Category Archives: Community

Imiloa, Mau Piailug & More

Yesterday I had breakfast at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center restaurant with Ka‘iu Kimura, the executive director of ‘Imiloa; Chad Kalepa Babayan, ‘Imiloa’s Navigator in Residence, and Nico Verissimo, ‘Imiloa’s Membership & Fund Development Manager.

We meet periodically to catch up on the goings on at ‘Imiloa. I am always amazed at ‘Imiloa’s progress and evolution. Steadily, inexorably, ‘Imiloa is becoming the focal point where people come together to help the larger community.

Ka‘iu talked about how people from all over the world are interested in knowing how ‘Imiloa joins together modern science with Hawaiian cultural values. She is running out of space to accommodate all the requests to participate. Can someone out there help to fund the expansion?

It was a far-ranging conversation. Kalepa mentioned that Mau Piailug, who passed away recently, was known for helping to train our modern day Hawaiian navigators. But Kalepa says the most important thing Mau stood for was teaching about the oneness of mankind. He was all about taking care of each other. We are all of one race–the human race.

In our conversation yesterday, it hit me that ‘Imiloa is becoming the beacon where that message is broadcast. It is awe-inspiring.

This article Kalepa wrote in yesterday’s Star-Advertiser is a classic. Although everyone knows that Mau played a major role in the resurgence in Hawaiian navigation, few know that he was about much more than that. The article sets the record straight.

You need to read Kalepa’s account–it is inspirational.

Help Our Food Bank With Your Vote

Vote for Rose’s project! Rose Acevedo is a board member of the Sierra Club. Here’s what she’s up to:

Pepsi Co. Refresh Project is offering a million dollars every month for great ideas that support local communities.

My idea, FRUITBUSTERS, to help feed the hungry in Hilo was approved by Pepsi on May 1st.  The goal of FRUITBUSTERS is to develop a small crew who will rescue all the ripe fruit from trees whose owners can’t do their own picking.  This abundance of fruit will then be donated to food banks and meal programs in our area.


The grant money will be awarded to those ideas that have the most votes.  FRUITBUSTERS is a finalist, so I have all of May to get as many votes as I can!  We need your support, so please log on to:

http://www.refresheverything.com/fruitbusters

to find out more, register and vote. Everyone who registers can vote EVERY DAY until May 31. 

Muchas gracias!

Rose Acevedo
roseacevedo@hotmail.com
756-5990

Picking fruit, that would otherwise just fall to the ground and go uneaten, and donating to the Foodbank  is a wonderful idea.

Let’s all vote for Rose so we can help her to help our community.

It Takes A Community

It’s been a busy few days.

Last Wednesday evening, Don Thomas, a geologist from UH Hilo, accompanied me to a meeting of the Keaukaha Community Association where he described two drilling projects. The first was a 3,000 ft. or so pilot hole sunk by the Hilo breakwater. It was a test to see if the concept of drilling to acquire a profile of the land was feasible. The second was a much deeper hole on the National Guard side of the Hilo airport. This was a part of a National Science Foundation-funded study. It was meant to gather information on the formation of the Big Island by studying the layers of lava as the hole was drilled deeper and deeper.

The background as I understand it: In eartlier days, only the Kohala Mountain range, Hualalai and Mauna Kea protruded above the ocean. Then Mauna Loa erupted and the Hilo side of Mauna Kea was covered by Mauna Loa’s lava.

Core samples showed that there was Mauna Loa lava atop soil from Mauna Kea, much like the kind of material you see on the Hilo/Hamakua coast. Then, as the drill went deeper, they found fresh water at 160 lbs. of pressure in the Mauna Kea lava, way below the surface of the ocean. This is what’s called an artesian well, and is when you get water shooting out under pressure from the surface of the land. That means that this water is under pressure from water that is pushing against it.

As I understand it, drill deep enough and water will just shoot out of the ground. I’ll ask Don what all this means and report back here.

