mākua in print/web

Mākua has been written about in media since the mid-1860s. Whether articles or stories are in support of the mission of Mākua and Mālama Mākua or against it, if they include Mākua or Mālama Mākua, we will include them in our archives. Click the titles to read the full articles or stories. Each title below is followed by an excerpt from the publication or work. Webmaster comments, if any, will be bracketed and italicized. More will be added all the time, so please check back.

2018

Army Agrees To Restore Access To MĀkua Valley Cultural Sites

By Blaze Lovell – Honolulu Civil Beat – August 7, 2018

Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners on the Waiʻanae Coast have won another legal battle with the U.S. Army — the most recent in a 20-year saga — over sacred sites on the Mākua Military Reservation.

Mālama Mākua, a nonprofit group, had already been granted access to 13 sites previously blocked by the U.S. Army.

Now a settlement agreement between the nonprofit and the U.S. Army stipulates that the Army must also look into removing unexploded ordnance from two other cultural sites, a process that could take up to three years.

2017

A snail’s tale: can rare hawaiian land snails be saved from extinction?

By Carlyn Tani – HONOLULU Magazine – July 12, 2017

In a remote area of the Wai‘anae Mountains - on a ridge of Mākua - some of the most imperiled land snails in the world are being rescued from the brink of extinction at undisclosed locations. This partnership working to protect the Islands’ largely endemic snail population is made up of state, federal and nonprofit agencies placing Hawai‘i at the leading edge of conservation. But will these efforts be enough to save the exquisite creatures that Hawaiians called “the voice of the forest”?

2016

Keepers of Mākua

By Tina Grandinetti – FLUX Hawaiʻi magazine – Issue 28, November 2016

… Over the last few years, Micah Doane has seen a massive surge in the number of visitors, and subsequently, the amount of trash, on the beach at Mākua, which is part of the Kā‘ena Point State Park Reserve. “As social media became more popular, this place became famous for underwater photography because of its crystal-clear waters and the dolphins,” he says. As the number of visitors skyrocketed, spontaneous beach clean-ups were no longer adequate, and Protectors of Paradise was formed. “With each Instagram post, the influx of people grew,” Doane says.

Suit accuses Army of blocking visits to MĀkua sites

By Associated Press – Honolulu Star-Advertiser – November 8, 2016

The Army is violating a court settlement by restricting access to cultural sites in a valley many Native Hawaiians consider sacred, a lawsuit filed Monday alleges.

STATE PARKS CONSIDERS MANAGEMENT OPTIONS FOR MĀKUA SECTION OF KA’ENA POINT STATE PARK RESERVE

By Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources – DLNR press release – July 5, 2016

During a post-holiday assessment at Mākua today, DLNR Division of State Parks Administrator Curt Cottrell used words like, “disgusting, irresponsible, unbelievable and travesty” to describe the mess some campers left behind. “Imagine,” Cottrell says, “Showing up with your family and friends to use the beach for the day at one of the stunning locations on Oahu, and you spend the first few hours cleaning up the horrible mess the people before you left. This kind of behavior shows tremendous disrespect for the aina and other people and we have to take steps to heal the area and change the way people act.”

2015

The Empires' Edge: Militarization, Resistance, and Transcending Hegemony in the Pacific

By Sasha Davis – Excerpted from the book Networks of Affinity and Myths of the Postcolonial Pacific, University of Georgia Press

Though Mākua is the intense main focus of Mālama Mākua, we understand very well that the militarization experienced in Mākua is not at all isolated. In this chapter of the book Networks of Affinity and Myths of the Postcolonial Pacific, author Sasha Davis explores the connections of militarization and resistance in places such as Mākua and the greater Oʻahu, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Kwajalein, Okinawa, and the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico.

2014

Hui celebrates MĀkua Valley’s lack of gunfire

By Rob Shikina – Honolulu Star-Advertiser – September 28, 2014

"This is a celebration today of 10 years of peace in the valley," Earthjustice attorney David Henkin said, adding that the last shot was fired there in June 2004. "If you’ve been able to train to go to combat repeatedly and successfully for the last 10 years, then maybe you want to train at Mākua, but you don’t need to train at Mākua."

