Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 6, 1 June 2013 — PRESERVING PALAUEA [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PRESERVING PALAUEA

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From the road, the Palauea Cultural Preserve looks like an old a'ā field encircled by dead brush and kiawe trees. Walk 23 yards over the rough terrain into the preserve and you suddenly become very aware that you are standing on the remnants of an ancient village. The heiau and house sites are so intact that you ean still feel the mana of the thriving community that occupied this wahi pana so long ago.

In stark contrast to the preserve are the palatialsized homes surrounding them, eaeh with lush, wellmanicured landscaping,

Palauea Ahupua'a is located on the west coast of Maui, WM in the traditional moku of Honua'ula, now Makawao District, between Klhei and Mākena, and extends upward from the coast to Pu'u Mākua, on the south slopes of Haleakalā. The Palauea Cultural Preserve is only a small

portion of the ahupua'a, beginning on the inland side of Mākena-Keone'ōi'o Road and continuing mauka to Mākena-Alanui Road. The preserve is literally in the middle of the ! multimillion-dollar-home lots that border it on both the north and south sides, although a smaller, noncontiguous section of the preserve continues on the north side of the i . ;,r housing development. ■ .. The island of Kaho'olawe, also a tradi- , honal ahupua'a within Honua'ula Moku, is '' ." i, directly across the 'Alalākeiki Channel from . ' ■ ^ Palauea, whieh is the closest point between ; MauiandKaho'olawe. Themostsignificant :<■ event at Palauea Beach in recent history was f-. on May 7, 1994, when hundreds of Hawai- . ians eame from throughout the Islands to

selling for prices that begin at $3 million. "When all the homes in this gated community are built, Palauea Cultural Preserve will be the only open space left. Thanks to the efforts of OHA Maui Trustee Carmen Hulu Lindsey, the Offi.ce of Hawaiian Affalrs recently finalized an agreement with the land developer to accept a donation of the Palauea Cultural Preserve. This assures that it will not only remain in preserva-

tion, but in partnership with the University of Hawai'i Maui College, will become a living classroom.

witness the return of Kaho'olawe from the U.S. Navy to the State of Hawai'i, to be held in trust for the future sovereign Hawaiian nation. Many studies of the archaeological, historical and biological resources have been conducted

over the past 40 years in Honua'ula as a requirement for golf course, resort and home construction. Most studies concluded that these lands were densely populated and farmed, while the shoreline lands were primarily fishing communities. During the 20th century, prior to resort development, the lands were used for ranching and subsistence living. SURVIVING DEVELOPM.ENT The first inventory of the archaeological resources at Palauea was done in 1969, as part of the survey for the proposed Wailea Resort development. Although many sites were identified, the Palauea Heiau Complex was one of the few designated as an L^'

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Treat the site respectfully, a sign implores. - OHA photo

From the mauka edge of Palauea Cultural Preserve, one ean look out to Molokini and Kaho'olawe islands in the distance. - Photo: Shane Tegarden Photography

archaeological preserve because of the significance and concentration of sites. Subsequent digs in the Palauea Ahupua'a revealed even more sites, including radiocarbon dating ranging from settlements as early as 370 B.C. through 1480 to 1890, when it appears that settlements heeame more permanent, yet none were as significant as the heiau eom-

plex. Since 1970, Wailea and Seibu/Mākena resort owners, who owned mueh of the land on whieh the sites were identified, have subdivided their properties and sold them to private developers and individuals. This has inhibited community efforts to preserve historic and cultural properties, as preservation relies primarily on landowner consent. As a result, many ko'a (fishing shrines) and family shrines

have been bulldozed along with other remains of previous settlements. In 1998, the Klhei-Mākena Community Plan established the Palauea Cultural Preserve around the heiau and created protocols requiring that the complex be preserved as a historic park. In 1999, the Dowling Co. was preparing to seek county approval to change the zoning from hotel to agricultural/ residential lots on 44 acres of land that included the archaeological preserve. In exchange for setting aside a portion of its land to establish the Palauea Cultural Preserve, Dowling's development plans were approved for construction of an 18-lot subdivision that would include 17 single-family residences and the 20.75 acre preserve, designated as Lot 18. While Dowling's creation of the cultural preserve may have been a necessary trade-off in order to receive the zoning change, Kaiwi Nui, OHA's Land and Property manager, describes the creation of an ongoing fund to support the reserve as "unique." Whenever any of the 17 lots are sold or resold, 0.5 percent of the sale price is donated to the Palauea Cultural Preserve fund. To date, more than $230,000 has aeeu-