I saw Luana Kawelu at the Keaukaha Community Association meeting Wednesday night. Kumu Lehua calls her one of the “Gang of Three” (with Patrick Kahawaiola‘a) — the folks who together help to make Keaukaha Elementary School the excellent school that it is. She is also the driving force behind the Merrie Monarch Festival. She has never let marketing and dreams of bigger and better things cloud her judgment. She just focuses on the pono thing. I cannot imagine how the Merrie Monarch Festival could be done better. “Pono” is way good enough.

Thursday, I flew to Maui to visit supermarkets as part of my marketing involvement with the new organic farm at Kapalua called WeFarm@Kapalua. This organic farm is on former Maui Pineapple Company lands and consists of approximately 158 acres. David Cole, the former CEO of Maui Land and Pine, started the organic farm awhile ago. When MLP got out of pineapple, the Ulupono Initiative submitted a bid to take over the former organic farm. From the Ulupono Initiative website:

Ulupono Sustainable Agriculture Development LLC, a subsidiary of the Ulupono Initiative, announced today that it would be assuming operations of Kapalua Farms, an organic farming and agriculture research facility located near the entry of the Kapalua Resort in West Maui.  Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc., owners of the 158-acre agricultural parcel, successfully reached an agreement with Ulupono earlier this month, with the transition of the property already underway.
 
“We are pleased to partner with Ulupono Sustainable Agriculture Development as they assume operations of Kapalua Farms,” said Warren H. Haruki, chairman and interim CEO of Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc.  “Our desire was to find an operational partner that would be able to continue organic farming operations and to maintain Kapalua Farms as a community resource, employer, and provider.  Ulupono is an exemplary organization committed to preserving our agricultural land, and we look forward to working together.”

I am especially pleased to be working with the Ulupono Initiative and WeFarm@Kapalua because I watched Jeff Alvord put this initiative together over the last several years. Jeff would call when he was in town and we would talk about the larger picture of a sustainable Hawai‘i. I knew from early on that the Omidyar Group had the best interest of Hawai‘i at heart. I’m very happy to be closely involved with this new organic farming initiative.

Later, when I made my way to the Maui airport, I ran into Stevie Whalen, the President of the Hawai‘i Ag Research Center, which is the modern-day iteration of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters Association’s research arm.

Founded in 1895, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association (HSPA), dedicated to improving the sugar industry in
Hawaii
, has become an internationally recognized research center. Its name change in 1996 to Hawaii Agriculture Research Center (HARC) reflects its expanding scope to encompass research in forestrycoffee, forage, vegetable crops, tropical fruits, and many other diversified crops in addition to sugarcane. HARC is a private, non-profit 501c5 organization.

HARC specializes in horticultural crop research including agronomy and plant nutrition, plant physiology, breeding, genetic engineering and tissue culture, and control of diseases and pests through integrated pest management. HARC also performs pesticide registration work; training in areas such as pesticide application and environmental compliance; ground water monitoring; and technical
literature searches.

Stevie was on Maui to help provide research info about new biocrop possibilities that could possibly be the base feedstock that would provide the U.S. Navy the kind of second and third generation fuel that it could use to fly its jet planes and run its ships. Liquid transportation fuel is very important for us living in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It will take a huge research effort to develop high-yielding bio feedstock. It will not just happen miraculously, out of the blue. I have the utmost confidence in Stevie and her HARC crew, as well as Andy Hashimoto and the CTAHR crew.

Stevie told me that it’s becoming evident that biofuel production will need to use the added value of co-products to make it an economically viable form of energy. There is no doubt that we want to develop a biofuel that will eventually be cost-competitive with fossil fuels. I am very aware that much more work needs to be done.

Then, on the plane back to Hilo, I ended up sitting next to Arnold Hara, extension entomologist for UH Manoa. He was on Maui as part of a project to intensively inspect imported produce coming from the mainland and foreign countries. He was very concerned about the amount of invasive species insects that are being found on imported organic produce. He called imported organic produce “dirty.” He meant that there are lots of hitchhikers on organic produce. It is very worrisome.

I’ll call him tomorrow and ask what varieties of organic produce we should grow to replace imported organic produce. I’m very happy to be associated with WeFarm@Kapalua, where we can help to protect Hawai‘i from invasive species.

