HomeMy WebLinkAboutComm 26-033 - LOS 26-06 Gregg, Makani
Comm 26-033
From:Makani Gregg
To:PONC Testimony
Subject:PONC Nomination Ï Shoreline of Hakalauiki (TMK 329002001)
Date:Tuesday, March 3, 2026 1:43:51 PM
Aloha mai e PONC Commission,
I am writing in strong support of the PONC nomination submitted by
Kmaulihou for the purchase of a conservation easement over the shoreline of
Hakalauiki, encompassing the beloved fishing and gathering grounds known as
Manamana. I offer this testimony both as an individual and on behalf of Phaku
Pelemaka, a community-based nonprofit working to protect and steward the
cultural, historical, and natural resources of the Puna coastline.
I write not as a distant observer, but as someone with direct and personal
kuleana to this nomination. I am currently a student in Kmokuhlii, the
advanced in-person cohort of Hlau hia Ï Kumu Kekuhi Kealiikanakaole's
Hawaii Ecological Kinship training program based here in Hilo. Through Hlau
hia I am actively engaged in the very practices Ï kuahu, oli, hula, kaao,
kilo Ï that Kmaulihou intends to bring to life at Hakalauiki. Next month I have
the profound honor of dancing in the Kpaepae, the ceremonial opening of the
63rd Merrie Monarch Festival, as part of Hlau hia. That ceremony is itself a
living expression of what this ina nomination is about: the revival of Hawaiian
ritual practice, rooted in place, carried in the body, and transmitted to the next
generation.
Kumu Kekuhi's vision for Hakalauiki Ï an hia corridor blooming from the pali
to the sea, manamana springs flowing clean to the kai, community gathering in
seasonal ceremony Ï is not aspirational language. It is a living curriculum. I
know this because I am learning it. Her teachings have transformed how I
understand my kuleana as a steward, a scientist, and a Puna resident. The
work she does through Hlau hia has trained hundreds of conservation
professionals across Hawaii and the world. If Kmaulihou is entrusted with this
ina, Hakalauiki will become one of the most important sites of biocultural
education and ecological restoration in the state Ï and I will be among those
doing that work.
Our work at Phaku Pelemaka through the Kahu ina Hawaii program mirrors,
in spirit and in practice, what Kmaulihou is building at Hakalauiki. At Kaakepa
and Pohoiki in Puna, we steward wahi pana under pressure Ï from visitation,
from development interest, from the slow erosion of community access to
coastlines that have fed and sustained families for generations. We know
firsthand that the nomination before you today is not just about one parcel of
land. It is about whether our communities retain the right to care for the ina
that cares for us.
The urgency is real. This parcel is actively listed for $3.4 million. Without public
acquisition, the half-mile shoreline of Manamana Ï with its two perennial
streams, abundant fisheries, remnant coastal strand, nesting hawksbill turtles,
and generations of cultural memory Ï could be permanently enclosed by
private interests with no relationship to this place. We have watched this
happen along our coastlines again and again. The PONC process exists precisely
Comm 26-033
to prevent this kind of irreversible loss, and this is exactly the moment it is
needed.
This nomination is backed by the Division of Aquatic Resources, County Council
Member Heather Kimball, the Edith Kanakaole Foundation, and the
Makahanaloa Fishing Association Ï representing over 120 ohana of Hilo Palik.
It is a community speaking in unison for a place that has always belonged to
the people. From the perspective of Phaku Pelemaka and the broader Hilo
Palik corridor, protecting Manamana strengthens the entire network of
community-stewarded shorelines that links Hakalau in the north to the
coastlines of lower Puna in the south.
I respectfully and strongly urge you to highly rate and recommend this
nomination for acquisition. This is a rare, time-sensitive opportunity to preserve
an irreplaceable stretch of coastline, ensure community access in perpetuity,
and empower the kind of culturally grounded, genealogically rooted stewardship
that Hawaii nei needs now more than ever Ï ridge to reef, generation to
generation, lehua to kai.
Me ke aloha haahaa,
Toni Makani Gregg
Program Coordinator
Phaku Pelemaka
makani@pohakupelemaka.org