Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 40, Number 11, 1 November 2023 — Maui Employment Opportunities with HILT [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Maui Employment Opportunities with HILT

Nonprofit Hawai'i Land Trust (HILT), has received a $1.1 million grant from the Hawai'i Community Foundation Maui Strong Fund to create temporary workforce opportunities specifically for Maui residents affected by the recent wildfires. HILT is encouraging residents to apply for one of the 48 available six-month positions being offered in partnership with nonprofit KUPU, with work beginning Dec. 4, 2023. The positions will support land stewardship and conservation activities at HILT's 277-acre Waihe'e Coastal Dunes & Wetlands Refuge in Waihe'e, its 82acre Nu'u Refuge in Kaupo, and its 4.5acre Veteran's Peaee Park in Wailuku. Most positions do not require previous experience.

"We are focusing this workforce development effort on individuals who lived and worked in Lahaina and are out of work due to the wildfires," said 'Olu Campbell, HILT president and CEO. "We are grateful to be able to provide meaningful opportunities that will empower families to support themselves financially through this tough time, while gaining valuable green workforce experience, and improving the wellbeing of our aina." HILT's mission is to protect and steward the lands and connect people to the aina through education, puhlie access, and cultural practice. HILT has preserved nearly 22,000 acres through land purchases and conservation easements. Partner KUPU is a nonprofit dedicated to providing environmental stewardship opportunities. To apply go to: www.hilt.org/careers. Applications must be submitted by Nov. 17, 2023.

FEMAandSBADeadlines Extended to November 9 Homeowners and renters with uninsured or underinsured damage to their property from the August 8 wildfires on Maui now have until Thursday, November 9 to apply for federal disaster assistance from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Survivors should file insurance claims for damage to their homes, personal property and vehicles before applying to FEMA for assistance. To apply for FEMA disaster assistance go to: www. disasterassistance.gov/ or eall the FEMA Helpline at 1-800-621-3362. SBA provides low-interest disaster loans for homeowners, renters, businesses and nonprofit organizations. Apply online at: www.sba.gov/hawaii-wildfires or eall SBA's Customer Service Center at 1-800-659-2955. Businesses with eeonomie losses ean apply for an SBA Eeonomie Injury Disaster Loan until May 10, 2024. Makuakāne Named a MacArthur Fellow San Francisco-based Kumu Hula Patrick Makuakāne was recently honored by the MacArthur Foundation as a 2023 MacArthur Fellow. The MacArthur Fellowship is an

$800,000, no-strings-at-tached award to extraordinarily creative individuals as an investment in their originality, insight and potential, and to encourage them to pursue their own creative, intellectual and professional inclinations. Although formally trained in traditional hula and graduated

by renowned Kumu Hula Mae Klein, Makuakāne has forged his own unique style that he calls, "hula mua" (hula that evolves) by blending traditional hula and oli with contemporary music, staging and subject matter. Balancing traditional hula with modern innovations, Makuakāne's hālau, Nā Lei Hulu i ka Wekiu, often presents long, narrative performances exploring subjects such as colonialism, sovereignty, the impact of Christian missionaries on 19th century Hawai'i, the digitization of Hawaiian language newspapers and most recently, gender fluidity and the role of māhū in Hawaiian culture. In addition to demonstrating exceptional creativity, selected Fellows have an existing track record of significant accomplishments, and potential for the funds to facilitate subsequent creative work. Twenty to 30 Fellows are selectSEE NEWS BRIEFS ON PAGE 26

HILT hūs 48 six-month conservotion jobs ovoiloble for Maui residents beginning in December. - Courtesy Photo

Kumu Hula Patrick Mūkaukōne - Photo: lohn D. and Cathehne I. MocArthur Foundation

