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Kauai residents join up
to restore ancient sites
POIPU, Kauai » In pockets of the Garden Island -- some barely accessible, some near popular tourist attractions -- a new type of development is taking hold: the re-establishment of cultural sites.
Unorganized groups have popped up, from the south shore to the Na Pali Coast, to restore former heiau, agricultural fields, even a makahiki site (where festivals were held and games were played).
The idea is to restore the land and then reuse it for the ceremonies for which they were built hundreds of years ago.
"This is all underground, and it's going on throughout the state," said Chris Kauwe, a Poipu resident, of the restoration trend. "This is how you remember Hawaii. If we don't preserve places like this" the culture will disappear.
For the past four years, Kauwe and his neighbors have been clearing the county-owned land behind his house to restore the ancient village site of Weliweli.
The village used to have homes for alii or chiefs, large landing berths for canoe, taro patches, freshwater ponds, and the jewel of the site -- a football-field sized makahiki area, complete with intact rock walls and a turf-like playing field. A heiau or temple, which the group has yet to start cleaning, sits across the Hoowili Road, nestled between two large hotel and timeshare complexes. Another neighbor has a house planned abutting the cultural site which Kauwe and other neighbors are fighting.
Kauwe had been living next to the site, just steps from the tourist-friendly Poipu Beach, for years. But when he found a map of the area, done by state archaeologists years ago, he saw what was underneath the beer cans, automobile parts and garbage left by Hurricane Iniki.
His neighbor, Billy Kaohelaulii, meanwhile, had been watching the site all his life. He said his family was given the land in the 1800s to protect. But the land was taken, he said, and the site became pasture land. It was later transferred to the county. He says it's his birthright to restore as much as he can.
The two, joined by neighbors and friends, started clearing the site a few days a week. Using just hand tools to preserve the rock formations' integrity, the group of volunteers have cleared the entire makahiki site.
Kauwe said it's his hope traditional Hawaiian games will once again be played in its native arena.
Their form of development has at least curtailed the further destruction of the site.
"People stole rocks here for years," Kaohelaulii said. "We (had) choke idols. Some are still here, (but most have been) stolen."
Stealing rocks and moving them around at another heiau on the east side of Kauai has been a source of frustration for James Alalem.
Alalem, who says he's the kahu, or protector, of the seven heiau in Wailua that lead from the beach to Mount Waialeale, said he's tracking down a man who was stealing rocks and knocking down idols at a huge heiau next to Kuhio Highway and the Wailua River.
"What I'm concerned about is if we don't catch this guy, people will follow," he said.
Alalem, who was once arrested for cutting down trees in one of the heiau he protects, said it's up to native Hawaiians to protect their cultural sites, because the state has been unwilling to do so.
"The state says 'yeah, yeah, yeah,' but nothing is done," Alalem said. "Somebody had to stand up and be a real kahu. Everything destroyed has to be put back together."
The state welcomes the help, said Department of Land and Natural Resources archaeologist Nancy McMahon, but it must be done right.
"They want the sites to come alive. We're not opposed to that, it's just how (they) do it, and how to keep it up," McMahon said.
The DLNR even has curator programs that teach volunteers how to first document the sites before they restore them, McMahon said. It's also key that the curators have a presence to keep the sites safe.
Kaohelaulii and Kauwe, who have met with McMahon and others, are in the process of getting a nonprofit group together to apply for the curator program. Alalem is also involved with the group that officially takes care of he Wailua heiau as well.
Other groups have been named curators for other Kauai cultural treasures, such as the hula heiau at Kee Beach on the north shore and at Nu Alolo Kai on the uninhabited Na Pali Coast. Taro patches have even been restored near Kee, McMahon said, through volunteer efforts collaborating with the state.
But Kaohelaulii and Alalem said that even without state approval they'd be out protecting the sites.
"It's not up to the county to give permission," Kaohelaulii said. "No matter what, we're still going to do it."
Lloyd Ikaika Pratt has been working without state approval for years near Kalalau Beach in the Na Pali Coast State Park. He's cleared hundreds of yards of jungle with a hand saw, as the beach is 11 miles from the nearest car, backhoe, or power tool.
"We are taking the responsibility of going there and doing it because this is our life," said the lifelong Kauai resident who prefers to be called Ikaika. "The state isn't recognizing they can benefit too. The public will benefit, the state will benefit."
While McMahon said Ikaika's heart is in the right place, his work at the heiau has led to campers squatting on the heiau and disturbing it. He also exposed burial sites, she said.
Ikaika said he's willing to be a constant presence at Kalalau to protect it, but the state keeps citing him for illegal camping at the park.
He spent 24 days in jail last year after fighting contempt and illegal camping charges, and McMahon testified against him at the trial.
He's still trying to establish his curatorship at Kalalau, though: He filed a motion to dismiss three other camping violations and it's scheduled for Oct. 13 in District Court. He's staying out of the park, he said, until then.
"Every time the (DLNR park) rangers and court tell me I'm illegal camping," Ikaika said. "I'm not camping I'm residing."
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