In the 1960's, when I was two years old, my Haole mom took me away from my original Hawaiian 'ohana, the Keawe 'ohana from Wai'anae, O'ahu. She moved us to the Kona side of Hawai'i Island. There she spent the next year camping with my brother and I at different State parks around the island. Until she found Harry K. Brown beach park in Kalapana. Eventually, she found a house to rent and a job at Hilo hospital. She settled in Ka'imu, Kalapana and hid me away from my 'ohana in O'ahu.
She forged my legal documents without my knowledge: My mom altered my birth certificate; she changed my name, my birth date and place of birth and gave me my half brother Kelly's last name. She told me I was born on June 11th not June 6th. And she told me I was born in Oregon, not Hawai'i. She wouldn't tell me my ethnicity. I found out I had Hawaiian blood when I was 10. She also told me that my dad had died when I was a baby (which was not true). Whenever I asked her questions about my biological dad she said she didn't want to talk about it because it made her sad. If I pushed her for information about my dad, she would get quiet and not respond to my questions.
Eventually, my mom met and fell in love with a Hapa Hawaiian local boy named Albert Kalani Pe'a from Ka'imu and two years later they got married. I was adopted by the Pe'a family from Ka'imu, Kalapana (Ua hanai 'ia wau e ka 'ohana Pe'a mai Ka'imu, ma Kalapana).
I grew up in a very, very special place. The families were still living old style; they hunted, fished and farmed. There were mostly Hawaiians living in this area. And everybody was related to each other in one way or another. My mom was one of the first Haoles to move and live in Kalapana. In the 1970's big corporations wanted to develop Ka'imu, Kalapana. They planned to remove the Hawaiian 'ohanas and dredge Ka'imu bay and build hotels. My mom went with my makuakane kolea, Kalani, to the planning meetings for the hotels. She was against developing this pristine coastline. She would stand up, bravely, in meetings and tell the Hawaiians, "don't let them come here and ruin this beautiful place." Some of the Hawaiian 'ohanas wanted the hotels because then their children would have jobs and not have to move away to the cities for work. I remember my mom asking, "What kind of jobs? Cleaning dirty toilets for tourists? Is this what you want for your children? . . . Don't let them in, they will pollute and ruin this special place forever." My mom loved these islands and the Hawaiian people and did whatever she could to take care of and protect these lands. But my mom didn't know that Tutu Pele was and is still the guardian of this wahi pana. Tutu Pele has chased out all the developers through out my lifetime. And has even made her presence known in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.
They stole our family lands to make that national park. Then they made the chain of craters road. And Tutu Pele ate that road little by little. They kept repaving over the lava, and Tutu kept reclaiming the land, making the wrong right again. Even when Campbell Estate tried to lease their stolen lands to geothermal developers, Tutu came again and chased them away. Now geothermal wants to drill in our sacred Wao Kele rain forest again. And as I write these words, Tutu is on her way to protect Wao Kele, one of the rarest and most endangered rain forests in the World!
This book is a compilation of poems, stories and memoirs I've written about my life growing up and living here in Hawai'i nei. And also from life experiences; University education, travels and spiritual teachers. If I have offended anyone in anyway, e kala mai i'au (please forgive me). And so, this is my story, and offering, to the Earth . . . to the human race. May 'IKUWA, Voices of the Ancestor's bring inspiration, faith, and voice for the silent ones.
