Moloka'i nui a Hina.............
This past week, I returned to Moloka'i (Hawaiian Islands) after an absence of some years. Measuring 10 miles by 38 miles, with a population of about 7000 people, Moloka'i has been designated 'The Friendly Island' by State of Hawaii public relations flacks and has the highest percentage of people with Hawaiian lineage (estimated at between 37% and 45%) of all the islands that comprise Captain Cook's 'Sandwich Islands' chain; a further 30% are of Filipino extraction, and the balance are whites. While O'ahu, Maui, Hawai'i (the 'Big Island'), and Kaua'i have all been developed to excess, reeling from the ravages of real estate speculation run amok, overrun by tourism, and generally loved to death by visiting mainland Haoles, the lovely island of Moloka'i has somehow managed to retain its original low-key, traditional flavor.
The name Moloka'i may be translated as
"The land of gathering waters" (according to one source); it was
traditionally known by native Hawaiians as "Moloka'i Pule-o'o" ("Moloka'i
of the powerful
prayers", due to the island's purported potent evil spirits. Lying 8.5
miles northwest of Maui and 9 miles north of Lana'i, it is 5th largest of the
Hawaiian Islands group (260 square miles only). Comprised of the outflux of two
large volcanoes and one smaller one,
eastern Moloka'i rises to a height of nearly 5000 feet (Kamakou summit) and consists
largely of lush tropical forest growing in profusion on the flanks of its
heights. To the west, the ancient volcano known as Mauna Loa (not to be confused
with the "Big Island's" famous and much higher volcano of the same
name) rises to a more modest height of only 1380 feet and is an arid, dry region
that catches only a small fraction of the eastern end of the island's
substantial annual rainfall. The two polar volcanic protrusions are joined by a
connecting plain that is today the site of experimental farming projects and the
communities of Ho'olehua (the island's airport, serviced by several inter-island
carriers and air-charter companies, is located there) and Kualapu'u. The western
third of the island was acquired by private interests that in 1895 established
what has come to be known as The Moloka'i Ranch; this was an active cattle,
horse, and sheep ranch for decades, although a large part of it was leased to
Dole and Libby for pineapple cultivation until the 60s (it is now owned by a New
Zealand company). The real centre of
'local' population is the small community of
Kaunakakai, 
which is located on the
southern shore of the island, about midway from east to west coasts. This part
of Moloka'i fronts what has been described as the longest and most spectacular
extended reef outside of Australia's Great Barrier Reef. At low tide, the depth
of the reef is only about 8 feet, and a profusion of fish may be found there.
Most of the island's population lives in the Kaunakaka'i area (about 4000 of the
total 7000 or so), in or around the town.
When in the Kaunakakai area, as we were, staying in the Hotel Moloka'i (see link at bottom of page) this time, one of the chief attractions on Ala Malana Street ('main street') in the town is the Kanemitsu Bakery. Started many years ago by a Japanese immigrant to provide baked goods to the plantations, this great little bakery today makes wonderful breads, cakes, sweets, and all sorts of other delicious baked goods. Their items go fast in the early morning, however, so one has to get in ASAP after the store opens to be assured of getting the goods. There is also a hometown, low-key cafe on the premises where locals have breakfast.
As for coffee, aside from the Moloka'i Estate Coffees plantation near Kualapu'u, there are two coffee shops in Kaunakaka'i for the die-hard caffeine freak (moi): the first is Stanley's Coffee Shop Gallery, which combines a coffeehouse on its first floor (with internet access) with a gallery upstairs that showcases local Moloka'ian artists. The other coffeehouse is located near the Moloka'i Pizza Cafe (a new and modern cafe that serves a range of good things) and is run by a proselytizing Christian goody-good type who stocks 'bible-thumper tracts' in his store along with the cappucinos (so I didn't even bother to try it...). There are a number of small, 'local' cafes here and there along Ala Malana Street and they all have to be tried, of course.
