Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 6, 1 June 1990 — Kupuna address serious water issues and recognize outstanding elders [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kupuna address serious water issues and recognize outstanding elders

By Deborah Lee Ward and Ann L. Moore "Mai ka lani mai ka wai o ke ola, from the heavens comes the water of life." This was the theme that flowed throughout the third annual 'Aha Kupuna Ku'ikahi A Na Kupuna, the OHA kupuna conference April 27-29. It was attended by 150 kupuna from the different islands at the Princess Ka'iulani Hotel in Waikiki. The opening pule on Friday was given by a special guest Kupuna Mary Ann Kalama of Costa Mesa, Calif. Hoaliku Drake chair of the Hawaiian Homes Commission brought special greetings from Gov. John Waihee. State Rep. Annelle Amaral greeted the kupuna as did Thomas K. Kaulukukui, chairman of the OHA trustee, and trustees Manu Kahaialii, and Moses K. Keale. A very special ho'okupu was conducted by the OHA Kupuna team of Aunty Betty Kawohiokalani Ellis Jenkins, Kupuna Ulunui Kanakaole Garmon and Kupuna Maile Kamai'alaupala'okekuahiwi'okapiko'omaunaloa Vargo in whieh encatchments of water from many areas of the islands were brought to the stage and poured into a recirculating fountain whieh was handsomely decorated with green plants to make a miniature tropic waterfall. Later in the day, Kamehameha teachers, Kaipo Hale and Keone Dupont were presented with gourds filled with the water as a thank you for the water-song workshop they conducted in the afternoon session. No ka wai — Kuleana rights The highlight of the morning session was a panel discussion on water featuring William Tam, Charles Reppun and Dawn Wasson. Harriet 0'Sullivan introduced the panel and moderated the discussion. As the first speaker, Dawn Wasson set the scene by recounting the historic plaee water hasin Hawaiian history. Wasson is an Aiu Like counselor and an historian. She immediately made the point that fresh water has always been sacred, the subject of many taboos and customs designed to maintain the purity of water and to assure adequate supply. In old Hawai'i, Wasson said, there were areas set aside to wash, to drink, to elean utensils, and everyone had an equal right to use the water for the purposes designated. The idea of water as something someone could own was foreign to Hawaiians, she said and "water rights" did not surface in Hawai'i until the Great Mahele. Wasson said all kuleana tenants have specific rights. "If there is water on your land you have the use of it in perpetuity — forever," Wasson said. She said there are also gathering and fishing rights that are part of the kuleana. Wasson noted the state Supreme Court has ruled that people retain kuleana rights. If land is sold within the family people retain rights. Wasson urged kupuna to look for any land owned by their ancestors. She said, they may have kuleana rights to the land. "Look at the legal notices in the paper, go to court on the dates noted, and file your elaim," she said. In Laie, she said, "we are proud we have our lands through the kindness and the hardships (endured) by our ancestors. We ean raise our children with self-worth and dignity." Wasson urged every kupuna present to research the family and file claims to any kuleana lands the family ean be traced to. William Tam spoke to kupuna as a private person and attorney, not as a representative of the attorney general's office. He noted the first laws in Hawai'i had to do with water and that now the protection of water as a resource is still of primary importance.

