kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui
He Lei Aloha iā Sina
Gather blossoms from the upland forests
Fragrant maile kissed by mist
Gather foliage from the kula plains
Nourished by gentle rains, caressing winds
Fecund earth, surrounding soil
Bursting with abundance
Gather these tokens of aloha
Into baskets of love and memories
Woven under moons and suns
To float on tides and eddies
Gather sisters, brothers
Gather family, friends
The sacred blossoms of ancient chiefs
Gather on strands of silver sand at sunrise
The singsong seashore scatters sand crabs
Gather together where the paddlers glide
On morning tide, horizon silhouette
Sunlit morning calls us together—
E ala ē Kahiki kū, e ala ē Kahiki moe
Mai ka lā hiki a ka hālāwai
Gather and weave baskets from memories
Gather and weave lei of alofa
Weave lei from flowers and foliage
Weave love from the fragrant forests
Weave lei of sweet memories
Shared in laughter, tears
Under Sina’s watchful eye
Sun shines down on joyous waves
Seabirds dance and call above
Guide us in our aloha
Gather together, sisters, brothers
Gather together, family, friends
Weave lei of ‘awapuhi ‘ula, palapalai
That dance beyond Moananuiākea’s vast horizon
We weave a lei of love for you, dear Sina
Alofa atu, alofa mai
A hui hou—until we meet again.
Kakaʻako Dreams
No Locals can afford
The sea-reflecting sky-piercing towers
Sleek steel, glassy, glimmery
Kakaʻako dreams
Luxuriant ʻāina sustained generations mai uka i kai
The best salt marshes to gather pili grass for thatching
Fishponds, salt pans, wetlands, loʻi
Now memorialized in brazen bronze marble artificial stone
Luxury lofts similacra of waiwai
Once measured in the ability to feed the people
Now measured in US dollars
Launiu is influenced by the graceful coconut fronds
A collection of tiny, exorbitantly overpriced concrete boxes
Feining elegant South Shore living, with glittering views
of Lēʻahi and the grand Pacific, Pearl Harbor and the Koʻolaus
With elevated amenitiess and sophisticated interiors
Insipid shades of white, gray, and beige
All across Our Kakaʻako sellouts and settlers
Sell our ʻāina to the highest foreign bidder
Sold out before groundbreaking, urbane sales pitched investors
Greedily devour glossy sales brochures and sleek websites
Accessible in English, Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean
A timeless lifestyle informed by the natural beauty of the island
A world unto itself, a green haven paradise of tropical tranquility beckons—
Ka mea ka mea ka mea niu kūlolo
Don’t mind the endless traffic; the homeless addicts on the streets below
The groundskeepers and guards with shoo them away
Your HOA fees cover 24 hour security, closed circut video surveillance
Strong and sturdy iron gates fit with key-coded titanium locks
Sleek dolphins shaped from steel leap out of fountains,
Sleepy stone honu swim through artificial pools
Small signs mark the ancient sites
Now paved over for your pleasure, securing your piece of paradise
Where property values are 920 per cent higher than the average income
Utterly unaffordable at the median Hawaiʻi salary of $52,828
This is twenty-first century “progress”
Where nearly ninety per cent of all food is imported
So make way for megatons of concrete pilings
Piercing fertile loʻi, fecund estuary, bountiful ʻāina
Stabbing deep into the wounded heart
Cradled in Hawaiian ʻāina crushed iwi pulverized to dust
Over one thousand iwi exhumed at Honuakaha alone
Affordable kūpuna housing built on iwi kūpuna graves
Mana kūpuna destroyed
I mua Kamehameha ē
A strong sense of place, a continuing legacy
In bright murals and slick slogans
branding that captivates the greedy investor
Remain rooted in the culture of Our Kakaʻako
ʻO wai lā hoʻi? ʻO kākou? ʻAʻole paha. ʻAʻole hiki.
Kānaka name the projects only haoles can afford—
ʻAʻaliʻi, Aeʻo, Alia, Anaha, Hokua, Kahuina Kakaako,
Kalae, Kalina, Keauhou Place, 400 Keawe, Ke Kilohana,
Koʻolani, Kōʻula, Launiu, Ulana, Waiea, Waihonua
Kukuluāeʻo to the east and Kaʻākaukukui to the west
Your verdant wetlands generously fed
by the springs Kewalo and Kawaiahaʻo
Post-overthrow the usurping kolea PG squatters
Declared you a menace to public health and welfare
A useless, unsightly, offensive swamp
Perpetually breeding mosquitoes
So you were drained
Even in the 1880s
Kakaʻako was a settler-started squattersville
Who are the squatters now?
Kakaʻako dreamers
Ma kai ma ke kaha Kewalo calls
the swimmer, the surfer, the fishing folk
baptismal in the cleansing kai o Kanaloa
Fishpond caretakers and salt bed experts tend the shore
Kakaʻako dreams
Across greater Kakaʻako
Thousands of kūpuna ʻŌiwi remains reveal
A once thriving ʻŌiwi community
Now foundations for luxury condominium towers
Preservation in place considered pono
The voices of the drowned resound
From Kewalo to Pūowaina
They wail with the Kūkalahale wind
Can you hear them in your ultra luxury penthouse
Living your Kakaʻako dreams?
Mōhai once drowned in Kewalo waters for sacrifice
Now drowning in US capitalism, still sacrificed
A mere one point five million median sale price, and rising
Three hundred and fifty iwi unearthed
At Whole Foods on Queen Street alone
Do their souls haunt the produce aisle
Or are they stuck in wine and spirits?
Kakaʻako dreams deferred
No Hawaiians, no aloha
Ua lawa mākou me ka pōhaku
Kakaʻako dreams
Author’s Bio
kuʻualoha hoʻomanawanui started writing poetry at a young age. She is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi aloha ʻāina activist and artist from Wailua Homesteads, Kauaʻi. A Professor in the English Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, her research and teaching specialties are Native Hawaiian and Pacific literatures, folklore, and Indigenous rhetorics. She is a founding and current Chief Editor of ‘Ōiwi: A Native Hawaiian Journal, and director of Ka Ipu o Lono, a Native Hawaiian digital humanities resource of Hawaiian literature. She currently resides in Haʻikū, Koʻolaupoko, Oʻahu. She considers Auliʻi Pearl an excellent Kanaka ʻŌiwi poet, is proud to have had her as a student, and hopes to continue writing alongside her.
Photos by staff