Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 22, Number 10, 1 October 2005 — ʻŌiwi a nature hawaiian journal [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻŌiwi a nature hawaiian journal

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HA'AWINA By Mehana Blaich I teach my students (doesn't every teacher?) to elean up after themselves, even standing at the door at the end of the period making sure no one sneaks out until the classroom is cleaner than when they eame in. Just like aunties, as mueh as they like to feed you, don't serve you seconds until you've finished the firsts, and mothers don't let you get out a new toy until you've put away the old ones. And some of my students, especially those without mothers and aunties, are surprised at first that this smiling new teacher, young, is serious about picking every last staple out of the carpet and scrubbing every stubborn pen track, however faint, from the white board. But I am and they learn quickly so soon, when we go on a field trip and pienie at Waterfront Park, no one has to tell them to throw away all their 'ōpala, to chase down the ehip bag snatched by the wind before it reaches the waves, or even to piek up the trash that was here before we eame before we leave. So how eome the U.S. military ean leave Kaho'olawe taking their money and their elean-up crews, their bomb detectors and explosive detonation teams, their helicopters and air conditioned barracks, when the island is still littered with ordnance? Unexploded shells wait on the reef, lurk in the depths and strafed soil, decades from top.

barren of sheltering roots, pours off the island with every rain, encircling it with a lei of blood. And how ean they ask, while Mākua is bombed, our parent rocked with shuddering explosions that spark raging fires, while Polihale, the bosom of home, is pierced again and again bySTARWARSlaunches, missile casings that simply fall into the sea, path of the whales, while Lualualei, Līhu'e, Wahiawā, Mōkapu, Pu'uloa, Kalaeloa, Ha'ikū wait, pockmarked with metal of war, ooze, seeping chemicals into our water, hum, droning with electromagnetic communications waves and radioactive soils? How ean they askno takemore 'āina, start bombing again ancient lo'i terraces of Waikāne, radiate further from Pōhakuloa, fill the space between watchful volcanoes, tanks crushing lava mamane leaves quivering stirred up dust Palila home Stryker Brigade National Security Whose Homeland? Twenty-ton Vehicles LInleashed smashing trees and roots burrows and webs nests and homes scattering pōhaku spreading seeds pounding dirt as Anakala Eddie Ka'anana tills, softens soil, breathing it with air, turning Pālolo's clay.

adding sweet dry grass, soft sand, mulching, kneading, walking backwards, stepping tiptoe, careful not to tread over this bed ^»^1 onee palu, no footprints. I I He shows the students how to plant, I I two gentle hands Hj?^H scoop a puka, M|Hp| E nānā aku, fcb make sure you watch, see how he holds I I the stalk, cut it elean, Hf, careful not to bend, S see, there, that is where it grows from, ^ S 1 eup it lightly, maika'i, now two hands, plaeeil just so deep, r softly mounding the soil, planning your exit, never step over the kalo, ^ A disrespectful, keep it soft, stepping gentle, careful, not full weight, ^7, easy, easy "y mālie, between the rows _ /■ of your kūpuna. Kākau 'ia me ke aloha a me ka mahalo no 'Anakala Eeklie Ka 'anana. S

PĀHEONĀ • ĪHE ARTS —

Mehūnū Bloich and Kupuna Eddie Ka'anana share 'iō H ū moment. Photo courtesy of Mehana Piakh l2