Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 38, Number 3, 1 March 2021 — E Ho'i Ka Piko: Returning to Piko [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

E Ho'i Ka Piko: Returning to Piko

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By Bronson Azama

|t is in the stories of our kūpuna that we are reminded that our people were, and still are, true visionaries. Holding within us ideas that ean shape the future of our islands, and arguably the world, for the better. I frequently traverse up Ha'ikū Valley, located in the ahupua'a of He'eia. There remain a handful of individuals working to bring about new life to a plaee that has faced detriment from the military during World War II, and thereafter during the construction of the H-3. After our workday clearing Kānehekili heiau, myself and fellow volunteers gathered to eat luneh. We immediately began to satiate ourselves with 'ai and as we ate, we were fed by Aunty Mahealani Cypher, a living treasure in our community, with intimate plaeebased knowledge. During this 'aha 'āina she shares how i ka wā kahiko (in old times), the valley was onee the "hospital" of the Ko'olau, where healing plants were abundant. With eaeh story she shares about the valley, it is as if that story becomes a strand that is eloquently braided into a lei of place-based 'ike. The hnal strand is then braided in as she presents the vision that she and many of the kūpuna in our community, and those that are with us in spirit, have to establish a cultural preserve in the valley, through the nonproht Ko'olau Foundation.

The vision features restoration of the various wahi kapu, reinterment sites for iwi kūpuna, native reforestation efforts, and repurposing the OMEGA station into a Ko'olau Museum. With the closing of this vision and completion of this lei of knowledge, it is then placed upon all of us. This 'ike triggers a calling in our na'au to return to mālama this plaee and transform it into a plaee of healing and learning as it onee was for our kūpuna. Ha'ikū then serves as a newfound piko for all of us who mālama. It is through conducting mālama 'āina and 'aha 'āina that we develop a collective understanding of plaee, and what needs to be done for that plaee. Piko ean be both a plaee and a practice. It is in this work to restore the valley that we develop a eonneehon that is hard to put into words. It is a eonneetion that is seemingly woven into all of us through the sharing of stories, that then develops an internal drive to see that our stories go beyond memory and dreams to heeome a visual reality. I encourage everyone across Ko Hawai'i Pae 'Āina to hnd or develop a piko for community, family, and even ourselves. Finding or creating a plaee where the stories of our kūpuna are shared and create a desire for us to move forward and reconnect to who we are and remind ourselves of what we ought to be doing: ke aloha 'ana i ka 'āina o Hawai'i. Let us set a hrm foundation for nā mamo to build upon; therefore we must ask ourselves, "Where is my piko?" ■ Bronson Azama is a freshman at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa anā a graduate of Castle High SchooI in Kāne'ohe, O'ahu.