May 06, 2008

“Our search for a future that works keeps spiraling back to an ancient connection between ourselves and the earth, an interconnectedness that ancient cultures have never abandoned.” – Helena Norberg-Hodge

The word for fresh water in the Hawaiian language is wai. Say that twice in a row and you have the word for wealth, riches: waiwai. In early April 2008, there was a reportedly contentious meeting at the Haiku Community Center on the subject of water rights in East Maui. Not much was resolved at that meeting. In an effort to inform more people about the situation, a large group of taro farmers and their friends and families organized a peaceful protest on the first day of the East Maui Taro Festival (see page 3).

The water flowing in Maui’s natural streams has for thousands of years spilled and rushed down the mountains to the sea, providing an oxygen-rich, life-filled environment for a whole community of creatures to thrive in – from the small native crayfish-like shrimp called ‘opae to fish and snails and freshwater clams and a wide variety of plants ands insects, not to mention a healthy environment for birds and – well, people.

For centuries, that steady, constant supply of pure fresh water was relied on by the people living downstream on flat lands – lands that are ideal for growing things like taro. Taro, from which poi is made, is a staple plant reliant upon fresh, cold, moving water to grow strong and healthy, and is of vital importance in the Hawaiian culture for a multitude of reasons.

For over a hundred years now, the amount of water in those streams has dwindled and sometimes completely dried up, and the taro farmers have struggled to raise even small amounts of their crop, because a large portion of the water needed has been redirected to nourish the lucrative sugarcane fields in Maui’s central valley. This practice has for many years greatly increased the wealth and influence of the sugar plantation owners; the vast majority of their crop is shipped off island.

Now that we are all in a situation where the prices of oil and gasoline and food are skyrocketing, and everyone living here is too heavily reliant upon that barge coming in from the mainland, we should be looking more closely at things like raising most of our own food. Right now seems like an especially good time to allow a much larger portion of the water that naturally flows down the slopes of Haleakala to spill over and rush through the rock-carved channels of the streams of East Maui, into taro lo‘i and then out to the sea to nourish the reefs and the creatures that live there.

In this issue we honor Women in Business, too, and hope that you can take the time to read about each one of our wonderful advertisers and try out something new, or continue to patronize your favorite ones. Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 11; you’ll find lots of ideas here for celebrating the cherished women and mothers in your life.

“We must treat water as if it were the most precious thing in the world, the most valuable natural resource.” – Mikhail Gorbachev

– Jan Welda

Jan Welda