Kahua Ahupua‘a is very interesting. It’s bordered by Alia Stream on one side and Makea Stream on the other. The streams are around 500 feet from each other, and the ridgeline is maybe 100 feet higher than the streams.
June and I plan to build on the ridgeline, where the streams are well within strolling distance. The place I talked about in Monday’s blog post is a short walk down the hill.
I’ve been spending a fair amount of time exploring Kahua Ahupua‘a lately. June and I want to build a home at Hamakua Springs Country Farms on this piece of land.
Makea Stream. On the left of this picture and less than 30 feet away there is another stream running parallel.
Makea Stream, the northernmost border of our parcel, is also the northern border of Kahua Ahupua‘a, where two intermittent streams join Makea. The “Y” that is formed as the streams join makes a nice island of tropical foliage. At one point the streams are as near to each other as 20 feet, and then they meander apart about 100 feet. They finally join Makea about 200 feet downstream.
My friend John Cross says that wherever one finds a banyan tree on a stream it marks a water feature. In this case, it’s a small waterfall.
I spent several hours opening up a trail around the edge of the streams with a machete. I started from a place where the banana workers had mowed. The two streams were so close that I could hear them.
I’m thinking I need to plant something that will throw shade on the stream in the distance. There is sugarcane right up to the banks.
I just started cutting my way to the left bank and followed the stream’s edge all the way to where it joined Makea and then went back up the other side. It wasn’t too hard because I followed an old pig trail.
These are individual ohi’a trees in pots.
There was white ginger and ‘uluhe growing throughout, which are doing a good job of suppressing weeds. All the while I was thinking about where I will plant ‘ohi‘a, hapu‘u, kukui, hala and other plants.
Our neighbors used to have the lauhala shop on Kalakaua St., and we have a bunch of hala trees growing wild on our boundary. I’m going to plant the lauhala along the river.
There are some scrub trees that will need to be taken out, but not now. I want to strategically let in some sunlight to establish some ground cover and also bring in some trees. Later, as the ground cover takes hold and the trees can use more light, I will remove limbs to let in some more light.
Mom has been transplanting the ulu keiki as they sprout from our tree.
I threw some fertilizer on the ‘uluhe and the ginger only. Hopefully they do well and help suppress the California grass and other weeds. This is going to be fun.
From the Hawaii Tribune-Herald (5/7/10):
Hu Honua Bioenergy LLC wants to take over the 1985 special management area or SMA permit that allowed the former Hilo Coast Processing Co. to operate a coal-burning power plant near the ocean….
…Eucalyptus trees growing along the Hamakua Coast will be harvested for fuel during the plant’s first decade of operation, according to Hu Honua’s application. The company would then look to obtain trees from private landowners clearing their properties, and also is working with the University of Hawaii at Hilo to develop a “sustainable biomass farming plan.”
On Friday, I went to the Windward Planning Commission meeting in support of Hu Honua. From the company’s website:
Hu Honua Bioenergy, LLC is a Hawaii-based company created to meet local electricity needs using renewable resources. The facility is located in Pepeekeo, Hawaii, on a 25.57-acre site on the Big Island of Hawaii.
I am supporting Hu Honua because the company says it will use biomass to generate “base power” in HELCO’s grid. Base power is a steady, dependable source of electricity. More than 85 percent of HELCO’s electricity usage is base power.
The Hu Honua project has the potential of replacing fossil fuels in HELCO’s grid with biomass.
From my own farming experience, I feel that Hu Honua will face some challenges in sourcing its feedstock. Several years ago, when the land around the Hu Honua power plant was subdivided and put up for sale, we were informed that C. Brewer wanted to sell the land on three sides of our banana packing house. We were growing bananas there on a short term lease and were told we needed to move our bananas to a different location. When we completed that move, instead of our packing house being in the middle of our banana growing operation, it was stuck way out on one side of the farm.
In order to maintain the same amount of production, we needed to acquire more land that was even further to one side of our farm, and this made our operation inefficient. And because our packing house was no longer centered in our fields, our labor and maintenance costs went way up, to the point that we had to downsize and reorganize our entire farming operation.
