Environment Hawaii: In Battered Wai`anae, Community Organizes To Save Environment, Health

March 9, 2000 | Original post at Environment Hawaii (Volume 10, Number 9 March 2000)

By Teresa Dawson

Daniel Medeiros, a maintenance worker-turned teacher at Ka`ala Farm, steps gently over rocks and around the trees that cover the ancient Hawaiian sites tucked within Wai`anae Valley. He sometimes tours the area with the fourth-grade children who come to the farm to learn about taro farming and the ahupua`a (watershed). He marvels at the stone bases of old house platforms and a square stone pit he believes is an ancient version of an ice box. He points out a tree buzzing with honey bees. Most times, these little tours are peaceful. Today, as Medeiros tries to find his path in the brush, a gunshot echoes through the valley. He stops. Two more are fired.

“I’d better whistle,” he says, hoping his signal will stop the firing, and it does. Gunshots are not uncommon in the valley, he says, but with school children visiting the farm every week, Medeiros has had to confront some of these armed men who think the isolated head of Wai`anae Valley Road is an ideal place to test newly bought guns. Usually, he says, people respect the area since it is a place of learning and spiritual nourishment for children and many others. But, for all of the good that goes on, there is a dark undercurrent here and on the rest of the Wai`anae Coast that manifests itself in everything from stray gunshots to trashing the environment.

One valley over, activist and teacher Vincent Dodge hacks at the overgrowth that seems to have sprung up overnight in the Puhawai streambed. Recent heavy rains have given the stream’s plants a boost, and as Dodge swings his machete at the California grass and thistles, he uncovers rusted tin roofing metal, a cow skull, and bags of household trash. On the right bank, someone has dumped a vat of boiled chicken parts, grease, and feathers, leaving an awful stench and a tarry, black patch.

Like the random gunshots, the dumping, too, has become a trademark of Wai`anae.

Farther upstream, Puhawai crosses David Souza’s property, where illegal dumping is apparently turning a profit. Above the bank, the hum of large haulers is constant, and the smell of rotting flesh is strong as Dodge tiptoes down toward the stream’s base. This four-acre property, once known as the “Grace site” after a former owner, was identified by the state Deparment of Health as an illegal dump in 1996. That year, a deep underground fire raged for days on the property. The cause: burning tires “and other unknown materials towards the back of the property,” DOH records state. Souza was ordered by the DOH to clean the site and stop the illegal dumping, yet now a fresh mountain of dirt and metal slopes into the stream. Heavy sorting machinery and a line of semi-trucks can be seen on the property.

“This is new,” Dodge says of the mountain of debris. He has walked this path several times in recent months.

The back road shootings and the disrespect for the land are both relatively new issues in Wai`anae, one of the first places on O`ahu to be settled by Hawaiians. Decades after Western contact, the coast remained one of the last strongholds of old Hawaiian ways, where people took care of one another and grew and caught their own food. Slowly, the Western way of life rolled in. Ranching replaced traditional farming. Sugar replaced ranching. In 1878 the Wai`anae sugar plantation opened; it closed in 1946. Some of the sugar lands was taken over by the military, some was subdivided into house and farm lots. In the 1950s and 60s, strip malls, new schools, and fast food restaurants were quickly thrown up along Farrington Highway, the lifeline of Wa`anae residents to the rest of O`ahu. The crime rate began to grow, especially among juveniles.

“They [old timers] blamed it on the low incomes of many Wai`anae families and a lack of job opportunities which led to pilfering. Lack of money was nothing new on the Wai`anae Coast and had never been an embarrassment. Each family took care of its own and with fishing, plus a little home-grown food, no one ever need starve. But the old practice of sharing was becoming more difficult. The fish were fewer and land was becoming scarce. Such grassroots concern reflected the old conflict between traditional Wai`anae culture and a new set of circumstances,” wrote former journalist Bob Krauss in his 1973 book Historic Waianae – A Place of Kings.

Since then, things have grown steadily worse. Combating the trend is a network of community groups that have reached back to the old Hawaiian values and are giving new hope for a healthy environment. As the Cultural Learning Center at Ka`ala (Ka`ala Farm) puts it, “According to tradition, kalo (taro) sprouted from the grave of the stillborn child of Papa, the earth mother, and Wakea, the first man. Po`e Hawai`i (people of Hawai`i) consider the sturdy plant their ‘older brother.’ For them, malama `aina (taking care of the land) is not a question of ‘environmentalism’ or being good ‘stewards.’ It is a question of kinship.”

