Niu Now & Forever

Integrating ‘Ike Niu-Hawaiian Coconut Knowledge, Food Security & Economic Sovereignty

Kunani a me Ipo Nihipali Testimony

Pule: ‘E aloha Mai’

Our pule today, is a loving prayer for this hui, to restore and reunite, collectively, our ‘aina, ka Po’e, our land, people and for the continuity of niu.

Kupu ka niu, Kupu ke Kanaka…When niu is planted, humanity grows.

Aloha ke Akua, na ‘Aumakua, na Kupuna, na maka’ainana, a me na ho’aloha o Hawai’i.

Aloha & mahalo for allowing us to speak here today in behalf of our ‘ike Kupuna, past and present: To Director Sharon Hurd of the Department of Agriculture & Biosecurity, its Advisory Committee; our Molokai Legislative Representatives Senator Lynn DeCoite, House Representative Mihana Poepoe, other representatives of our legislature of all Islands, and friends.

We want to acknowledge and mahalo the ‘founders’ and ’core’ members of our Niu Now movement, whose kilokilo, foresight, hana nui, hard work and kako’o, support of ‘ike niu, coconut knowledge have made our Molokai Niu Now a success: Dr. Manulani Meyer, Kumu Niu Ai’a, our teacher and Sri Lankan Brother, Indrajit Gunasekara, our Alakai, leaders Kekaula Hanohano & Jessie Mikasobe-Pilialoha Keali’iholomoku, Niunates o ka pae ‘aina o Hawai’i, farmers, community supporters here to share their mana’o, expertise and voices today on this important matter: the protection, preservation & perpetuation of niu, our ’Tree of Life’.

In recorded history, our lives depended on niu, our ‘tree of life’. Niu is our life support from birth to death. It connects us from childbirth to adulthood with and on our ancestral lands. Niu ensures our well-being with its nutritional and traditional medicinal properties, as a symbol of abundance, unity, and fertility. Niu is still a sacred plant of our nohona, lifestyle, island diet, sustenance, shelter, material and ceremonial needs, but most our food security. Thus, niu’s ok subsistence and sustainability is more than just landscaping or aesthetic purposes. Kumu la’au niu now is planted everywhere: for developments, hotels, parks, schools, landscaping or just for nostalgic ambience. The irony is: dey wen hemo da lahos, da olos! Cut ‘em off! NO NUTS! No coconuts! Our tree of life and food source was reduced to a liability we can ‘make’ from, in modern Hawai’i.

Hawai’i, the invasive capital of the world has another more devastating threat to our Niu Now, the introduced CRB, the coconut rhinoceros beetle. Molokai is a small island. If the CRB is detected anywhere on Molokai, it could spread rapidly impacting native and endemic palm species like the rare loulu (Pritchardia hilebrandii), and other plants and crops of agricultural, ecological, cultural and economic value. Preventing CRB from reaching Molokai constitutes an emergency situation. The CRB is well established on Oahu, widespread on Kauai, spreading on Hawaii Island, and has been detected on Lanai. If CRB is detected on Molokai, the chemical treatment proposed will significantly impact the usability of our coconut trees, imperil native and endemic palms, and interfere with important traditional and cultural practices.

We’ve identified two ancient uluniu wahipana, sacred coconut groves with genetic and generational niu on Molokai: one on the east side, the Uluniu o Mapulehu, and the infamous Uluniu o Kapu’aiwa at Kalamaula. Planted in the mid 1860s, their purpose was/is for the maintaining our health and mana of our Molokai Island Kanaka community. Prince Lot Kapu’aiwa, Kamehameha V in 1866, planted over a thousand trees to represent that number of warriors. Thus, the CRB is not only cause of botanical ecological grief, but a form of introduced ethnocide that would be an erasure of our royal legacy of Hawaiian ‘ike niu, ancestral knowledge of coconut! It is all our sacred kuleana to malama na uluniu. It the highest calling for us Kanaka Maoli Hawai’i, literally rooted, generationally in our heritage-based knowledge society. We must continue to protect, maintain, preserve, perpetuate and rejuvenate our Niu Now and Forever…Aloha’Aina Malama’Aina.

Whose kuleana is it to protect us from this desecration? We know the Federal government is complicit, and that kuleana and kaumaha, grief has been left with its agent, the State of Hawai’i.

As are our benefactors, our representatives, our servants of these wahipana, sacred and public Trusts. It is your kuleana to hear the voices of our ancestors, we, the Beneficiaries of our Kupuna. Your kako’o, support is to kokua, facilitate all the proper measures to address this urgent emergency to protect our Molokai Island. It is not enuf to prevent the potential loss and devastation by the CRB to our environment, our ecological and our food economic security, but also of our culture, our lifestyle, our genetic wealth of out r uluniu, generationally. E ‘olu’olu, please, support this Petition we have filed; ensure that we are here not asking in vain, and that when we leave here we can be assured that tomorrow’s generations are protected and our sacrifices today, not fall to the wayside and cracks. The ask is easier than the task. Minamina, shame, that we have to ask for the tools, the economic resources to combat this hewa, this evil fault that’s reached every shore of every Island since 2013. We’ve seen and felt the ‘eha, the pain and depression of our Ohana on all infected Islands by this CRB. A’ole pono…that’s not right!

There is no acceptable CRB treatment or prevention. Potted plants and other CRB host material are only visually inspected at the island of export. Molokai does not have a DAB employee on-island to assist with visual inspections of arriving materials. Even if there was a DAB employee assigned to Molokai, it would not be sufficient to prevent CRB from reaching the Island. In light of this dire situation, we believe the threat and likelihood of the spread of CRB to Molokai creates a dangerous situation to the historic, public and ecological health and safety of our flora & fauna of Molokai. We need to prevent the CRB on Molokai and request this Advisory Committee to consider this necessary proposed interim rule that helps address this emergency situation. We encourage you to authorize the signing of this proposed interim rule, so that it may take effect at the earliest possible date. We must prevent CRB from reaching Molokai and consider this urgent enough to constitute an emergency declaration. Niu Now is about Reconciliation. It is a reminder of our inter-dependency between our people, our ‘aina, our ancestors and our future generations that we must never again lose site of: our Tree of Life. Ho’omakaukau, let’s ho’ala hou the legacy of the Niu Now and FOREVER!

“Mau ka pono o ka niu, mau ke ‘ea o ka ‘aina. When niu is planted, we have our freedom of our land.