Paʻao

Paʻao is a prominent figure in Hawaiian tradition, often regarded as a historical person whose story has been preserved and retold through oral narratives and chants. He is typically described as a kahuna nui (high priest) who arrived in Hawaiʻi from a distant land known as Samoa.

In King Kalākaua's Legends and Myths of Hawaiʻi, he speculated that some Tahitian chiefs—such as Paʻao and Pilikaʻaiea— have ultimately migrated from Samoa. He noted the presence of a village called Upolu on Hawaiʻi Island and suggested it could be named after the Samoan island of the same name, which he took as possible evidence of that connection but also the fact Kaʻu Point was named after one of the Manu'a Islands of Samoa, where voyage had begun after 2,000 years.