Mahalo Miloliʻi

            Over twenty years ago I was a UH graduate student, interning for the back-then very-new Marine Program for the Nature Conservancy in Hawai‘i.  Invited by Uncle (and eventual State Senator) Gil Kahele, Miloliʻi was my first community-based ocean management ‘project.’ Over the course of many late-night talk story sessions, day-long dives, canoe paddles, and meals (sour poi and dried aku belly!) I quickly learned that this wasn’t a project I was assiting with, but a way of life I was invited into—with roots centuries deep, stubbornly persistent even in the face of rapidly changing times and increasing pressures.

            What an amazing experience it was! We supported traditional ‘ōpelu fishing programs, documented customary practices, strategically planned, laid a resource baseline along the coastline, worked with community to develop community monitoring protocols, and even established the State’s first Makai Watch program alongside Miloliʻi residents. We began exploring (back then) a new statute allowing for Community-Based Subsistence Fishing Areas (CBSFA) based on the Miloliʻi community’s customary and traditional fishing practices. I wouldn’t claim any attribution of this work, only support of it. And in doing so, my gift has been the chance to play a small part in this special community. My privilege has been a front row seat to it all over the years.        

            So what a vantage point decades later from which to celebrate the passage of the Miloliʻi CBSFA on August 2, 2022, signed into law by Governor David Ige. It is an important milestone, but one along a road whose beginning and end cannot be seen. This is an effort that has spanned generations and one that will belong to many more. Even during my brief look into this journey, those who were once ʻōpio in the community when these efforts began are now the teachers for today’s Miloli‘i youth. Those kūpuna who led the start of this effort are sadly no longer with us to see this day, but are nevertheless remembered and honored within what is being set forward. They now take residence in the roots of this effort, steadfast and permanent. Those who are youth now will be empowered by these rules to be future leaders in this community, taking their place on the growing edge of the movement to continue the practices, traditions, and values unbroken through many lifetimes. These CBSFA rules will help to sustain reefs based on proven traditional practice. As they have done for centuries, the health of these reefs will continue to hold these individuals, families, and generations together—as a community.

            For the rest of us, this is not an effort to be excluded, but rather an invitation to join in those traditional and sustainable fishing practices when we are in the area, and contribute to its sustainability. In our own places, Miloliʻi helps to fundamentally change what our communities see as possible. Environmental self-determination for communities is possible. These efforts have grown, and improved throughout the State thanks to motivated communities, committed non-profit partners, and State agencies that are increasingly understanding that they are a part of our communities, too. Mahalo, Miloliʻi.