A Bad Reputation

Visually, there is a harshness and power to the Waianae Coast. Today, that characterization has spread beyond the mountains and the sea. In 1986, author John Dominis Holt characterized it in his book of oral history, Ka Po`e Kahiko O Wai`anae [the old people of Wai`anae]:

“The coastal highway hugs a long exquisite stretch of beaches, protrudings of magnificent rock around and above which great waves crash and occasionally a bay with water of breathtaking color. The marvelous ocean fringe on the one side is complimented opposite by a rugged, sculpturesque ridge of mountains, looking like massive cathedrals in the distance.

“From Nanakuli onward to Makua you are overwhelmed continually by this dual masterpiece of mountain ranges on the one side and a rugged sea coast on the other. It is a passionate landscape, drenched in green and moisture, but remote, heroic with the grandeur for gods, not men. It is not a soft, floppy, easy going tropical setting. The land is dry and rocky. You can imagine well, the ancients attempting to soften the harshness of the area by naming one of the chief promontories, Pu`uohulu, hill of feathers symbolizing the vaguely feathery look of rocks dripping down the sides bearing remotely the soft look of feathers.”

To the outsider, the coastal towns of Nanakuli, Ma`ili, Wai`anae, and Makaha have a reputation for being unsafe. As local comedian Bu La`ia once joked, don’t stop in Wai`anae, “better just drive right through.”

According to some, problems have grown with the population. One of the most visible is the prevalence of crystal methamphetamine, or “ice,” which is a growing problem throughout the state and the nation.

In the past three years, several ice labs have been found in Wai`anae. On February 22, 1997, the DOH’s Hazard Emergency and Evaluation Response (HEER) Branch received a report of a “clandestine drug lab” on Papaya Road. Six days later, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency reported another drug lab at Pahe`ehe`e Place. At that site, “chemicals from an illegal methamphetamine lab were contaminating rooms and the yard,” a report states. Later that year, on November 11, 1997, a drug lab was found in a van on Wai`anae Valley Road. And about a year later, a similar lab was found in an abandoned, stolen Cadillac found on the same road. Most recently, another lab was found on Kaulawaha Road.

The drugs made in these labs are making their way to pregnant mothers in the area. According to Fred Dodge, a doctor at the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center (WCCHC) and Vincent’s father, a large number of the pregnant women who visit the center test positive for meth.

“Women are using marijuana, ice, and a smattering of other things – not heroin – but ice is by far the most detected,” he says.

The result, Dodge explains, has been the development of a syndrome in children born to addicted mothers, which includes short attention span, hyperactivity, and learning disabilities. These drug babies are one possible reason why Wai`anae Coast schools have some of the highest special education rates in the Leeward District.

The physical environment of the Wai`anae Coast has been degraded over the years as well, by residents as well as by larger entities that have planted themselves in the rural, low-income area. Probably one of the most resented of these polluters is the U.S. military, which began bombarding Makua Valley in the 1920s. Live fire training ceased in September 1998. In recent years, residents have begun to restore cultural sites in Makua. But as with many military range sites, contamination with unexploded ordnance is a difficult problem – so much so, that as recently as 1988, the Army stated that contamination in Makua Valley will preclude returning the site to the community.

A peek at the DOH-HEER list of incidents and at a 1997 report to the DOH’s Office of Solid Waste Management (OSWM) suggests that events resulting in environmental pollution are commonplace. The list cites several gasoline spills or leaks from service stations, one so great that 25 people in the area were evacuated. Other incidents: “Someone removed the filter to probably steal diesel fuel. However, [the] thief only took what was needed and left the scene without placing filter back on pipe. Thus, [the] remaining diesel spilled out onto ground and subsequently into the streamÉPerson swimming in stream (Uluhawa) felt burning sensation. Nanakuli Fire Department hosed him down and placed him on oxygen (difficulty breathing)ÉBus used as storage of oil and gas. Fire burned hot in bus, burned up contents – surfboard, paint, gas, oil, screens.” The list goes on to describe more than 100 toxic releases/events to which HEER responded in the past several years.

