Makua

1997
Comments On Hawaii
Honolulu Weekly, Honolulu Hawaii, 1996:
The Power of Makua: A Healing Place
This is an important piece of contemporary Hawaiian history.
Its also one of the most well documented events in contemporary
Hawaiian culture.
I spent some time with the community there reflecting on my Buddhist
training. It would have been hard not to. I studied therapeutic
communities in college. What was happening at Makua was not only
very Hawaiian, but also very powerful on a contemporary healing level.

Makua is a beautiful beach. Being there is to enter a meditative state,
even and serene.

I thought about therapeutic communities I had studied And watched the
dolphins and the sunsets. I attended Makua council meetings. I was
educated by the people there. They made me swim the rough currents at
Makua and when the time came did the interviews for the article,

There are at least four documentaries about what happened there. The
survivor accounts are tremendous. Considering the tremendousy
traumatic life paths that drove them to the isolated beach, they were
fantastic.

I learned a lot working with them.

The article itself is reflective of what I was thinking at the time.
There are several errors in the article. They are key. Sparky or “Sparks”
Rodrigue’s name appeared as “Skippy.”
I know I did not write it that way.
David Rosa was identified as a veteran of the Viet Nam conflict, when in
fact he was veteran of the Korean conflict.

It was the first story I wrote for The Honolulu Weekly.
I met then editor, Christine Whalen at the Maui Writer’s Conference
where I had won a prize for my novel, "A Whal's Lament (at not being
able to play trombone.)"
She gave me a shot at the Weekly and personally approved this story. I
got the cover. O’ahu is an island filled with great writers. It is very hard to
network in and get published. I am very grateful for her for letting me
work.
She let me do stories about the Wai’anae Coast where I lived and let
me cover very local issues.
Laurie Carlson, the publisher, also has my eternal gratitude for this.

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Makua Fact Sheet

The following statistics were gathered at Makua Beach by going from
shelter to shelter on February 20-21, 1996. Living there at that time were
282 people making up 63 households. Distribution according to age is
59 individuals under 18, 205 were between the ages of 19-55, those 55
and older number 13.

According to race and ethnicity, 233 were Native Hawaiian, 13 were
Pacific Islander, 12 were Portuguese, 11 Caucasian, 9 Filipino, 3 Puerto
Ricans and 1 Japanese.

Duration of homelessness of the heads of households varied from 3 who
had been homeless for 1 year of less, 23 from 1-5 years and 32 5 years
and up.

Sources of income included Social Security, SSI, Welfare, Veterans
Benefits, jobs, and money from family and friends.

Since September of 1996 members of the staff of HCAP Leeward
District Office met weekly with the residents and a Makua Community
Council was organized. The residents had cleaned up the reef, the
beach and a fresh water river bed.

Near the Highway they made efforts to clean up trash that could not be
moved without heavy machinery. However this area was used by
businesses as a dump and families from other parts of the coasts.
Residents and others who visit the beach frequently witnessed City and
County Trucks dumping trash there.

Residents made arrangements with drivers of the City and County
garbage disposal trucks going to Yokohama Bay to pick up their
garbage which they gathered in bags and left in agreed upon spots on
long the Highway. However when the talk of eviction began it was no
longer picked up and the bags were torn open by animals and the trash
spread around.

At the time of the survey HCAP and Time OUt Service, Inc have joined
together to assist the residents of Makua Beach to have a significant
voice in planning and implementing projects that address the housing,
economic, vocational, social and health needs. Time Out Services has
applied for Foundation and Trust funding to assist residents to meet the
following objectives.

The Community was evicted in 1997.