaii. Located at 276 Haili St., the museum is open 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.

For more information, call 935-5021 or visit www.lymanmuseum.org.