Similarly, Hu Honua’s generation plant would have benefitted from being sited in the middle of its production supply. This is not possible, though, since it is bordered by the ocean on one side and subdivisions on the other. Consequently, labor and fossil fuel costs will be a larger part of their operation than would have been optimum.
When they try to grow their own sustainable biocrop in 10 years, they’ll have the same problem we did. I’ve tried to guess where the large land parcel supporting five to six trucks of biomass per hour will be located, and I don’t know where that place will be.
For 10 miles in either direction, rainfall averages approximately 120 inches per year. Our farm, just a couple of miles up the road, has an average rainfall of 140 inches per year. High rainfall, deep soil and steep terrain make for a challenging agricultural environment.
I do support Hu Honua, but I worry they may not be successful in developing a “sustainable biomass farming plan.”
We have decided to place the 264-acre portion of Makahanaloa Ahupua‘a we own into agriculture forever. We are working with the Hawaii Land Trust to make this happen by putting a conservation ag easement on it.
The world has changed and we must protect our uniquely productive agricultural lands.
This land is particularly productive. A flume runs right through the property, and we are developing a hydro-electic project that will generate 74 KW of electricity continuously.
Flume water, originating from the highest elevation Hilo corner of the property
The soil is more than 10 feet deep in places.
In addition, we have use of a former county spring that used to supply Pepe‘ekeo town. All we need to do is put a valve in to activate the 8-inch cast iron pipe and get fresh clean water under gravity flow.
Tai Wan Gu grows more than 100 acres of sweet potatoes on the land.
More than 100 acres of sweet potato
Danny Loeffler is the largest sweet corn grower on the Big Island, and he rotates crops with Tai Wan. Tom Menezes grows apple bananas, taro, cacao and other crops. These are the best, most productive farmers on the Hilo/Hamakua Coast.
It is very rare to find this combination of resources – the tremendous amount of fresh water that flows downhill by gravity, the soil more than 10 feet deep, and the fact that soon we will be generating electricity for our farming operation there – and it must be preserved for future generations.
Even with it becoming conservation ag land, we can continue farming there.
This whole project is an important part of our Family of Farms project:
I wrote in a recent post about how much I admired Uncle Sonny’s ability to grow great watermelons in a very effective and efficient way.
Over the years, I have noticed that this is a characteristic I see all the time in small farmers’ operations. So how are we going to supply food for Hawaii’s people, in the variety that the community will need, so they won’t need to travel so often? And on the community scale, how will we have enough variety to feed the community around us?
This is how the concept of “Families of Farms” came to me. I asked myself, What happens if we lease lands and hydroponic houses to area farmers?
Our idea is that we would each bring certain resources to make the whole more than the sum of the parts. We believe that this will help each of us make more money together than if we operated independently. So it’s in all of our interests to stay together.
• We would get effective and efficient farmers working with us. Small farmers do not waste anything. And we would get more production than what we could do ourselves
• We would get more variety than we could do ourselves
• We would get more young farmers into farming
• We would bring the water and electricity resource that we have
• We would bring our technical expertise
• We would bring our marketing and distribution system
• We would bring our cooling facilitiesWe will need to adapt to a new normal. Necessity is the mother of invention.
The last few days, I’ve been focusing on Kahua Ahupua‘a. Of the three ahupua‘a that comprise Hamakua Springs Country Farms, I find this one the most interesting.
Within 600 feet there are two streams: Makea on the north boundary, and Ali‘a on the south. Between the streams is a ridgeline, maybe 75 to 100 feet from stream level, and running on the ridgeline from mauka to makai is a cane haul road.
It has a clear view of both Mauna Kea and the ocean, as well as of the greenhouses in the valley facing north, toward Honoka’a, and the banana fields facing south, toward Hilo. June and I plan to eventually build a house there. We just submitted a plan to the County in order to subdivide.
