HAWAIʻI TOURISM AUTHORITY / TOR JOHNSON
HAWAIʻI TOURISM AUTHORITY / TOMMY LUNDBERG
help at any one of these places listed on the Hawai ‘ i Visitors & Convention Bureau website ,” Daines said . “ If that helps to better understand what people are going through by giving back , and then after that , you go lay by the pool , that ’ s fine .”
Lahaina at a Turning Point Lahaina has a storied history , Holt said , and now the town is at another huge turning point .
In the first half of the 19th century , the town was the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom . From about the 1820s through the 1870s , it became the center of Hawai ‘ i ’ s whaling industry . Next came sugar , and water that used to flow through Lahaina was diverted for the sugar plantations . “ Lahaina was once known as the Venice of the Pacific because it had so much water ,” Holt said . “ But then sugar came , and then those ponds and those rivers no longer existed , so they were covered over and then homes and et cetera were built .”
Holt talked about the importance of remembering the traditional stories of Lahaina , both ancient and recent , through hula and chant . Maui ’ s Polynesian voyaging canoe Mo ‘ olele , built in 1976 when traditional voyaging and navigation were being revived in Hawai ‘ i , was destroyed in the fire , and she said it ’ s one important memory that will live on .
“ The Mo ‘ olele , who is the grandmother of many of the sailing canoes today , was burned , but we have her song ,” she said . “ It still reminds us of who she was and how she affected the sailing community . We will continue to sing the songs , chant the chants and dance the hula for all the places and things that are and will continue to be Lahaina .”
Holt has been leading ceremonies for the community and town . One was an evening ceremony “ for the releasing of the souls who perhaps have not found their way to where they need to go ,” she said . “ We had a vigil in which , three times a day , ceremonies were done to incorporate the whole community . And then we just completed one to spread healing to the ‘ āina ( land ) itself . There were ceremonies being done in four separate places simultaneously for the land of Lahaina .”
Lahaina Going Forward Holt said there are references to groves of ulu ( breadfruit ) trees standing in Lahaina back when the area was called Lele . She hopes plans include planting more ulu groves and establishing fire breaks in the uplands .
“ We hope we will bring back some of the traditional things that existed in Lahaina ,” she said , including historical places . “ The different cultures that came to Hawai ‘ i and Lahaina also left their mark . There was the Wo Hing Temple , right on Front Street , and the Hongwanji temple that was on Waine ‘ e [ Street ]. We hope they could be rebuilt or redone in order to continue embracing all cultures in Lahaina . We are all a mixture of these people who have come to make Hawai ‘ i their home ,” Holt said . “ They left a mark in Lahaina , in their churches and their cemeteries and the places where they held their cultural celebrations . We definitely want them to also have a place .”
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