State group finds six winners here Dr. Barnes Riznik, who with wife Ba is en route to his new home in Boston, Mass., has received the Governor’s Preservation Honor Award in the Historic Hawai’i Foundation annual preservation recognition program. Riznik’s
State group finds six winners here
Dr. Barnes Riznik, who with wife Ba is en route to his new home in Boston, Mass., has received the Governor’s Preservation Honor Award in the Historic Hawai’i Foundation annual preservation recognition program.
Riznik’s award is the second annual honor, given for his lifetime achievement. He was nominated by preservationists Beryl Blaich and Barbara Robeson for, among other things, having the vision to restore, preserve, research and interpret the former plantation camp that is now Grove Farm Homestead Museum.
He also encouraged Mabel Wilcox, in 1975 when they met and she was in her 90s, to drop bused-in tours in favor of smaller groups on certain days of the week by appointment only, which would allow for individualized oral history delivery by interpretive guides.
A founding member of 1,000 Friends of Kaua’i and the Kaua’i Public Land Trust, he has collaborated on preservation projects on the four major Hawaiian islands and won national planning, preservation and museum awards.
He also won an Historic Hawai’i Foundation award in 1983 for Grove Farm Homestead, Wai’oli Mission and other preservation work, including the Hanalei Bridge.
Governor Ben Cayetano and his wife, Vicky, reviewed the nominations and chose Riznik as the recipient of the Governor’s Preservation Honor Award.
Several ongoing or recently completed projects in Kaua`i County garnered six of the prestigious awards, while the other counties had at most three winners each.
The Kaua`i winners for specific programs or projects are:
l The National Tropical Botanical Garden’s Limahuli Garden in Ha’ena, the ongoing lo’i (taro terrace) restoration project. Chipper Wichman is the point man on that project.
l Gay & Robinson Inc.’s sugar mill, canefield and ditch tour endeavor, cited for keeping alive and sharing the spirit and feeling of the island’s remaining sugar plantation.
l The Koloa Heritage Trail, a project of the Po’ipu Beach Resort Association and several other entities and individuals. The trail project was nominated for keeping alive the history and heritage of the birthplace of sugar in Hawai’i, while intermingling information about the resort area’s history in a user-friendly format appealing to both visitors and residents.
The trail extends from areas near Maha’ulepu several miles through Po’ipu to Koloa. Interpretive signs at several stopping points offer brief histories of the areas, and a brochure available at Lihu’e Airport and over 100 resorts and hotels gives further details of the south shore’s rich cultural heritage.
l The ongoing restoration of trails, heiau and other historical features of Nualolo Kai along Na Pali Coast garnered an award for Na Pali Coast ‘Ohana and state architects in the state Department of Land and Natural Resources Division of State Parks.
The Nualolo Kai Archaeological Resource Management Project has, during summers since 1996, mapped and cleared culturally significant parts of Nualolo Kai, including identified burial sites, heiau, cliff house sites and more. Maurice Majors, Alan Carpenter, Sabra Kauka and many others have been doing research and labor on the project.
Na Kahu Hikina A Ka La won the state’s only Preservation Commendation for an agency or organization for its ongoing work to restore the Malae Heiau near the Wailua River. David Helela spearheads this project. Blaich and Tim DeLaVega, members of the Historic Hawai’i Foundation, nominated the volunteer group.
The group, formed in 1987, provides caretaking of sacred Hawaiian sites within Wailua River State Park, improving their physical condition and creating public understanding of them.
Randy Wichman, a Na Kahu board member, said the group has gathered history on the Wailua River dating back to days before contact with Western civilization. He said the printed list of chiefs of Wailua is seven feet wide by three feet long, starting with Maweke (Mo’ikeha’s grandfather) and ending with Queen Kapi’olani.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