Yesterday I spent several hours on the bulldozer, reopening old roads and clearing access to the streams. Today I spent time knocking down many, many 20-foot albizia trees, and making sure the roots were completely pulled out of the ground. There’s one giant albizia tree that is even larger than the ones in this picture. The base is at least 10 feet around and the tree is easily 100 feet tall with many giant side branches. That’s where the seeds for the others are coming from.
I wonder how I’ll get rid of it. Cutting it down is just unimaginable. Here is how they cut a tree down at Lyons Arboretum.
Here is an easier way, with a drill and injecting.
The whole time on the bulldozer, I was thinking about how I can situate some hydroponic hoop houses that would allow us to capture fertilizer runoff, grow algae and raise tilapia. I would get the water further upstream, at a higher elevation, and then run it to the hydroponic hoop houses and use the excess fertilizer to grow algae and then, further downstream, send it to the tilapia. Gravity and free water are our friends.
I am going to grow algae for fuel. Not for cars, but to grow tilapia. Food fuel. The hydroelectric project is close by.
I’m also thinking of making a place to just sit and listen to the stream. I wonder where I can get hapu‘u? Where would kukui nut trees go? Lauhala? Ulu? Hmmm.
This is going to be a big, long project. I’ll write about it as I go along.
It’s not often you run across someone who is, as Richard describes Brudda Skibs, “completely selfless.”
Richard told me that when they conceived of the idea of the E Malama ‘Aina sustainability festival, Brudda Skibs was the first person he thought of. He’s glad Skibs was a part of the festival.
Richard described Brudda Skibs to me by saying he is known for organizing people in the community – mostly young people – to malama the ‘aina. To take care of the land.
“His reputation is spreading,” Richard said, “and other islands are trying to copy his template.”
That’s Skibs kneeling in the center, wearing the black long-sleeved t-shirt.
It’s hard for some people to wrap their heads around what Skibs (real name: Keith Nehls) does. Every Monday he and his volunteer crew clean up the park at Hakalau. Every Wednesday, they work at Honoli‘i Park. Every Friday, they’re at Honomu.
“We do it free,” he says. “With our heart.”
Watch this video, and you’ll understand about his heart. It’s an important speech and I wish every kid in Hawai‘i would watch it.
And read this article about their reclamation of Honoli‘i Park. Here’s an excerpt:
Honoli’i is one of the best surf spots on the Hilo side, hands down, and for years the surrounding park area was overgrown, full of rubbish, and unattended.
No More.
In November 2003 Keith “Skibs” Nehls and 150 other people started a movement that dwindled down to maybe 5 people within five months. His undying spirit carried him through.
Never Give Up echoed in his ears, words that his Grandfather taught him.
Uncle Skibs gives plenty credit to the teachings of his Grandfather, which instilled in him a strong faith in Akua(God) and a dedication to taking care of the aina(land)….
Dramatic Changes have taken place at Honoli’i, the aina glows from the loving touch of its caretakers.
In the beginning, everybody thought that the land was county land, and no one asked; they just started cleaning it.
Turns out it was Kamehameha School lands, and they were thinking of selling it because they saw no way they were going to be able to take care of it.
When they saw what was going on, they approached Uncle Skibs and offered him a lease on the land, 1 acre, for a dollar a year!
See what a little faith does!
Just look at what they’ve accomplished at Honoli‘i. This video shows the same areas in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006, and my jaw fell open to see the land go from abandoned to absolutely beautiful. I had to replay it a couple times to see it again.
At Honomu, they are working on cleaning up the old sugar mill. “It’s privately owned by a doctor,” says Skibs. “He got in touch with us and said he was looking for someone to come take care of this place. He said he wants to give back. He wants to hand it over to an entity” where part of the building can be a community center and part of the land down near the ocean can be a park. They’re clearing the top part of the property right now. “We’re showing him we’re real,” he says.
They’re real. Skibs and his crew have been doing this for five years now, and he’s formed a non-profit organization, Basic Image, which last year brought in $46,000 in cash – $40,000 of that from the Hawaii Tourism Authority – and almost $300,000 in in-kind donations.
