HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0559.016 2022-2024fk5.�no-:Zb
From: Cindy Dupuis
Sent: Monday, November13.2023 1:45 PM
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To: Council Testimony
Subject: Testimony for Resolution 330'23
Aloha No!
I'm Cindy Jaya Dupuis, Mahalo for this opportunity to testify in support of Resolution 330-23.
As a resident of 33 years in the Kapoho area; as president of Hawaii Environmental Restoration (HER), facilitating
Halepua'a Forest Reserve efforts and a WaVele management plan development in the Kumukahi region; and as the
native forest restoration project director for the Keau'ohana State Forest Reserve over this past decade, I truly hope to
see Kumukahi be mindfully managed in terms of its spiritual, cultural, and environmental importance.
This easternmost point is the actual birth place for all of the Hawai'i Islands, and rightfully representshuman beginnings
inHavvai'iover time, aswell oswith each new day inthe rising ofthe sun.
The 2018 lava event provides us at this juncture with a valuable opportunity to begin anew in our relationship both to
the land, and to the indigenous peoples of this land. I wish to hear and honor their voices, including the quiet voices of
the land, and the ancestors that reside. I wish to see their'iwi', the bones that were removed from this pertinent place,
bereturned totheir original burial sites, because I believe this is a critical step to actually protecting and preserving the
related environment.
Sacred places and wild natural landscapes for other lives besides humans, need to be preserved, especially now in light
ofhuman overpopulation and endangered species.
Kumukahi is the perfect place for this. I wish to see a comprehensive protection plan, and the implementation of this
plan for Kumukahi. It is important to me that lineal descendants of the area have a central role in this process.
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Mah@loNuiLoa!
Hawaii Environmental Restoration/ (5D1-C3)President
Ke@u\»haOa Native Rainforest Restoration / Project Dinecto[
Email: Call/text: 808-937-8867
\4sd www. hawaiienvi ronmental restoration. orq;O[ Facebook