Check Out Honolulu’s Civil Beat

Do you know about Pierre Omidyar’s new online news organization out of Honolulu? It’s called Civil Beat, and it just went online this week.

It’s a whole different approach to news, and it’s really interesting. From Editor John Temple’s introductory remarks:

A New Approach to Journalism

By John Temple

 (photo: Randy Ching & Mark Quezada/Civil Beat)

Welcome to Civil Beat. We’re glad you decided to join us.

I’d like to tell you about the journalism you can expect to find here
from
our team of reporter-hosts. It’s different. And I’m excited to
begin talking with you about it before we start
publishing articles on May 4
.

We start this news service with the belief that we’re here to serve
you. That means our daily work is to ask the important questions
citizens might have in the face of the complex issues facing our
community. And to answer them in a way that helps members reach an
informed opinion, based on our reporting and the discussion that will
take place as we together create the new civic
square
.

You’ll find that our initial coverage is centered around five
fundamental beats: Hawaii, Honolulu, Education, Land and Money. For each
of these coverage areas, we have identified critical issues – and now
that you’re here we hope you’ll help us sharpen our focus.

How will we do this to best serve you? First, you’ll be part of the
process. You might have noticed that we’ve opened the doors to this new civic square without putting up any news articles. That’s different – a news service without news, at least initially. It’s intentional. We want to begin by talking with you about what we’re doing, to hear what you want from us and what you think we should be asking. We believe
conversation and civil debate with our reporter-hosts and with other
members is central to what will make Civil Beat valuable. And we want
you to see that the core of our service isn’t the article itself. Of
course, incisive news reporting soon will be an important part of what
we offer. But at the heart of our service are pages dedicated to
providing you context and understanding about the issues you need to
know about. These “topic pages” are living pages. They’ll grow over
time, with your help. We know you’re busy and that our job is to help
make it easy for you to learn about and truly understand what’s going
on, and what you might be able to do about it. With our approach, you
should be able to find the background you need when you want it, without having to surf thousands of pages of documents or make numerous phone calls to unearth what should be readily available to you. (Read more)

I love that they are thinking differently, and providing “topic pages” that lay out background and context about the issues they then report about, and that there will be conversation.

How will they make money? It’s by membership. Anyone can roam around the site, but to delve more deeply into the content you’ll need to be a member. Right now they are offering a discount on the first month’s membership. Normally it’s $19.99/month, but if you sign up now you get the first month for $4.99. I’m going to join.

Big Island Farmers Markets, CSAs & Community Gardens

Sonia Martinez, of Sonia Tastes Hawai‘i, has put together a great resource over at the Hawaii Homegrown Food Network — it’s a list of the 30 or so farmers markets on the Big Island as well as CSAs and community gardens.

CSAs are Community Supported Agriculture, a way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer.

Her very thorough list of Farmers Markets and CSAs is here.

Seussical the Musical

June and I went to yesterday’s matinee of the musical
Seussical at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. It was packed with small kids and their parents and grandmas and grandpas.

From the Hawaii Tribune-Herald:

Itching to see a funny musical? Then what you need is an evening of ‘Seussical.’

“Who doesn’t like Seuss?” That rhetorical observation by drama professor Jackie Pualani Johnson sums up the appeal of “Seussical,” the spring musical at University of Hawaii at Hilo’s Performing Arts Center.

The play, which hit Broadway in 2000, features music by Stephen Flaherty (“Ragtime”), lyrics by Lynn Ahrens and book by Flaherty and Ahrens. Based on the characters and stories of Theodor Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss, “Seussical” was co-conceived by Eric Idle of Monty Python fame.

“It’s a delightful pastiche. It’s a little of everything of what Seuss is about,” said Johnson, who directs the mostly-student cast….

If you want to have a happy afternoon, go see it. You can catch it on the 16th and 17th at 7:30 p.m. and on the 18th at 2 p.m.

The acting and singing were just great. UH Hilo’s theatre has
great acoustics; as good as the theaters on Broadway. Our grandson Kapono designed some of the costumes.

As we left the UH Hilo theatre, I looked back and saw that everyone had a big smile on their face.