ISLANDS of empire: pop culture and U.S. power

By Camilla Fojas – University of Texas Press – 2014

The following is an excerpt from the book Islands of Empire: Pop Culture and U.S. Power. Click on the title to read the bookʻs preface, or on the book cover to purchase the book.

This is a very personal story. I was raised at the intersection of empires, the waning British one of my mother and the expanding U.S. version I live in. The latter was obvious in ways I explore intuitively, an awareness I gained from the presence of U.S. empire in the Philippines, where my father is from, and Hawaiʻi, where I was born. I often wondered why the United States seemed so powerful in those places, an object of both awe and contempt. While living briefly in Mākaha, Oʻahu, in the 1980s, my siblings and I heard bombing practice in Mākua Valley so frequently that it became just part of the daily noise; it was even vaguely exciting to be close to so much danger. That danger is persistent and ongoing. After the U.S. military commandeered the valley, its training exercises polluted it with explosives and toxic chemicals, and Native Hawaiians continue to struggle to have it cleaned up and returned. We were kids who had no idea about the ominous nature of those sounds or what they represented. Similarly, in the film The Rum Diary (2011), adapted from the novel by Hunter S. Thompson, Johnny Depp’s character experiences the clamor of bombing practice on Vieques, Puerto Rico. Yet he has a more conscious and adult reaction to it: he cringes and ducks.

In the shadow of the beast

By Tina Grandinetti – FLUX Hawaiʻi magazine – Issue 17, January 2014

Talking about the military in Hawai‘i means … talking about dependence, violence, imperialism, and occupation.

Longtime local activists Kyle Kajihiro and Terri Keko‘olani are working to push these uncomfortable topics into popular discourse and propel a more critical discussion of militarization through their work with Hawai‘i Peace and Justice and DMZ-Hawai‘i/Aloha ‘Āina.

PACIFIC PACIFISM

By Sonny Ganaden – FLUX Hawaiʻi magazine – Issue 17, January 2014

In the wake of the Inouye era of federal spending in Hawai‘i, the United States military has a renewed strategy in the Pacific. With a pivot towards Asia, and in consideration of the Trans Pacific Partnership and forthcoming RIMPAC exercises this year, debates are renewed regarding pacifism and war—debates that have occurred at the signing of constitutions, on the beaches of Kaho‘olawe, in the arched spans of the H-3 highway, and recently at protests throughout rural Hawai‘i.

The connections between the expansive militarization of Hawai‘i, tourism, and the interests of American multi-national corporations aren’t only being made by Guy Fawkes-masked anarchists or half-baked online conspiracy theorists but by the brightest minds in modern Hawai‘i. Their thoughts will frame the debate of the archipelago’s relationship with war in the next several decades.

2010

Makua Military Reservation fire burns 486 acres

By Ms. Stefanie Gardin – www.army.mil – August 6, 2010

"When you get the call, it's like the bottom drops out from underneath you."

That was Michelle Mansker's initial reaction when she received word of an unexpected wildfire at Makua Military Reservation. The fire, which Federal Fire Department investigators determined was incendiary, or intentionally set, started just after 2 p.m., July 24. 

Mansker, chief of U.S. Army Garrison-Hawaii's Natural Resources, has spent the last 15 years caring for threatened and endangered species at MMR.

"It's really a gut-wrenching thing to see basically our 'babies' going up in smoke," she said. "So much time and effort are spent fostering and caring for these endangered species."

2009

Why We Must Protect MĀkua Valley

By Dr. Trisha Kehaulani Watson – Honolulu Advertiser – June 14, 2009

“E mālama i ka makua, he mea laha ‘ole.”

Mary Kawena Pukui explained this ‘ōlelo no‘eau to mean “parents should be cared for, for when they are gone, there are none to replace them.” To Hawaiians, Mākua Valley in Wai‘anae represents our parents; Mākua is a kinolau or physical body form of the parents of all Hawaiians. A particularly sacred place, or wahi pana, the protection of Mākua remains as of vital import to Native Hawaiians as the protection and caring for our human parents. The occupation and desecration of Mākua is both a physical and spiritual offensive against the residing indigenous people of this land.