The local news reported recently two more incidents: Last April, it was reported that Industrial Technology, a company that left a pile of 950,000 shredded tires on a lot in Lualualei Valley, also illegally dumped industrial wastewater at the site. Also last year, 15 large bags worth of selenium-contaminated dirt were excavated from a pit behind the Hawaiian Electric Company’s Kahe Point power plant and sent to a hazardous waste disposal facility on the mainland. The plant sits opposite a popular swimming and surfing beach.

The OWSM report includes a material inventory sheet of a one-year clean-up done by PENCO, a private contractor. In November 1996, the Waianae Coast experienced a large flood that washed tons of debris to the coast. A state-financed clean-up called Operation Kokua followed, which involved the governor, county council members, OSWM, HEER, the Army and Air Force National Guard, PENCO, and many others. According to PENCO’s inventory for November through December 1996, 2,025 car batteries, 978 empty drums, 1,621 paint materials, and 24 suspected asbestos items were found, among other items.

There are three legal waste disposal facilities on the coast: the Waianae Transfer Station for residential waste, the Nanakuli Private Construction and Demolition (C&D) Landfill ($150/truckload), and the Waimanalo Gulch MSW Landfill ($54/ton). Despite these available waste sites, illegal dumping is commonplace. Katy Kok of local clean-up group Nani O Wai`anae says that some people who “don’t have a truck [to take trash to the dump] make a big pile, the big waves come and take it out to sea.” A handful of landowners who do have trucks use them to haul waste to their own property for a smaller fee than the legal dumps charge.

In 1990, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency looked into a possible leukemia cluster in the area. At the time, residents were concerned that seven leukemia cases diagnosed within two years were caused by low frequency radiation from the Navy Radio Transmitting Facility at Lualualei and power lines. According to Dr. Dodge and other sources, the government admitted there was a cluster, but dismissed the Navy facility as the cause. While leukemia may be caused by ionizing radiation, the Lualualei station’s radiation was non-ionizing, the report said.

In the recent years, Pua Mokuau, and Rell Sunn, both women of the water, died of cancer. Some feel that their cancers were perhaps influenced by environmental pollution. Musician Israel Kamakawiwo`ole’s death illustrated problems with diet on the Wai`anae Coast. KFC-McDonalds-7-Eleven is a theme repeated in the towns that line Farrington Highway. According to the WCCHC, cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure are the area’s biggest health problems.

Why Wai`anae?

The influx of urban poor into Wai`anae has been blamed by some as the cause of disrespect for the land. In a conversation between Holt and Wai`anae Coast Culture and Arts Society Director Agnes Cope in Ka Po`e O Wai`anae, they discuss how the poor from Honolulu have been transplanted to “shacks” in Wai`anae.

“If you put people into something a little decent, usually they take care of it. You put them into something, you know, ugly like `opala rubbish and broken down, they aren’t going to take care of it and a lot of that seems to be going on in the Wai`anae Coast. Just dumping people from urban centers,” Holt said.

The Wai`anae Coast’s rural setting — with many hidden back roads and open areas with tall grasses – is another likely cause, according to Kok. “Rural areas have a tendency to make their own dumps – all over the country,” she says.

Eric Enos, project director of the Cultural Learning Center at Ka`ala, blames poor enforcement and public education. “People have got to put [their rubbish] someplace. Try finding out where you put it – you get a runaround,” he says. “It’s easy to say, ‘You shouldn’t do it,’É[but] the government has not done as good a job as it should. It’s allowed nasty things. There will always be illegal dumps.”

If one can’t afford to or doesn’t want to pay dumping fees for legal waste disposal, one can turn to the backroads, tall grasses, and the cheaper, illegal dump sites. Also, if one can’t afford to buy new car parts, one tends to keep old ones around, just in case.

“Dumping has been a part of living in Wai`anae for a long time,” says Vincent Dodge, who has an old Volkswagen bus collecting dust in his driveway and admits to hoarding old batteries. Last year, Dodge organized Na Wai O Wai`anae, a group dedicated to cleaning Wai`anae’s streams. Enforcing clean-up has proved a difficult task. In May 1997, the DOH notified Souza that he had failed to submit a closure plan for his illegal dump. He was also asked to submit an environmental assessment of his property and documentation of the removal of waste. To date, the DOH has received neither.

According to Gary Siu of the DOH-OSWM, enforcement of these situations is difficult because the division has only two inspectors for the entire state.

