Kate and I went into Lihue the back way.\u00a0\u00a0 A remnant of a volcanic cone stood between us and the ocean.\u00a0The road wound back and forth, over one lane bridges and beside small farmsteads with NO TRESPASSING signs.\u00a0 Can you imagine living in a place where folks felt like they could just walk onto your land?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even 15 years ago when Kate and I came here the first time there was the beginning of the ohana (family) movement.\u00a0 It has blossomed and resulted recently in some big gains for indigenous Hawai’ians.\u00a0 It also fuels, and is\u00a0fed by,\u00a0a not too subtle hostility to haoles (strangers).\u00a0\u00a0 The beach sign at the County Park here had several slogans, Go Home!, Give back our land! written on it.<\/p>\n
I feel in turns sympathetic, even empathetic, and annoyed.\u00a0 Empathetic from a justice perspective, knowing how we annexed Hawai’i and\u00a0how our treatment of the indigenous people here has mirrored the despicable record on the mainland.\u00a0 Annoyed because I have begun to see the earth as our mutual responsiblity and therefore all land and water as inherently the domain of all.\u00a0 I too can love these islands, this ocean and cannot be denied these sentiments because of my geographic origin or the color of my skin.<\/p>\n
Over dinner Kate and I watched long boarders paddling around in the bay (in Lihue) and paddlers pushing outrigger canoes, four of them, down the beach head and into the bay.\u00a0 Our waitress said they hold competitions on the weekends from Hanalei to Lihue to Waimea, a long way.\u00a0Not so long, though, when you consider it was in outrigger canoes that the first Polynesians found the Hawai’ian islands.\u00a0 An amazing feat when you consider the vastness of the ocean and that there were no road signs in the water.<\/p>\n
Lunar eclipse hidden by clouds.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kate and I went into Lihue the back way.\u00a0\u00a0 A remnant of a volcanic cone stood between us and the ocean.\u00a0The road wound back and forth, over one lane bridges and beside small farmsteads with NO TRESPASSING signs.\u00a0 Can you imagine living in a place where folks felt like they could just walk onto your … Continue reading Long Boarders Paddling in the Bay<\/span>