but ensured that that quasi-polit- worked very hard,” she acknowl- us, you swore at us.
us, you swore at us. I was humil-
ical organization would support
the Master Plan.
Machado’s clearly staked-out
position and her power as an
OHA trustee stirred up a history
of long-simmering grievances
and resentments between her
and many of her former war-
rior comrades, Ritte and Holt
among them, especially as the
island’s opposition to La’au Point
solidified.
By her own reckoning, Mach-
ado estimates that 70 to 80 per-
cent of the island’s residents have
come to oppose the Master Plan,
because of La’au Point. She cred-
its “Ritte dem” with leveraging
what they had available to them.
“The thing with Walter is he
gets free media coverage. That
helped them a lot.
“But still, the opposition
Kukakuka on the lanai
At the beachfront Mowat home-
stead just east of Kaunakakai at
Kapa‘akea, a group of veteran is-
land activists gathers just before
sunset under a big free-standing
lanai to talk story. They are all at
least 50-ish, and all allies in the
La’au Point fight. Wayde Lee is a
longtime youth counselor with
Alu Like; Mahealani Davis is a
social worker with the Queen
Lili‘uokalani Children’s Center
while husband Glen Davis is a
taro advocate who works the lo’i
in Hälawa Valley; Mervin Dudoit
is a retired fisherman and fishpond
educator with Ka Honua Mo-
mona International, a non-profit;
and Bridget Mowat, our host, has
worked in the state welfare office
for 20 years.
The Mowat homestead is
steeped in recent Moloka‘i history.
The earliest meetings of Hui Alaloa,
one of the first organizations in the
state to stand up and fight for tra-
ditional Hawaiian ways, were held
here in 1975 under the auspices of
Harry James Mowat, Bridget’s late
brother-in-law. A little bit later,
Moloka‘i organizers of the Protect
Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana regularly met
here.
Following are excerpts from the
conversation.
Bridget: People have got to
know that it was the Ranch man-
agers who messed up. We don’t
have to justify our actions. We just
brought out the facts. If they nuha,
they nuha with the whole island,
because the whole island was be-
hind us. We don’t need the Ranch
or it’s off-shore business-minded
managers. It was Moloka‘i that
was running that place all the time
anyway.
Mervin, in response: The akua
took care.
Bridget: I know we’re going to
survive this. Hawaiians take care. It
was the wrong people who came
here. They didn’t want to listen.
They wanted to bring in their
Westernized ways when Moloka‘i
is not that kind of island. You look
around, we are unique. Not every-
body can live on Moloka‘i.
Wayde: To me, this island is
beautiful because the people are
beautiful.
Mervin: We may be poor, but
we no get homeless.
edges. “You know, it was all the
old guys, my guys that I worked
with to stop the cruise ships
coming to Moloka’i, my guys
that I organized in the past.”
There is pride in her voice, and
bitterness.
“The difficulty for me is that
they treated us like we were the
military or something. It became
a very hostile environment.”
In the days following the news
of the ranch’s closure, Machado
says she received several phone
messages from R itte asking
for her help as he scrambles to
come up with a new plan for the
island.
“Now,” she says ruefully,
“Walter wants me to sit at the
table. I say, Walter, I cannot turn
my cheek now. You folks were
rude to my trustees, you booed
Signs everywhere gave voice to the island’s visceral opposition
to plans for a 5-mile ribbon of luxury waterfront homes at La‘au
Point.
Glen: People from off-island,
we really blow their minds when
we go on the reef and catch a fish
or go up to the mountains and get
guavas.
Mahealani: There are people
who say give tax breaks to the rich,
and all that money starts coming
into the economy, and pretty soon
everybody’s lifestyle is better, but
the life everybody here enjoys isn’t
connected to money.
Mervin: Us guys, we happy with
what we have. We survive with what
we have. If we have no more money,
eh, we no more money. That’s the
people of Moloka‘i.
Mahealani: You know, some
people come here and think, oh,
Moloka‘i’s so cute, it’s like the old
Hawaiian days, like back in kahuna
days, whatever, but no, it’s right
now, it’s real. I don’t always remem-
ber that until something happens,
or just in a real quiet moment, you
hear the voices that tell you what
to do, which way to go. I think
Hawai‘i is like that, but it’s so noisy
most of the time you don’t hear it
too often. If nothing else, I’d like
Moloka‘i to stay open and quiet
so that people can come here and
hear it for themselves. So they re-
member they’re spiritual people
as well as economic widgets in the
factory out there.
Mervin: That’s what this island
is for, to heal people. It’s the healing
place. Everybody’s gonna focus on
this island—the fishponds, the taro
… they can learn from this island.
Bridget: I have great respect for
Walter [Ritte], because he doesn’t
falter. To me, he’s been on a straight
path, always on the up-and-up and
straight.
iated the whole time.
“And Karen Holt, when I
look at the past, we were like
this, we were best friends! …
In fact, she once offered me an
olive branch, but the lines were
already drawn.”
I ask Machado, whose blood-
lines go deep into Halawa Valley
on the East End and deep into
Maui history with her Kahekili
genealogy, how she would de-
scribe the people of Moloka’i.
“Resilient,” she says simply,
“resilience.
“I’m so proud of how they
articulated some of their strong
positions, unlike any other is-
land over the last 25 to 30 years.
They know to be vocal, do the
homework, work hard, no back
down.” n
Photo by Leo De Azambuja
Mahealani: Walter’s sound bites
are always right on the money, so
I appreciate that he’s in there. He’s
a natural politician if there is such
a thing. If he hadn’t taken on La‘au
Point — I can’t think of anybody
else who could have organized the
community the way he did. But it’s
sometimes hard to talk to him when
he’s made up his mind about some-
thing. He’s a catalyst, he knows how
to motivate crowds, how to put
just the right edge on things. Real
effective.
Mervin: If not for him, I wouldn’t
know a lot of things that were hap-
pening. You gotta talk story with
him. I ask him things.
[Talk turns to future of the
island.]
Glen: I believe that the 30-year-
olds gotta be the backbone of the
future.
Mahealani in response: Yeah,
they’re thoughtful, they’re edu-
cated, they’re asking the right
questions. Todd and Matt, Kauila
and Kahua, Kainoa, Hano and
‘Ua … Our generation was always
fighting, grabbing at grant monies,
scooping it up.
Wayde: To get to the next level,
we bring all our practitioners to-
gether and start talking. They’re
the ones who can pa’a the culture.
All we gotta do is put all the piec-
es together and take care of our
place. My grandmother once told
me that the most powerful thing
in America was the military, and if
the Hawaiians can beat the US mili-
tary at Kaho‘olawe without firing a
single shot, then everyone can go
home and take care of their place.
George Helm said it best—‘Aloha
‘Aina.’” —C.S.
www.honoluluweekly.com n April 9-15, 2008 n Honolulu Weekly