Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 39, Number 6, 1 June 2022 — Rallying Anahola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Rallying Anahola

Born out of tragedy, Kūkulu Kumuhana 0 Anahola is building community resilience with the support of three grants from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs By Ed Kalama

Hūumāna from Kanuikopono Public Chorter School receive ū "Certificote of Completion" for their porticipotion in the Resilient Leaders and Food Security program led by Kopule Torio. - Photos: Courtesy

Keiki ore building life skills by huilding roised gorden plonter boxes for their kūpuno. In the process they leorned how to use vorious carpentry tools includina skill saws.

Kūkulu Kumuhona o Anohola portnered with the Surfrider Foundotion, United Airlines ond Anoholo community members to remove over 5,600 tons of trosh from the Anoholo Beoch coostline.

"He kēhau ho'oma'ema'e ke aloha. Love is like eleansing dew." Love removes hurt. It was October of 2008 when the Hawaiian eommunity at Anahola on Kaua'i was shaken as they mourned the loss of three young Native Hawaiians who tragically took their own lives. Coming together to remember these opio, eoncerned residents formed Kūkulu Kumuhana O Anahola (KKOA), a community nonprofit with a mission to provide safe places to deter suicide by building life skills that strengthen Hawaiian cultural identity, empowering individuals to successfully manage their future. Three separate grants from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) are helping the organization to achieve its vision of a healthy and thriving Hawaiian community in Anahola that is active in traditional and modern eulture; utilizes new technologies to enhanee the old; and

establishes and manages its own food system to provide a healthy and sustainable way of living. A key pieee to KKOA's overall strategy has been the ongoing development of the Ulupono Anahola Agricultural Community and Youth Center. The 10-acre facility, located on Hawaiian Home Lands, will include kalo patches, fruit trees, a community garden, a storage and processing area, meeting rooms and more. A $75,000 OHA grant is currently being used to install a water irrigation system for the farm while another $100,000 grant has been awarded to KKOA for its "Hana Ka Lima" initiative whieh is providing programs and opportunities to the homestead community to establish thriving opio with well-developed skills and involve mākua and community leaders who are invested in nurturing 'Ōiwi leaders. A $10,000_OHA 'Ahahui grant sponsored the group's three-day "'Aina to 'Opū" community event held in December 2021 where cultural practioners provided educational demonstrations to help restore proficiency of kalo as a heritage plant and homestead food resource. KKOA Co-Founder and President Ku'uleialoha Punua and Executive Director Rae Makanani Nam have impressed OHA's Grants staffwith their dedication, passion and community spirit. "Ku'uleialoha and Rae have worked around the eloek SEE RALLYING ANAH0LA ON PAGE 5

Site map of the planned Ulupono Anoholo Agriculturol Community ond Youth Center. A $75,000 OHA gront is being used to instoll ū woter irrigotion system for the form while onother $100,000 OHA gront will be used to provide progroms for the community for skills troining.

to meet the needs of the Anahola community and to accomplish their dream of establishing an agricultural and youth training center in Anahola. Working with the women who run KKOA, visiting scholars have seen firsthand the small, daily tasks involved in their longer-term struggle to express their aloha aina through supporting the youth and families of Anahola, and via securing land for Hawaiian food sovereignty and prosperity," said OHA Grants Ofhcer Strather Ing.

RALLYING ANAHOLA Continued from page4

Nam joined KKOA as a board member in 2013 and stepped into the role of executive director in November 2020 to oversee the Ulupono Anahola project, whieh is expected to open in phases with the first phase comprised of student and community garden training beginning in November 2022. The entire project is planned for completion in three to five years, depending on funding. "With Ulupono Anahola, we'll be able to provide so mueh more that will impact the eommunity. This project will provide a certified kitchen for the community to use, community gardens for both 'ohana and youth, a youth center, a hale hālāwai, a nursery and a medicinal garden area. We still have an additional 20 acres we requested in our original right of entry, but for now we'll start with this 10-acre property," Nam said. Nam said she is very appreciative of being awarded the grants, with OHA just one of several organizations that support the work of KKOA. "The OHA grants will help our youth be resilient and realize their value and worth to their families and community, allow them to continue to perpetuate their culture, and provide a healthy and thriving food system in the eommunity that will help them to not be dependent

on imported foods," she said. "These grants will also provide a safe plaee for resources and gatherings that will strengthen these children individually and collectively. The grants will also open doors for eeonomie stability in the future and educate both our youth and 'ohana in growing their own foods. All of these opportunities are proven to deter suicide, whieh has been a eoneem on Kaua'i and specifically in the Anahola community for years." Nam said there's a bigger picture to what the OHA Grants Program is achieving. "What OHA is helping with is not just accomplishing KKOA's projects or goals for the Anahola community. Their grants are literally changing the landscape of the aina in the Anahola community, whieh is triggering a ehain reaction that isn't only affecting the aina, but it's affecting people and moving them to participate and not just be bystanders," she said. "The grants provide for workshops and programs that perpetuate our culture - like making their own papa ku'i'ai, planting or harvesting kalo, learning ffom cultural practitioners and our kūpuna and more - OHA's assistance is helping KKOA to trigger all the possibilities of drawing out the very best from this community." ■

"The OHA grants will help ouryouth be resilient and realize their value and worth to their families and community..." -RAE NAM

Keiki prepare harvested kalo for processing and huli for replanting.- Photos: Courtesy

Activities that strengthen Hawaiian cultural identity - like harvesting kalo and pounding poi - are a core part of Kūkūlu Kumuhana 0 Anahola's curriculum.