“When you want to bark, but you can’t bite, people know,” he says. In 1997, seven dump sites, including Souza’s were identified by the DOH. Lene Ichinotsubo, head of the OSWM, says that collecting fines from some of these illegal dump operators has been difficult. The OSWM is currently working with the state Attorney General’s office on enforcing the several notices of violation that the DOH has issued to these operators, she told Environment Hawai`i.

So Souza still operates.

With regard to the drug problem, a recent study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University has found that teen drug use is more than twice as high in rural areas as in large urban centers. “It found that eight-graders living in rural areas are 104 percent more likely to have used amphetamines, including methamphetamine, than those living in urban areas,” according to a Gannett News Service report. “In recent years, methamphetamine use, trafficking and production in rural areas and midsize cities have been on the rise,” it states.

Kok puts is more blunty: a crappy environment and drug use are linked, she says.

“The concept that the state of the environment affects a community’s health is in a lot of books. In communities that have more pride in lands, public schools, community aesthetics, how you keep itÉ clearly there’s less substance abuse, domestic violence. There’s a tendency to have higher self esteem, better education,” she says.

WCCHC associate director Joyce O’Brien (a sister of Eric Enos) also thinks there may be a connection between the physical environment and a person’s state of mind.

“[The coast] is dryer, dustyÉIt’s not a planned community, it’s haphazardly built. The types of businesses here, like pawn shopsÉ appear shady. One is maybe less proud. They may think, ‘Nobody else is taking care [of the environment], why should I?'” she says.

Also linked to the area’s problems is the fact that many of its residents have low incomes. Statistics for 1998 from the Wai`anae Coast Community Health Center show that the income of nearly 70 percent of its clients is at or below the poverty level.

“Having grown up in the community, I see it’s gotten so large and the problems have grown. The drug problem is based in economics. It’s fast money, and it’s easy to get hooked. You may be the kind of person where systems have never worked for youÉIt’s a vicious cycle and is so multi-faceted. We lose kids so early here. There may be 900 kids in a freshman year class. By sophomore, junior, senior year, hundreds of kids have left school. There has got to be alternative education,” O’Brien adds.

Solutions

For John Dominis Holt, “Wai`anae was people, wonderfully kind, wonderfully funny, some silly, some brilliant, and always in Wai`anae people had a great sense of place.

Native Hawaiians make up nearly 50 percent of the population of the Wai`anae Coast. Across the state, they experience many of the same problems the Wai`anae community faces: high drug use; high rates of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure; etc. The disconnection of Native Hawaiians from their culture has been touted as a primary cause of their problems.

“Hawaiian culture has always been closely related to the environment. The land, sea, water and skies have a unique role in the myths, legends, and survival of the Hawaiian people. When these elements of Hawai`i were taken from the control of Hawaiians, all elements seem to have suffered. Land that was once utilized for food has now been covered with cement [or in the Wai`anae Coast’s case, military training sites, power plants, and dumps]É Hawaiians have a hard time finding kalo or poi, and when they are available, it is often at a premium cost. The health of Hawaiians is tied to the environment and the control of the environment by Hawaiians can have a positive impact on the health and wellness of the Hawaiian population,” states a 1998 report by O`ahu-based health group E Ola Mau (to live on) prepared for Papa Ola Lokahi, a Native Hawaiian health organization.

Reconnecting Wai`anae Hawaiians with their culture is an integral part, if not the focus, of many of the efforts in Wai`anae to address the drug, environment, and health problems.

The establishment of the Cultural Learning Center at Ka`ala about 20 years ago is one example. Over the years “it has evolved into a hands-on, Hawaiian culture-based learning and experience center which focuses on the natural, physical, environmental sciences and the universal value of Aloha `Aina – loving and caring for the land,” according to the center’s brochure.

Ka`ala Farm got its start in the early 1970s, when a group of “alienated youth involved in the Wai`anae Rap Center began hiking in the uplands of Wai`anae Valley. There, they stumbled upon rock terraces. Unversed in their culture, they didn’t recognize them as lo`i kalo (wet taro fields),” the brochure continues.

Being part Hawaiian and not feeling a connection with the land bothered Enos, one of those alienated youth. He set up the center because “all our valleys on the Wai`anae Coast are off limits… There is no connection to the forests or the watershed, and there was nowhere to learn about it,” he says.

