HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0377.226 2024-2026From: Ku Kahakalau, Ph.D.
Sent: Monday, August 18, 2025 5:45 AM
To: Council Testimony
Cc: Kimball, Heather; Kagiwada, Jennifer, Onishi, Dennis; Kierkiewicz, Ashley, Kanealii-
Kleinfelder, Matt; Galimba, Michelle M.; Villegas, Rebecca; Inaba, Holeka; Fkg5tace
James a
Subject: Please SUPPORT Res. 234-25 z
GO o <
DATE:August 18, 2025
TO: Hawaii County Council, Policy Committee on Environmental and Natural Resource Ma pge�ient
FROM: Ku Kahakalau, Ph.D, 48-5525 Waipi'o Valley Road, Kukuihaele, Hawai'i Island
RE: Resolution 234-25, A resolution urging the State of Hawaii to ensure the health and safety of Hawaii
Island residents by requesting the military to cease all bombing and desecration activities at the
Pohakuloa Training Area, rejecting land swaps and lease renewals with the military unless certain
stipulations are established, and conducting a Ka Pa'akai analysis on the area.
Aloha members of the Hawaii County Policy Committee on Environmental and Natural Resource
Management. Mahalo for the opportunity to testify in writing in strong support of Resolution 234-
25.
As a Native Hawaiian educator, cultural expert, songwriter and grassroots activist. I have spent the past
40 plus years protesting against the US military's use of our 'aina for target practice, since this abuse
of our very limited land base has had no positive impact on Hawai'i, but many horrible negative
consequences, including the destruction of cultural and sacred sites, 'iwi kupuna, native vegetation
including 'endangered species and the destruction and endangerment of our fresh water
resources. Bombing our 'aina, which we Hawaiians are genealogically connected to, also continues
to traumatize not only native Hawaiians, but all who consider Hawai'i their home. Traumatizing
HawaiTs residents is in direct opposition to Governor Green's executive order signed in February 2024,
declaring Hawai'i a trauma -informed state. Moreover, as we have learned from the attack on Pearl
Harbor, having the US military in Hawaii makes us, not safer, but more a target of military action against
us.
As Hawaiian cultural practitioners my family and I, along with a group of others have been engaged in
yearly Makahiki ceremonies at Pohakuloa for the past 8 years, clearly establishing a cultural practice
there. In 2000, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that a Ka Pa'akai analysis is required to protect Native
Hawaiian cultural practices and resources. Such an analysis has never been conducted at PTA.
On May 9, 2025 the State Board of Land and Natural Resources voted to reject the US Army's final
Environmental Impact Statement to extend its lease for the PTA due to concerns relating to the
inventory of archaeological sites being incomplete, a lack of data and analysis regarding endangered
biological resources, and inadequate consultation for the cultural impact assessment, and hundreds of
testimonies from the public.
Please pass this resolution, which requests the U.S. Military to immediately cease all bombing and
desecration activities at PTA, so that our land and our people can heal again, instead of being re -
traumatized.
Mahalo nui. Comm.
Ref. To:
1 Ref. Date AUG 9 2025
Ku Kahakalau, Ph.D.
48-5525 Waipi'o Valley Road
Honoka'a, Hawaii 96727
(808) 775-0867
(808) 937-6854 (cell)
POPOKAHI I HOLOMUA - UNITED WE WILL PROGRESSI