Waa Unity for Lahaina

Four legendary voyaging canoes welcome thousands who walked for unity and healing

story by Lisa L. Schell
photographs by Daniel Sullivan

Hours before the unity walkers began their procession to Launiupoko Beach Park just south of the Lahaina burn zone, canoe clubs from across Maui prepped their outriggers under the pre-dawn stars at Hanakaoo Beach Park.

They would be escorting four of Hawaii’s voyaging canoes, led by Hokulea, to the walkers’ terminus at Launiupoko. The walk and afternoon activities would help unite Maui five months after the fires, through Lele Aloha’s Houlu Lahaina Unity Gathering.

Hokulea, a replica of the sailing canoes used by the early Polynesians, ignited a Polynesian cultural renaissance with her maiden voyage to Tahiti in 1976. She and her sister canoes have since sailed the world, sharing Polynesian voyaging knowledge and spreading Hawaiian culture. The canoes represent the shared desire to protect and perpetuate Hawaiian values and places.

Hokulea’s first voyage to Tahiti launched from West Maui’s famed Honolua Bay, so when the fires devastated Lahaina and parts of Kula on Aug. 8, 2023, leaders at the Polynesian Voyaging Society interrupted a 47-month, 43,000-nautical-mile circumnavigation of the Pacific Ocean to return home to support Maui.

The canoe paddlers stood on the beach, marveling at the sky’s clarity and the way Maui’s Fish Hook, Manaiakalani, loomed large over the outline of Haleakala. The brilliant Milky Way hung off the tip of the hook, just like a fish.

“Look! You can see all of Ka Iwikuamoo!” said Anela Gutierrez, pointing at the North Star and then the Big Dipper as she traced an imaginary line down to the setting Southern Cross. Ka Iwikuamoo, also called the Backbone, is one of four star lines used by Hawaiian ocean navigators – including Hokulea crew – to find their way to and from Tahiti.

On the day of Hokulea’s return to Maui, it seemed fitting to all those who observed from the beach that these celestial bodies — so connected to the Hawaiian wayfinding tradition — would shine brightly in the early morning sky.

Soon, the stars gave way to first light, and the paddlers turned their gaze to the horizon just beyond Lahaina Harbor. Jet skis supporting the canoes zoomed back and forth from the beach, adding to the air of excitement and anticipation. Someone shouted, “There they are! The canoes!” 

The masts and double hulls of the sailing canoes came into view. The six-crew outriggers launched from the beach and made a short paddle out to meet Hokulea, Hikianalia, Makalii and Mookiha O Piilani, Maui’s own voyaging canoe that survived the fire.

The four sailing canoes and their outrigger escorts arrived offshore at Launiupoko as several thousand people walked 3 miles down the Lahaina Bypass, through burn zones on Hokiokio Place and along the oceanfront of Honoapiilani Highway to tents, food, music and festivities at the beach park.

Crew members aboard one of the sailing canoes chanted, asking the ancestors for guidance. Honu (sea turtles) poked their heads out of the water along the way. Just outside the circle of canoes, humpback whales breached, as if answering the call.

The six-man outriggers paddled around their larger counterparts, stopping now and then to marvel at their designs or to throw shakas to the crewmembers.

The ohana of the waa had come together for Lahaina.

Voices could be heard singing in the distance, above the sound of the ocean meeting the reef at Launiupoko. The walkers, wearing red for Lahaina, became visible along the Honoapiilani Highway.

Carrying state flags and banners, they made their way toward the beach, as the outrigger canoes lined up to land. Once on the beach, canoe crews united with the walkers, sharing tears, smiles, and hugs — many hugs.

He waa he moku, he moku he waa. The canoe is an island, the island is a canoe. A reminder to work together and malama our island. On that day, we were all Lahaina strong.

To watch the Lahaina Unity Gathering, visit: tinyurl.com/Unity-Gathering

The little holistic farm that could

At Simple Roots, regenerative agriculture sprouts seed of hope

by Mona de Crinis

Korey and Alissa Harris on property with son, Kelan, and daughter, Kennedy

As dusk falls upcountry, deepening the folds where Haleakala reaches for the sea, paniolo (cowboys) and ranch hands from Olinda to Ulupalakua wrap up the day’s chores without a hitch. For some, the work is almost innate, written into their DNA or burned into neural pathways through time, tradition and rote.

On a scratch of pastureland straddling Makawao, a young farmer corrals his milk cow’s calf for the night. Grabbing hold of the collar, he slowly leads Peanut Butter toward the paddock. But as baby bulls do, Peanut Butter takes off on a full sprint with the farmer in tow, ducking electrical lines and dodging nomadic chicken shelters in a clip worthy of the Keystone Cops.

Don’t blame the farmer though — or the bull; that chicken-coop obstacle course set in a tangle of wires wasn’t there 24 hours earlier. At Simple Roots regenerative farm, nothing stays the same. And that’s just how partners Erin McFarland and Korey and Alissa Harris like it. In fact, moving everything around daily was their idea.

It’s a holistic approach to encouraging soil health known as rotational grazing, a key principle of regenerative agriculture. Using temporary fencing, or electric wire, and wheeled chicken shelters to reposition farm animals gives the land pause from pecking hens and grazing bovines and time to absorb the organic matter left behind.

It’s also how three impassioned providers are changing Maui’s farm-to-table landscape. Prioritizing fields over yields, Simple Roots works with nature to offer the only pasture-raised chicken currently available on island and other just-harvested delights — all from the seed of a simple home garden.

While pregnant with their second child, Korey and Alissa Harris wanted to plant a few backyard veggies during maternity leave. Korey, an officer with the Maui Police Department, and Alissa, a board-certified behavior analyst working in child development, consulted Upcountry gardening guru Erin McFarland at a friend’s recommendation. She told them to add chickens, the “gateway to farming.”

Alissa Harris repositions chicken coop with help from Erin McFarland.

They talked for a long time. Erin used words like “sustainable,” “permaculture” and “self-reliance,” which unearthed in Korey an untapped desire for Kennedy and her older brother, Kelan, to grow up understanding food origin and the value in caring for animals and the land.

“I want to make a go of this,” he told his wife one spring night over dinner in 2022, and a partnership was born. A few short months later, they entered a work-trade arrangement for six acres Upcountry, which had been run with horses and matted in thigh-high sour grass.

Toiling weekdays long after the whistle blew on their day jobs and weekends sun-up to sundown, they cleared the land and gave it space to breathe. In less than a year, the trio had transformed the acreage into bucolic pastureland with quality grass free of pesticides or chemical fertilizers.

By July 2022, they had completed their first harvest, filled their first orders and grabbed the attention of elite Maui chefs. Pacifico on the Beach, Papaaina and other popular restaurants began sourcing Simple Roots for local, sustainably farmed chicken. With business on an uptick, Korey took the plunge and resigned from the police department to focus fully on the farm.

Then Lahaina burned, and with it, most of Simple Roots’ West Maui restaurant business. Saddled with harvests and few buyers, they donated the considerable surplus of those first months following to feed fire victims and partnered with Common Ground Collective, which sourced supplies for Chef Hui and westside food distribution hubs. Fortunately, Upcountry dining hotspot Marlow and about 500 loyal kama‘aina customers are keeping them afloat while the island heals.

With a Kiss-the-Ground sensibility root-ed in compassionate land stewardship, Simple Roots appeals to enlightened foodies as well as the auntie on the prowl for local product. And for those suffering allergies, autoimmune diseases and dietary restrictions that prohibit eating commercially harvested chicken or meat refrigerated too long, it is a prayer answered.