mulated in the fund, whieh has been transferred to OHA and will be used for management of the preserve. Nui believes that the fund's creation - even though it was required of the developer - is indicative of changing times, and that developers have heeome more

sensitive to the need to protect wahi pana. As Trustee Hulu Lindsey notes proudly: "This is the first property on Maui and the first cultural preserve that OHA has acquired, and it fits perfectly with our mission of acquiring heritage properties. It is also one of the last open spaces in Mākena, and we have an opportunity here to protect the environmental resources and native plants that onee were abundant in that area. What is most exciting, though, is how we will be able to use the land, how it will heeome part of a living culture."

LIVING CLASSROOM.

Dowling has maintained stewardship over the preserve since it was created and has intermittently allowed access to it, mostly to UH Maui College students. Archaeology students have been allowed field courses on the preserve to continue to map the features of the sites and conduct subsurface testing. Hawaiian Studies students have used the preserve to practice Hawaiian culture. One of OHA's first challenges will be to create a management plan, whieh will include consultation not only with its partner, the UH Maui College, but the community as well, including the residents of the nearby multimillion-dollar homes. As the only accessible open land remaining in the area, Palauea Cultural Preserve presents a rare opportunity to bring Hawaiians onto land that still has so mueh evidence of its history. As the value of the resort lands increased over the past four decades and were subdivided and sold and resold, Hawaiian families who had lived in Honua'ula Moku were increasingly displaced, and now very few families remain. Palauea Beach, onee a popular weekend spot

for loeal Hawaiians to eamp and fish, is now mostly private property, with only a small area of county heaeh remaining open to the puhlie. Kl'ope Raymond, chair of the Humanities Department at UH Maui College and associate professor of Hawaiian Studies, speaks for the Hawaiian Studies Department when he says: "As a living culture, our vision for the preserve is to make new stories, to be the piko for future stories. The preserve is one of the few places Hawaiians

ean go in that area that isn't resort property or privately owned. In fact, part of the classroom use we envision on the preserve includes studying the visual impact of the multimilliondollar homes surrounding the area."

GIFT TO THE COM.M.UNITY

Maui is an island rich with history and famous chiefs, yet today it is best known around the world for its resorts, celebrity homeowners and oeean resources that have attracted an intemational community of surfers, windsurfers and bicyclists. Amid the development on Maui's west side, however, Palauea stands as a testament to the area's history, giving voice to an ancient community whose remnants continue to teach and shape a modern-day understanding of what eame before. Moreover, such studies as Project Ka'eo: Tlie Challenge to Preserve Cultural Landscapes in Moāem Māikena and He Mo 'olelo 'Āina no Ka 'eo ... : Oral History Interviews With Kama'āina ofthe Honua'ula Region, and even the published findings of an archaeology field course at Palauea Cultural Preserve in 2003 have helped to safeguard the history of this part of the island. Most significant, though, is the actual preservation of the land, and OHA's acquisition of Palauea Cultural Preserve is a gift to the eommunity that not only will help to protect the past, it will be significant in leading Hawaiians into the future. ■

Lwiine Waūana McGregor is a writer, fihnmaker and author o/Between The Deep Blue Sea and Me.

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The native wiliwili tree, lop, and the native night-blooming maiapilo, middle, ean be found at Palauea. Increasingly, axis deer, an introduced species, are also present in the area. - Photos: Shane Tegarden Photography

Attop, OHA CE0 Kamana'opono Crabbe, left, attorney William Yuen, Everett Dowling, presidentof Dowling Co. ine., OHA Maui Trustee Hulu Lindsey, University of Hawai'i-Maui College Chancellor Clyde Sakamoto and OHA Chairperson Colette Machado gather for a photo after a donation agreementfor Palauea was signed in 201 2. - Photos: iehua ltokazu