2017-04-18 Public Testimony on SMA 16-063 Contested Case

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I drink of and swallow the sweet waters of ancestral knowledge that span generations of life and death. They traverse hilltops, lava fields and vast oceans. Moments that are tender, extreme intimacy, moments where you are in true form, perhaps, even rare form. So real and apparent are the vibrations that pulsate through my body. I feel the vibrations communicating in me. It is in these times of powerful teachings that I recognize, I observe, I take in, I am present, I learn, and I am able to hear in the silence. For my kupuna-s. Aloha. I am a creation of my ancestors who have come before me. I am a daughter of a deceased dad who taught me to appreciate these lands of our ancestors, and a living mother whose age is written in lines upon her skin; she is a kupuna today. I was raised upon these shorelines of Kona. My ‘ohana, we resided in the ahupua‘a of Hōlualoa. I’m here today speaking on behalf of my ‘ohana for Kahalu‘u, the gathering place. Indeed it was a place where on numerous occasions we’d gather here to celebrate an occasion, from birthdays to funerals. It was a beautiful time to live. Families kept close to one other in these times. And then progress encroached our ways of life. Fishponds that we once knew are no longer in existence. Imu-s that were created down at Kahalu‘u where we would cook our food, are no longer there. Kahalu‘u was once abundant with ono good eating fish. We’d swim with them, feed them, and in return they fed us – sustainability, ma ‘ō a ‘ō. Today I no longer see that; I just see tourism. Our native fishes have been dominated by invasive species just like us. We are surrounded by foreigners with intentions. What do we do? Exactly what we are doing today. We are under duress. We are consistently being oppressed by those who see wealth and not the health of our people. What about our future? These lands were not made to be developed for foreigners. We are the bloodlines, the koko of these lands. Our ancestors looked ahead and prepared these lands to be sustainable to assure themselves that their future generations will survive. They created field systems that sustained them and would have sustained us today, and for the future. But development gets in the way. But greed and lies and deception for wealth is consistently happening. What are we to do? We continue to be who we are. People who care and love our land. Burial sites that we were talking about yesterday, who are, who can say what is what? We talked about the Kuakini Wall. How can that not be also thought of as a burial site for back in the – I know in our past that our babies were placed under these walls. But to your, to your knowledge to what you really don’t know as being the kanaka-s of these lands is there are not imprints left for these for you to recognize; these are things that are placed within us that are sacred within us. And if we know where they are, we cannot explain to you guys where they are because it was sacred. But today I open it up, and say that don’t look beyond the walls that are placed because under these walls are also the bones of our ancestors. So I’m here today to speak for my family and for the people of Hawai‘i and for the generations to come. The places have names, and if you really research the names of these places, they will tell you the stories of the place. I’m born and raised. Today I am about functioning a fishpond for sustainability. I would not let development destroy what I have worked so hard for today, for the kūpuna that I come from, for the families that I come from. I just want to say that I apologize that I am against your development. And I pray that you folks understand what the people and the families are saying. That will be damaging Kahalu‘u. We already have enough problems down there – the water, the high bacteria, the fishes that we see today at Kahalu‘u invasive. You don’t think that this development will not harm our, our land, our landscape, our waters of Kona? Kahalu‘u is already over-packed. Why such a place of Kahalu‘u of great importance to us and our families is a chosen place? This is a place of great 2 2017-04-18 Public Testimony on SMA 16-063 Contested Case