Kaunakaka'i
has a small surf shop (surprise!), a fairly good restaurant at the Hotel
Moloka'i, several energetic grocery and general stores, a few real estate
offices (the enemy!), a post office, a Chevron gas station, a drug store, an ice
cream shop (surprise!), and even a community hospital (Moloka'i General) with
clinics and an emergency room (especially serious emergencies, however, are air-evac'ed
to facilities on the bigger islands). Small though it may be, Molokai has three small newspapers (The
Moloka'i Dispatch, the Moloka'i Advertiser News, and most recently The Molokai
Island Times); the Molokai Advertiser News is published on the East End of the island,
The Dispatch is published in Maunaloa Town, and The Molokai Island Times is
published in Kaunakakai.
To the north, the eastern end of the island's 'North Coast' rises steeply from the ocean in immense sea cliffs soaring almost 3000 or more feet (some of the tallest in the entire world). With no reef to protect it, the ocean in that area is wild, restless, and endlessly pounds the volcanic shores with unceasing fury. The steep cliffs, overgrown with lush tropical foliage, are so sheer that neither Sherpa nor mountain goat could successfully negotiate their slopes. Although millions of gallons of fresh rain water drop daily into the sea from these cliffs (via spectacular waterfalls), it is from this part of the island that most of the entire water supply of Moloka'i comes, via a 5 mile long tunnel that penetrates the eastern mountain core to deliver the water to holding reservoirs at Kualapu'u. Despite this aqueduct, water remains the island's principal concern even through the present.
The wind-swept western part of the
island, including the area in and around the small plantation community of Mauna
Loa, belongs mainly to the Moloka'i Ranch organisation, which has been in contentious interaction
with the indigenous peoples of the island for over a century. As might well be
imagined, the local economy is very modest and low key, with the highest rates
of unemployment in the entire Hawaiian Islands chain. Thus, the native Hawaiians
("locals", as they prefer to 
be called) are ever engaged in a
love/hate relationship with Moloka'i Ranch (which is now owned by a New Zealand
firm); as oppressive as Moloka'i Ranch's presence may seem to be, the employment and
water management rights which it controls are crucial for the local economy--a
factual view many are reluctant to acknowledge. The island's only large luxury
resort complex, the Sheraton Kaluakoi Hotel, Golf & Tennis Club, recently
shut down (pending reorganisation by new owner, Moloka'i Ranch), but a large
section of condominiums remain there, using the extensive Kaluakoi grounds and
golf course. We stayed there on our first visit (1990) and were surprised to
find the hotel now closed (2004). In Mauna Loa, Moloka'i Ranch has opened an
expensive new development, known as the Moloka'i Ranch Inn, and has rebuilt the
quaint old pineapple plantation town into a new urban development that attempts
(only partly successfully, in my opinion) a flavor of the old time plantation
era. There, the island's only motion picture show plays the latest film hits
from the mainland.
One of the recent changes in the island relates to efforts to diversify the island's economy, a process that is still being experimented with. Now that pineapples are no long a source of income (Dole and Libby used to have large plantations on Moloka'i that provided steady employment for locals, but the last plantation closed operations down in the late 80s), new sources of economic income are being developed. One of these is coffee; Moloka'i Estate Coffees has a plantation situated in Kualapu'u that covers more than 500 acres. While the coffee plantation provides local employment, the coffee itself is excellent and some of the best I've had from Hawaii. In fact, I obtain my coffee beans from Moloka'i my mail order, sent to me in 5 pound bags. Two excellent types sold by Moloka'i Estate Coffees are their ESPRESSO and their MULESKINNER (a dark, strong roast of Arabica beans), but there are several other types, as well. See the link at bottom, below, to order genuine 'grown in Moloka'i coffee'. If you are a genuine card-carrying, long-time coffee freak like myself (I began my habit back in the Berkeley coffee houses of the late 60s), you won't regret it!