Kids come help on the weekends, he says, from Hilo High, Kamehameha Schools, Ha‘aheo School, Punana Leo and others. “We give them a tour, talk to them,” he says. “We tell them we built this park and put on events, and you gotta bring your parents, teach others, because when we die, you’ve gotta take over. This is for everybody. It’s not yours. You’re not going to get one special park; you’re doing it to teach our culture. You’re giving back.”
Every year he puts on surf contests at Honoli‘i and Pohoiki. “It’s for the kids, but parents or guardians have to be there,” he says. “Schools help us. They tell the kids: If you come and help us, we’ll put on this free contest because you’ve giving back. The parents come so they know what’s going on.”
Want to help? He says he’s always there around 9 or 9:30 in the morning. Or email him at skibs7@mac.com.
“Everyone has one talent that’s their gift,” he says. “You don’t have to come down to clean up. You give whatever. What you like do? What are you good at? I like you come and do what you like do.”
“We’re all here to do one job. We’re not looking at money or fame; we’re looking at changing this place to the way it used to be.”
Richard says that what Brudda Skibs is doing is “a manifestation of ‘aloha spirit.'”
“This is what is going to keep us together as a society when push comes to shove,” he says. “We need to feel a part of our community, make more friends and stay close to our family.”
“What we’re doing is real,” says Skibs. “We could change this island. We’re doing it already. That’s our job right now – the future of our children.”
Years ago, we decided we need to plan for the worse and hope for the best. We have always try to position ourselves for where we will need to be in five or 10 years.
In the early part of 2008, rising oil prices squeezed us and other farmers. Oil prices have dropped, but assuming they start to rise again and will probably be higher than before – where do we need to be five and 10 years from now?
When oil prices spiked earlier this year, we could feel the strain it put on our employees as they struggled to stretch their paychecks. We could not raise their pay, but we were able to supply them with food every Thursday, when we gave them bananas, tomatoes and other things we grew. Utilizing our free water resource, we now plan to also supply our workers with tilapia fish, for protein.
Because of our free fresh water, we can grow tilapia without much input other than food. Roy Tanaka tells us that tilapia are vegetarians and we may be able to feed the fish “off grade” vegetables and fruit. We are not necessarily interested in seeing how fast the fish can grow. We are more interested in using waste products to keep costs down so we can give our people food.
When oil prices rise again, we will see electricity, water and gas prices rise, too. To be prepared for rising oil prices we are installing a hydroelectric generator in the flume that runs through our property. It will generate enough electricity to supply our whole operation and still have 25 percent left over. We plan to let our workers plug in their electric hybrids at the farm as an extra benefit of working for Hamakua Springs.
Operationally, we know that rising oil prices means rising fertilizer prices. So on the portion of land we lease out, we work with area farmers in order that crop rotation and cover cropping benefits each other. Together with hydroelectricity, we will change the cost characteristics of banana, sweet potato and other crops.
I can say that crop rotating bananas and sweet potatoes has never been done before. But why not? The principles are sound.
We also have small growers working the ridgelines and small niches that fit their size. They do crops that we don’t do and so we complement each other. On our 600-acre parcel, we are working toward having many variations of food. Doing this will engage many people. When push comes to shove, it is important that many people have a vested interest in our system of agriculture.
Generating electricity from the river means that our electricity costs will be stable. In contrast, no one can guess how high oil prices will rise. I think they will go much higher than what we saw several months ago. Better safe than sorry.
Looking beyond the farm, if we have cheap electricity then we can serve as a place to consolidate and refrigerate shipments of other farmer’ products, so they can get to O‘ahu in a cost-effective manner. This is important because O‘ahu land prices are so high and the population is so densely arranged that it’s not easy to see how the people there can feed themselves. This means that outer-island farmers need to be positioned to supply food for O‘ahu in a seamless manner.
We found that three ahupua‘a run through our farm and that was very interesting to know. I feel I am in tune with how the Hawaiians would have managed these lands in the old days. It is about observation, diligence and common sense.
Putting everything together, we have all the pieces to make a sustainable community and maybe even a whole district. It seems to me that with further collaboration, we can supply all the food for people living between Hilo and Honoka‘a, and probably even further.
