HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0377.073 2024-2026Sent: Monday, August 18, 2025 11:57 AM
To: Ha'aheo Auwae-Dekker
Cc: Council Testimony
Subject: RE: Support Res. 234-25
From: Ha'aheo Auwae-Dekker
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2025 11:38 AM
To: Council Remote Testimony<councilremotetestimony@hawaiicounty.gov>
Subject: Support Res. 234-25
Aloha Committee Members,
I strongly support this resolution and urge you to consider supporting Resolution 234-25
as well. Pohakuloa is in the moku of my birth and the place where my siblings and I grew
up. I know that it is the birthplace and home to our ancestors. Pohakuloa is the home to so
many sacred places including `Aina Kahukahu, `Aina `Akua, `Aina Hdnau, and burial
grounds. Our knpuna gave birth in these lands and their iwi are in those grounds. By
allowing the US Military training at Pohakuloa to continue, we are telling not just the
future generations but our knpuna that our pilina to place and our bones will continue to
be desecrated along with the `Aina. There are already stories in my family of my great
grandparents watching these burial grounds be destroyed or sacred sites that were once
accessible no longer be available to them. I do not want to be another person in my `ohana
that has to say this as well, I want to be the person in my `ohana that gets to say I watched
when Hawaii County Council stopped the harm caused by the US military. The US
Military training at Pohakuloa has already caused serious harm -burning nearly 20,000
acres, contaminating the land, and threatening endangered species. Beneath this area lies
a major aquifer that supplies fresh water to Hawaii Island, and the military's track record
shows they are not equipped to protect it.There is also serious concern about depleted
uranium left in the soil, which can become airborne during exercises and has known
health risks. Pohakuloa is a wahi pana- a sacred place with deep cultural and eecolo ical
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significance. Continued military use is incompatible with its conservation status and the
values of aloha `aina. Please support this resolution to protect the land, water, and people
of Hawaii. Mahalo,
Ha`aheo Auwae-Dekker
Honolulu