Mākua’s rich history extends back as many as thirty-five generations, as early as the 8th century. Mākua houses a rich spiritual history that reflects its deep significance to the Hawaiian people. Even today, as one stands in the valley, hō‘ailona appear regularly to those who help mālama Mākua.

2008

The Militarizing of Hawai‘i: Occupation, Accommodation, and Resistance

By Dr. Kyle Kajihiro – Excerpted from the book Asian Settler Colonialism: From Local Governance to the Habits of Everyday Life in Hawaiʻi, University of Hawaiʻi Press

Militarism in Hawai‘i cannot be reduced to a simple product of military policy. Instead, it must be understood as the result of a complex interaction of forces, including the political and economic fears and ambitions of global powers; the way key actors in the local society either resisted, accommodated, or collaborated in the process of militarization; the deployment of strategies to normalize and maintain militarism; and the interplay of ideologies of race, class, and gender that not only justified but often encouraged the expansion of empire.

New live fire at MĀkua feared

By Advertiser Staff – Honolulu Advertiser – March 14, 2008

Hawaiian cultural practitioners yesterday said they worry that a long-awaited environmental analysis for Mākua Valley could lead to a resumption of live-fire exercises and increased pressure on the Wai'anae Coast Valley.

David Henkin, an attorney for Earthjustice who represents Mālama Mākua, 'Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition and Nā ʻImi Pono, said the Army has refused to address the groups' questions about allowing a Stryker Brigade to train on sacred sites and how it will effect endangered species at Mākua Military Reservation.

2007

Army faces questions on studies of MĀkua

By Robert Shikina – Honolulu Star-Bulletin – February 25, 2007

Leeward resident William Aila Jr. told Army officials yesterday that studies to press their case for live-fire training in Mākua Valley raised more questions than they answered.

"Is the fish safe to eat, are the crabs safe to eat, is the limu safe to eat? That's all we asked for. You haven't answered the question, you've raised more questions," Aila told Army representatives at the Waiʻanae District Park.

2006

Stryker base here is found illegal: Plaintiffs claim the Army must halt related work while preparing a supplemental study

By Gregg K. Kakesako – Honolulu Star-Bulletin – October 6, 2006

A federal appellate court found yesterday that the Army had violated environmental laws by not considering all alternatives in establishing a Stryker Combat Brigade in Hawaii.

The 2-1 vote by a three-judge panel assigned to the San Francisco 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was seen as a victory for the nonprofit environmental group Earthjustice. Earthjustice attorney David Henkin said the federal appeals court ruling meant "the Army must cease all Stryker-related activities, including construction and Stryker training, until the court can rule on what activities, if any, will be allowed while a supplemental environmental impact statement is prepared."

Uranium revelation upsets isle activists: Army e-mails detailing the presence of spent metal at Schofield are troubling, critics say

By Rosemarie Bernardo – Honolulu Star-Bulletin – January 6, 2006

Several environmental and native Hawaiian groups are accusing the Army of misleading the public after the groups discovered that a heavy metal known as depleted uranium was recovered at Schofield Barracks' range complex.

During a news conference yesterday, the groups said the Army has repeatedly assured the public that the heavy metal was never used in Hawaii.

"These recent revelations, then, indicate that the Army is either unaware of its DU (depleted uranium) and chemical weapons use or has intentionally misled the public. Both possibilities are deeply troubling," said Kyle Kajihiro, program director of the American Friends Service Committee and member of DMZ- Hawaii/Aloha Aina.

2003

army trains for Iraqi ambush

By Gregg K. Kakesako – Honolulu Star-Bulletin – Dec. 9, 2003

… Under an agreement reached Thursday with activist group Mālama Mākua and EarthJustice, the Army could resume live-fire training, but without artillery.

army agrees to formal review of Mākua Valley

By William Cole – Honolulu Advertiser – July 31, 2003

The Army said late yesterday it has agreed to a formal assessment of last week's fire in Mākua Valley for the purpose of protection of threatened and endangered species — a step that could halt live-fire training for several months this fall…

WAR ON EARTH

By Bob Feldman – Dollars & Sense: Real World Economics – March/April 2003

In this era of “permanent war,” the U.S. war machine bombards civilians in places like Serbia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. It also makes “war on the earth,” both at home and abroad. The U.S. Department of Defense is, in fact, the world’s largest polluter, producing more hazardous waste per year than the five largest U.S. chemical companies combined. 

