Fire may have destroyed thousands of buildings and homes in Lahaina, but it did not destroy its sense of community.
That was the resounding message Saturday as the streets of Lahaina filled with thousands of people committed to finding common ground among the pieces of their town.
Roughly 1,500 people registered for the Hoʻulu Lahaina Unity Gathering and at least as many showed up, joining hands and hoisting flags of the nations represented in the Lahaina community’s makeup for what was the largest assembly of Lahaina residents and their supporters since the Aug. 8 fire.
Participants who walked a 4.5-mile course from the Lahaina Bypass Road to Launiupoko Beach Park predominately wore red shirts, a color that has emerged as a sign of solidarity and support for the people of Lahaina. Some carried handmade signs: “Keep Lahaina lands in Lahaina hands,” and “Every day a local family moves away.”
With thousands of displaced residents still living in hotel rooms more than five months after the deadly Lahaina blaze, those who showed up to march on the outskirts of the town’s off-limits burn zone described finding unity in a single thing: An immeasurable love for Lahaina and its deeply rooted people.
Archie Kalepa, a renowned Hawaiian waterman and community leader who founded the nonprofit Lele Aloha that organized Saturday’s event, said the people of Lahaina have to band together if they’re going to rebuild all that’s been lost. And so the gathering set out to draw together Lahaina’s disparate cultural groups for an occasion that reflects the power of the community’s combined voices.
“This community is going to have to make some very difficult decisions,” Kalepa said. “The main thing we want to do as a nonprofit is keep the community together.”
Some people, including Gov. Josh Green and well-known activists, flew in for the event from across the state. But the event also brought together Lahaina residents who’ve rarely gathered in one place since the fire dispersed thousands of them in makeshift housing situations across the island. Many fire survivors turned up while dealing with loss, uncertainty and grief.
“What happened to Lahaina is tragic, but look — everybody’s here, showing up to support,” said Colbert Kaimiola, a landscaper from the Big Island.
Walter Ritte, a longtime anti-development activist, traveled from Molokai to participate in the unity event.
“I’m hoping to find out what the future of this place is going to be,” Ritte said. “Hopefully that is going to be a lot of Hawaiian leadership so we don’t keep making the same mistakes.”
Along the walking route, and afterward at the beach park, there were colorful cultural performances — Japanese taiko drummers, ukulele players and Samoan dancers. Hawaiian cultural practitioners sprinkled water onto the crowd, a traditional healing practice. There were dancers in traditional Chinese dragon costumes who traipsed boisterously down Honoapiilani Highway, accepting dollar donations from marchers who dropped their offerings into the dragons’ mouths.
A helicopter dropped flower petals over the crowd at the gateway to Launiupoko, where Hokulea, the famous Hawaiian voyaging canoe and its sister vessel Hikianalia were moored offshore. The vessels were also joined by Maui’s double-hulled sailing canoe Mo’okiha o Pi’ilani and Hawaii island’s canoe Makali’i.
Nainoa Thompson of the Polynesian Voyaging Society gave a 45-minute speech, driving home the idea that the community will have countless disagreements about how to move forward, and yet they must not let differences of opinion drive them apart.
“Unity is not easy,” Thompson said. “How do you bring unity around that kind of future that seems to be gone?”
“From the outside looking in, this is the greatest, (most) difficult challenge there is in Hawaii, maybe in its history, ever,” he added. “And yet it’s the greatest opportunity to help change the world because you’re here today.”
Lele Aloha’s mission is to honor Hawaii’s genealogy and protect its water, land and cultural resources — starting with Lahaina, which was once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Kalepa has said that aiding Lahaina’s recovery will be the nonprofit’s proving grounds.
The unity gathering was the organization’s inaugural event.
The event was not without conflict. The leaders of Lahaina Strong, a community group focused on helping displaced families recover from the Lahaina fire, chose not to participate in the unity event because Gov. Josh Green, who wore an ornate lei given to him by members of Lahaina’s Tongan community, had been invited. The group has been critical of state government efforts to rehouse fire victims.
The governor said at the event that there will soon be an announcement about new strategies to get people to rent long-term housing units to displaced local families.
Earlier this month nonprofit and government officials announced a $500 million investment in long-term housing solutions for some 3,000 displaced households by March 1. The program promises to house people who’ve been forced to live in hotel rooms in proper homes for a period of 18 to 24 months.
Kaipo Kekona, a farmer from Lahaina, took to the microphone after a Tongan dance performance to ask members of the Lahaina community to respect one another, reminding them that families are still grieving loved ones or searching for a place to live.
And he cautioned patience with the rebuilding process, saying he wants to “create a wedge in between our community and the pressure that is pushing upon us to make decisions when we are not in a stable condition to make those decisions.”
“I’m not here to talk about our hopes and dreams because that can come when we can actually sleep comfortably,” Kekona said.
For Shaina Forsyth, it’s difficult to dream about Lahaina’s future when most of her cognitive bandwidth is consumed with worry over housing insecurity.
The 38-year-old hospitality worker won a housing lottery that enabled her to purchase a subsidized home on Lahaina’s Komo Mai Street in 2017. That home burned to the ground on Aug. 8. She spent the rest of that month living in the hotel that cuts her paycheck.
Then she took over a friend’s lease on a two-bedroom condo in Napili. The $4,000 rent is nearly double her mortgage.
She’s making ends meet only with the help of insurance payments. She frets about what she’ll do when those insurance checks stop coming in.
“I just want to rebuild my home, first and foremost,” said Forsyth, who was born and raised in Lahaina. “It’s hard to think about anything else.”
Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by grants from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.
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