Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 9, 1 September 1988 — Waipiʻo Valley is Topic of Mainland Symposium [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Waipiʻo Valley is Topic of Mainland Symposium

The future of Waipi'o Valley will be the topic of presentations made by a delegation of Hawaii residents attending the "Spirit of Plaee" conference Sept. 9-11 at the University of California Davis campus.

They will be among 900 persons participating in the major international symposium on Iand use planning and concepts for "special places". It is sponsored by the University and the Institute for Study of Natural Systems. Mitsue Carlson of the Honolulu-based Pacific Society of Health is coordinating a group from Hawaii that will make presentations on the signifieanee of Waipi'o Valley and its future management

needs. Waipi'o Valley is Iargely owned by Bishop Museum, whieh has for several years expressed its desire to the Legislature to sell the land to the Department of Land and Natural Resources. This year the Legislature requested that Bishop Museum conduct an archaeological study of the valley and make a resource list so DLNR ean eonsider management needs.

Yuki Ohashi, who is a student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa Urban and Regional Planning Program, will present a proposal for possible use of Waipi'o Valley. Kia Fronda, a taro farmer who lives in the valley, will talk about the history of Waipi'o and his life there. Dr. Richard Kekuni Blaisdell will

talk about the cultural significance and nutritive importance of taro to Hawaiians. LaFrance Kapaka Arboleda, president of Hawaiian Farmers of Hanalei, ine., where taro is also cultivated, will talk about the taro farming lifestyle of past and present. Carlson, who hopes to organize a Hawaii eonference of taro farmers, says the California

symposium offers the opportunity to look at old land use methods in new ways useful to today. Itis attended by urban planners, architects, landscape designers, anthropologists and conservationists. These established professionals, and community organizers share a "sense of planetary eoneem," says Carlson, and are interested in a broader concept of "bio-regional health", that includes cultural and spiritual connections to special places.

Waipio Valley. Reproduced from Ampersand, a publication of Alexander & Baldwin, ine.