Born into a family of the "kaukau aliʻi" class of chiefs, subordinate to the high chiefs or "aliʻi nui", Nawahi's chiefly (aliʻi) descent was rarely emphasized in his lifetime. His father was descended from the chiefly retainers of the 18th century King Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who the British explorer Captain James Cook attempted to kidnap at Kealakekua Bay in 1779, before his demise at the hand of the Hawaiians. Shortly after his birth, he was adopted in the Hawaiian tradition of "hānai" by his paternal uncle Joseph Paʻakaula, an elementary schoolteacher who became the first educator of his "hānai" son at the ʻAiakalā School.