The Great Mahele (1847-1855) was a seminal event in the history of Hawaii, inaugurating private land ownership for the first time. In this scholarly paper, the author lays out how things had functioned in the past, the disruption with the Mahele and how, in the latter half of the 19th century, groups of Hawaiians formed associations (land *hui*) to purchase tracts of land as tenants-in-common to restore age-old traditions.