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She blew through a Ha'iku Community Association meeting back in May. She was outraged. She did not care to wait for permission to speak. She said what was on her mind loudly.
This Hawaiian woman would not be silenced that night. She had deep grievances and warned us of impending disasters.
She wanted to alert us to the dangerously low water table under Maui and how it will affect Kula. She said that Kula was now extremely prone to fire because the trees couldn't access water with their tap roots due to the scarcity and depletion of our island's water source.
She wanted to bring to the attention of all present the fact that rents were so outrageous and out of reach for the working-class people with families. The Hawaiians are suffering from this burden the most, causing many to become homeless and desperate.
She said she was recently awarded and designated the rightful heir to the lands mauka of the Hana Highway, the moku of Hamakuapoko. Her inheritance was recently decided in court, she told us.
When asked if she would please quiet down and told that this wasn't the way we went about discussion in the meeting. Did she want to be put on the agenda? She said, "Put on the agenda? I don't want to be put on the agenda. I am the agenda."
Three months later, the island did catch on fire and Kula lost 30 expensive houses; 2,000 buildings in Lahaina were destroyed and 101 humans died horrific deaths. The winds howled and blew and blew. Conditions were apocalyptic. Reduced to ash. An astonishing feat of nature.
Adrienne Poremba
Haiku