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On behalf of the Waiohuli Makai Homelands Advocacy Group, I thank a Honolulu philanthropist for an Aug. 2 contribution of $3,000.
The donor, a prominent isle developer, designated the sum toward a scholarship in order for a University of Hawaiʻi senior or master's-degree candidate in architecture, community planning or engineering to create a Waiohuli Makai site plan.
Waiohuli Makai is the project name of a proposed 1,200-lot Hawaiian Homes development on 4,780 acres in Upcountry Maui.
Ten years ago, Maui Hawaiian homestead leaders had proposed this vision for a Waiohuli Makai housing/farming community on some 5,000 fallow acres. The state Land Use Commission has designated as "agriculture" this homelands acreage on the slopes of Haleakalā crater.
Meanwhile, the UH Foundation has welcomed the scholarship offer and indicated an intention to organize a program to manifest a Waiohuli Makai site plan. With the latter plan in hand, the donor developer said the next steps will be to assign phases to the project and to pursue funding.
I know 10-term Congressman -- Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, Father of the 1920 federal Hawaiian Homes Commission Act -- would have deemed this initiative as native Hawaiian self-determination, self-governance and sovereignty.
Kekoa Enomoto
Founder, Waiohuli Makai Homelands Advocacy Group
Kula