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Local land trust hopes to hold on to Lahaina lands

Fire recovery a key topic as Native Hawaiian Convention kicks off on Maui

Panelist Carolyn Auweloa responds to a comment by kupuna Sam Ka‘ai while appearing with moderator Laura Hoku Ka‘akua (from left), Maui County Council Member Tamara Paltin and Reyna Ramolete during Tuesday morning’s breakout session titled, “‘O ke Kahua ma Mua: Setting a foundation through community-based land trusts,” during the opening day of the 22nd annual Native Hawaiian Convention at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Tuesday. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photos

KAHULUI — Revered Maui waterman Archie Kalepa, who has braved many mountainous and death-defying waves over the years, made sure he rode in the back of the boat behind everyone else, where he couldn’t be seen, as the vessel was taking supplies from Maalaea Harbor to West Maui soon after the Aug. 8 fires.

“On the way to Lahaina, I made it a point to sit behind everyone so they could not see me crying. I know that place from the ocean, not too many people can say that. I know that place from the ocean. I know the landmarks,” Kalepa, a Lahaina resident, told the audience at the Yokouchi Pavilion at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Tuesday.

As the vessel approached Lahaina town, Kalepa, who was seeing the destruction for the first time with his own eyes, recalled, “What shocked me is what I saw. The only thing I could relate this to at the time was the pictures I’ve seen of Hiroshima, that is what it looked like.”

Seeing his family and friends also crying on the boat, Kalepa said, “I told myself I have to be strong.”

Kalepa, a captain of the Hokule’a canoe and a former lifeguard captain for Maui County, compared what the community has gone through to a voyage, and “we just came out the most gnarliest storms.”

Keynote speaker Archie Kalepa hugs sister Lehua I‘i after his address kicking off the four-day, 22nd annual Native Hawaiian Convention at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center Tuesday morning.

“The canoe is broken, this canoe is Lahaina. We have to fix this canoe. We are trying to fix this canoe right now,” Kalepa said.

“But,” he added, “if we want this canoe to be successful, if we want this canoe to reach its destination, we first have to create a sail plan.”

Kalepa acknowledged that “I do not have the answers for this sail plan. But you do. The community does. If I write the sail plan, it will fail. … If the people of Hawaii write this sail plan, we will succeed.”

Kalepa was the morning keynote speaker on the opening day of the 22nd annual Native Hawaiian Convention being held through Friday at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. The Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, which puts on the event, moved it from Oahu to Maui this year in light of the Aug. 8 wildfires.

The convention includes many discussion panels, some focusing on fire recovery, along with local vendors showcasing Maui-based projects, a job and resource fair and Maui food trucks.

CNHA Chief Executive Officer Kuhio Lewis told The Maui News Tuesday morning that more than 1,800 people registered for the convention.

“I’m excited for the people of Maui, to be able to bring all the resources that we have from other islands and concentrate it on the island in their time of need,” Lewis said. “It’s exciting because it’s not only for CNHA, it’s all of these partners, it’s all of these funders, supporters get to hear firsthand from the Maui community and I think that’s exciting for them.”

On Tuesday, the “sailing plan” that Kalepa spoke about included discussions on how to keep Lahaina in the hands of the local community, with the creation of the Lahaina Community Land Trust announced during one of the panels.

Carolyn Auweloa, a former Lahaina resident who now lives and works on Hawaii island as a range conservationist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is one of the volunteer organizers for the trust. Auweloa said they are still firming up details, but that the trust could help residents who may be struggling to pay their mortgages on their fire-destroyed properties. The trust could buy the properties with an opportunity for the families to buy it back within a certain time frame, Auweloa said.

The trust could also help buy the properties of families who may not want to return to Lahaina and want to sell their land, but don’t want to be seen as a selling out to outside investors.

Some examples of land trusts include the Waihee Coastal Dunes & Wetlands Refuge owned by the Hawai’i Land Trust that preserves the area’s archaeological and cultural resources. Another is Na Hale O Maui, a community land trust and nonprofit that creates affordable housing for Maui residents and keeps the housing affordable in perpetuity.

“Our main focus is not just affordability, by keeping the character of our community, by keeping our neighbors, our friends and friends that we knew,” said Maui County Council Member Tamara Paltin, who holds the West Maui residency seat. “If they want to come back when it’s time to rebuild, we want to be there for them. We want to hold space, hold land and bring those families back.”

Paltin has been working with Auweloa on the land trust along with community organizer Autumn Ness.

Auweloa was hesitant to give a time frame on when the trust could officially launch, as they are still processing paperwork with the state, but she is hopeful that it could be ready early next year or by spring.

Auweloa said they have been in contact with other land trusts in the U.S., along with various groups that include members from the Filipino community and longtime Lahaina families.

The trust would have a board of directors of Lahaina residents or those with Lahaina ties, as well as an advisory council of Lahaina residents and non-Lahaina residents.

So far Auweloa said they do not have any donations, so no money is being used currently.

Both Auweloa and Paltin are looking for people to lend their expertise and/or volunteer for the land trust efforts.

Finding ways to help Lahaina residents through the recovery is also a focus for Kalepa, who is part of the five-member Lahaina Advisory Team that meets weekly with the mayor to discuss recovery from the wildfires.

Kalepa, who has deep family ties to Lahaina, said he was on the Mainland when the wildfires happened. Turning on his phone at 3 a.m., he saw what was happening to Lahaina and rushed to get to the airport to fly home.

“I question myself, why was I not there,” he said. “I probably would not be standing here if I was home on August 8.”

By bringing generators and Jet Skis to people and taking a boat from Maalaea to Mala Wharf, Kalepa was able to get home when the road to West Maui was closed.

“It was chaos, a lot of confusion,” he said of the harbor.

Kalepa’s home did not burn, and he and several other respected community members stood up a “ground zero” emergency operations center from his Wahikuli home to communicate with the Wailuku emergency operations center at the county building. His home also served as a distribution hub.

Returning to the canoe analogy to describe Lahaina’s recovery, Kalepa said that when “we agree to this sail plan, we have to talk about what compass we are going to use.”

“We’ve been using the compass with a magnetic north. We need to use the Hawaiian start compass,” he said. “We know how to sail though a storm. This is living proof. What we forgot is how to sail around a storm.”

He said that “for the last 150 years, we had one (canoe) heading north direction no matter what,” but the Hawaiian compass “will guide us by nature.”

“I ask you to be part of this sail plan,” Kalepa said. “I ask you to put communities first. Let communities decide the direction of their place because they understand it better than anybody else.”

* Staff Writer Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

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