Go see it. You’ll leave in a great mood.

Hawaiian Common(s) Sense

I was interested in this energybulletin.net article.

Elinor Ostrom Wins Nobel for Common(s) Sense
by Fran Korten

Fran: Many people associate “the commons” with Garrett Hardin’s famous essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons.” He says that if, for example, you have a pasture that everyone in a village has access to, then each person will put as many cows on that land as he can to maximize his own benefit, and pretty soon the pasture will be overgrazed and become worthless. What’s the difference between your perspective and Hardin’s?

Elinor: Well, I don’t see the human as hopeless. There’s a general tendency to presume people just act for short-term profit. But anyone who knows about small-town businesses and how people in a community relate to one another realizes that many of those decisions are not just for profit and that humans do try to organize and solve problems.
If you are in a fishery or have a pasture and you know your family’s long-term benefit is that you don’t destroy it, and if you can talk with the other people who use that resource, then you may well figure out rules that fit that local setting and organize to enforce them…. Read more

This is the Hawaiian way, and it’s the way we are trying to go. Common(s) sense is appropriate.

The world has changed in the face of Peak Oil. So that we will be relevant years from now, we are changing. I am turning our farm, Hamakua Springs Country Farms at Pepe‘ekeo, and the resources available to us – people, water, land and hydro power – into a commons of sorts.

We are bringing more and more farmers to work together with us for the common good.

Kaiu Kimura: Of the Next Generation of Hawaiian Leaders

Pacific Business News recently wrote about Ka‘iu Kimura: People Who Make Hawaii Work: Kaiu Kimura.

“Ka‘iu is representative of the next generation of Hawaiian leaders,” says Richard.

“I saw her defend her convictions at public hearings having to do with the Comprehensive Management Plan for Mauna Kea,” he says. “She is very strong, and it’s why I support her as strongly as I do. I could not be more proud of her.”

The Waimea-born and -reared Kamehameha Schools graduate is, at age 31, interim Executive Director of Hilo’s ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center.

I had a chance to speak with Ka‘iu the other day.

Q. When did you start at ‘Imiloa, and in what position?

A. It was the Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center then, in 2001. I was hired as a research assistant to help develop Hawaiian content.

Through the exhibit development phase, there were a lot of discussions, meetings, and focus groups with various community stakeholders and experts. It was a real educational process for me. For the first time, members of the Hawaiian, astronomy and business communities had to sit down and plan this center that was going to be for the general public, with a mission to really excite local youth about science and technology and the opportunities that exist here on the island. And also to talk about Mauna Kea and its uniqueness with all these different communities – particularly Hawaiian and Astronomy communities.

Q. What were the challenges?

Everybody had different ideas and different interpretations about what the center needed to be, and how to communicate to the community. It was valuable and difficult all at the same time. It got to be really challenging at the end.

In 2006, when we opened the doors, that was a major step. We’d made it through the planning stage and we had a product; something that came out of all that, because of the collaborative approach we took.

Q. What are you working on now?

I just came back last week from a conference in San Diego. It was about bringing Native American people together with scientists and the science center community.

We shared the process of how we built the center. You don’t have to divorce yourself from your culture or from your cultural values if you’re interested in pursuing science and technology. In fact, because you have those values and that cultural perspective, you can enrich the direction science is going. It made me realize more so that ‘Imiloa has a responsibility to take this kind of perspective to the science community.

I know there will always be a variety of opinions about any future development on that mountain. Many opinions won’t change; they’ll stay the same. But the goal is about relationship building. Coming to the table and saying what you need to say. To help educate both ways. Sharing with the community is about. The average person has been left out of that conversation in the past. The role of ‘Imiloa is to open up the conversation to more people.

It’s all a part of the education process. If people don’t understand about that mountain, and why it’s so revered and unique, then how can we say we’re all about educating the youth and getting them excited about science?

‘Imiloa is here because Mauna Kea is such a special place. I think it’s all about the kuleana thing. Go after your dreams and ambitions, but also understand the community you come from and the history, and know you have the kuleana to give back to it.

