This image shows the ahupuaʻa of Punaluʻu on the Big Island and how land was divided before the Kuleana Act was set into stone.
Kuleana Act of 1850
By: Uapili Lucey
In the sixteenth and seventeenth century an ahupuaʻa system was used to serve order to the land. This ahupuaʻa system divided the land into parts, each part going from the land to the sea. People in each ahupuaʻa had the right and responsibility to obtain resources within that ahupuaʻa, take care of the land, and live off the land. It was until the Kuleana Act of 1850 took place, when the whole system changed for these native tenants. Kuleana, meaning both right and responsibility, gave native Hawaiians who cultivated the land the right and responsibility to be awarded fee simple title for that land, but had to prove their ownership of that land by land survey, filing a claim, and by proving that the land being claimed earned a living.