A state-appointed committee rallied more than 50 residents Tuesday evening at Kaua‘i Community College to seek input from Native Hawaiians on how they want to form regional councils that will advise government agencies on traditional land and water management practices.
A state-appointed committee rallied more than 50 residents Tuesday evening at Kaua‘i Community College to seek input from Native Hawaiians on how they want to form regional councils that will advise government agencies on traditional land and water management practices.
Generations of fishermen and farmers shared fiery and tear-struck stories about the historic changes they have witnessed since Western civilization impacted the islands. They underscored a desire to return to the methods that had sustained the island for 2,000 years.
The Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau members of the Aha Kiole Advisory Committee, which consists of a governor-picked representative from each of the eight major Hawaiian islands, led more than three hours of discussion.
“What we’re trying to build here is government from the people down,” said Sharon Pomroy, the Kaua‘i committee member. “If we have the councils in place … we’ll have more voice.”
The advisory committee, a temporary body empowered in 2007 when Act 212 became law, is a start-up group tasked with recommending how the state Legislature should establish an ‘Aha Moku Council Commission that will assist in the formation and eventually oversee regional ‘aha moku councils.
“We’ve got to get back to basics,” said Ilei Beniamina, the Ni‘ihau committee member.
The new system seeks to incorporate appropriate native Hawaiian knowledge and protocols for the preservation, cultivation and management of all native Hawaiian natural and cultural resources for future generations. The ‘aha moku councils will consist of residents having traditional Hawaiian cultural and generational knowledge and expertise as farmers, or mahi‘ai, fishermen, or lawai‘a, and caretakers, or konohiki, for each ahupua‘a, the old way of dividing land where a slice of an island went from the top of the local mountain (volcano) to the shore.
The meeting’s coordinators likened the approach to weaving, noting the need to braid the knowledge together to achieve sustainability.
“The knowledge of the kupuna, that is our connection to the past … those are our experts … those are who are going to be our teachers,” Pomroy said.
Pomroy said the committee has until June 30 before it must report to the Legislature its organizational plans and “add the meat” to the law, which starts with these community meetings.
There was some confusion among the crowd as to the purpose of the meeting. Many were fishermen who turned out after hearing rumors about a three-mile ban on fishing around Ni‘ihau.
The Ni‘ihau fishing ban is a state proposal, which has died in the Senate but is still alive in the House, Pomroy said. It is an example of something the ‘aha moku councils could provide input on.
The meeting attendance also suffered from poor advertisement, she said, which was affected by Gov. Linda Lingle not having yet released $110,000 appropriated for the committee to implement the law.
The meeting on Tuesday was pulled together with personal funds, Pomroy said.
Ha‘ena resident Tommy Hashimoto is a kupuna who was asked to share his insight on how the North Shore has changed and why the to-be-formed ‘aha moku councils could play a role.
He talked about a time growing up when he learned how to fish from his father.
“We used to just give it away … you don’t sell the fish, you share with the people,” Hashimoto said. “Everything … we try to share.”
Now, he said, there are too many tourists in the water where the fishing was once good and the young people are lazy workers.
Cathy Ham Young, a 78-year-old Wainiha resident, shed tears before she even started speaking about her observations over time.
“It’s so sad to see what’s happened,” she said. “All of a sudden your dreams get taken away.”
But she underscored her happiness and pride in Act 212 and the formation of the councils.
“We need this group,” she said. “Be part of us.”
Lingle signed Act 212, which had broad support, into law on June 27, 2007. The legislation found that over the past 200 years, the state has seen and experienced severe changes.
These changes, the law states, include the deterioration of the Hawaiian culture, language, values and land tenure system, which have in part resulted in the over-development of the coastline, alteration of fresh water streams, destruction of life-giving watersheds, decimation of the coral reefs and the decline of endemic marine and terrestrial species.
The legislation recognizes that Hawaiians have ancient knowledge of how to care for the islands and initiates the process to create a system of best practices that is based upon the indigenous resource management practices of moku, or regional, boundaries, which acknowledges the natural contours of land, the specific resources located within those areas and the methodology necessary to sustain resources and the community.
