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Some Oral History of Paepae o He‘eia:
“When I was a student at Mānoa in 1998,” Hi‘ilei recounts, “a couple of my best friends sort of introduced me to this fishpond. At that time the lessee of the fish pond was a lady by the name of Mary Brooks, and she had been leasing the pond from Kamehameha Schools since the late 80s. Mary Brooks was the first one to teach this course offered at UH Mānoa called Mālama Loko I‘a and that was offered through the Hawaiian Studies Department of which I was a student. That was sort of like the formal introduction to the fishpond, and that was offered in 2000. “But prior to that I had come here and been introduced to the fishpond, and did some volunteer work. But my more formal introduction happened through that class. Shortly thereafter, Kamehameha Schools had been working on their 2001-2010 or so strategic plan, which prioritized the valuation of land in other ways besides a purely monetary value. They wanted to support community organizations, people out there in the community to help steward their land, help them in the education of Native Hawaiians. And so they liked having a bunch of Hawaiians here, and a lot of those Hawaiians were a direct result of that class being offered.” 
“I was introduced to this fishpond just through some friends that said, ‘He hey do you want to come down, found this cool little hidden gem, let’s go cut some trees down...’ Keli‘i recounts, “and pretty much literally I never left. That was in 2000 and that was when I met the people who would eventually all become the founders, eight of us become the founders of Paepae o He‘eia in September 2001 when we became official. But for me, my time here at the fishpond started in the summer of 2000 just as a volunteer, just looking to get my hands back into Hawai‘i because I just spent the most part of four years up in Washington, really enjoying my time but knowing that I always was going to come back home. And I never left.” “I got the first introduction to this place through a science class,” Keahi says. “You come out here and you give back into the community service. I was in about ninth grade, and even from ninth grade the interest sparked. In one field trip you can’t catch everything, but you can understand that this is something important. I come from a family that did a lot of fishing, and me and my dad still do a lot of fishing. So right off the bat, fish always interest me. A way that I can feed myself will always interest me. That’s my first introduction to this place. “I started in 2011 as an intern. Crazy story: the day passed the turn in the paper, I turned it in like a day late, texting to Hi‘ilei, ‘Sorry, I couldn't afford to go to college this year, and I just want to work for you and do everything I can,’ and luckily enough she accepted my application and said yes. Then I got lucky that positions opened after the internship and they kept me around.” “There was a transition from Mary Brooks to what is now Paepae o He‘eia,” Hi‘ilei continues, “and it was a difficult time I think for all of us. It was difficult for Mary to transition, to leave the pond. And it was difficult for us to see Mary leave the pond. But change is often difficult—for the good and for the bad—and I think ultimately we’re in a really good place. And that transition was important because it really is community that needed to see this fishpond restored. Programming associated with the work here needed to come from community and Mary’s great—super knowledgeable—but Mary’s just one person, and it’s very difficult to do what we’ve been able to do with just one individual. “We got our State Articles of Incorporation in 2001 and then stamp of approval from the IRS 501(c)3 came many years later in 2005. We had a rough time submitting our nonprofit paperwork our federal paperwork but anyway we had eight original founders of Paepae o He‘eia. Of those eight original founders, two of us are remaining and two of those founding members also serve on our board of directors. “One of the founding members is Kanekoa Kukea-Schultz who is directly across the street, that runs Kako‘o ‘Ōiwi, so you know, you never really go away. You’re always here in some way shape or form. But there are eight of us, last two that are actually here is Keli‘i and myself. The two board members that our original founders are Hannes Paik and Mahina Paishon. And so many years later we now have a staff of twelve. Not all full time, most of us are full time, some of us are part time. “Our nonprofit is founded on an educational mission, and not to be put into this box of education, but we believe that education is crucial and key to the work we’re doing, in order for the work to continue beyond ourselves and beyond our organization. We always have to be mindful that our teaching goes to the next generation to take up that work—teaching new leaders so you can one day transfer to that kuleana over to them. “But we also training up the community to be able to receive a functioning fishpond, because that’s ultimately where we’re going: we’re restoring this fishpond so that it’s once again functional and able to feed the community. And the community needs to be able to be ready to receive that. We have an eighty-eight-acre, functioning fishpond that’s producing fish. We’re hoping the community is wanting to eat that fish or able to come down and help to maintain the infrastructure. And so we’re hoping that it has a place here in our community in the near future. “There’s the traditional definition of community which is the ahupua‘a of He‘eia, but you look at the ahupua‘a of He‘eia, or you look at the volunteers that come to the fishpond and contribute: not very many He‘eia residents. Maybe more Kāne‘ohe residents. So then your definition of community brought in slightly to be inclusive of 96744—the zip code which is Kāne‘ohe, Kahalu’u, all the way to Kualoa. But then, why not be inclusive all of all of Ko‘olaupoko? So then you're talking Waimānalo to Kualoa. “And then we’ve also defined our learning community which is anybody that’s willing and wanting to learn, and that’s an opportunity to extend our reach beyond even Hawai‘i. It's an opportunity to touch folks from America and international visitors. Because we sort of feel like the lessons to be learned from a fishpond have implications worldwide—the teachings of sustainability and how to behave as if we all lived on an island. So I would have to say that there’s different levels, definitely ‘learning community’ is inclusive of all. The community that we seek to feed would probably—this is me speaking because I’m from the side of the island so I am a little bit selfish in that way—I’d like to see us feeding our geographic community. But I think limiting it to He‘eia, maybe not so much, maybe a little broader to the 96744 gang.” |
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