The Maui News / AMANDA COWAN photo Hokuao Pellegrino examines an old map in the bowels of the Bailey House Museum archives as part of his eight-year research project into the traditional place names and boundaries of Native Hawaiian land divisions. He and his ‘ohana grow taro at their Nohoana Farm on kuleana land beside Waikapu Stream. The farm occupies all of a 2.75-acre ili, or subdivision, with the same name: Nohoana, translated as “living” and referring to the lifestyle of taro cultivation.

As one turns onto Lower Main Street, know this is the Ahuakokole ili (subdivision), courtesy of Hokuao Pellegrino. “Hokuao” in Hawaiian refers to “Venus, star of the morning”; like his name, Pellegrino is illuminating the cultural landscape — in his case, through scholarly research. At age 30, he is in his eighth year of combing through the archives and scouring old maps at Central Maui’s Bailey House Museum. The goal of his research is to revive the traditional place names and boundaries of Native Hawaiian land divisions. “Nowhere else in Polynesia does one find such detailed descriptions and names for every land division,” the Wailuku native said. “An ahupua‘a is relatively well known, but an ili really defines the cultural landscape,” said the St. Anthony High graduate, who holds a degree in sociology and anthropology from Notre Dame de Namur University in the Bay Area.