Q. What are your next goals?

Our big goal is to increase our attendance. We’ve had a wonderful growth in attendance. We average 53-55,000 people a year. Eighty-five percent are kama‘aina. That’s been great. Our challenge is, and will always be, to create fresh programs and activities and exhibits and planetarium shows to keep our kama‘aina people engaged and wanting to come back for more. That’s a major priority.

We also want to grow that 53-55,000. We want to double that. Our core mission will always be to inspire and excite the youth of Hawai‘i, our next leaders. And we’d also like to increase our offshore numbers, and impact the rest of the world. We think Hawai‘i can really serve as a strong model internationally.

Q. What would you like people to know about ‘Imiloa?

What is unique about ‘Imiloa is that it’s a result of massive collaborative effort of people in the community. I’m very, very aware we have a lot of work to do, and that there are a lot of ways to strengthen what we have. But I think it’s a very good first step to sharing the Hawaiian culture, and in bringing our culture together with science and in particular with astronomy.

‘Imiloa shares a great story of exploration. That’s what ‘Imiloa means: To explore, seek new knowledge, make new discoveries, new landfall. It’s a great place to come and learn about exploration, and how people in Hawai‘i have explored in the past, and how it continues today and for the future.

It’s unique to us here in Hawai‘i, but also, on a human level, every culture has histories and culture and innovation. It’s about tying those together with where we’re heading in the future.

Michelle Galimba & Kuahiwi Ranch

Richard told me he is very impressed with what Michelle Galimba and her family are doing in Ka‘u, and so I thought I’d give her a call and learn a little more.

Michelle galimbaMichelle (left) and her family

I learned that Michelle grew up on dairy farms in Ka‘u and then lived in Haleiwa on O‘ahu, where her dad worked for Meadow Gold Dairies. These days, she and her family own and run a cattle ranch in Na‘alehu.“There’s a little bit of irony in the name,” she told me about their Kuahiwi Ranch. “Kuahiwi means ‘mountain,’ but the other meaning is ‘back country,’ like ‘the sticks.’”

To some people, Ka‘u has that sort of back country reputation. Michelle says she thinks people in Ka‘u are starting to rethink values, though, such as of its traditional culture, and that the lifestyle of Ka‘u is becoming more and more relevant.

“If we can find success stories for people in Ka‘u,” she says, “I think that goes a long way in changing other people’s perceptions and also our own, for ourselves.”

She mentions the coffee industry that’s recently sprung up in Ka‘u. “My friend Chris [Manfredi] started talking with the coffee farmers and thought their coffee was really good. He entered it into this international competition and it did really, really well. People were just so thrilled.”

She is one of the organizers of this year’s Ka‘u Coffee Festival, which will be May 1st and 2nd.

“There’s starting to be a stable of agriculture products in Ka‘u that are premium and interesting and something people can be proud of,” she says. “It’s what I’m hoping for with our beef. That we can get other ranchers involved with it and build up this market for it.”

Kuahiwi Ranch started in 1993, about the time the sugar plantations were going out and sugar cane lands were becoming available. It’s operated by Michelle’s parents, her youngest brother and herself, with age-appropriate help from her daughter and her brother’s three children (who range in age from 8 to 13).

They raise cattle for beef on 10,000 acres between Wood Valley and Waiohinu. Their cattle are free range and grass fed, and the cattles’ diet is also supplemented with grain.

“It’s a little different from grass-fed beef,” she explains. “If you just feed the cattle grass, the tenderness varies. Our beef is a little bit more expensive, but it’s more consistently tender.”

From the Kuahiwi Ranch website:

With the growing public interest in eating local and sustainable food systems, Kuahiwi Ranch decided to offer the public the best beef we know how to produce — beef that is tender, mild-flavored, and of consistent quality, but also raised naturally and humanely.

Our cattle always have plenty of room to roam and green grass to eat, but they are also given access to a grain ration for approximately 90 days.  This grain ration consists of three natural ingredients — corn, barley, molasses, that’s it.  It’s kind of like granola.

Since the late ‘70s, most Hawai‘i ranchers ship their cattle to mainland feed lots, which has been the most economically efficient model. In the last three or four years, says Michelle, as corn and transportation prices have risen, things have changed and it’s become more viable to keep cattle here.

