Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 20, Number 6, 1 June 2003 — State's pier construction is damaging Kamehameha's Ahu'ena Heiau in Kona [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

State's pier construction is damaging Kamehameha's Ahu'ena Heiau in Kona

By David Kahelemauna Roy Jr. Editor's note: This month's community discussion eolumn is offered by Hawaiian historian David Kahelemauna Roy Jr. The kahu of Ahu'ena Heiau originally built by Kamehameha the Great led the five-year heiau restoration effort whieh was completed in 1 975 . Since early May, the state began engaging in pile driving to rebuild the Kailua-Kona pier, driving massive concrete pilings deep into the oeean bed. I oppose the pile driving activity because it places our most significant historic edifice, a national and state designated historic monument ,needlessly at risk. We are at the point of no return in our own land. The powers that be are slowly but surely chipping at our kumu. We ean no longer stand and wait for things to change in our favor. We must stop the state from taking our native rights. Mueh waiwai has been taken from us already and they are still looking for more! The pier is a case in point. The State Department of Fand and Natural Resources says the pier reconstruction is a necessity. But in the pile driving that has been allowed despite a suit that we filed, the heiau has been damaged as verified by contractors who have closely monitored the process. In less than one month of the expected nine month construction, damage ean already be seen. Three ki'i, as well as the lana nu'u mamao (oracle tower), have tilted. They no longer stand upright as they did previously. Cordage holding the wood outer gate fast has snapped, and the gate is out of plumh, evidencing that the force of the vibrations is affecting the heiau's structural integrity. The base that Ahu'ena (burning altar) heiau stands on predates

Kamehameha the Great and is thought to have been constructed between 450 and 1100 A.D. The heiau and hale built by Kamehameha in 1813 in honor of the 'aumākua and other gods served as the seat of government. Kamakahonu, the first capitol of the united Kingdom of Hawai'i, was the spiritual haven where Kamehameha spent his last years as he organized the preparation of Hawai'i for her future. As he rose to power, Ahu'ena was a luakini where human sacrifice was conducted. But when Kamehameha returned to Kailua in 1812, with Kona suffering from famine, he directed his attention towards food production and care of the land, dedicating Ahu'ena to Eono, god of healing and abundance. Many years and many dedicated hands went into restoring Ahu'ena as accurately as possible. But the state now seems to favor the pier and well-being of a few harbor businesses over one of our people's most precious national treasures.

The pier rests upon the "Plymouth Rock" of Hawai'i, where the first missionaries stepped ashore on the Kamakahonu pāhoehoe lava. Here is also where Ka'ahumanu announced her joint rule with Eiholiho, setting a new course of events. This obscenity the DFNR calls a pier was built in the early 1950s. It was called a necessity for the wellbeing of the ranching industry when it was conceived. The makai eommunity was diametrically opposed to the idea of building a pier for shipping cattle; however, they did not prevail. The ranchers, with many friends in the legislature, had more political clout; they won the battle. The pier has been used for many things since: for shipping cargo, then charter fishing. Today, only a handful of businesses benefit from it, and at night it is a gathering plaee for drug users and dealers. The pier should be a benefit to the entire community, but it is not. Why should the state squander four million dollars on a badly used facility when it cannot pay for

teachers'duly earned pay raises? It ean build a pier mounted on posts such as at Hanalei. Many of us would be willing to spend our tax dollars for a reconstructed pier that is environmentally compatible, instead of obstructing the oeean. The state has been deaf to our pleas.Yet we will not step aside. We ask Hawaiians to join our struggle, to rise up for what is pono and stop Kamehameha's temple from being destroyed. Foreign powers have colonized us to the point where few of us think and speak and eat Hawaiian anymore. We think and act American, are educated American, worship the dollar like Americans, and we did in American uniforms. Mueh has been taken from us in one way or another, and they constantly seek ways to take more. Now they threaten our sacred Ahu'ena. Kamehameha knew that his gods gave him his kingdom. The opposite has been the case for Hawaiians as we have been forced to live a lifestyle that is foreign to our ways. I recognize today in many a yearning, a groping, so to speak, to express and believe in the old Hawaiian way. The Hawaiians of old believed in mana. Do you still believe in mana? Do you honor or deny your 'aumākua? We cannot have peaee or lōkahi as long as the almighty dollar is god. Enough ! Pau already ! It is time to seek relief from all that has been done, and look to our gods again. Fet us govern ourselves accordingly. Fet Ahu'ena be a heaeon of an "asylum for the world," as Kamehameha onee called it. Mālama pono i ka waiwai ho'oilina! We must cherish the mana and history that live in our sacred places, for they are the very soul of our people. If we are willing to let them be destroyed, we are truly lost. ■

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Kūkāki'ikā <0<W11KV

Kahu Mauna Roy guards Ahu'ena Heiau (at left) and Hale Mana. Photo:Naomi sodetani