POKE NŪHOU ^ N EWS BRIEFS *

NEWS BRIEFS Continued from page 25 ed eaeh year. Reeipients may be writers, seientistis, artists, soeial seientists, humanists, teaehers or entrepreneurs. Sinee 1981, 1,131 people have been named MaeArthur Fellows. Founded by the late John D. And Catherine T. MaeArthur, the MaeArthur Foundation supports ereative people, effeetive institutions, and influential networks aetively working to build a more just, verdant and peaeeful world. Defueling at Red Hill Has Started Blessings offered by Kahu Kordell Kekoa and Kumu Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hiekam on Oetober 14 prepared the way for the safe defueling of the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Faeility, whieh began on Oetober 16. The 80-year-old faeility ineludes 20 fuel tanks, 15 of whieh are still operational. With 104 million gallons of jet fuel stored there as of mid-Oetober, the gravity defueling proeess will take an estimated three months to eomplete. More than 16 million gallons of fuel were removed from the faeility by the end of the first week, aeeording to the Joint Task Foree-Red Hill, the team leading the defueling proeess. Using gravity, the fuel is being drained into pipelines at the lower part of the 250-foot-tall tanks. The pipelines run through roughly three miles of tunnels to Pearl Harbor where the fuel is loaded onto tanker ships then transported to existing Defense Fuel Support Points. The merehant tanker Empire State reeeived the first 12 million gallons of fuel and hauled it to a storage faeility in Kapolei owned by Island Energy Serviees whieh ean store up to 63 million gallons. A seeond tanker, Torm Thunder, is also being used to transport the fuel.

Onee the gravity defueling phase of the proeess is eompleted in mid-January 2024, work will begin to remove up to 70,000 gallons of residual fuel expeeted to aeeumulate at the bottom of the tanks or in the pipelines during gravity defueling. That work should be eompleted in the spring. Red Hill CRI Calls for More Waterīesting Ihe Community Representation Initiative (CRI), a 10-mem-ber eitizen group overseeing eommunity eoneerns related to Red Hill Bulk Storage Faeility defueling, elosure and drinking water safety, has ealled on the

U.S. Navy to fully investigate reeent reports of water eontamination in the Navy water distribution line, to inelude testing their hot water tanks. In mid-Oetober, more than a dozen families on the Navy water line reported symptoms eonsistent with water eontamination and provided doeumentation, ineluding photographs. CRI representatives say that the Navy Emergeney Operations Center has reeeived 34 ealls pertaining to water quality sinee September 1. The Navy informed CRI that one gallon of fuel leaked on Oetober 14, two days before defueling began. As defueling efforts progress over the next few months, CRI is

urging households in eommunities adjaeent to Red Hill to doeument and report any observed ehanges in water quality, noting the date, time, and loeation. Reports ean be made to the DOH Safe Water Drinking Braneh (808-586-4528), the Navy Rapid Response Team (808-449-1979), and the Environmental Proteetion Ageney (415-947-4406). īhe Story of Everythlng

Ihe Story ofEverything ( TSOE ) is a film produeed and direeted by Engaging the Senses Foundation and based on a live theater performanee written and eoneeived by Hawai'i Poet Laureate Emeritus Kealoha that premiered in Honolulu at the Mamiya Theatre in 2015. The film will be sereened on November 3 at 7:00 p.m. and on November 4 at 2:00 p.m. at The Honolulu Museum of Art, and at the Kaua'i Writers Conferenee in Līhu'e on November 11 at 7:30 p.m. TSOE illuminates the interseetion between seienee, the environment, the arts, and mindfulness. The film explores humanity's rieh and diverse explanations for the origins of life. It also presents hope, eneouragement, and powerful solutions for the healing of Earth in an era of devastating elimate ehange. "The Story ofEverything is my most important work, it's the eulmination of everything I have learned throughout life," said Kealoha, founder of renowned HawaiiSlam and a MIT nuelear physies graduate. "It took me half my life to study the seienee behind this pieee, half my life to

study the art of poetry and storytelling, and about half a deeade to aetually ereate this work." TSOE ineorporates the talents of Kumu Hula Kau'i Kanaka'ole, 'ukulele virtuoso and eomposer Taimane; Hawai'i-based ffeeform band Quadraphonix; aerial daneers Jamie Nakama and Jory Horn; hip-hop artist Jonathan Clarke Sypert; and visual artist Solomon Enos. The Story of Everything film premiered at the Maui Film Festival in 2022 where it won the People's Choiee Award. For more information visit: https: // storyofeverything.org/. Manuel Reinstated as Water Commission First Deputy After eonsiderable pushbaek ffom the Native Hawaiian eommunity and water proteetors, the State Commission on Water Resouree Management reinstated popular First Deputy Kaleo Manuel, the Honolulu Star-Ad-vertiser reported on Oetober 9. His reinstatement was effeetive immediately. Following the Maui wildfires, Manuel was "reassigned" on August 15 to another division of the Department of Land and Natural Resourees by Chair Dawn Chang at the request of Hawai'i State Attorney General Anne Lopez pending an investigation of "eertain personnel events" related to the August 8 wildfires. The deeision angered the eommunity who responded with rallies, eritieism at puhlie meetings and a lawsuit seeking his reinstatement. As Ka Wai Ola reported last month, some aloha aina and eonservationists suspeeted his removal was politieally motivated, as Manuel had heeome an "obstaele" to large-seale water eonsumers on Maui, sueh as West Maui Land Company. SEE NEWS BRIEFS ON PAGE 27