Appurtenant and riparian rights Tam began by explaining that people have appurtenant rights to water and riparian rights. Explaining appurtenant rights, Tam said it means water attached to land. For example, if someone had land in taro production between 1840 and 1856 then that land has a right to use the water as it was used at that time. This is a protected right, Tam said. "Whether you are growing taro now, or not, this right to the water was never lost." Riparian rights exist when the land is contiguous (or next to) the water, only. Tam said everyone who has land along a stream has an equal share of the water along the natural flow of the stream. Problems arose, he said when streams were diverted or ditches were built to change the natural flow. Tam reiterated that a "right" exists whether people are availing themselves of the right or not. Tam cited a number of water cases and traced the history of court decisions affecting water rights in the islands. He noted the federal courts recently threw out the Robinson decision whieh, if heard and upheld, would have allowed the federal government to decide water rights in Hawai'i. Tam said as a result of the federal court action, "Hawaiian water law now will be decided in Hawai'i." Tam recommended that anyone interested in this water rights decision should get a copy of Reppun vs. Honolulu Board of Water Supply through the attorney general's office. The Hawaiian Homes Commission, he noted, has strong rights to water. "The Act says DHHL has the right to the water if they need the water. The problem is the pipes that are needed to get the water," Tam noted. The newest fashion in water doctrine coming into prominence in the West, Tam said, isa return to the ancient Roman law that the sea, the air, and water are open to all. "Ironically, this is an old Hawaiian tradition," he said. He recommended that a close eye be kept on the proceedings of the courts and the board of water supply. "Remember," he cautioned, "The court ean look only at the past, (in making a decision) but the water board ean fashion for the future!" Taro and Hawaiian water rights Charles Reppun told kupuna "It is strange to be a haole boy growing taro." There are no farmers in his family he said, he just got into taro farming about 15 years ago and has since learned mueh history and mythology related to taro. He learned that taro is considered the older bro-

ther of the Hawaiian people, that the brother must tje cared for and that it is bad luek to throw away a huli (young plant). "So you have to plant then plant again and again. It is very seductive, the taro," he said. Reppun made the point that the water "borrowed" to irrigate his taro patch is returned to the stream and it then flows to the oeean. "Water going into the oeean is not wasted. lt feeds the oeean. The oeean then feeds us with fish, the children love the oeean and they eat the fish. Kalo feeds people and a lot of other things," Reppun said. "It feeds the insects and spiders, it teaches you about water and weather." He claims that if 10 percent of the Hawaiians grew taro it would change everything. "We would get rights to the water and the streams. And that is the key to everything." He warned "O'ahu is out of water now," and pleaded for eaeh person to begin to address the water problem in whatever way they ean. "Do not be afraid of telling how mueh water you have for fear someone will take it. File your water claims," he urged, "and protect your rights to the water." He asked kupuna to take home the little kalo huli (taro top) he had placed on eaeh table and begin to grow taro, no matter how small the patch. "My dream," he said, "is a taro farm on every stream on every island." During the afternoon session, Kaipo Hale and Keone Dupont of Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiian Studies Institute, taught the kupuna a new water song, divided them into four teams and had a hula-and-song competition. The session closed with a pule ho'oku'u by Kupuna Elikapeka Kauahipaula Nanakuli of O'ahu.

Kupuna awards Saturday evening the kupuna gathered for a benefit dinner for Lunalilo Home. Several awards were presented to outstanding kupuna. The 1990 OHA trustees award, Ka Ha Mai Kalahikiola Nali'ielua, was presented to kupuna Clara Keakea Naki Ku of Moloka'i. A resident of Ho'olehua homestead, Ku is active in Hawaiian rights, an advocate for the Protect Kaho'olawe movement, a resource-person in na mea Hawai'i and she participated in the Native Hawaiian Culture and Arts oral history project. The 1990 OHA kupuna team Ka Ha Mai Nalani Ellis award was presented to state Rep. Joseph Paul Leong. Leong, who is Chinese and Hawaiian, continued page 20

