LIHUE — The Kauai County Council on Wednesday commended Peleke Flores “as Hawaii’s social champion” after Flores received the National Education Association (NEA) Ellison S. Onizuka Memorial Award during the 57th annual National Education Association meeting held in July in Philadelphia.
Flores, wh0 is the Field Operations and Cultural Resources Manager for Malama Huleia, was commended for his efforts at preservation and education of the ancient Alakoko Fishpond, commonly known as the Menehune Fishpond.
“We are extraordinarily proud of Peleke and his dedicated team, including Punohu Kekaualua, Jason Makaneole and Kaniho Gimenez, who have been leading the transformation of Alakoko back into a working traditional Hawaiian fishpond,” said Malama Huleia President Mauna Kea Trask in a press release.
The commendation certificate said Flores encourages Native Hawaiian students to connect with their land and culture as they learn about the native ecosystem. His efforts center around preservation and education of the ancient Alakoko Fishpond.
During October 2023, Flores organized an event where 2,000 volunteers came to Alakoko Fishpond to help rebuild the 500-year-old rock wall, known as kuapa in Hawaiian. The effort involved training more than 100 leaders, ensuring that cultural practitioners and experts were included.
A Malama Huleia press release confirmed that 2,000 community volunteers joined Malama Huelia to help stablize the Alakoko kuapa.
The wall continues to be worked on by a group of 58 volunteers who have dedicated themselves to learning the cultural practice and skill of uhau humu pohaku or Hawaiian dryset stone masonry. This yearlong course is led by Flores; he students will earn a certificate following the end of the year.
Kauai High School teacher Alex Nelson provided testimony leading to the NEA award.
“Peleke works so hard to make sure the rights of, and stories of the Native Hawaiian people are still protected and cherished in Hawaii and beyond,” Nelson said.
“As a beacon of Native Hawaiian community empowerment,” Nelson said the body of educators agree that Peleke Flores is well deserving of the prestigious national award.
Community volunteers continue to be a crucial part of the restoration, and we invite anyone interested in learning about and working at the pond to join Malama Huleia during the group’s monthly community workdays, which are normally held on the third Saturday of each month.
Registration can be done online at the Malama Huleia website at malamahuleia.org.
“In addition to the on-the-ground restoration work, Malama Huleia has been diligently working on securing the permits and environmental compliance to start the next two restoration projects on the neighboring U.S. Fish and Wildlife Refuge land to include reconnecting freshwater hydrology, transitioning the punawai’s, or spring-fed stream, riparian area from invasive plant species to native and removing the next 15 acres of mangrove along the Huleia River,” said Malama Huleia Executive Director Sara Bowen.
Other aspects of the restoration work that took place over the past year included the removal of sediment that accumulated from years of overgrowth of invasive mangrove.
The mangrove was removed between 2019 through 2021, but the flow and circulation of the loko ia was still choked by the sediment. Much of the sediment pulled from the pond is being reapplied to the kuaauna, the earthen berm that forms the inside of the fishpond wall and perimeter of the pond and auwai, or freshwater channel.
