My tutu was here in 1853.  I have lived in Ka`ū my whole life.  I still have my kuleana here; the tourists have tried to buy it many times, but it is not for sale – money is not everything.  It disappears fast. 

 

I am one of the few left here.  I went to school in Na`alehu.  We built our house in 1946; the tidal wave threw the house in the back; we rebuilt in 1954 and it happened again in 1975.  It changed the road, too.  The ocean is very powerful.

 

This is the only accessible beach in Ka`ū.  It is safer than other places, because of the reef, so you won’t be pulled out, except in the channel.  I wish they would take care, but they don’t do it.  People take sand, they sell the sand and `ili`ili, the pebbles.  DLNR lets them do it.  People should have more respect; it only makes sense.

 

This is the hawksbill nesting ground.  The green sea turtle comes here too.  See them lying out there?  This is our turtle beach.

 

For years we have had kūkulu kumuhana students come and camp in the yard., too.

 

I’ve been with Hui Mālama (Ola Nā `Ōiwi) from the beginning, and I am still with them now, one of the Board members.  They are honoring me on the 28th of October.  I used to bring them all down here; we would study and cook our foods.  Hui Mālama is still doing that, teach the people about the foods of our different areas.  I taught Hawaiian Studies through the kupuna program too.

 

I have lived a long time, and I survived cancer.  I am still living the lifestyle I grew up with here in Ka`ū.

 

Eat the right thing, the proper thing, and people can live longer.  I am 88 years old.  I have lived in this area my whole life.  My dad was a fisherman, and we lived on fish.  I still live that way.

 

I think that fish is good for us; it does not have the fats that pork and other meats have.  We eat limu; we eat everything from the ocean.  I gather all the `opihi I can.  Shellfish, crab, I go all the way down that side and this side so I can gather enough while still taking care.  We ate turtle too.  All those things are edible to us Hawaiians.

 

I like the lū`au leaf, something green like that.  I make kūlolo, haupia with the coconuts.  Always make the Hawaiian foods.  Our people should learn to live on that kind of diet. 

 

I think we have the best diet.  It is better than going to McDonalds and buying all that rich food. I don’t think that’s good for them ; that is how they come too momona.  The generation now is hard, they would rather have the modern, the easy way of living, just go to drive in and pick up hot dogs and hamburgers and live on that, but our people should learn. 

 

We lāwalu and pūlehu rather than fry, because we did not have oil all the time before.  We dried the meats, because we didn’t have refrigeration, and mixed it with cabbage and other vegetables.  We were raised like that.  Lantern, kerosene stove.  We used hō`io from the mountain, mixed that with salt salmon.  You live longer if you have good diet, without spending money. 

 

The modern way makes it harder.  You feel sorry for the animals, the cattle.  Too bad!

 

If you are in the country, you have more strength, because you have to work for everything.  In the city, you go to work, you come home and relax.  In the country, you have to mahi`ai, clean the yard, raise cattle, ride horses, do your laundry in the sun – we are always busy working.  Country lifestyle –the hard way.  That is how we were brought up, and that is how I have raised my kids – fishing, mahi`ai – so they are different from the city people, who don’t know what to do in the country; they’re not used to it.  Us, we’re ma`a, we do anything.  It makes us strong.

 

There’s a trail over there – before, we would ride horses up there to mahi`ai, raise our taro.  We would ride up early in the morning, take our lunch with us, come back when pau.  That’s our lifestyle.  Now everything is changing.  Nobody lives up there; it’s all plantation.  Our history, of our Hawaiian people, is changed.  Now they all at Hawaiian Homelands, easy to live right in the town.  I tried to get Hawaiian Homes too, but it’s so hard; they never gave me any.  But I still have my home here, and I love my home. 

 

Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea – the biggest mountains that we have – and all these mountains out here all get names too.  The one way in the back over there is Ka`iholena.  In between you get Pākua, and the one in the front is Makanau, the eye.  So you have the head, the body, and the tail.   And this is Pu`u `Enuhe, Caterpillar Hill, home of Kumuhea.  People lived all the way back on Pu`uike and Pu`uoni.  But the plantation did a lot of damage, cut the mountain all the way from Pāhala to Na`alehu.  Nice highway. All paved so people can go easily through that whole area, the whole plantation.  With all these things, and now they are putting, those metal things up on Mauna Kea – I cannot see that.  It is so hewa.  I hope nothing happens, but it will if they keep destroying. 

 

I do not support development of Mauna Kea.  Those things affect our health.  They make dust, pollution, and they affect our spirit.  As a kupuna from Ka`ū, I do not want them to destroy our beautiful Mauna Kea that is the home of Poli`ahu and Lilinoe.  They should keep it that way – the beautiful snow mountain that we have in Hawai`i.  The biggest mountain.  The State should protect and mālama that mountain, because anything could happen.  They have already destroyed so much – maha`oi.  My husband worked up there once, but he did not last long because he was so sad.  If they keep on doing the wrong thing, Tutu Pele get rid of them.  She will eat them up.  Once she starts moving her body, shaking her ground, that thing going all collapse.  She is still active.  This metal thing, this is not for us in Hawai`i.  We love our `āina, and we appreciate what our ancestors left for us.  All have purpose.  They have meaning – all the mountains that we have. They are important.

 

The younger generation, many of them can only think money, money, money.  They don’t think what we need to preserve. You know, all those things don’t last long.  Our kūpuna never would agree with that.  A big change – that is not good for us, not good for our health.  Something could happen, if they keep on destroying what we have left, what our ancestors left for us.  They had good things to leave for us. I support all the `ohana that is trying to protect those things.  I am glad for all those who are trying to save what we have.

 

I love my Hawaiian people. I aloha them.  When they ask me things, I always try to advise them.  Some change their ways, and some want to go different way.  Not all, but some.  They will have problems if they do that.  Look at Japan, China suffering. I tell them, always keep in mind that your kupuna left this island here for us.  Not for anybody to destroy.  My mana`o is to save Mauna Kea, all those places.  I love our Hawaiian islands.  I was named after Pele, so I want to take care. 

 

I love the land.  Mama didn’t want to sell, because Tūtū left this for us.  When she left, she said the same thing.  “Mālama ka `āina, a ka `āina e mālama iā `oe.”   Take care of the land, and the land will take care of you.  It is true.  This is the way I live.