HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0372.189 2024-2026P /,5. Pcpww
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Testimony in Opposition to the Hawai'i County General Plan 2045 0
Presented by Jasmine Steiner, on behalf of KahuPuna "
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**Puna District Hearing**_,'
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Aloha Chair and Members of the Council,
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My name is Jasmine Steiner, a proud child of Puna —born and raised on this sacred
'aina, in the lower east rift zone of kilauea volcano, where the volcanic soil, runs through my m
veins and the stories of our kopuna echo in every rustle of the hala leaves. As the voice of ,°
KahuPuna, a grassroots community organization, dedicated to conserving Hawaiian customary
traditions and empowering true malama %ina practices, I stand before you today to
unequivocally oppose the Hawai'i County General Plan 2045, as forwarded by our District 4
Representative, Ashley K. This plan is not a vision for our future; it is a betrayal of our past, a
threat to our present, and a theft from our children. #AoleGP45
Let me begin by addressing the profound unfairness of this entire process, which reeks
of exclusion and manipulation. Representative Kirkawietcz has scheduled these hearings and
sessions with the precision of a clockmaker who knows the hands will never complete their
circle. Time and again, our community gathers —farmers from Kea'au, fishers from Pahoa,
families from Hawaiian Paradise Park —pouring our hearts into prepared testimonies, only for
the proceedings to abruptly recess without meaningful discussion, debate, or decision. This is
not governance; it is theater, designed to silence dissent under the guise of particiRation.
It teeters on the edge of Sunshine Law violations, that sacred pillar of transparency under
Hawai'i Revised Statutes Chapter 92, which demands open meetings, adequate notice, and
genuinepublic access. Recesses are permitted, yes, but not as a tool to evade
accountability or to reconvene in shadowed corners where the people's voices fade into
the ether.
How can we trust a plan born in such opacity? This is not aloha; this is alienation. Our
district deserves hearings that honor our input, not ones that mock it.
And what of the plan itself? Brainless, shortsighted, and utterly divorced from the spirit of
aloha 'aina that defines us as Hawaiians. Proposing "smart cities" in Hawaii Island —those
sterile grids of surveillance and concrete, wired for control rather than connection —is an insult
to our way of life. It envisions squeezing our people together like ants in anthills, herding us into
high -density clusters while the government and its corporate allies do as they please with the
rest of our lands: subdividing, commodifying, and concreting over the very heartbeat of our
island.
Worse still, this plan flirts with surrendering control of our precious wai—our
life-giving waters —to outside interests, piping it away for luxury resorts or experimental tech
hubs while our streams run dry and taro patches wither. This is not Progress: it is plunder. It
flies in the face of aloha 'aina, the profound responsibility to care for the 'aina as it cares for us.
The 'aina does not need more westerners and or colonized mindsets to be the overseers, or
off -island investors dictating its fate; it needs its kahu—its caretakers —like the native families of
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Moku O Keawe , the lineage of this great island, who have tended these slopes for generations,
the ones practicing sustainable ahupua'a systems that honor the cycles of earth, sea,
and sky. GP 2045 would uproot that legacy, turning our home into a laboratory for failed
mainland fantasies, all while ignoring the cries of our Native Hawaiian communities who
have fought for water sovereignty from Mauna Kea to Lahaina.
As a child of Hawai'i, and more so as a child of Puna who has lost so much and has never
known health nor clean air or water as it is (due to the desecration that is Puna Geothermal
Venture), raised on the lessons of humility, reciprocity, and resilience, I cannot abide this. Puna
is my kulama'ina—my forever home —and I vow to protect it for the Puna generations yet
to come: my nieces chasing chickens through the guava groves, my future grandchildren
learning to 'awa under the 'ohi'a. KahuPuna exists for this very purpose —to weave Hawaiian
customary practices , and the protection thereof, into the fabric of tomorrow, empowering
malama 'aina through education, advocacy, and community -led restoration. We uplift the voices
of those concealed and those who truly know the 'aina intimately: the kia'i who block bulldozers,
the loea who teach limu gathering, the makua who fight for clean groundwater. GP 2045 stands
against everything we hold sacred, everything I stand for as a steward of this place. It prioritizes
profit over people, extraction over equilibrium, and erasure over endurance.
I urge this Council to reject this plan outright. Return to the table with true transparency,
with sessions that conclude in action, not adjournment. Reimagine our future through
the lens of aloha 'aina—not as a slogan, but as a living covenant. Puna is not for sale.
Kilauea is not for sale. Mauna is not for sale. Pohakuloa is not for sale. Our waters are
not negotiable. Our traditions are not disposable. Mahalo for hearing my testimony.`E
malama i ka'aina; a malama i kakou.
#AoleGP45
Jasmine Steiner
KahuPuna
07 .i91