The abandoned lo`i have been restored to working taro fields, and the farm now serves as a place to learn about Hawaiian culture and the ahupua`a by planting kalo, making poi, making kapa (like tapa) and listening to kupuna, or elders. The learning center has partnerships with the Queen Lili`uokalani Children’s Center, the state Department of Education, the Army’s Department of Public Works, private foundations, and The Nature Conservancy. Enos estimates that 2,000 to 3,000 children visit the center every year, and the waiting list is long. Drug addicts seeking rehabilitation as well as curious visitors from around the world also come to the farm. The center has contributed to the curriculum for Wai`anae High School’s Hawaiian studies program. It also breeds tilapia in large tanks as stock for backyard aquaculturalists.

The importance of teaching through Hawaiian cultural values is obvious. First of all, “This is Hawai`i,” Enos says. Also, the values are universal. “Sustainability is not a new word,” he says.

The center’s native plant specialist Bruce Koebele adds, “When you’re dealing with abstract things like endangered species, things focused away from people, it’s more difficult to make a connectionÉ[Infusing Hawaiian culture] gives a personal reason for conservation. We’ll never protect or preserve anything that we don’t love, someone once said. Learning about the land through culture is so much easier.”

Originally from Michigan, Koebele fell in love with native and endangered plants. After teaching at Leeward Community College, he joined Ka`ala a little more than a year ago to work with high school students on restoring native plants and taking care of the land, particularly cultural sites like the Ku`ilioloa heiau.

“A lot of times, they don’t know the difference between a Hawaiian plant and an alien plantÉ,” he says. “We spend a lot of time making that distinction.”

Koebele says that before one of his classes, he asked each student to hold out a hand. Kegley then sprinkled pinches of dirt into each hand as an introduction to taking care of the land. Lesson 1: You’re going to have to get dirty. A couple of girls, he said, cursed at him for messing their hands.

Among the younger children, “eeeeews” from little girls taking their first, reluctant steps into the deep, soft mud of a taro patch are typical, says teacher Daniel Medeiros. After they’re in, though, the moans are replaced by laughter.

Restoring the Land

While Ka`ala Farm primes future generations, other groups work at remedying present problems, especially environmental pollution.

Attacking the illegal dumping problem is Nani O Wai`anae, which has become the sole clean-up organizer since the DOH’s litter control office was eliminated in 1995. Katy Kok, once the office’s volunteer site coordinator, heads Nani O Wai`anae. For the past several years the organization has been plugging away at keeping the Wai`anae Coast clean by organizing cleanups, reporting dumpsites to the DOH, and sponsoring beautification projects. The last cleanup attracted 800 people and Kok says there has definitely been a decrease in dumping.

“Do we still have a problem?” she asks. “You bet we doÉ On the one hand, there is this incredible love of the land. On the other, we’re just catching up – it’s called solid waste management. You don’t get free dumps in CaliforniaÉ In New Jersey, if you don’t source separate your trash, it’s a $1,000 fine,” she says.

Nani O Wai`anae is not alone in the clean-up effort. The newest group working to improve Wai`anae is Na Wai O Wai`anae (the waters of Wai`anae), led by Vincent Dodge. Dodge teaches `Ai pokahu (poi pounder) workshops at Hoa `Aina O Makaha, which, like the Cultural Learning Center at Ka`ala, is a hands-on farm for school children. Formed late last year, Na Wai O Wai`anae’s main purpose is to restore Puhawai stream, which cuts through Lualualei Valley.

Like the Ka`ala learning center, Na Wai O Wai`anae is rooted in the Native Hawaiian culture. In 1996, the Queen Lili`uokalani Children’s Center sponsored summits to encourage building communities through management of the ahupua`a. Nanakuli, Lualualei, Wai`anae, and Makaha each had its own ahupua`a council, assisted by staff and funding from the children’s center.

As leader of a stream restoration effort for the Lualualei ahupua`a, Dodge, came to the conclusion that Navy control over the valley had to end.

At the base of a cleft in the Wai`anae mountain range behind Dodge’s house lies the spring from which Puhawai’s water flows. Hawaiian historian Marion Kelly found more than 160 ancient lo`i kalo in the area. In 1934, the Navy tapped that spring for its soldiers, who at one time numbered as many as 170,000, Dodge says. Today, there are a few scores of Navy personnel in Wai`anae, and Dodge would like the water returned.

“Every year, there are more gray, barren spot on the face of that mountain,” Dodge says, pointing to where the spring lies.

Return of the water is not enough, however. In fact, right now, that’s the last thing they want.