2002

Hawaiians revive Makahiki in MĀkua Valley

By William Cole – Honolulu Advertiser – Feb. 16, 2002

Members of the Hawaiian community yesterday and today celebrated a return to the old ways in Mākua Valley with an overnight stay and offerings for the close of the Makahiki season — a tradition not seen for generations in the Waiʻanae Coast valley.

"This is probably the first time in about 180 years that this Makahiki ceremony has been celebrated in Mākua," said Waiʻanae resident William Aila Jr., who has relatives who lived and are buried in the valley.

2001

eco-extremists block our path to peace

By Michelle Malkin – Houston Chronicle – Dec. 8, 2001

[While this opinion piece is clearly not the view of Mālama Mākua or Earthjustice, we will endeavor to include all media concerning Mākua in our archives. We can assure Ms. Malkin that Mālama Mākua does not block a path to peace, for it is war that blocks the path to peace. – Webmaster]

Tragedy in New York lifts Mākua impasse

By Gregg K. Kakesako – Honolulu Star-Bulletin – October 5, 2001

Nearly three years ago, a group of Waʻianae Coast residents who wanted to stop the Army from using Mākua Valley sued seeking a comprehensive environmental study on the effects that decades of shelling and training have had on the land and its cultural and historic sites.

Despite years of protests, community hearings, court sessions and lengthy negotiations, it took acts of terrorism on Sept. 11 to forge a settlement that gives Mālama Mākua the victory it sought - a comprehensive environmental impact statement…

Army in fight over Mākua

By Susan Essoyan – Los Angeles Times – June 23, 2001

At the end of the coastal road that stretches west from high-rise Honolulu, this secluded valley cradles some of the rarest Hawaiian plants left in the wild, as well as the precious remnants of an ancient culture. It also harbors more unexploded ordnance and spent bullets and bombs than anyone can guess.

1998

Pounding Hawaiian ranges

By Sgt Michael Wiener CPAO, Marine Corps Base Hawaiʻi – Leatherneck – Volume 81, Number 2

[Oral and written histories have documented the true nature of Mākua Valley and inform us that the ahupuaʻa of Mākua, Kahanahāiki, and Koʻiahi that make up Mākua Valley are indeed sacred spaces. However, when the U.S. military writes about these sacred spaces, they completely ignore and disrespect the sacred. – Webmaster]

“Makua Valley trembled as leathernecks from 3d Battalion, Third Marine Regiment pounded the earth with mortars, machine guns and small arms fire during training last November.”

1903

MURDER IN MĀKUA: ranch luna arrested for the shooting death of employee

By The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, The Hawaiian Star, and The Evening Bulletin

Ranching was one of the life-bloods of Mākua Valley from the mid-1800s through to the occupation by the U.S. army after the U.S. entered into World War II following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, known traditionally as Puʻuloa. Mākua was not just ranch land, however; it was a community, with all the good and bad that entails. In March 1903, cattle ranch luna Patrick Murphy was arrested and charged with the killing of an unarmed and defenseless Portuguese ranch employee. Read the story of the murder entitled “Mystery of Murphyʻs Rifle” that ran on the second page of the March 16, 1903, edition of The Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Two days earlier, and just two days after the murder, The Honolulu Star ran a brief story of the killing in its March 14, 1903, edition titled “Who Killed Joe Perry?" In the story, the Star pointed out that the ranch at Mākua was owned by then-Senator Lincoln McCandless. The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, on March 19, wrote about new evidence in a story titled “Pat Murphy is Accused of Murder - New Evidence in Possession of Police.” Another Honolulu newspaper, The Evening Bulletin, ran a story of Murphyʻs arraignment on the front page of its May 12, 1903, edition in a story entitled “Murder Trial Monday.” Two weeks later, The Pacific Commercial Advertiser published a story, “Jury Frees Pat Murphy, The Man From Makua,” about an emotionless Murphy being acquitted of murder.