Farming is also big on Moloka'i, believe it or not; The University of Hawaii has several large experimental stations operating there and this effort is so successful that Moloka'i now supplies most of all the other islands' fruits and vegetables. The Moloka'i High School football team is known as the 'Moloka'i Farmers', so much a part of the island is this farming activity. In that part of the middle island area near Hoolehu'u where the experimental farms are operating, a number of native Hawaiian farms also operate on the Native Hawaiian Homestead Act land (this is land given at no cost to individuals with at least 50% Hawaiian blood who wish to cultivate the property).
One very ingenious local enterprise is the brainchild of a local woman who has created a thriving business from the sea-salts found on Molokai. While this is just starting to be developed, the idea is exactly the sort of thing that Molokai needs: locally owned business that has a very substantial interest in the island and its peoples (and not the sort of corporate greed-motivated, mainland-owned enterprise that usually obtains in most places in the islands.
Most
of the higher eastern end of the island is now part of the Moloka'i National
Park and Forest Reserve, as is the entire Makanalua Peninsula, site of the
Father Damien's Kalaupapa colony for
victims of Hanson's Disease (Leprosy). It is now a monument to the tragic lives of
those condemned to live there in splendid, but fierce isolation from the rest of
the world in earlier decades. On the east end of Moloka'i live a number of
anti-establishment types, who shun the conveniences of modern society in
austere, but invariably breathtakingly beautiful natural settings. The whole
area of the Northeast Coast is so isolated that hardly anyone lives there, which
is somewhat ironic, considering that 1200 years ago, the earliest Polynesian
sea-farers located there, and for centuries afterwards its population was far
higher than it is today on the entire rest of the island!
In ancient times, Moloka'i was regarded by the peoples of Hawaii as having very powerful mana (spiritual power) and its priests/kahunas were considered to be formidable. Today, Moloka'i is still the most 'sacred' of the islands in the old religious ways, with a number of very sacred sites ('Heiau', or religiously Kapu ["taboo"] temples/shrines). There is, for this reason, all the more resistance among locals to any modern development plans for the island by commercial interests. In fact, back in the late 70s and early 80s, this "most friendly of the islands" saw a substantial home-grown resistance movement gain strength among a coalition of locals and immigrant haoles. An article on Moloka'i appearing in a 1981 issue of National Geographic magazine references vandalism of tourist rental cars, deliberated spiking of visitors' tires, and other expressions of antipathy to development. In the 23 years that have passed since that time, the militant aspect of the resistance has toned itself down considerably, although there is still very strong anti-growth sentiment to be found everywhere among locals. Today, although Moloka'i is still considered "the friendly island", that attitude is tempered largely by how you treat the locals. Genuinely good and generous vistors who embrace the island's layback charm are welcomed warmly in the old manner, but those who are overly demanding, overbearing, condescending, in too much of a hurry, out to make a quick buck, or insensitive to the unique lifestyle that is found on Moloka'i are treated accordingly.
Anyone who is unfamiliar with the
Hawaiian Islands is doubtless confounded by the supremely relaxed lifestyle
affected by native islanders, a feeling most often expressed with the
hand-gesture known as the "shaka" (you can easily visualise it if you
think of a traditional western "thumbs-up" gesture performed with the
pinky finger of the same hand extended). In Moloka'i, time slows down even
further than it does on the other islands. The local speed limits are 35 mph (45
max on the few main roads), and being "on time" in Moloka'i means
arriving within a few hours of the intended hour (or perhaps not at all, if the
fishing or surfing is good). The bottom line is that those who expect the sort
of glitzy Las Vegas titillation of Waikiki or Honolulu will be grossly
disappointed. The streets roll up at 6Pm, there are no stoplights on the island
at all, and a traffic jam on Moloka'i typically occurs when two locals stop on
the roadway to 'talk story' (enjoy some relaxed conversation). If, on the other
hand, you absolutely hate the fast-paced fantasyland life most Americans now
consider everyday status quo, you'll love the island. Moloka'i has on its
western shore (near Kapuhi Bay) one of the longest (3 miles in length), most
spectacular and most beautiful white-sand beaches in the entire Pacific (known
as Papohaku Beach). This beach is typically almost entirely empty--usually not a
single
footprint disturbs it. When the notorious rip-currents are not dangerously
active, it has some of the finest surfing to be found anywhere, as well. Thanks
to imported deer and wild pigs that have since overrun the island, there is
excellent hunting to be found on Moloka'i, which is forever waging a running
battle against these non-native species (not that I am a hunter myself, but for
those who are, the hunting here is astoundingly rewarding).
