Moke Kupihea's most recent release, The Cry of the Huna. - Photo: Courtesy of Inner Traditions, Bear & Co.

Fallen to Kauwā

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3

By Moke Kupihea / Special to Ka Wai Ola

Now for my original intention for contacting OHA, which was never to appear as a guest on OHA's radio show, Nā 'Ōiwi 'Ōlino. I am very concerned about the State's sudden interest in Kōke'e, Kaua'i. As their desires to create and implement a master plan for the park seems to coincide with the building, then arrival, of the Superferry to Hawai'i, and an economic axle driven into the mountains of Kōke'e that will surely bring an end to the long line of hereditary practices and spiritual traditions I so painfully sought to preserve in my works “The Seven Dawns of the 'Aumakua.” As we are still the living links of these people and traditions inherent from our childhood and still wonder about the remnants of this wilderness, specifically Waiahulu in Waimea Canyon, and wish to pass on these traditions to our descendants without interference and threats from DLNR.

I decided to inquire if any of the cultural departments of OHA had reviewed the Kōke'e Master Plan or if OHA had any intentions to object to the plan on behalf of native Hawaiian gathering rights, and if such rights actually lawfully exist. However, just a few days before appearing on Nā 'Ōiwi 'Ōlino, the Moloka'i Ranch story entered the news.

Moke Kupihea

Being a similarity of loss to the hereditary spirit of the land in relation to its native inhabitants, if it is allowed to be flooded with the footprints of foreigners, I believe it is of a more immediate need to bridge the spirit of my thoughts on Waiahulu to Moloka'i Ranch. If it is in fact to be published by Ka Wai Ola, for I will be very surprised if it is, as I was once told by a past OHA Trustee that in his opinion, my works were detrimental to Hawaiian culture. Thenceforth I always felt like an outcast from the mainstream of Hawaiian organizations and thus became a lonely voice crying from the wilderness, sort of speak.

As I am but a Kauwā who writes from the intellectual prison that suppresses the hereditary spirit and lands of his ancestors by the above choices of confinement. Thus it is my belief from the standpoint of one lonely voice crying out from the ancestral world of wilderness that the holders to the title of Moloka'i Ranch are committing “Political Extortion,” if such a crime actually exists in American society. Political extortion is evident by the self-calculated creation of economic hardship by the use of not only the termination of its employees, whom in my opinion should be given the status and afforded the aid provided to political refugees, but services that benefit the immediate community at large. Political extortion by the calculated use of the local populace of the island of Moloka'i. In relation to the present economy of Moloka'i based on its current land use that is calculated to turn the gears of the County and the State press by indirect means, which in turn is calculated to turn the gears of County and State politicians. Which by indirect means in turn is calculated to place the force necessary to turn the gears of both the State Land Commission and County Planning and Zoning Commission to resolve the self-planted economic crisis by implementing the original changes requested and instituted by Moloka'i Ranch from the beginning.

“All the while placing public focus on the needs of the people, making politicians appear to be saviors, all the while foreign investors wait out of public view for its calculated results.''

This magic act or sleight of the feeding hand has been occurring in Hawai'i ever since we became a State of the Union. As I have witnessed this act firsthand on my home island of Kaua'i many times: with the closing of Līhu'e Plantation came economic crisis, political solution, land development, more hotels. With the closing of Grove Farm Plantation came economic crisis, political solution, land development, more hotels. With the closing of McBryde Plantation, economic crisis, political solution, land development, more hotels. All, in my opinion, used the same calculated plan of political extortion. To first attract by land use and zoning change millions of dollars in investment money that when tied to its initial economic axle, its first development, most probably small in proportion to its yet-to-be exposed master plan. However once it is allowed to secure this economic rope of investment and returns to their shiny new spindle of developmental minds atop this initial axle, it will transcend into billions of dollars. As this economic beast will feed upon all the range within its circumference, in the case of Moloka'i Ranch, all that is within its boundaries. While pacifying the local populace with what the State terms fee-simple, moderate cost housing, as today they wish to avoid the use of the term low cost, as the victimized locals should be allowed some pride. The open range of which we were so accustomed and spiritually attached than takes the appearance of a Disneylike park for the foreigners' amusement. As all, the island is now but an amenity for the spun in population of a different culture that wishes to enjoy ours after it has devoured the spirit of us all.

At right, the author, of the generation of 1950, born in the land of Papa le koa at the mount of Waimea Valley, Kaua'i, into the world of the living breath of these great elders, who have all passed away since this photo was taken in the 1990s. From left, Stanley “Kualu” Yadao, of the 1930s generation, spent the latter years of his life restoring the ancestral kalo patches of the Kualu family in the land of Puu lima, below Kanikula at Makaweli, Kaua'i. Albert Ketua “Pipito” Makuaole, of the 1920s generation, a cousin of Genoa Keawe, was the last full-time inhabitant of the land of Pee a moa, and the last great mountain man of Makaweli Valley, Kaua'i. He's petting Joker, his large hound and favorite companion. Barney Makuaole Char, of the 1920s generation, spent this entire life perpetuating the ancestral kalo patches of the Makuaole and Kuapaihi clan in the land of Pee a moa at Makaweli Valley, Kaua'i. He was an uncle and mentor to John Aana, founder of Makaweli Poi, which is now a subsidiary of OHA's Hi'ilei Aloha LLC. - Photo: Courtesy of Moke Kupihea

In closing let me say that my written works, and I myself, have often been called “countercultural” and “anti-cultural,” but I ask you, the reader of Hawaiian descent, to consider the following excerpt from the Five Books of Moses by Everett Fox. The Deliverance Narrative has inspired me throughout my works. For it is my life's dream to create a spiritual foundation upon which the spirit of our ancestors will remain ever present in the remnants of their descendants today and into the future. On, by, and through their own conscious and spiritual will of descent come together under one roof of worship and move in unison as one spiritual body to reclaim their ancestral lands under the Spiritual Roof of One Nation.

THE DELIVERANCE NARRATIVE:

“A final note about the backdrop of these stories. Cecil B. DeMille did it differently, and in the difference lies the gap between Western culture and biblical culture. In the movie The Ten Commandments (a strange title, given the actual content of the dim), DeMille's own 1959 remake of his earlier silent film, great stress is put on the physical, visual trappings of Pharoah's court. Apparently no expense was spared to bring in costumes, sets and extras, and the result causes the audience to focus on the splendor of Egyptian culture, despite the fact that it is peopled by the villains of the story. In contrast, the Bible says practically nothing about the visual backdrop of the Plague Narrative. Just as Genesis made reference to the mighty culture of Babylonia by parodying it (for instance, in the Babel story of Chap. II), Exodus strips down Egyptian culture by making it disappear, and by ridiculing its gods. The book saves descriptive minutiae for the Tabernacle (Chap. 25ff.), preferring to stress the positive and simply to omit what is found negative. This profoundly “anti-cultural” stance was characteristic of Israel's worldview and was a mystery to the Greeks and Romans who centuries later conquered the land; it was to stand the people of Israel in good stead in their wanderings through the centuries.”

“What spirit is to stand the Hawaiian People as one in this century? I plead you to unify outside the backdrop of western culture that erected, stood, and toppled the Hawaiian Monarchy.”

Editor's note: In the first installment of the essay Fallen to Kauwā, Kaua'i-based author Moke Kupihea described how parables of his elders were often wrapped in humor, thus helping to perpetuate them with the enjoyment and laughter its re-telling would bring. His second of three installments took a more serious look at story-telling, through the words of his elder Kala Kapahu. This is the final installment of the essay Fallen to Kauwā by Kaua'i author Moke Kupihea.