Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 11, 1 Nowemapa 2004 — Return to Kaho ‘olawe [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Return to Kaho ‘olawe

The 'early warriors/ reunite, and eanoe voyaging returns to the island

By Sterling Kini Wong

It was a scene that is so eommon in Hawai'i - some 200 people gathered on a white sandy heaeh to celebrate a reunion. Kūpuna reclined in heaeh chairs in the shade of tarp structures, keiki body-surfed the shore break and parents prepared the fish they just caught.

But they weren't at just any beach: they were at Honokanai'a Beach on Kaho'olawe, the one time "target" island that was bombed for nearly 50 years by the U.S. Navy. And they weren't there for just any reunion: they eame to celebrate a reunion of the island's "early warriors," those brave people who risked their lives in the late 1970s to stop the bombing on Kaho'olawe. The Navy stopped training on the island in 1990 and finally left the island completely this past spring following a $400-million eleanup process. The people also eame to celebrate the return of traditional Hawaiian voyaging to a plaee that could be as significant to Hawaiian wayfaring as its name implies: Kealaikahiki, a western point on Kaho'olawe whose name means "the path to Tahiti." Master navigator Nainoa Thompson said that Kealaikahiki is the "single most significant plaee" to study traditional navigation because of its location at the center of the Hawaiian archipelago, and because it has an unobstructed, panoramic view of the night sky. But due to the Navy's presence on the island, modern-day Hawaiian navigators have not been

able to use the western point until now. A platform has been built at Kealaikahiki, where Thompson said the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) will take their students "to learn the shape of the sky." He also said that future PVS voyages into the South Pacific will be launched from Kealaikahiki. "This is an opportunity to validate the importance of Kaho'olawe to traditional navigation," said OHA Trustee and Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commissioner Colette Machado. Thompson said that none of this could have happened without the early warriors. "We are so thankful to all those who risked so mueh to bring Kaho'olawe back so we could use it. It's a precious gift to be able to sail from Kealaikahiki," he said aboard Hōkūle'a, whieh, along with the traditional canoes Makali'i and Hōkūalaka 'i, eame to the island for the celebration. "Our people need the symbols of Hōkūle'a and Kaho'olawe to eome together as a people to design our future." Hōkūle'a and Kaho'olawe are the two symbols that defined the Hawaiian See WARRIORS on page 9

Photograph by Monte Costa

Renaissance in the 1970s, when Hawaiians started to assert their rights and reclaim their culture. Both cost Hawaiian lives: Eddie Aikau, who was lost when Hōkūle'a capsized in waters off Lāna'i on March 17, 1978; and George Helm and Kimo Mitchell, who mysteriously disappeared at sea after making an illegal landing on Kaho'olawe in March 1977, eight months after Hōkūle 'a returned to Hawai'i from its historic first trip to Tahiti. Earl DeLeon, one of the early warriors, said that following Helm and Mitchell's deaths, he decided to get involved in the Kaho'olawe struggle by participating in an occupation. The only catch, he said, was that while they were on the island, the Navy kept on bombing. DeLeon said that reporters from a national magazine and a loeal

newspaper eame along on the landing, and shortly after the bombings started they ran straight to the heaeh and gave themselves up. "The reporters were terrified, they kept saying 'You Hawaiians are crazy."" After two days, DeLeon said he gave up too and was arrested. In Lebruary 1978, Joyce Kainoa took part in a landing that was intended to bring water to members of the Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana who were already occupying the island. She said that after evading the U.S. Coast Guard in a boat, they landed at the wrong spot on the island. Several of them had to scale a steep cliff, while one man swam around in shark-infested water. "When we got to the top, we were smack in the middle of the target area; we had to get out," said Kainoa, who at the time was 30 years old with six children. She spent eight days in jail, and her boat was confiscated before

her case was finally dismissed. Aunty Lrenchy DeSoto, a former OHA trustee and one of the early warriors said that she, like many others, didn't know mueh about aloha 'āina (love of the land) or the Hawaiian culture before she got involved in Kaho'olawe. But onee she got involved, she said, she loved it because she believed in what they were doing. "All those people who had question marks about Kaho'olawe, they need to eome here and feel it," she said. DeSoto said that she would have never believed the movement would eome this far, to the point where there is running water on the island. "It's like the Kaho'olawe Hilton over here," she joked. But on a more solemn note, she added, "A lot of pain went into this. We should all give thanks to the kūpuna and people who made this happen." ■

WARRIORS from page 1

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