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SALAVEA: Aloha mai kākou. My name is Allen Salavea and I am the Planning and Entitlements
<br />Manager with Kamehameha Schools. Aloha.
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<br />UNGER: Aloha.
<br />
<br />DUARTE: Uh, sorry, taking a breath after listening everything that was said this morning, kind of
<br />going to throw out, throw out my script a little bit this morning, and first give an honor to other
<br />kūpuna over here with us today physically, and those who have come before us, could really feel it
<br />today. It is an honor for me, being from Kona, to walk in the room and see all of you folks here.
<br />
<br />I want to start that at the last hearing, Commissioner Kaholo, I thought a lot about your words. You
<br />had the first and the last word at the last hearing. And you started reminding us about the importance
<br />of this place and what you heard from your kūpuna and the sacredness of the space and what you
<br />were taught. And you ended the last meeting, highlighting your folks’ tremendous kuleana, also to
<br />balance that with the public and the public rights and so forth. And in many ways how you started
<br />the hearing and how you ended the hearing really encapsulates a lot of what we are talking about
<br />today. And I think for us, too, at Kamehameha Schools this whole process has been in many ways
<br />about also trying to find the balance and the pono in meetings. And, Commissioner Unger, you had
<br />mentioned about, you know, access plans of public involvement. I can say we’ve been at this for two
<br />years, many community meetings at the night time with Hawaiian organizations, non-Hawaiian
<br />organizations, public meetings posted in the newspaper, on the radio, multiple times to get input on
<br />how to make this not a Kamehameha Schools plan. I heard many of the testifiers say Kamehameha
<br />Schools, Kamehameha Schools, Kamehameha Schools. Why I feel good about this plan is I can feel
<br />good that everybody behind me is behind me, that this is a community plan. This was not, this plan
<br />was not done in a closed room in a backroom at Kawaiahao Plaza in Honolulu; this plan was done,
<br />and has taken many forms, getting input from people like Aunty Kalani, Uncle Mitchell and many of
<br />the other people in this room, who said, no, I don’t like that, I don’t like it like that, change that. And
<br />we heard everything in our meetings from some of our cultural practitioners who told us, “No, this
<br />place is too kapu, nothing should go on here, only cultural practitioners, period, Kamehameha
<br />Schools, you need to fight for this whole place to be walled off,” all the way to those who err towards
<br />the side of much more openness. And just like you folks, you know, we’ve been ourselves and how
<br />do we find the balance where we do not want this to be a place that’s not welcoming; we want this
<br />place to be a place that is welcoming for all, from the keiki and ‘ohana, but to the world. Hearing
<br />about the Shinto priest from Japan, and I know we’ve had a Maoli here and many other people
<br />leaders from other cultures here. And we want this to be a place that we are all proud of;
<br />Kamehameha Schools is proud of, the Hawaiian community is proud of, the County of Hawai‘i is
<br />proud of. We want this to be a place where people are welcome. I heard one of the testifiers speak
<br />about, I guess he had the map about the closed gates, and I learned to swim at Kahalu‘u Beach Park,
<br />and I was one of those kids, I was much browner in those days when I wasn’t working at a desk so
<br />much, I was one of those brown kids who would wander into the property and be told by the hotel
<br />folks, “Get out here you dumb kid, get off this property.” And now we are trying to turn that around
<br />and say, “Mai, mai, come here, come kids, come families, this place is for you.” That’s what we are
<br />trying to create. We want to turn it 180 degrees that this is a place. When Ke Ali‘i Pauahi left her
<br />legacy, everything she had, she didn’t necessarily leave it to Kamehameha Schools; she said to form
<br />Kamehameha Schools for the benefit of the people of Hawai‘i. And that’s what this is about. This is
<br />not your father’s Bishop Estate. This is not where we’re headed. And this is in many ways the
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