There is little infrastructure here, though, to process the beef, and until recently there wasn’t a market locally for grass-fed beef.

She says you cannot get local beef at any supermarket on O‘ahu, and that this is a focus for Kuahiwi Ranch right now. “But everything is set up to come over in a container from the mainland,” she says. “It’s what everybody’s used to working with.”

“It’s an ongoing struggle on all kinds of fronts, and in the industry as a whole, to get it to work,” she says. “On the other hand, there’s a lot of enthusiasm – from chefs and people at the farmers’ markets. That’s kind of what keeps us going.”

Here on the Big Island you can buy their beef at KTA, where it’s sold under the “Kulana Natural” and “Mountain Apple” labels. She also sells their product, under the Kuahiwi Ranch name, at the Na‘alehu Farmers’ Market on Wednesdays and at the Volcano Farmers Market on Sundays.

Somewhere in the midst of all that dairy farm living and cattle raising, Michelle went to UC Berkeley and got a PhD in comparative literature. It’s a little jarring in its dissonance from what she does now – the ranch’s marketing as well as its accounting, though she says her favorite thing is to get on her horse and drive the cattle – until she is asked about her thesis, which was about an 11th century Chinese poet named Su Shi.

“He was this academic superstar,” she says, “and in China if you were really good in literature you rose through politics really quickly. He became the premier, running the whole country, but then he was exiled to, like, Ka‘u.” She laughs.

“He wrote a lot of poems about having to grow his own food and how rewarding that was,” she says.

I get the impression that Michele and Su Shi would have gotten along.

Keaukaha School – ‘Really Something Else’

Richard and June just attended the “Evening of Song” holiday program at Keaukaha Elementary School, and he told me that when it was over and they came out of the program, they were both amazed.

“It was the most fun thing,” he said. “We couldn’t believe it. I don’t know how often you see a principal of a school with an ‘ukulele out in the front, dancing. We came out pretty happy, both of us.

Kumu Lehua's Mom

June at left, with Principal Kumu Lehua Veincent and his mother

He said another thing that really struck him was the Santa Claus. “The Santa came out boogying while carrying his boogie board in one hand,” he said. “He had the beat, and stayed with it, spinning around and punctuating the beat with his rubbah slippahs, waving to the crowd as he made his way to his Santa chair.

“How could kids be afraid of a dancing Santa Claus wearing rubbah slippahs and carrying a boogie board?” he said. “They loved him; you could see it in the tiniest ones’ faces. When he sat down and the kids came to sit on his lap, they were not afraid of him. You cannot be afraid of someone in rubbah slippers.”

Santa&girl

During the program the school recognized Ilde Aceret, a custodian retiring after 27 years of service; Aunty Momi Wakita, for starting up the Evening of Song several years ago; and Ed and Irene Kozohara, retired teachers who volunteered for many years to give the keiki ‘ukulele lessons.

“You can just see the values at that school,” said Richard. “You can see that the community there is really tight. They are really basic, down to earth, solid values. When you see the folks being recognized…. that janitor, she’s very important. If everybody there had had shiny shoes on, I don’t think the janitor would have been up there being recognized.”

“Just the look at how the community interacts – it’s no wonder the school is doing so good.”

Then Kumu Lehua called up Richard and June. “June and I were totally surprised to be called up,” he said. “We recognized that it was in appreciation of the folks that fund the Adopt-A-Class project, which sends that school’s keiki on excursions.”

Counting the people that were outside the gym, Kumu Lehua estimated there were about 750 people there.

Each class sang during the program, with what Richard said was only minimal backup. “We all know there are lots of entertainers in Keaukaha, but it was just an ‘ukulele and a bass. The bass was way in the background but kept up a nice beat. It made them look and sound almost professional. They’re starting at a high level, not a low level.

“When they did the introduction chant, it was three or four times more enthusiastic. Those voices were STRONG. There was no loudspeaker; they didn’t need it, the voices were strong.”

“The school, the parents, they cannot force that. It was something else.”