Moloka'i's most noteworthy characteristic, aside from its desire to remain undeveloped and easy-going, is its strong emphasis on community that traditionally characterised ancient Hawaiian society. Since most of Moloka'i's inhabitants have intermarried extensively over the past decades, virtually all of the locals are related--either directly, or indirectly. Therefore, the communal spirit is particularly strong on Moloka'i--part of the reason why development and commercialisation interests most often run aground when they try to sweep in, to buy up land, build new resorts, etc. The island's airport at Hoolehu'a receives all the inter-island carriers and flights to and from the other islands are easy to catch, usually in connection with Aloha Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines flights to and from the mainland.
In our recent revisit to the island, I was unhappy (but not too surprised) to find that land values have skyrocketed since 1990, with simple condominiums going for starting rates of $375,000 and most 2 bedroom, modern homes selling for closer to a million and up. A further disturbing development is the growing use of drugs and a particularly severe problem with substance abuse among high school age kids, who have discovered the 'cool' drug-culture ("Ice", or crystal methamphetamine, abuses are most particularly severe). Complicating the problem is the fact that due to the high rates of intermarriage among local islanders, individuals are extremely reluctant to report substance abuse to the authorities, since most others are relatives. Recent reports in the 'Dispatch', published in Mauna Loa, indicate that at just about every other street has at least one or more well known 'drug houses'. One of the locals I talked with in Stanley's Coffee Shop Gallery confided that she has 6 drug-using members in her immediate family alone--several of whom are in recovery status. She expressed shame and regret over this fact, but again restated the fact that because everyone is 'family', it is nearly impossible to get people to report the abusers to public authorities. This is a tricky problem to sort out, to say the least!
Moloka'i
has the singular honor of being the birthplace of the Hula. Each year this
indigenous and beautiful story-telling art form is celebrated in a festival held
at Papohaku Beach (in May). Although the typical clueless mainlander still
thinks of 'hula girls' dressed in scanty grass skirts and little else, the truth
is that Hula is most often performed wearing voluminous dresses (like the
Mu'umu'u) that all but obscure the female figure entirely. We have the Christian
missionaries of the 1800s to thank for that, since traditionally Hawaiian women
went about bare breasted--a condition those staunch conservative religious proselytizers
found absolutely scandalous! An old song still sung today says it
best..."watch the hands, not the lovely hula hips"...since in hula,
the hands are almost as expressive as the human voice in telling story.
Hawaiians tend to be large individuals as a group and it is as common to find that older Hawaiian women are rather heavy-set. I have to admit I wondered about this a bit until I sampled local Moloka'ian fare. A typical Moloka'i meal has about twice the portions of food most mainlanders are used to. A typical side dish includes two LARGE scoops of rice, breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Loads of carbs, needless to say. The average Moloka'ian woman therefore tends to be large (not quite as large as Samoans!) and quite the antithesis of that lovely little stereotypical wisp of a Polynesian girl that is a fixture of most mainlander male fantasies about the South Seas. Actually, it is those women in Hawaii who tend to have a stronger admixture of different races (non native Hawaiian) in their blood that tend to be slender and often stunningly beautiful; more often pure-blooded Hawaiian women are large and heavy-set, with full-boned frames. While this has nothing to do with their inner qualities, which are typically wonderful, extremely generous, and good-hearted, it does tend to dash mainlander stereotypes to rather quickly . My observations have yielded the supposition that those Hawaiian women who have large amounts of Chinese, Japanese, and or Filipino blood in their family are more often among the seriously beautiful ones to be found--whether on Moloka'i or one of the other islands. Lithe slenderness is not, so my observations would suggest, an indigenous Hawaiian (or Polynesian) trait.