It will be an interesting year. Best wishes to you and yours for a good 2009.
The farm recently received information about a Farm Conservation Plan grant. It’s a grant that is awarded by the Natural Resource Defense Council just every eight years, and Richard says it was completely unexpected when they were asked to apply.
“It’s rewarded based on past practices,” explains Richard. “They’re trying to reward people who’ve been doing it right, in terms of avoiding erosion and employing best environmental practices. This grant comes around every eight years, and it came out of the blue because the Hilo watershed had not participated in this program before.”
The farm also recently applied for financial assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program 2009, which falls under the federal Wildlife Habitat Management program. This program promotes agricultural production and environment quality as compatible goals. Some of the identified natural resource concerns are: at-risk species habitat, sedimentation and accelerated erosion and ground and surface water conservation.
“This grant is to bring the streams back,” says Richard, “to reforest them. Basically they want you to bring it back up to where it was. We have all these non-native plants, and we’re going to take them out and replant with the appropriate, native ones. We’re going to clean up the area and take it back to where it was originally.”
It’s an extensive project, and an exciting one.
Part of this process has been a “Cultural Resources Review,” which was done by the local Natural Resource Defense Council. It starts out with some interesting historical and cultural information we didn’t know:
The proposed project area is 579 acres within three ahupua‘a: Kaupakuea, Kahua and Makahanaloa (north to south) in South Hilo.
Richard is excited to know these details about the traditional land divisions, or ahupua‘a. Me, too. Here he’s been talking about creating The New Ahupua‘a, and we find we actually have some information about the old ahupua’a!
From the report:
Kaupakuea is the northernmost ahupua‘a. Its southern boundary is Makea Stream…It extends from the coast up to the above Kaupakuea Homesteads at about 1400/1500 foot elevation…. Evidence of previous plantation use of the area can be seen in the unpaved roadways, and a west-east flume in parcel 01. The project is also within what was once Grant 872.
Kaupakuea is the side of the farm that has all the greenhouses, the packing house and all the structures.
Kahua is a very narrow ahupua‘a, extending only between Makea Stream to the north to Alia Stream to the south, approximately 600 feet wide although it extends from the coast to about Makea Spring, which is at about the 980 foot elevation, upslope of the project area….
Kahua seems to be a natural place to plant assorted fruit trees. The sloping terrain lends itself to a cropping system that doesn’t require constant tractor cultivation.
Richard says this land between the two streams has always been his favorite part of the property. “How often do you get two streams so close together,” he says, “just naturally? There’s a big hill in between them. It’s not suitable for flat-land farming. It’s hard to figure out why it’s there. You just have a feeling that it’s special.”
Kahonu received 52.20 acres as LCA 5663 in the northern mauka half of Kahua in the project area….Kahonu was an ali‘i, a chief, a descendant through both the ‘I and Mahi lines, who was in charge of the Fort at Punchbowl ca. 1833-34 (Barrere 1994:139). After his death in 1851, Abner Paki, a relative, held the lands [in Kahua] “under a verbal will from Kahonu” (Barrere 1994:138). At Paki’s death in 1855, “these lands were now listed as Bishop Estate lands” (Barrere 1994:515). Abner Paki and Konia were the parents of Bernice Pauahi and hanai parents of [Queen Lydia] Liliuokalani (Barrere 1994:515).
Kahua and Kaupakuea were listed as government lands (Indices 1929:30, 32). Government lands were lands Kamehameha III gave “to the chiefs and people” (Chinen 1958:26). By surrendering a large portion of his reserved lands to the government, Kamehameha III disposed of the question of his payment of commutation to the government (Chinen 1958:27). “From time to time portions of the Government Lands were sold as a means of obtaining revenue to meet the increasing costs of the Government. Purchasers of these lands were issued documents called ‘Grants’ or ‘Royal Patent Grants…” (Chinen 1958:27).
