2019-04-15 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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Hawaii Game Management Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes – April 15, 2019 be here tonight – giving you some history of the beginning – the birth of your commission and how it started and I think this is important – I apologize for Palikapu not being here – he’s away on some other business but I’m here to, well, to help with this historical information for you. First of all, I wanted to explain who Pele Defense Fund is – Pele Defense Fund was organized in the early – in the latter 70s by Mr. Palikapu Dedman who was known for supporting native rights beginning at Kahoolawe – as they were initiating in 1978-1979 the bombing of Kahoolawe and himself and Emmett Aluli and a lot of other Hawaiians that found bombing that particular island was not something wanted to have continue – challenging the federal government military in trying to stop this initiative. They managed to do that for years – ten years later they were able to have the military stop in their 80s by promoting and supporting the idea of traditional, customary practices and the detriment of bombing an island that was filled with sites – cultural sites – iwi – artifacts – and this is the initiative that started this group of people – Palikapu Dedman – at the same time in 1978-1979 – Kau – where he is from – also they, you know, there were also concerns in Kau and him being there and organizing the initiative of Kahoolawe saw it important for Hawaiians in that area to also stand up and challenge. There were several development that was being done in Kau – one was the rocket launching – several times, in fact, they had the proposals for rockets to be done in Kau; hotels that were going to be built on Punaluu Beach and several different issues that also took them to the geothermal development – that was happening down in Puna. And at that time with their success and lawsuits promoting traditional, customary practices and also fighting for their rights set precedent with Pele Defense Fund in lawsuits that they managed to win. During the time of geothermal it was an initiative where Pele Defense Fund stood up for their customary practices with the belief of a deity being disturbed, desecrated and disrespected and successful in this particular concern – Pele Defense Fund – one of, in fact, the only organization that was able to in law – Pele Defense Fund versus Campbell – set precedents in law on their traditional, customary practices for Wao Kele o Puna. At the time when they first started the initiative with Pele Defense Fund it started with the community of – of volcano community – they were the first community that was concerned about the development near Kahoolea (sp?) and near Volcano National Park – at the time there was a lawsuit going on – there were court cases going on and they fought – Pele Defense Fund – and with the community of Volcano while they were in the courtrooms fighting this issue of desecration of a diety – Tutu Pele – she decided to blow and at that time – while in the courtroom – Puu Oo vent was formed and Kahoolei’a where the development was going to be done actually – was actually the geothermal pad where they were going to be drilling and that’s where Puu Oo was formed. So fortunately they were, you know, this all ended with Tutu Pele at the time actually inundating lava in that entire area and then Wao Kele o Puna started – this is Campbell after drilling in Kahoolei’a moved – they did a land swap of moving this initiative with one company – so they swapped a State low-land forest – the only lowland forest 8