Before anyone concludes that I seek to dishonor or detract from the many admirable qualities of native Hawaiian women with what might be misconstrued as being irresponsible sexist disdain, know that I am merely making observations; what you make of them is your own business. For myself, I have always preferred slender, smaller women, and am generally not attracted physically by larger, robust, or overweight females; that's just my personal preference, which I, of course, am perfectly entitled to (after all, I'm just as 'shallow' as the next guy, as regards certain subjects...). Above all, these observations are not intended to be a slam against pure-blooded Hawaiian women, since as we all know, every culture is vastly different in terms of its values, diet, lifestyle, and levels of physical activity. In fact, obesity is a problem throughout the United States that is just now being recognised for the serious health threat is has always been.
On my recent return to Moloka'i, two aspects of island culture not unique to Moloka'i, but certainly concentrated there, were the practices of ancient traditional Hawaiian religion and the traditional Hawaiian fighting art known as 'Ku'ia-lua' (or simply 'Lua'). Hawaiian adepts in Lua were reputed to be extremely strong and skilled in the art of killing by many methods. Lacking iron weapons, as were common in 'civilised' western society, Hawaiian warriors developed a number of very physical techniques to kill their opponents with wooden and stone weapons, but they were especially skilled at subduing enemy warriors in hand-to-hand combat. The powerful strength required of many of the techniques used required much training under the instruction of special kahunas (priests/magicians/sages). So strong were some of these warriors that it has been recorded that they could pull out an enemy's intestines through his anus! While that fact takes some imagining to appreciate, the strength required to do this does also. One must remember that the most recent period of traditional pagan Hawaiian religion (under the priest Pa'ao) required human sacrifice, so a recent resurgence of interest in the Hawaiian martial art of 'Lua' has occasionally prompted mild concerns over the darker aspects of the custom. There is today a small but devoted following of the ancient traditional Hawaiian religion that the Christian missionaries were so dedicated to eliminating, but these theoretical anxieties are mostly academic: the ancient art of Lua helps remind native Hawaiians of their origins and of that part of their culture that the invasion of Christianity has hastened to eliminate.
The island of Moloka'i is known, as mentioned before, as a place of great 'mana' (spiritual power') among the islands and there are a great many sacred sites and other archeological sites in which to take an interest. Native Moloka'ians do not encourage non-locals to take serious interest in these parts of their culture, understandably being concerned about careless desecration of ancestral burial sites and religious Heiau (temples/holy grounds) by outsiders. One of the many strange things that can not be easily explained away by western logic or reason is the ghostly processions of 'night marchers' that occur frequently on the southeast shore of the island (between mile 8 and mile 20, close to the ancient Kawela Battleground and not too far from the Ili'ili'opae Heiau). People who have experienced these unearthly processions of ghostly warriors late at night on certain nights of the lunar month include highly respected and academically credentialed holders of PhDs, so the old stories that are so frequently repeated cannot be dismissed easily. [The Kawela Battleground was the site of a ghastly slaughter in 1736, when the numerically superior forces of invading O'ahu chieftains were routed by the powerful mana of Moloka'i kahuna. Ili'ili'opae Heiau was the site of a feared school that taught kahunas in the dark powers of the Moloka'i mana; it is repported to be one of the more notorious sites of human sacrifice (although not all agree on this) and may be visited on foot, providing permission to pass has been obtained from the private land-owner ("Aunty Pearl") on whose lands it exists. Further east and not that far from the Ili'ili-opae Heiau is the grove of sacred Kukui trees in which the most powerful Hawaiian kahuna of ancient times was buried (Lanikalua). The grove is fenced in today (on private property), as terrible things have happened to those who have desecrated the site. Molokai'ian locals are not anxious for malahini (strangers) to poke around at any of the traditional sites of island mana, least of all this one!]