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Christine Kekauoha

'Aha Kupuna from page 13 has spent a lifetime in community involvement. For more than 50 years he has dedicated himself to his Hawaiian people. He is retiring after this year's legislative session to spend more time with his 'ohana, especially his 25 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. He has received the outstanding Hawaiian Civic Club member award, and has served as president for many community organizations on Oahu's north shore. Leong has honored kupuna with legislative resolutions and has served as a resource on the legislative process at OHA's 'Aha 'Opio youth legislative. The Kupuna Po'okela award was presented to Christine Kilikina Wai'ale'ale Kekauoha, who was elected by the conference participants because of her life spent in the preservation and perpetuation of things Hawaiian, as a living model of Hawaiianness, and expertise in self-sufficient cultural practices. Born on Dec. 25, 1912 in Kainaliu, South Kona, to parents Henry Kama Wai'ale'ale and Katherine Kaliko'okalehua Kea, she was raised one of 24 children in a true "keiki o ka 'aina" lifestyle. She grew up helping her parents, helping her unele and aunt on their mountain ranch. She worked on a coffee farm, milked cows and made butter, helped plant kalo, grow bananas, fruit and flowers, piek opihi, catch and dry fish. Her life was recently the subject of a profile in "E Na Hulu Kupuna Na Puna Ola Maoli No," published by Anne K. Landgraf. Hawaiian aquaculture in the 21st century Like their ancient forefathers, modern Hawaiians ean make a success out of the tradi-

tional industry of aquaculture. This was the message shared with the kupuna by Buddy Kaleionapua Keala who is an aquaculturist with the Oeeanie Institute, a private aquaculture research center in Waimanalo, O'ahu. It was during an Alu Like tour to Oeeanie lnstitute in 1976 that Keala realized what he wanted to do. The Kaua'i High School graduate enrolled at Leeward Community College to study aquaculture then pursued a job at Oeeanie Institute, becoming a trainee/technician for four years. He made a pact with other Hawaiians working there who decided to support eaeh other's success. Keala returned to school in 1980 to beef up his scientific training and graduated in 1983, one of the first to get a degree in the new field of manne aquaculture. For a year he lived and worked at a fishpond in Keaukaha. There he applied his classroom learning in the field and realized he loved hands-on learning best. A year later he got a job with the Orca Sea Farms on Moloka'i, raising shrimp. He also began work with a Kamehameha Schools alternative high school program to teach agriculture, aquaculture, science and mathematics. At Keawanui, a 57-acre fishpond, the students did experiments and learned how to do cage-culture of mullet. He saw how hands-on projects and peer group teaching did the most to build self-esteem, pride, responsibility, and motivated the students to leam. Now Keala works at a five-acre aquaculture facility operated by Oeeanie Institute in Kailua-Kona. Part of his job is to help loeal elementary and high school students leam about marine studies, with an emphasis in aquaculture. In hands-on groups, students are taught about raising larvae to harvest and about brood stock size, about reef ecosystems and about the oeean food ehain. Students from Konawaena high are building a reef tank to

raise tropical fish and thus demonstrate that a tropieal fish industry doesn't need to deplete natural resources. Keala's goal is to show students the roots of Hawaiian aquaculture, and where its future lies. He practices what he preaches too, educating children about Hawaii's marine environment and potential careers. Keala points to his dream of the future of aquaculture in Hawai'i: developing disease-free stock to replenish declining natural fisheries; developing technology for commercial aquaculture; aquaculture as an income-producer or means for self-suffi-ciency; and Hawaiian kids today transforming aquaculture into a productive activity "to grasp it for our people." A weahh of water lore Workshops held on Saturday covered a wealth of fascinating information on water and water use. "High-tech" aquaculture in Hawai'i was the topic of a slide show presentation by Buddy Keala and David Chai of Oeeanie Institute Center for Applied Aquaculture in Kona, Hawai'i. Duke Kalani Wise spoke on "Water Plaee Names." Kupuna Lilia Hale and Kainoa Wright told mo'olelo wai, water legends. Rev. Pikake Wahilani of Ka Makua Mau Loa Church talked about "Ka Mana O Ka Wai," and Dr. Kekuni Blaisdell spoke on "Wai me ke Ola Kino," water mana'o and the art of wellness. Other workshops discussed water safety through cultural observation and understanding weather signs and tides; water development in Hawai'i from ancient Hawaiian times to the modern; water conservation and recreation; limu and Hawaiian sealife. There were lectures and demonstrations on lomilomi (massage) and use of pa'akai (sea salt), and the kalo gardens in the schools project of the Department of Education. A well-attended non-water workshop was presented by Marie McDonald, on lei-making.