Date: February 10th, 2022

Location: Lehia Grassy Field

Keaukaha, HI

Interviewer: Haʻawina Wise

Interviewee: ‘Aina Ioane

Summary:

In an interview with ‘Ainaaloha Ioane, she explains that her father’s non-profit, the Kelii William Ioane Legacy Foundation, holds the M.O.U. agreements with County and Parks for Lehia Park, which gives the non-profit the kuleana of caretaking the space of Lehia for community events, specifically for Makahiki and for educational purposes. The makahiki ceremony has been held at Lehia Park for two years and will be the future site for the Makahiki festivities. In preparation for the Makahiki ceremony, the foundation will hold monthly workshops at Lehia to prepare community members to participate in Lonoikamakahiki ceremonies. Ainaaloha continues to explain that another program that the foundation is working on is how to orient the community to proper usage of the ahu at Lehia and how to train the community to approach the ahu and properly communicate with their spaces. She also explains that another project the foundation is working on with the community is using the massive Hau grove at Lehia. The foundation will be holding workshops on how to harvest and prepare hau cordage and the different ways to use hau, either at home or in arts and crafts or to reconnect to traditional practices. 

Ainaaloha Ioane:

Three years ago…um…. The community brought Makahiki year to the grassy fields of Lehia to utilize the open space. It used to be at Puhi Bay, Kula Pae…ahhh…. But at that time the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands added ahh… regulations and stipulations to usage of their community spaces so…. We reached out to County and County offered ahh… the space at Lehia ahhh for…. Our community event Makahiki and then two years ago ahh… our family started a non-profit for our father ahh… tittle Kelii William Ioane Legacy Foundation and the foundation signed its MOU agreement with County and Parks this year, and so that gives us the responsibility of caretaking the space of Lehia ahh…. To use for community events specifically for Makahiki and for educational purposes, and so last year was our second year of holding Makahiki here at Lehia. Ahh we rededicated the ahu, Uncle Hana Vititua rebuilt it and so we had our first ceremony with the ahu in November of twentytwentyone ummm… and so we are going to be working ahhh….with the community from here on out with ahh utilizing this space.

(1:24)

One of dee, the programs that the foundation is working on is how to orient the community ahh   To proper usage of the ahu, so how do we train our community in approaching the ahu and how do we train our community in properly communicating with their spaces. Ahh another project that we are working on with our community is the use of this massive Hau grove you see behind me and so its a large hau grove. Ahh and so the community will be holding workshops of how to harvest and prepare hau cordage and then how to work or show the community different ways to use hau, either at home or in arts and craft or to just reconnect to traditional practices.

(2:16)

Ahh… in addition the foundation will be hosting educational umm…. Outreaches here its gonna be here at Lehia this grassy field will now be the homesite for the Kelii William Ioane Legacy Foundation and ahhh… we will be doing our community outreaches here from the site. Makahiki is a seasonal cultural festivity for ahh the po’e Hawai’i. In 1981 my father, Keli’i Skippy Ioane participated in the researgents of the Makahiki ceremony on the island of Kaho’olawe, ahhh… when Uncle Emmett Aluli won the court case the military provided access, had to provide religious access to the native Hawaiian ahhh… po’e to be able to return to the island of Kaho’olawe for their religious ceremonies.

(3:14)

In preparation for the Makahiki ceremonies, ahhh… the foundation will be holding monthly workshops to prepare community members to participate in Lonoikamakahiki ceremonies which includes ahhh… a chant composed by Aunty Nalani Kanaka’ole and a Lono dance composed by myself….ummm… and so we reach out to community to encourage them you know to come out of their comfort zone and participate in learning ceremony. Last year we worked with County Council Member Sue Leeloy from Hilo and two members from her team or her cabinet, ahhh we worked with community member Richard Ha. We also worked with KTA and Keaukaha Market and this year we hope to expand that to a larger community base.

(4:08)

When we were younger ahhh.. This area of Lehia was full of houseless community, ahhh… because my father says if you’re Hawaiian then you not homeless in Hawai’i your just houseless because Hawai’i is your home. And so there was a large houseless community here and they were actually ahhh… adept fisherman because I remember having you know rows and rows of ahhh… throw net at everybodies hale and umm… it was a large community and we would come here and we would gather and we gather here on the grassy field and so my dad at that time was trying to organize the houseless community so that they could be a cohesive entity and unit to communicate out you know city, county officials and to the state in hopes that some kind of recognition and resolution could be found. Ahhhh…. However it was not found and the County came in and evicted the entire houseless community. And so when we were younger nobody came in here, ahhh… only the houseless community and the M.A.H.A community who were living in Kingslanding because we drive through here to go home and so we knew every family that was here and we would meet there we would have meetings and the sand was much thicker and it was much blacker, ahhh it was more black, ahhh…its gray now because I believe of the car pollution because there is constant traffic now in and out of Lehia, when we were younger there was rarely any traffic and nobody went to the bonds in the back, ahhhh… there are two ponds back there ahhhh… La’ieikawai and no one ever went back there we only went in a small group, if our parents were here, they called it Pu’umaile ahhh… after the hospital when we were younger and when our parents were at Pu’umaile only you know the Pu’umaile kids and the M.A.H.A kids or Kingslanding kids were at the pond. Now there’s no… there’s no space at the pond there is always a person there, multiple people there and they bring their dogs and so somehow it has turned into an unofficial dog park with people bringing their dogs in and out swimming in the water and so that’s something that the foundation, The Kelii William Ioane Legacy Foundation wants to reorientate, we want to reorientate the responsibilities, and the kuleana or the functions of these spaces from Lehia, I mean Keonepupu and La’ieikawai and this space here of Lehia. Ahhh… when we first moved here, when the foundation first came here da ummm…da area had to be ahhh… be malamad and cleared again, there were rows and rows of coconut, there were ahhh… burn rubber marks, there was rocks all over the field and there were haphazard planting of plants and so to reinvigorate the field area for the utilization of Makahiki and other community events all those things had to be cleared and so now we have an active you know yard space and so in re-collaborating and understanding community need ahhh… the filed was open up. Mahalo