The
'night marchers' typically are preceded by the sound of drums and flutes, but
sometimes they are not. This apparition takes form in the shape of rows of
ghostly warriors marching from the high slopes of the cliffs rising on the
Kamakou headlands down to the shore; one person who witnessed such a procession
stated that the long lines of warriors included both men and women, with 6 of
each gender abreast of each other, and stretching back up into the hills. It is
said that they march from the burial sites of the 'Ali'i' (royalty), which are
hidden high up on the sheer faces, to their ghostly outriggers on the shore, and
any living person who is found in their way is subject to being killed outright.
Traditional custom, upon being unlucky enough to encounter night marchers in
their processions, is for the person thus unwillingly confronted to tear off all
his clothing and lie prone on the ground until the night marchers have passed
(he still may or may not be killed, according to the whim of the long-dead chief
whose long-dead warriors are passing by). People who live in isolated dwellings
in this part of the island's coast are accustomed to the activities of the night
marchers, but don't discount them any less for that fact. Some have even
witnessed these phantasms passing through their back yards. The strange goings
on of the night marchers is but one of many such anomalies on the 'sacred'
island of Moloka'i Pule-o'o.
My recent return to Moloka'i ended all too soon and I had to embark on the flight back to to the state of semi-crazed 'civilisation' that is modern California with much regret. Predictably, I brought back many books on the two subjects mentioned above for my reference library, but most importantly I was able to experience the perfect peacefulness that is the Moloka'ian way of life again, albeit briefly. It is my hope to finally retire on the island, a place where one may forget all about the increasingly insane activities and daily violence that Californians' today resignedly accept as 'normal life' at home.
Toward that end, I will be spending more wonderful moments in future on the island that is (in my opinion) by far the best of the entire Hawaiian chain.
"Ukuli'i ka pua, onaona i ka mau'u".
("Tiny is the flower, yet it scents the grasses all around).
Aloha nui, hoalo'ha.
November 2004, DocBoink................
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Some useful Moloka'i links:
1) Moloka'i Estate Coffee (where to buy some of the best coffee available in all Hawaii)
2) Moloka'i Visitors' Association (some inside tips on what the island is all about)
3) Moloka'i On-line (da kine Moloka'i ohana homepage, brah.....)
4) Moloka'i Profile (more information on Moloka'i)
5) Molokai Bicycles (a bicycle shop in Kaunakakai)
6) Hotel Moloka'i (REAL down-home digs on Moloka'i)
7) A Cultural History of Hawaii (not Moloka'ian, but still excellent)
8) Useful Resources on Hawaii (an internet general reference on the Islands that is GREAT!)
9) More on the 'Night Marchers' (translation of oral history)
10) The Sovereign Nation of Hawaii (the present effort to return Hawaii to the Hawaiians)
11) The Kingdom of Hawai'i (recognition and restitution of Hawaiian sovereignty)
12) FREE HAWAII (the 'Nation of Hawaii'--another group trying to dissociate Hawaii from US statehood)
13) Further references on modern Hawaiian sovereignty issues
13) Even more resources on indigenous Hawaiian efforts to regain the sovereignty of Hawaii
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Photo credits, top to bottom, left to right: 1) & 2) National Geographic Magazine; 3) Blair Estate Coffees, Kauai, HI; 4) Molokai Estate Coffees; 5) James H. Brocker; 6) Chris Carey; 7) Louis Choris painting 1816; 8) Unknown photographer, 1870; 9) etching by Jaques Arago, 1819; 10) Chris Carey