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bloodline of the kanakaole, but it’s, it’s like Queen Lili‘uokalani was so amazing that way is that,
<br />is that we all from Hawai‘i but we all have kuleana and accountability. So, I come here as a
<br />traditional person, as a cultural practitioner, even before the ali‘i, for me Kahalu‘u was there for
<br />the original, the first peoples here. Because we are different. I now teach world, around the world
<br />– I teach medical doctors about birth, for example. Now, that’s interesting, isn’t it? I sense a
<br />newer doctor, I know how many years – my husband is a physician – so I know how many years
<br />these guys go to school. But traditional people are given this knowledge. But we need our piko-s.
<br />Now, it’s beyond just a piko of Kahalu‘u, because we also are deeply connected into the natural
<br />way of life, into the plants, into the medicines. We have deep respect for that, for the la‘i, to
<br />protect, this is not, it’s, it’s, it’s deep. And those piko-s are what feed us. Kahalu‘u is more for
<br />me, more than just where the ali‘i is; it’s where it’s lined up. And that’s why they got that place
<br />back and that’s why the heiau-s are going back. It connects to the solstices. Now, I was raised
<br />with this. I helped over a thousand babies. I’ve been doing birth since I was a teenager. That’s
<br />how long I started, because I come from a long line. I can go into my genealogy on my Sicilian
<br />side, four generations back. I have citizenship there, too. I am the only traditional midwife that
<br />can prove genealogy in these islands and in Sicilia; that is a huge kuleana on me. I have to walk
<br />that line. I need those places. And they need their places. Because we are, cannot keep
<br />annihilating our native peoples; they hold a knowledge of these places. When one of the
<br />Kahulamū’s asked me to marry them – I had done their birth – they brought me there, and I’m
<br />walking in with her mom and I’m saying, “Teach me a little bit more history,” because I’m feeling
<br />like, whoa. I did not know that was where all, where the solstices, where the equinox, that means
<br />Makali‘i when Lono starts, when Makahiki starts. That is so deep. And I’m trained in these
<br />things, I’m taught these things. And she tells me and I’m like, whoa, wait a minute, I shouldn’t be
<br />marrying anybody here, and I said to her, “I’m going to switch it over to you.” Then the mom
<br />said, “No, no, no, they picked you, you are the māmā.” When you are a midwife, you are the
<br />māmā, you are another māmā. That’s just a term of respect. But as soon as I could, when I got –
<br />and we were not at the hills but we were on the beach right there – where that family has been
<br />married forever, I gracefully turned it over, “Can you please tell us what they are and finish this
<br />ceremony up?” As soon as I could, because I know my place, and as much as I’m trained, and as
<br />deeply as I’m trained, do know I’m still a little ant. And I’ve been deeply trained by African
<br />Americans, by Native Americans, by my own people, by kūpuna here. These babies that are
<br />coming in here are already mākaukau, they are mākaukau. Their kupuna-s are coming, they are
<br />coming to their kupuna-s in dreams, they are telling me, you need to help this one. I’m not
<br />delivering that baby; I’m just letting that baby deliver, I’m assisting the birth. So, do know, you
<br />cannot take this place. We, that, when you go into Lono and Kū and you see the heiau-s there,
<br />you’re already going into a development; that shouldn’t even be there. It’s beyond the pollutions
<br />and hygiene and all of that and that’s important. It’s way deeper than that. Please, for your own
<br />mo‘opuna, for your own generations, because what you do, you are accountable for, too. Just like
<br />I am. So it falls on our grandchildren, our great grandchildren. We try and go back, clean this up
<br />for seven generations behind us that are going to come. We want them to be stronger than us,
<br />right? We all want our children to do better than us, we want our grandchildren to do better than
<br />them, and on and on. Because we want this, this land to be turned back into aloha, into love. And
<br />we have so much. When you look at that place, when you look and go up there, it’s going to be,
<br />it’s deeply connected to the vortex of our three mauna-s right here. And what are they doing up
<br />there? They are bombing, bombing, bombing. We have 125,000 coming in here every year and a
<br />half to bomb. We, that’s affecting us. That’s raping the māmā. And it ripples down. So all of
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<br />2017-04-18 Public Testimony on SMA 16-063 Contested Case
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