Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 1, 1 January 2022 — SPEAKING OUT TO PROTECT OUR WAI [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

SPEAKING OUT TO PROTECT OUR WAI

Numerous organizations and community members have organized to put their collective mana into speaking out against the Navy s handling of the leaking fuel tanks at Red Hill

"Today is about wai, it's about water. Today is aboutjustice, about truth and the courage to speak out. We have a kuleana, a duty, to ensure the lives that eome after us - the babies and the keiki that we bring into our world - will have the fresh, elean, and life givi ng waters of our islands." " Wil I we allow the precious life givi ng waters of Kāne to be violated because of the Navy's inaction? The answer is no, 'a'ole."

"One of the greatest challenges and greatest strengths of this fght is that it is a collective one. We are counting on eaeh other to remember that we are a part of a greater whole. We will stand with military families who have been affected. What happened to you is wrong and you deserve answers. We hope that you will stand with us, even after you are transferred to your next deployment, away from the contamination. That you will remember that we are sti 1 1 here, and we will be dealing with this issue for generations. This issue transcends politics, ethnicity, nationality, military, civilian, even species status. We are in this together to fight for our water, for life. Ola i ka wai!"

ō(cuChcuujaL PROTECT OUR WATER

"For those that think the fuel tanks are important for national security, to me it's important to think about when those tanks were built. They were built in the middle of a world war in the 1940s. Anel I don't think the Navy needs 250 million gallons ofjet fuel during this time, this political situation. There's no world war going on right now. Why do they need 250 million gallons ofjet fuel? They need to reduce and demilitarize our land and engage in behavior that's responsible and treat it as if everyone lives downstream. We are the people downstream, while these Navy commanders process out of Hawai'i, we are sti 1 1 going to be here. The fuel tanks cannot take priority over human safety and human lives. We a 1 1 need water, you can't drinkjet fuel."

"I believe there is so mueh good our lāhui ean do for the good of humanity. But we cannot only auamo that kuleana if we are still here to share our 'ike, tell our mo'olelo, and aloha our 'āina. There is no greater threat to the survival of our lāhui than the health of our 'āina, wai, and kānaka. The protection of our precious wai is the kuleana of a 1 1 kānaka (and all people who live in Hawai'i). Let us fght to protect our wai like our lives depend on it. Because they do. Because to fail, is to weleome the fu 1 1 and unquestionable demise of our Lāhui Kānaka. And our people have survived far too mueh to give up now."

"Nothing is more important to the wellbeing ofourislandsand the life it supports than wai, precious water. Wai is a kino lau (body form) of our gods Kāne and Kanaloa. When we think of land and water as the bodies of our gods who nurture life, we care for those bodies. When we see land and water as commodities for human benefit, we exploit them. We are here to protect Kāne and Kanaloa."

"The Native Hawanan community had no part in allowingthe Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility to be buried 100 feet above our island's groundwater supply. This is not a problem created by Native Hawanans nor should they have to shoulder the burden of cleaning the messes of those who see our aina, our wai as expendable. Nonetheless, Native Hawanans have been fighting to protect this water, this source of life for years, for decades. "With the Ka ohewai Coalition now rising I ean feel that the tide is turning. Every other group, every person that understands how important this water is to our island and our ways of life must now do the same. Only together will we be able to protect our island's water supply from the threat of this decrepit 80-year-old Red Hill facility, onee and for all. The Navy needs to understand that we, a 1 1 of us who eall this island home, are not expendable. Our life-giving water is not expendable. And anything other than the immediate removal of the poison [stored at] Kapūkakī that threatens our island's groundwater supply is unacceptable."