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| courtesy: Hawaii State Archives |
Lots of ambitious folks moved to town, and started stores
and businesses.
Plantation kids went to university, to Honolulu Town,
to war.
Some went to the legislature,
or launched iconic
Hawaii brands.
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| Courtesy; Hawaii State Archives |
Our generation witnessed the passing
of the plantation.
Some of the sugar mills have been
converted to little shopping malls,
office parks and community centers.
There are still little "plantation houses"
but fewer and fewer.
Unfortunately, the few that remain
along with their aging residents
are today in the hands of
Wall Street types.
Plantations were paternalistic,
they discriminated by color
and race,
fought worker rights for YEARS
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| Courtesy; Hawaii State Archives |
and all that bad stuff,
but they also cared for the workers
after a fashion, and felt a responsibility
to workers, their families and retirees.
The Plantation doctor was beloved and
NOT rich.
Once these properties got transferred
as part of modern "deals."
They ended up in the hands
of bean counters who know nothing of the
cultural legacy that lies in the path
of their new housing developments.
People
have lived their entire lives in
plantation housing at Koloa Camp (Kauai).
in
the little houses on Camp Road.
From 32 houses,
there are now 8 here
still in use.
Now the residents,
mostly seniors on fixed incomes,
have been given
120-Day eviction notices.
Owner Grove Farm is building homes
in the $260,000 - $485,000 USD range. Calling themselves a "Kama`aina Company" They
should KNOW better and DO better!
( Kama`aina is powerful word in Hawaii
that means rooted in
the land, people and culture
of this place, these unique islands. )
Grove Farm has rejected suggestions
that they build on more accessible, less
flood-prone land in the parcel,
or wait for the very last
of the Plantation Generation
to pass at home
in dignity.
This is the last living link
to a bygone era.
An era when
every man was "Uncle"
every woman "Auntie."
I would say that, like Iolani Palace,
the peaks, valleys and Royal Tombs
of these islands,
Camp Road is where
Hawaii's soul lives.
Like in the film The Descendants,
these were Royal Hawaiian lands
granted by the Ali`i (Chiefs)
with certain understandings attached.
Caring for the land and it's people
was EVER the Kuleana
(responsibility) of chiefs.
Grove Farm
Senior Vice President
Mike Tresler.
is not, incidentally,
living on a senior citizens fixed income,
or related to any of those seniors
he is evicting.
Sorry he has to feel bad.
You can console him at:
Street Address:
3-1850 Kaumualii Highway
Lihue, Hawaii 96766-7069