'Ōiwi Poeī Keoloho performing in The Story of Everything. - Courtesy Photo

POKE NŪHOU ^ N EWS BRIEFS *

NEWS BRIEFS Continued from page 26 Makuakāne and Paloma Honored at 2023 'Ō'ō flwards Kahu Kenneth Makuakāne and Dr. Diane Paloma were honored at the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce's 46th annual 'Ōo Awards last month. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs is a proud sponsor of the 'Ō'ō Awards whieh were established to recognize leaders who demonstrate resilience and dedication to their craft and has heeome one of the lāhui's most prestigious honors. Makuakāne serves as senior pastor at Kawaiaha'o Church. Born and raised in Hilo, he comes from a long line of pastors. He is also an aeeomplished musician - both a

singer and songwriter. Over the years he has received 21 Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards and in 2015 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hawai'i Academy of Recording

Arts. Makuakāne is also an aecomplished entrepreneur who has produced and recorded more than 100 albums. Paloma is the CEO for Hawai'i Dental Service. Previous roles include serving as CEO for Lunalilo Home, as director of The Queen's Heahh Systems Native Hawaiian Heahh Program, and as a facultv member at the John

A. Burns School of Medicine. She is a University of Hawai'i Regent, an Omidyar Fellow, and was named one of "20 for the next 20" by Hawai'i Business Magazine. Paloma is a long-

time dancer with Ka Pa Hula O Ka Lei Lehua. Acclaimed Film by Kahunahana Hits Hawai'i Theatres

Filmmaker Christopher Kahunahana took the film festival scene by storm with his gritty, paradigm-shift-ing film, WAIKIKI, an intimate narrative that challenges the

stereotypical images of paradise. WAIKIKI is the story of Kea, a hula dancer played by Danielle Zalopany. While trying to eseape her abusive boyfriend, Kea crashes her van into a mysterious homeless man and soon finds herself in a surrealistic journey of self-discovery. The movie is a vulnerable and authentic portrayal of indigeneity and tackles the generational trauma of Ha-

wai'i's post-colonial culture. Kahunahana has shown the film at festivals for the past three years, earning numerous awards, ffom Best Feature Film to Best Cinematography. Having eompleted the film festival circuit, WAIKIKI debuted at selected theatres in New York, Miami, and Los Angeles on October 27. WAIKIKI will be released in Hawai'i on November 3. "The Hawai'i of my childhood is a world far different ffom the glossy misrepresentation presented in Hollywood films," Kahunahana said. "The repercussions of colonialism and statehood have left a people severed from ancestral land and culture. This has had a profound effect on Hawaiian psychology and self-image." To find a theatre or watch the film's official trailer go to: www. waikikithemovie.com/.

UH Hilo to Lead$6.6M National Native Language Resource Center Ihe U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) recently awarded a $6.6 million grant to establish a National Native American Language Resource Center (N-NAL-RC) over the next five years. The center will operate as a consortium of three entities under the leadership of UH Hilo. UH Hilo's Hawai'i 'Imiloa Institute will work in collaboration with the University of Alaska Southeast and Lae Courte Oreilles Ojibwe University in Wisconsin, organizations with long-standing ties with 'Imiloa that have been working relentlessly to reclaim their languages as well. The award is the first of its kind to implement, lead and advocate for training and resource

development for Indigenous language education pathways in America. The NALRC Act was authored by Hawai'i Sen. Brian Schatz. "This is not only an aeknowledgment of the value of our Native languages but is also a testament to the hard work our community has put into renormalizing our olelo Hawai'i over the past 40 years while also working to uplift other olelo oiwi nationally and internationally," said Ka'iu Kimura, director of Hawai'i 'Imiloa and UH Hilo's Ka Haka 'Ula O Ke'elikōlani College of Hawaiian Language. "Culturally based instruction is critical to promoting and revitalizing native languages," said Schatz. "This funding will directly support [these institutions] in developing resources and fostering collaboration to promote the use of Native American languages across the country." ■

Kahu Kenneth Makuakōne - Photo: Kawaioho'o Church

Dr. ūiane Paloma - Photo: UH Mānoa

Christopher Kahunahana - Courtesy Photo