Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 28, Number 12, 1 Kekemapa 2011 — Planned cultural live-in center has roots in 1974 report [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Planned cultural live-in center has roots in 1974 report

ByTreenaShapiro Last ofa two-part series Over the past few years, a dedicated group of community volunteers have partnered with the KalokoHonokōhau Nahonal Historical Park staff to finally realize a decades-old vision to create a cultural live-in center on the site of an ancient Hawaiian settlement. The live-in center is a key element in the 1978 founding legislation that established the Konaarea nahonal park as recommended by a federal advisory commission comprised almost entirely of Native Hawaiians. The commission's Spirit of Kaloko-Honokōhau report envisioned the park as a living museum where Hawaiians could reconnect with their cultural and spiritual heritage through short-term immersive experiences. The cultural live-in center proposal, however, only began gaining momentum over the past four to five years, largely due to a community-based effort to make it a priority.

Historian Fred Cachola, a member of the 1970s advisory commission, has always advocated for the cultural live-in center, but when nothing happened for decades, he decided to take a more proactive role. "I said to myself, 'I can't let this languish any longer,'" he describes. "I just can't let this go on for another five to 10 years." Cachola founded the nonprofit Makani Hou o Kaloko-Honokōhau to offer support to the National Park Service in building and managing the cultural live-in center. Others who share Cachola's long-standing commitment to the park joined the effort. "We did that, and I ean truly say that inch-by-inch we are moving forward," he says. The community-based push served as a catalyst for beginning the eomplianee work necessary to build the center on federal land, explains Amanda Johnson-Campbell, a park archaeologist who has been working on the federal eomplianee issues. After more than five years, the park is almost ready to release an environmental assessment for puhlie comment and is wrapping up other

regulatory requirements. Johnson-Campbell predicts, "In 2012, we'll be able to begin actual construction out there." So far, Makani Hou has only raised enough funding to cover one structure - a meeting hall - but is seeking more grants to build the entire center. When it all comes together, the center will be a re-creation of traditional Hawaiian construction, with some contemporary touches that will minimize the impact on the park's significant cultural, natural and archaeological resources. Some signs of modern development will be included: composting toilets and solar power, for example. "We have to provide for modern times," notes Jon Jokiel, the supervisory interpretative park ranger at Kaloko-Honokōhau. Jokiel, who wrote a master's thesis on KalokoHonokōhau, says community engagement is critical to the success of the cultural live-in center. The proposal is the first of its kind for the National Park Service, so there's no template to follow. The idea, however, is to have the center managed by community groups under oversight from the park service. All involved agree that more help is needed. At the moment, a core group of eight to 12 volunteers and a eouple work groups have been at the heart of the restoration and planning efforts. More manpower, expertise and young people who understand the value of this special plaee are necessary to help the center, and the park, reach its full potential. "Without community involvement, it's not going to happen," Jokiel says. The live-in center is meant to be a plaee where Hawaiians and others ean spend short periods of time immersing themselves in the spiritual, cultural and traditional practices that allowed their ancestors to build a large, thriving settlement in an area that today appears to be a barren lava field. Upon closer inspection, however, park visitors will find fishponds, housing platforms, heiau, eanoe landings and other surviving structures that offer clues to how ancient Hawaiians adapted to a seemingly inhospitable environment. "We need volunteers to serve as faculty and kūpuna to help restore and teach practices that went on in that area," Cachola says. "We ask for the help of all Hawaiians who ean kōkua in every way to help us restore and rejoice in some of the finest hours of our ancestors." Practices Cachola would like to see taught at the center include salt making, fishpond management, fishing techniques, cordage making and other cultural practices. Jokiel adds that cultural practitioners who ean build thatched

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Drawing by Herb Kawainui Kane for the Spirit of Kaloko-Honokōhau (1 974). Property ofNational Park Service.

structures, weave fishnets and bring in expertise on ancient arts - particularly younger people - ean help perpetuate the knowledge and carry the vision for the live-in center into the future. "(Makani Hou) is trying to reach out to people who have learned from other masters to find out who in the community has that knowledge and who ean teach it," Jokiel says. He adds that building the cultural live-in center according to traditional practices could be part of the educational curriculum itself. "By doing it, they're going to learn it," he explains. Ruby McDonald, of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Kona Office, has a lifelong connection to the land. Her family worked the Kaloko Lishpond for generations before it heeame part of the national park. She has since been involved in preservation efforts as a member of the Kona Hawaiian Civic Club and Makani Hou. "I envision a sustainable resource practice for the livein center, thereby making it an educational endeavor for those not ma'a (accustomed) to living sustainably," McDonald says. McDonald gives a stamp of approval to the changes that have taken plaee over the past three decades. "The park service does what the people ask them to do i to keep it culturally appropriate. I They go out into the community, "

listen and do research," she notes. The landscape has changed too mueh to restore the area to how it was when hundreds of ancient Hawaiians lived there into the 19th century, she says. "You ean never restore anything to the way it was. You ean only get a semblance of how it was," she elaborates. Even if the ancient settlement can't be recreated - parts of it have already been built over - it doesn't need to be a carbon copy to perpetuate historical, cultural and spiritual practices. "I think it's possible to be true to the tradition and the arts and crafts of that time and reinvigorate those cultural practices," says Johnson-Campbell, the park archaeologist. Cachola remains optimistic that the vision he helped craft in 1974 will be achieved. "There's still a lot of work to be done, but we're not going to give up," he says. "We need more leamers, more appreciation and more kōkua to help Native Hawaiians renew their cultural and spiritual values." Treena Shapiro, a freelance writer, is a former reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Honolulu Advertiser. M

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Aeiial view of completed Kaloko kuapō at Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park. NPS photo byAdam Johnson