Indian Time - A Voice from the Eastern Door

From the Walgreens parking lot in Lahaina, Maui, Keʻeaumoku Kapu has been distributing water, clothes, and emergency provisions to families in distress. As he navigates through his own grief over the devastation in his community, he finds solace in assisting others.

“I’m afraid we’re not going to recover from this,” Kapu conveyed, while communicating with CBC from his mobile at the supply distribution point on Monday.

Kapu, a revered figure and leader in the Kanaka Maoli (the native term for Hawaiian Indigenous people) community of Lahaina, also helms the Nā ʻAikāne o Maui Cultural Center. Tragically, this center was obliterated by the flames that ravaged Lahaina.

With the community still coming to terms with their urgent necessities and the precise number of fatalities from the fire yet to be determined, Kapu emphasized his keenness to ensure he remains pivotal in the discussions concerning Lahaina’s future trajectory.

“I’m hoping that we can get over this hurdle, but at the same time the fear of being erased ...” said Kapu.

“Because our island is now turned into a cheaper commodity because there’s nothing more important to save here, you have people coming in willing to buy burned-out places.”

Kapu revealed that realtors have reached out to his family and other community members with offers to purchase their fire-damaged properties.

A statement from Hawaii’s governor’s office cautioned Maui residents about opportunistic buyers seeking to exploit their anxieties and the financial vulnerabilities of those who have lost homes.

During a Wednesday press conference, Governor Josh Green announced his collaboration with the attorney general, aiming to implement a freeze on property transactions in West Maui.

Residents have taken to social media, urging fellow community members not to give in to these realtor overtures, amid concerns that such actions could result in Native Hawaiians being uprooted from their ancestral lands.

The Hawai’i Alliance for Progressive Action, a non-profit entity, has launched an online petition. Their goal is to urge governments to intervene in the Maui land acquisitions, assist families who have been displaced, and ensure that Native Hawaiians are central to the decision-making process.

While Kapu strongly advises against selling, he expresses concerns that due to prevailing fear and desperation, some might be tempted to accept these propositions.

“You’re gonna make our children tomorrow orphans within their own land,” said Kapu.

Lahaina has profound cultural importance for the Hawaiian community. It once served as the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom and was the location of King Kamehameha III’s royal abode. It was here that he modernized the central Hawaiian administration by establishing Hawaii’s constitutional system.

Even though the capital transitioned to Honolulu in 1845, numerous Hawaiians continue to acknowledge Lahaina as the original seat of power. The recent fire decimated Lahaina’s iconic Front Street, which was home to the cultural center overseen by Kapu. The edifice housed invaluable cultural treasures, such as feathered capes, helmets, tools, maps, and historical records.

All were lost to the flames.

“Our place was a living place, it was a living museum. It was things that you could actually touch, books that you could actually read, maps that showed a lot of families where they originated from,” Kapu expressed.

Yet, the magnitude of the loss extends even further.

Kapu paints the center as more than just a building; it was an international nexus for Indigenous communities, a haven where traditions were passed down, and knowledge was exchanged across generations.

Kapu is deeply distressed by the devastation. Although he managed to save only his laptop in a rushed escape, he feels a deep sense of duty for the artifacts that were housed inside.

Merely ten minutes after his exit, the structure was consumed by fire.

“For Lahaina, I’m afraid what this place can turn into now,” Kapu voiced, expressing concerns that the irreplaceable historic edifices might give way to private projects.

“This is, for us, genocide.”

The Maui fires are intrinsically linked to colonial exploitation, stated Uahikea Maile, a Kanaka Maoli from Maunawili, Oahu, and an assistant professor specializing in Indigenous politics at the University of Toronto’s political science department. Maile highlighted that Lahaina, prior to colonial interventions, was a lush wetland ecosystem teeming with life, which made it an ideal location for the royal residence.

However, by the late 19th and early 20th centuries, white-owned sugar plantations began illicitly diverting water for their plantations, leading to the depletion of these wetlands.

“It’s really devastating to think about the situation that over time transformed this place because it was strategically and purposefully altered to feed colonial forms of profiteering and wealth accumulation and greed,” Maile remarked.

Furthermore, these plantations introduced alien plant species for livestock grazing, which Maile identifies as contributors to the intensity of the Maui fires.

“The question of what to do next? How to heal? How to regenerate? And how to rebuild? Is a really crucial one that is on the minds of everyone,” Maile shared. He observes parallels between Maui’s colonial past and the present, with realtors leveraging the fire’s aftermath for prospective gains.

“It’s a really important time in Hawaiian history to ensure that our people have a say in their own lands,” emphasized Maile.

The issue of land ownership in Hawaii is complicated.

Hawaii’s first introduction to private land ownership can be linked to the Mahele of 1848. Here, King Kamehameha III segmented the land into three distinct categories: Crown, government, and domains for Hawaiian chiefs. Lance D. Collins, a Maui-based attorney with a focus on Hawaiian law from the American colonial era, is well-acquainted with this history. He also serves as legal counsel for Kapu, championing his family’s rights to their ancestral terrains in Kaua’ula Valley.

The Mahele allocated approximately a third of the land to Hawaiian families. While this property has been traditionally bequeathed to descendants, over time, especially in instances where descendants are absent, it has spurred uncertainties regarding rightful ownership, Collins explained.

“Most Hawaiians know which lands they have an interest in, but as long as there’s no contest over use, there’s no issue,” Collins observed.

However, this ambiguity has been exploited by sugar plantations. They either unlawfully acquired the land or manipulated particular family members into relinquishing their shares, rendering others powerless to challenge this, Collins noted.

The remaining two-thirds, consisting of government and Crown lands, is a matter of contention.

After the U.S. military’s coup of the Hawaiian kingdom, these lands were annexed to the U.S. government. Yet, this transfer wasn’t sanctioned by the reigning monarch, who technically owned the land, thereby raising questions about its legitimacy.

Lahaina’s historic structures, Collins emphasized, were safeguarded under preservation legislations. This not only acted as a defense but also momentarily froze major developments, offering a form of reprieve in land disputes.

“So now that everything is gone, those barricades are no longer there. There should rightfully be a huge concern about Lahaina town being redeveloped in a way that will just completely erase Hawaiian history, Hawaiian culture and Hawaiian identity,” Collins warned.

Collins expressed concern that many of the residences consumed by the fire belonged to working-class families in housing projects or communities. He fears that as Lahaina undergoes reconstruction, gentrification might displace these residents.

However, Native Hawaiians have a potential recourse. The state is mandated to safeguard and uphold Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights. This implies that if a developer intended to build on land historically used for native practices, such rights could impede the developer’s ability to bar Hawaiians from that area.

“There is a tremendous amount of opportunity for the Hawaiian people and for the Lahaina community, and there’s also grave, grave danger,” Collins remarked.