Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 5, 1 May 1997 — Hoʻi Ka Wai exhibit at OHA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hoʻi Ka Wai exhibit at OHA

Photographers Anne Kapulani Landgraf and Mark Hamasaki, well-known for their compelling documentation of loeal issues and conflicts, spent over a year chronicling the valuable Waiāhole water resources within the ahupua a, as well as the close relationship of the community. "Waiāhole: HoM Ka Wai," their collaborative photo essay, will be on exhibit at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) through May 30. Eight miles north of Kāne'ohe, along the

I' Kamehameha Highway, lies the I ahupua a of Waiāhole. At one time, this valley was a productive community wholly subsistent on kalo farming and fishing. But, in 1913, the valley's g lifeblood — milhons of gallons of fresh I water — was diverted through the 1 Ko'olau Mountains and into the sugar8 eane fields of the Leeward plains. With if also went the traditional and customary 1 practices of the people who called the I ahupua a their home. Today, with the demise of sugar and 1 pineapple, Waiāhole is at the center of a I controversial case before the Commissiori I on Water Resource Management whieh 1 raises questions as to who will get the ; water. Leeward landowners want more I water from the Waiāhole Ditch to flow to I Central and Leeward CXahu. Windward I communities want the water returned to the Windward streams from whieh it was 1 taken. "For Hawai'i's people," explain the artists, "water is not a commodity to be controlled by private landowners and profit-minded companies. The issue is I not about lawyers and hired public relations firms, not about windward vs. Lee-

ward, not about farmer vs. farmer. The issue is protecting the natural resources of HawaLi. It's about how we want this island to look like in the future and how this land will bt nurtured by the people. It is about how the land will continue to feed Hawai'i's people the traditional, life-sustaining food of the sea and land. The outcome of this case will affect us all, both non-indigenous as well as indigenous members of our community."

photo by Anne Landgraf