Hawaiians want cultural preserve

PO‘IPU — With plans for a 10-acre Hawaiian cultural preserve, Rupert Rowe, Billy Kaohelauli‘i, James Kimokeo, all Kanaka Maoli, the indigenous people of Hawai‘i, and non-Hawaiians, have come out swinging against a proposal to build two homes on leased lands owned by Knudsen Trust family members.

If they have their wish, the project would be the first of its kind in South Kaua‘i, and would help perpetuate the Hawaiian culture.

“It will protect the past, protect the culture for the future,” Rowe told The Garden Island. “It really is needed, today.”

The 10-acre site, if created, would run mauka from Brennecke’s Beach Broiler restaurant to Po‘ipu Road.

Although Avery Youn, a Kaua‘i architect and representative for the Knudsen Trust, believes otherwise, and cites private-property development rights, the Kanaka say the 1.2-acre Knudsen land slated for residential development contains major historical sites.

Therefore, they reason, no development should occur on that parcel, or an adjoining, eight-acre parcel owned by Kaua‘i County.

The critics feel justified in their stand because they feel the property is unique in Hawai‘i: it contains remnants of a Hawaiian village that was home to 30,000 Kanaka, the only intact makahiki sporting arena in the state, remnants of home sites for ali‘i, and a rock wall that runs for miles from the ocean.

But the drive to develop the preserve opens the way for a confrontation between the Kanaka and property owners who own land on which the preserve is planned.

“We are in this for the long haul,” said Terrie Hayes, Kaohelauli‘i’s girlfriend. “You don’t have to be a Kanaka to want to preserve cultural, archeological and historical sites,” said Hayes, who is not Kanaka nor Native Hawaiian.

The impetus for the preserve idea came after leaders of the Knudsen Trust and Sinclair Bill applied for permits from county officials to build a house and ‘ohana house (additional dwelling unit, or ADU) on a 1.2-acre parcel located behind Brennecke’s Beach Broiler restaurant.

The parcel is designated by county leaders as an open-zone district, and is owned by the Knudsen interests. Bob French, the owner of Brennecke’s Beach Broiler restaurant, is a lessee who wants to build the two structures.

Kaua‘i County Planning Commission members held a public hearing on the proposal last month, and are poised to act on the permit requests soon.

During the meeting, county officials disclosed French had unpermitted grubbing and grading done within the 1.2-acre parcel, and on adjoining county land. French had submitted “retroactive” plans, and was ultimately required to pay $2,000 for an after-the-fact permit.

But Rowe, Hayes and others said because of the un-permitted work, no work should be done on the project site, and that the parcel should be included in the proposed cultural preserve. “The $2,000 fine is a slap on the wrist, nothing more,” Rowe said.

As compensation for the un-permitted grubbing, Rowe and others demanded the county take the commercial permits French has to run the Nukumoi Surf Company business next to Brennecke’s Beach Broiler.

That may not be a possibility, as the permit process for that project would most likely be separate from the current request for permits for the homes that are planned to be built.

Youn said, as far as he knew, most of the illegal grading had occurred on county property, not Knudsen property.

Youn said the area where the two houses are proposed will not destroy or encroach on historic sites, and that the Knudsen-family heirs, if need be, will protect a rock formation found within the 1.2 acres.

Kaohelauli‘i said protection of the entire 10 acres is important, as the land has special meaning to him. His home is located near the edge of the proposed preserve, and every chance he gets to visit historic sites there, he says he makes a pilgrimage to his past, and that of his ancestors.

On the edge of his property is located what he and others say is the only intact makahiki (Hawaiian sporting games similar to Olympics) sporting arena in Hawai‘i, encompassing about 1 1/2 acres and protected by a lava-rock border.

Rowe said the arena was used by the strongest of Hawaiian warriors, who came from faraway villages to do battle. Chiefs were seated in a special section to watch the action, while common folks sat in another area.

The rock wall boasted an elevated walkway, apparently to allow spectators to move around the arena and to get the best vantage points for athletic activities such as grappling, forearm wrestling, and activities stressing physical strength.

Before the combatants did battle, they most likely paid respect to Hawaiian gods, as evidenced by rock idols that were stabilized on elevated piles of lava rock, Rowe said. The rock idols distinguished themselves from other rocks because they were shaped like huge thumbs.