Makahanaloa ahupua‘a extends from the coast all the way up to about the 6600 foot elevation, a distance of about 3.4 miles….7600 acres of Makahanaloa and Pepekeo (sic) ahupua‘a were awarded to William Charles Lunalilo as LCA 8559-B: 17 &b 18 in the Great Mahele of 1848….Within Makahanaloa was “an ancient leaping place for souls. A sacred bamboo grove called Homaika‘ohe was planted here by the god Kane; bamboo knives used for circumcision came from his grove” (Pukui et al 1981:139). Locations of these sites are unknown.
The review also provides some history of the sugar plantations in the area of what is now Hamakua Springs Country Farms.
1857 – Theophilus Metcalf started Metcalf Plantation.
1874 – Afong and Achuck purchased Metcalf Plantation and changed the name to Pepe‘ekeo Sugar Company.
1879 – Afong and Achuck acquired Makahaula Plantation, adding 7600 acres to the south.
1882 – These were combined as Pepe‘ekeo Sugar Mill & Plantation.
1889 – Afong returned to China and left the plantations in the hands of his friend Samuel M. Damon.
The overview continues with changes of hands as the plantation land passed through Hackfeld & Company, Alexander Young and, in 1904, C. Brewer and Co. It gives some history through the closing of what had become Mauna Kea Agribusiness Co. in 1994.
Richard says this newly acquired information about the ahupua‘a come down to it being a framework. “A couple years ago we started feeling we needed to get closer to the culture,” he says. “We ended up working with, for example, the TMT, Keaukaha School, and it became a real thing. We started calling it the ‘New Ahupua‘a,’ and it was kind of neat. We had this kind of flat land over here, and that kind of hilly land over there.
“But all of the sudden now there are names!” he says. “Everything’s starting to become clear. It’s kind of exciting. It’s a framework to work in. Now we’re going to take action.”
“It’s still all about feeding people, basically. That’s what we’re up to.”
Yesterday was the groundbreaking and dedication for Andrade Camp’s new water system.
It’s hard to believe that we started this project – to help transition our neighbors at Andrade Camp from a private, sugar plantation water system to a standard county water system – five years ago.
The 31 households in Andrade Camp, next to the farm, are made up of former sugar plantation employees. They have always paid a flat rate for their water usage, $8/month, and the sugar company took care of all maintenance on the water lines.
When C. Brewer sold all its sugar lands a few years back, the company told residents they’d have to take over the private water system and start paying the county for their water use. The company went down to just six workers doing all the maintenance on their lands, and by the end, there was only one executive on O‘ahu making all the money decisions.
Fortunately, on the ground, it was John Cross that was in charge. I’ve known John for 15 years and he is one of the good guys. He was the one who decided to put in individual meters at each house. He did everything he could to make sure the private water system was operational. Knowing what was happening at the company’s O‘ahu headquarters, I’m sure John did some pretty creative accounting to make sure everything was going to work out for Andrade Camp.
It was quite a process to transition this small neighborhood from that point to the county water system. We wanted to help, and formed the Andrade Camp Association. Roy Oka was elected president. Myself, Rick Ryken and Richard Matsunami were on the board of directors.
We asked for a meeting with Water Supply. Representative Dwight Takamine, John Cross, who represented the sugar company, Milton Pavao, the boss of the key Water Supply personnel and the Andrade Camp Association Board attended this important meeting.
After that meeting we recruited Roy Takemoto, from the County Planning Department and Attorney Alan Okamoto, who had experience with Hamakua Sugar and transition issues. Dayday Hopkins and Jane Horike also helped us organize ourselves.
Dwight Takamine was the driving force behind this project. There were several times that it looked like the project had died, but he would not give up. I’ll bet he called more than 15 meetings in order to keep the process moving. He is very good at getting the best out of people. He was able to keep everyone on the same page and working together.
He insists on sharing the credit with everyone. But all of us who were involved from the start know that it was Dwight who made it happen.
I’ve known him for as long as I’ve been farming in Pepe‘ekeo. He does this kind of collaborative process with all the groups on the Hamakua Coast. I respect and admire people who are doers, not talkers.
I am not a political person. But based on my observation over the past 15 years, I support Dwight one hundred percent in his run for the Senate.
