Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1539634
delicate fishhooks from bones or items like shell jewelry, lauhala weaving for mats and baskets, or kapa bark fabric used for clothes and many other things. The wa'a (double hull canoe) seen in the opening scenes of episode 1, navigated by Ka'iana (Jason Momoa) and his family in the ocean off the coast of Makua Beach in Oahu, was built with the same traditional materials used for centuries by the Hawaiians with the help of just a few power tools! It was carved from scratch using a tree trunk sourced in Hawaii to which the crew then added hand-woven sails. The wa'a was named Kahuaka'iloa (The Long Journey). We had its blessing ceremony and had it water tested on October 6, 2022. The ki's (tikis) of the Kohala and Oahu heiaus (temples) were created and carved by a group of Hawaiian and Maori carvers under the supervision and mentorship of Lyonel Grant, a world-renowned Maori sculptor. Lyonel is a specialist on the Polynesian arts and actually teaches traditional carving in Hawaii. The Ki'i representing Ku'u (God of war in the center position) in the Kohala Temple was carved from a tree trunk also harvested in Hawaii and then shipped to New Zealand for Lyonel and his team. The ki's of the Kohala Temple were blessed and revealed on our set on the cliffs of Awhitu the morning of June 9 2023. The Kingdoms of Hawaii Although the production tried to keep everything authentic and achieve it in-camera as much as possible, there were a few times when we had to transgress this rule to be able to convey the scope and sophistication of the Hawaiian society before the Europeans arrived at the end of the 18th century. There is still debate between historians, sociologists and demographers about exact numbers, but broadly the population of Hawaii at the time was between three hundred and fifty thousand and just over a million. It therefore seemed important to us to create at least a few wide VFX shots that could highlight the scale of societal structures and illustrate the level of civilizational development, like the existence of agriculture, irrigation systems, etc. C B