In and around the arena can be found remnants of a water well, a pig pen, five house sites, all apparently for use by the ali‘i (ruling chiefs).

The Kanaka apparently chose the area because it offered what they needed for survival. “People would come down here for recreation, and for shopping for food,” Kaohelauli‘i said. “There were terraced taro, sweet-potato patches, the fish pond, pigs, and the ocean. And they raised animals.”

Rowe said a Hawaiian man from Koloa by the name of Henry E.P. Kekahuna drew the map of the arena, with full descriptions of what was in it, for the Kaua‘i Historical Society in 1959.

Protecting the arena and creating the preserve should be a top priority for members of the community and the government, said Andy Siegel, who is not Kanaka or Hawaiian but is “Hawaiian at heart.”

“I grew up in the East Coast and moved to the West Coast and came to Hawai‘i for the first time in 1998, Siegel said. “And, actually, I came here after my mom died of cancer and my dad died of cancer. So Hawai‘i became my home.”

He said Rowe and other Kanaka “have taken me in, and taught me how to surf, (and of the importance of) respecting the island and the people. It is what Hawai‘i is all about. And I really respect that.”

The creation of the preserve will help protect Kaua‘i’s rural way of life, and its past, they all agreed.

“I have seen other areas that have gotten destroyed with development, and it’s too late,” Siegel said. “Once they go in, just these towns, they are not the same, and Kaua‘i is one of those places (that should be protected).”

The time to set up the preserve is now, not when more Hawaiian artifacts and sites within the eight acres can be lost, said Kimokeo, who is 81 years old.

The eight acres were part of 20 acres Knudsen Trust officials had given to county leaders for recreational uses tied to future development rights.

“As a young child, I see how they (developers) destroyed cultural sites, grave sites, salt ponds, taro patches, and places that were used for agriculture by my ancestors,” Kimokeo said. “The young should preserve what the kupuna (Hawaiian elders) had set out to protect for them.”

Kimokeo said he left Kaua‘i for opportunity in 1955, and didn’t return home until 1996. During those years, he worked out of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers office in Portland, Ore.

He also worked as a merchant marine, traveling to ports in the Far East and Middle East. He also earned a boat-captain’s license.

He returned to Kaua‘i in 1996, because he wanted to be closer to his Hawaiian roots. Talk of the proposed preserve motivates him to make it a reality.

“I want to do, and I will,” he said.

Kaohelauli‘i said the rampant development in Po‘ipu, some occurring on land where ancient Hawaiians lived, saddens him deeply, and that the proposed refuge, if it can come about, will preserve a part of important history for future generations of Hawaiians.

David Birge, who is part Native American and is not Hawaiian, said he feels the same way. He is descended from the Santa Clara Taos Public tribe in New Mexico.

He remembers that leaders with the federal government took away valuable lands from his tribe’s leaders in the name of preservation, and never gave them back so they could be taken care of by his tribal leaders.

He said he didn’t want the Hawaiians to clean up the arena, for instance, and not have stewardship of it.

“It is necessary to bring the children and grandchildren here so they can be steeped within the culture as I was,” he said.

Rowe, Kaohelauli‘i and others have cleaned the arena since early 2000, and they said they would make every effort possible to ensure the land remains in the hands of the Kanaka.

Youn, who is of Native Hawaiian ancestry, said he also favors protection of historical sites, but emphasized existing land-use laws allow for the building of the two homes on the 1.2-acre site.

“His (Rowe’s) opinion is right in his opinion,” Youn said. “But his concept of ownership is different from mine.”

Youn said, “If you go back to Hawaiian times of ahupua‘a, then definitely, this is all part of one complex. But if you interject current laws and the right of private ownership, it provides me with a different opinion.”

Youn said he is “not at that point” where he subscribes to Rowe’s contentions that “regardless of who owns it (the land), this will be a cultural preserve.”

“I am still locked in by current laws, land-use laws that allow certain ownership rights on private property,” Youn said.

If anything, there should be “a compromise of ancient rights with current private-ownership rights,” Youn said.

If plans are advanced to protect the rock foundation found on the 1.2 acres, “we will hire an archeologist to identify it, and grant a curatorship access, and not necessarily public access,” Youn said.

Youn said he personally would volunteer his services to work with leaders of the community and county government in setting up a curatorship program for the rock foundation.

“We are talking about preserving in the long term,” Youn said.

• Lester Chang, staff writer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@kauaipubco.com.