Fast forward to yesterday, the groundbreaking and dedication ceremony for the new Andrade Camp water system.
Here is the press release about yesterday’s event:
Pepe‘ekeo Community Celebrates Successful Ground Breaking for Andrade Camp Water System
Pepe‘ekeo, Hawai‘i – June 10, 2008 – A gorgeous summer day unfolded for Pepe‘ekeo Community as they celebrated the ground breaking of the Andrade Camp Water System Improvements Project. A little fewer than 100 people gathered on Andrade Camp Road to hear their partners’ celebratory comments and witness the symbolic groundbreaking.
USDA Rural Development State Director Lorraine Shin commented this morning, “Our goal at USDA is to increase economic opportunity and improve the quality of life for people in rural America. Attainment of this goal is evident today with Andrade Camp and our partners from all levels of government and community.” The Andrade Camp Water System Improvement Project will successfully transition their private plantation era water system to a modern County water system.
Deputy Manager Quirino Antonio spoke on behalf of the Water Board, County of Hawaii– “This project demonstrates that together we can make a difference. Together we can map a better future for generations to come.”
The blessing was held on Andrade Camp Road in Pepe‘ekeo this morning. A lunch celebration followed at the Kula‘imano Community Center. Many partners spoke during the luncheon about the sincere efforts of all involved. Representative Dwight Takamine closed the celebration with, “This effort surrounding this small community was made possible because each and every partner held the best interest of Andrade Camp Residents at heart. Thank you all, sincerely.”
Construction begins June 12, 2008.
It’s always been interesting to me, and a little sad, that the rich history of Hawaiian words gets more and more diluted, overlooked, and even changed as time goes on and so many of us without an intimate knowledge of the language and culture inadvertently make errors.
Such as that which seems to have been made with the name of the place where the farm sits.
“Kaupakuea” is located in Pepe‘ekeo, north of Hilo, and a few years ago the county put up a street sign off Highway 19.
It read like this: “Kaupakue‘a Homestead Rd.”
We recently wrote about some of the history of Kaupakuea (without the ‘okina, or glottal stop), where the farm is located.
The name Kaupakuea is mentioned in an 1860 Hawaiian language newspaper, and the area even had its own Kaupakuea post office from 1858-1869.
Suzanne Romaine, writing in the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, says that the place name seems to be composed of two words: kaupaku (ridgepole, highest point) + ea (to rise).
Though there are different meanings for “ea,” this linguist for whom the Hawaiian language is an area of concentration says that “rising ridgepole” is most consistent with other recorded place names of that type, and also the morphology and semantics of the 4,000 place names analyzed by Pukui, Elbert and Mookini in their respected work “Place Names of Hawai‘i.”
The “rising ridgepole” translation also fits the topography of the ahupua‘a, the land division, whose high ridge culminates in Pu‘u Ka‘uku, a prominent feature of the landscape that is visible from afar.
“Since the greatest number of Hawaiian place names (21 percent) refer to geographical features, it is not unreasonable to suppose this is an appropriate etymology for Kaupakuea,” she writes.
The gravel road fronting the farm’s banana packing house, which joins Kaupakuea Homestead Road, sits exactly on the ridgeline. Part of the hydroponic houses sit on the Hamakua slope, and the other part sits on the Hilo-side slope.
Romaine finds nothing that allows the spelling “Kaupakue‘a” to make sense, and suggests it is a county misspelling on the sign.
She also details a long story wherein back in 1996, the president of the Kaupakuea Homestead Association learned an ‘okina had been inserted into the name’s spelling (Kaupaku‘ea), and tried to get it removed.
One person at the county assured that the ‘okina would be removed, and then the county council voted to keep it – and yet when the sign was printed, the ‘okina, still present, mysteriously moved to a different location. The street sign was printed with yet a third spelling (Kaupakue‘a).
It’s a long and involved story, and one that is undoubtedly still going on all around us as words evolve and morph.
All we can do is grasp onto the words that we do know, and their definition and cultural meanings, and pass them down to our keiki. Pronounce them correctly, teach the meanings we know, and let them live on.
