Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 4, 1 April 2012 — MAUI'S WARRIOR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MAUI'S WARRIOR

On March 15, Maui, and all of Hawai'i, lost a ehampion of causes. Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr. protected Kaho'olawe. When the island was used for target practice by the U.S. Navy, Maxwell stood up and spoke loud enough to be heard. Even though he was a poliee officer and knew the law, when Hawaiians accessed the off-limits Kaho'olawe island, he went too. He

had a deeper knowledge of the law of the land and what was right for Hawai'i. He stood against development until the rights of the ancestors were honored. To his last days, he fought to stop building

atop Haleakalā Crater. He was an outspoken member of the Hawai'i advisory group to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and a passionate cultural consultant at the Maui Oeean Center, where he shared his knowledge of the creatures of the sea. Clifford Nae'ole, cultural adviser to the Ritz-Carl-ton Kapalua, who served with Maxwell on the Maui/ Lāna'i Islands Burial Council, said: "He would stand and say, 'I can't let this go,' and he would launeh into what was wrong and what should be done. He always knew what was pono, what was right, and when he explained the reasons, he could change the outcome of a meeting - or at the very least, he stopped the action until a new outcome could be considered." On Maui, when hundreds of burials were unearthed during construction of the Ritz-Carlton Kapalua in the 1980s, Maxwell helped lead the opposition. In the end, the hotel changed course and moved its development farther mauka. Onee development and digging was stopped on the Honokahua site and the disturbed iwi were being reburied, the work was intense. There were times, Nae'ole said, that even in driving wind andrain, Maxwell insisted they continue. Maxwell, who was born in 1937, was also known for his sense of humor and love of music and hula. Ordained as a kahu, he and his late wife, Nina, directed the Pukalani Hula Hālau. Nae'ole says his own mom babysat Unele Charlie when he was a small boy. As adults, Maxwell admitted that he got "lickens" because he was so rascal. — Lynn Cook ■

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