“If the military opened up the stream, it would cause a lot of problems with all the toxic stuff that’s in there,” Dodge says.

The stream must be cleaned first. During Na Wai O Wai`anae’s first walk up Puhawai stream, one member counted 66 tires. At David Souza’s property, with its unpermitted dumps, metal tanks, scrap, and heavy equipment among other construction waste have been backfilled into the river for years.

Right now, Na Wai O Wai`anae is still researching and documenting parts of the stream, but in the future, Dodge hopes to reach his community through television, perhaps on `Olelo, Hawai`i’s public access station.

“A lot of people in Wai`anae don’t read. They watch TV.” He adds that communities “like Kailua, Manoa, and Hawai`i Kai” are more conscious environmentally because they are better educated about those issues.

Dodge also plans to diminish pollution by working the personal route: “In a community, you have the opportunity to build personal bridges. There is a cumulative effect after a while,” he says.

Health – A Holistic Approach

As Dodge points to where Puhawai stream empties into the ocean, he talks about the cancer-related deaths of world-renown surfer Rell Sunn and lifeguard Pua Mokuau. “They got breast cancer. There is a lot of breast cancer around here,” he says, suggesting that stream contaminants that are washed out to sea may contribute to the cancer rates.

According to O’Brien, environmental causes are not entirely out of the question. “We haven’t closed the door on environmental factors,” she says, while noting that the health center has no data that supports Dodge’s suspicions.

While the health center does not work directly work to cure environmental contamination and its ills, it does focus on improving the low self-esteem and unemployment that contribute to the Wai`anae Coast’s problems. In addition to providing standard medical services, WCCHC seeks to cure the root of social and medical problems, providing homeless outreach, adult daycare, and a host of other non-medical services. Without these improvements, all the clean-ups in the world would be in vain.

She praises the work being carried out by Wai`anae’s various groups, which work together. O`Brian offers ex-priest Gigi Cocquio as an example. Coquio has run Hoa `Aina O Makaha at Makaha Elementary School for about 15 years. Hoa `Aina O Makaha is a farm located at Makaha Elementary School, which has a “peace house” and a collection of aquaculture tanks, birds, rabbits, and other animals – all in the name of science education for children from kindergarten through the sixth grade.

“The kids manage all of it,” she says. Children in different grade levels have duties. O’Brien says that in the past, Cocquio would visit the health center, offering the farm’s produce at a good rate.

She also lauds Wai`anae High School’s niche programs for marine science and mass media, which are “models in the state.” For the past seven years, the center itself has also worked to improve opportunities for Wai`anae youth by getting them involved with health career training at Leeward and Kapi`olani Community Colleges.

Nearly 50 percent of the center’s patients are Native Hawaiian. So in addition to fostering education, the health center has embarked on an integrated treatment program that fuses traditional Hawaiian healing methods such as la`au lapa`au (plant medicine), ho`oponopono (mediation), and la`au kahea (a type of faith healing), with other alternative methods like acupuncture and rae ki. The program grew from the “Wai`anae Diet,” developed by the center’s head of preventive medicine, Terry Shintani, to wean Wai`anae residents away from the fast foods joints that line Farrington Highway. The diet looked at the spiritual aspects of health, and focused on taro, the centerpiece in the traditional Native Hawaiian diet.

A Most Valuable Asset

While on paper, Wai`anae’s problems may seem overwhelming, it’s ability to organize as a community is unmatched on the island.

“It’s not that we want to scream ‘Poor Wai`anae!'” Katy Kok says. “We have a great pride in this lower income area.” The longevity of projects like the Cultural Learning Center at Ka`ala, Na Hoa `Aina O Makaha, and the Wai`anae Coast Community Health Center are a testament to that pride. So are projects like Na Wai O Wai`anae, Nani O Wai`anae, and others — Malama Makua, the Rotary and Lion’s clubs, the ahupua`a councils. They are too numerous to list.

The work of these groups helps the community to move forward, in a positive direction. For example, Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris last month credited the community’s work to improve Nanakuli’s Ulehawa beach park. The work — a $3.2 million project — will turn the area into “the largest stretch of improved shoreline in the state,” Harris was reported as saying. “This shows what is possible when we all work together,” he added.

“Once again we return to the people of the Wai`anae Coast,” Holt wrote in Ka Po`e Kahiko O Wai`anae. “They are its most valuable asset.”

Volume 10, Number 9 March 2000