We did an amazing tour today of an ahupua’a on Kauai called “Waipa.” It means, essentially, a subdivision of Hawaiian land. They were basically watersheds, and one group of people—with one person in charge—were responsible for each of these districts that had its own water source. On an island, that essentially meant a valley, because all of the fresh water came from rainfall up on the top of the volcano, and then it ran down into the fanned-out, eroded valleys and then into the sea. So, the Hawaiians set up their villages around these watersheds so they had a fresh water source, and to make sure they didn’t fight amongst themselves over that precious resource, one person was in charge of that water from top to bottom.
This one was bought up by a foundation of indigenous citizens, and has had a couple decades now of work to try and restore the valley back to the way it was before white people came along and everything went to shit. They’re farming it right now using (mostly) traditional methods, including using the dam system that’s been in place along the river (little more than a creek, really) and the old/ancient canal system. It was SO COOL to see. Really impressive. And it felt really important, like: this is the important work here in this place, trying to recover what’s been lost. Trying to reverse the damage that’s been done over the past two hundred years or so, undo some of those sins.
It’s hard, long work. It’ll take decades more for the valley to come back to life. But its started, and it was an honor to be there and learn about it. I’m not sure, really, if their aim IS actually to restore the entire ahupua’a to, like, livable village status or not, but at the very least I gathered that their aim was to protect it, and to try and learn, fill in some of the gaps that have been lost about how their ancestors used to live in symbiosis with that land. It was powerful stuff. And we planted some kalo (Hawaiian taro plants).
Then…a nap while Liz went to the beach. Then…dinner and we watched Ronny Chieng’s standup special. Good times!
Tomorrow…our last day here 🙁