Letʻs Just Say It Was Earth Week

Finding Connection and Healing on Kauai

Welcome back to They Keep Telling Me I Should Write My Memoir.

I had barely taken a breath at home before this week saw me again boarding flights, this time a couple of shorter hops to the Island of Kauai. Over many trips to Kauai I have gained knowledge, shared experiences, developed a sense of comfort. But on this trip, as I write this moment from a balcony overlooking the ocean at a place called Lawai, what I feel is a sense of Belonging. Not Belonging I claim by right, Belonging whose existence was revealed to me. A reciprocity of connections has been formed and there is both the lightness of joy and the heft of commitment within that.¹.

In last weekʻs post I shared my memories of Earth Day, not so much a digression from the topic of Belonging as an amplification of it. Before that I most recently reflected on Entitlement , and Apologies in the context of Belonging. I planned to write next about “becoming a new observer”. I should never plan. It turns out I was headed into Earth Week. And headed to Kauai, who wants me to tell some of its stories first.

On Tuesday, the actual Earth Day, it seemed that all the energy of Hawaiʻi, all the hula people and craft people and music people, were flowing towards Hilo. I had a flash of FOMO²; I was flying the opposite direction, like Hiʻiakaikapoliopele whose name we hear chanted again and again this week at Merrie Monarch. But the signs told me I was on track. Even changing planes in Honolulu airport, I ran into someone from Kauai returning home on a significant day for her, marking a significant connection for us. Kauai called.

Aunty Pua discussing Hiʻiakaikapoliopele

Wednesday morning I brought a group to Alakoko Fish Pond on the Hulēʻia River³. I have been there five times, three of those times with intention to contribute the labor of our hands to the restoration of the Place to its Purpose. Four of those five times I participated in protocol and listened to storytelling, two more ways (besides tending to the land itself) in which my pilina, relationship, with the Place was deepened.⁴

The design of this type of fish pond reflects a different understanding of Belonging than what probably comes to mind when you imagine a “fish pond.” Aunty Google defines that term as a man-made body of water in which fish are stocked for recreational purposes and/or aquaculture.

This loko ʻia had a very different origin and function. Hawaiians living in this and similar areas centuries ago noticed that in a flat portion where the river slowed just before joining the sea, the brackish water became rich with algae, attracting herbivore fish. By walling off a portion of the stream, Hawaiians created a larger, manmade version of this natural structure, which then served as a fish nursery. Think about the difference between the capacity of a pond whose purpose is to grow fish to viable size to be extracted for consumption, and the capacity of that same size pond to nurture millions of just hatched fish, which return to the sea where they become food for carnivore fish that would then be so abundant as to be harvested with nets so large the entire community helped - a hukilau.

So abundant that there were plenty of near-shore fish left over to feed the pelagic fishes that we prize for sushi today.

Imagine that - the purpose of the fish pond was not to feed its owners; not to provide income for a small number of people through the fish they could sell. The fish in that pond literally fed everyone, the nearest communities and well beyond. How broad a sense of collective Belonging is implied in that environmental consciousness?

Alakoko - a Hawaiian fish pond being restored on the Hulēʻia River, Kauai

It started raining just as we were about to move from the education tent to the stone wall where we were meant to work. Somehow - maybe it was my presence as a visitor from Hawaiʻi Island that called forth the story - as we waited we were told of the great Kauai chief Kukona. We learned that Kamehameha I was not the first chief from Hawaiʻi Island to nearly conquer all the islands⁵. Hundreds of years earlier, late 14th or early 15th century, a Hawaiʻi Island chief named Kalaunuiohua prevailed over the islands of Oʻahu, Maui, and Molokaʻi, and came with an enormous fleet of canoes to subdue Kauai as well.

From where I sit writing on the south shore of Kauai, I can look at the rough waves and imagine thousands of canoes full of warriors appearing over the horizon. Tactically sowing confusion from the hills above, Kukona drew the warriors to split into multiple battles, eventually capturing Kalaunuiohua and the other three leaders. But rather than killing them, he fed them well, gave them presents, repaired their canoes. At a critical moment when the invading chiefs were tempted to take advantage and kill Kukona, a single ally, whose heart and mind had been changed by the experience of inclusiveness and generosity, spoke in his defense and the others listened. Kukona learned of the threat but again forgave the chiefs, and sent them home to govern their own islands.

As a leader, Kukona showed other leaders a different possibility: that Purpose of creating collective wellbeing could be better served by caring for People and emPowering them, rather than by conquering People and Places. Centuries of peace and prosperity followed.

The story struck me as a powerful one in a time where many of us feel we are being asked to become One Nation by force, by fear. When even the Purpose of Peace and making of allies is seemingly to gain access to Place for the extraction of the resources of others.

---

On Thursday and Friday ʻāina had more to teach me. I had come to Kauai primarily for a Hawaiʻi Land Trust⁶ Board meeting, and that gave me the opportunity to visit two Places the organization is stewarding. Once again, the landʻs guardians and caretakers brought us into relationship through ceremony and storytelling as well as our feet on the ground and hands in the soil. The land eagerly showed us its desire to become healthy once again, as introduced vegetation that had choked off ecosystem function (Purpose) being removed gives way to indigenous ecosystems. Late season whales, ʻiwa birds, winds acknowledged our visit.

Places want to heal and offer healing. So do People.

Protecting and healing Place and People is important work. This is Belonging work.

With Belonging comes Healing. With Belonging comes the desire to offer Healing.

This is my declaration: there will be a Future of Healing. That is what ʻāina whispered to me as I let a deep sigh escape and became silent enough to hear its voice. Yes, I replied softly. Of course. Yes.

1. This showed up in multiple ways, but in details complex to explain and too soon to try.

2. Especially when the Academy of Hawaiian Arts participants were waiting in the same airport gate area!

3. Find out more at Mālama Hulēʻia

4. Not to be mysterious, the fifth time was a quick stop to pick up a friend.

5. Kamehameha I did not conquer Kauai. He achieved a treaty that allowed Kaʻumualiʻi to continue to govern. There is more to the story, but that part with Kaʻahumanuʻs solution is for another day.

6. Donʻt get a paid subscription to this newsletter. Donate to HILT instead! Hawaii Land Trust