 Aloha and welcome back to Talk Story with John Waihei. Here we are another week and another interesting show. With us today we have two of the most, I guess, esteemed members of the Kauaihao Church here on O'ahu. First of all we have Kahu, Kenneth Makuaqani, who is the young Kahu for the Church, and I'm so excited to have you here, Ken. And the big boss, the Board of Trustees, the chairman of the Board of Trustees for Kauaihao Church. He's the spiritual leader and you're the guy that gets the money, right? Well, we try. We try our best, you know? We work for eternal life over there. Yeah, that seems to be the pay for most people working for churches. Governor, did you say esteemed leaders or esteemed? Esteemed. That's sort of a combination of both. Thank you for that. All right. Well, tell us a little bit just about Kauaihao, for those of us people viewing that may not know. You know, we are termed as the Westminster Abbey of Hawai'i, the Mother Church. We were established in 1820 when the missionaries first came over, and then this iteration, this building was put together. And this is the building on the corner? The corner of Punchbowl and King. Punchbowl and King, right. Right across from City Hall. Right across from City Hall. Oh, the prettiest. Okay, tell us about it. Yeah, so in 1841, King Kamehameha III, Kauaihao Wuli, had built this wonderful stone church, which is actually built of coral. I mean, the interesting part about it is that all this coral rock comes from the reef out in Waianae coast. And then they swam down and they chiseled it. But they did it in a way that was ecologically viable. They didn't destroy the reef out there. Back in 1839. Can you imagine? And also engineering at its finest, because they went down there, chipped it away into slabs, a thousand pound slabs. Yeah, wow. And then rectangles, and then they brought it up to shore, threw it in the canoe. Right. And then they had to bring it all the way down the shore to where Honolulu is presently. That's fantastic. And then 14,000 slabs. 14,000, 1,000 pound slab. Wow. So that's the church that's located on the corner of Punchbowl and King Street. Yes. And it's the Westminster Abbey of Hawaii. Now, unfortunately, we're going to start off with not the best part of the history, but recently, the news reports were that there were a number of gravestones. As I understand it, the church itself is next to the church are a number of graveyards. Yeah. We're on seven acres. The Kauahau church owns seven acres in urban Honolulu, and it's basically one city block. And the cemetery itself is on about three of those acres. Right. And so it's a rather large cemetery, Hawaiian families. And these are members of families that are members of the church? Yeah. Or part of the royal families, too. And on the property is King Lunalilu's tomb as well. Yes. And then further in is where the headstones that were vandalized. So you had some of the headstones in these graveyards of vandalized. What does that mean? Okay. Well, what they did was whoever did it, and we don't know whether it's singular or collective. We don't know whether it's random or complicit. But 27 headstones were toppled over. Now, these are old, ancient headstones. Over 100 years old. I mean, old, about 100 years old. Over 100 years. So 27 were toppled for whatever reason happened on the day before Independence Day, July 3rd. So we went down and we took a look at it. It was rather stunning to tell you the truth. I expected probably had a very negative effect on your... On everybody. Yeah. On the community. And I'm assuming the church membership must have been really saddened by all of this. So angry at the... It certainly stunned. It was very... I mean, we had a number of the descendants that came down and there was a lot of crying going on. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's like your ancestors, maybe even the people who your grandmother talked to you about. That's right. And so forth. It was a dark episode. At that particular time, that moment was a stunning moment for everybody. And it didn't matter what faith-based organization you're living, you're a part of, we're getting calls from all over the place. And so the next day was July 4th. We did the regular police report. We found out what we had to do officially. And then the next day, we were starting to reach out. It was July 4th. It was Independence Day. Right, right, right, right. So we took a lay down. And we draped the... All of these. We had stones with lay. And family began coming down. And actually, there began some bright spots that we can remember, recall from the first moments, like family coming down to meet each other for the first time over the griefs. Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh, that's pretty. Well, to add to it, we find out that under these grief stones, you think there's only one kupuna. But then we find out from the families, no, there's like up to nine that are buried in the same spot. Wow. But only the families would know this information. And do we have a plan to restore any of this? Well, you know, this is so interesting that we're talking with you today, which is approximately, oh, a week plus a couple of days since the event. Right. And, you know, we're pleased to say that some of the people that responded, we as a church, this is not what we... We're not the experts. We're not the stone masons. Right, right. That do this type of work. So, you know, we reached out to some professionals, and then the boys from the union, the bricklayers union. Really? Local one, Mel Silva gives us a call. And he says, you know, Brick, I'm not a religious guy, but I was listening on to the radio. You see, all the bad boys who were forced to go to church on Sunday, you know, they all start off with it. I'm not a religious guy, but nobody better hurt my church. That's right. So that morning, actually, Wednesday morning, Kahu had texted me and said, you know, 20 headstones plus went down. So I went down there. And then the next day was July 4th. And that's, I guess that's when Mel's heard about it on the radio and he immediately drove down. He said, God, God talk to me? Oh, am I okay? I'm not a religious guy. I'm not a religious guy. God talk to me. But I know his voice when I hear it. And he said, you know, I'm so disgusted by this. He said, we want to do everything. Well, that's why I wanted you on the show today because I was moved personally by the whole episode. I mean, you just don't do that sort of thing. So for whatever reason, you know, the church wants to pray for whomever because we believe that, you know, the universe, we're just going to do what we do, which is restore and repair as best as we can for the families of the church for Hawaii. And then we obviously are going to revisit our security systems for the church. So that's exactly what we did. By the end of the first week, we had essentially talked to the people that could repair and restore and revisited our security system. So what happened was... Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Today, about 15 bricklayers came down and they restored everything. Really? The stones are back up. Okay, let me tell you the backstory. So he and I show up the next morning and all of the head stones are down. So there's four of us. There's four guys. We can't even lift one of these things back up. Wow. And you're looking at two pretty strong Hawaii. The strongest. I tried to attach the rope because, you know, we figured this is the strongest part of Hawaii. Oh my God. Yeah, I can just see. I know you tough guys are out there. Okay, so four of us, we only could pick up one stone. Really? Yeah, the others are like 300, 400 pounds. I heard that these stones are really like... I wouldn't know if the word is antique, but they were old stones. I mean, these are not something that you could just go and... So for people to understand how old... Look at the Bishop Museum. You see, all those rocks, that's the same kind of stones we're talking about. Wow. So when you imagine Bishop Museum rocks, you know, the building is the same kind of... So anyway, this thing, you got this all restored. Now, the Reikler's Union, right? Yeah, right. And Allied Craftsmen. And Allied Craftsmen. Local one. So they are actually know what they're doing. They know what they're doing. I mean, this is not a question of just getting help. Well, when they came down to assess the situation, right, because Mel sent down about four guys. So we're meeting with them and I said, what about you know, maybe dolls might crack the heads more. Right. But we got epoxy. I said, oh, how strong is the epoxy? He said, we build the condominiums with this stuff. Oh, okay. You know best. So that's what they did today. In one day, it was amazing. We had planned on like one week, right? Yeah. They brought down about 15 guys. You know, I, I gotta tell you, you know, the community, it's really heartwarming when the community responds like that, especially through a tragedy like this. Oh, absolutely. You know, I guess you want to take this opportunity to give a shout out to all of these people. Yeah. Thank you very much. Well, I understand that the mission houses, earlier had a similar situation. I mean, I mean, you know, earlier had a similar type of. Exactly. Two of theirs were. Oh, two. Yes. Two. And there, you know, they found a suspect. Well, it was a long shot, kind of a far shot. And, you know, I'm not quite sure whether a person of that stature could do what they did to those stones, to headstones that quite house. Yeah, because if you guys couldn't lift one of these headstones, I mean, you need, well, you're going to have to need somebody with an awful lot of Yeah, or more than one. More than one. Right. But interestingly enough, the stones, some of them were about half of the stones that were toppled over were on like foundation bases. So the mortar was about 100 years old that attached them. So maybe they could have done it, but certainly it took a lot of hands to lift it back up and to set it again. Well, you know, I'm glad that the story has a good ending. And I appreciate at least what you were alluding to when you said, as far as the church concern, you know, you just want to restore everything. Yeah. So I'm assuming that punishment is in the hands of don't play around with the, without cool, you know, but yeah. Interesting. All the civil authority. Everybody that we've talked to understands that idea too, you know, that we can only do so much immediately, short term, midterm, long term. Right. The short term, the repair restoration is just about done because tomorrow they're going to go around and grout the sides. Okay. I speak English, but grout. Yeah. Grout. You know, the tiles. The tiles. Yeah. In between of the each. Oh, okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I think I know. No, I don't. I can speak with a heart. Yeah. But thank you to everybody for putting their hands. That was really good. This is a good chapter in the history of Hawaii. But I also know that we have an exciting celebration coming on. Right. You know, and, and it's because I guess the, the church itself was founded in 1820. Yes. 1820. So that makes us 200 years old next year. So next year, the Kauai Hau will be 200 years old. That's right. The original Kauai Hau church was a grass shack, a long grass shack. And then, you know, decade and maybe a few years later, it became what it is today when it was commissioned by the elite will be built in such a manner. Yeah. 1844. 1941. Yeah. And so it's always been the elite church of Hawaii. And interestingly enough, we've gone through some, some special times where, you know, they during the overthrow. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Kauai Hau, we're not blameless too, right? When we had our, we had our. But before we go there though, we're going to take a short break. And when we come back, we want to talk about exactly that. We want to talk about those moments. So right now we're going to take a short break and we will be right back. I'm Richard Emery, one of the co-hosts with Kondo Carter sitting next to my other co-host, Jane Sugimura. We're very pleased to be on Think Tech Hawaii and provide this show of education, news and topics affecting living in an association. About 38% of our population lives in an association. And you have very specific needs and rules to make an effective pairing of your home. So we're glad to be a part of this show. And what do you think, Jane? And yes, we're very proud to be part of this program. And what we want to do is to bring to all of the people who are involved with Kondo, especially people still on the boards and the owners, topics that, you know, will assist them in governing their projects and, you know, dealing with issues that, you know, that boards and owners have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. Our show is every Thursday at 3 o'clock. We hope you watch it and always feel free to send in topics for discussion. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. Welcome back to Talk Story with John Waihei. Why are we having an interesting story? We're talking about Kauai Hau Church today. We just got through discussing what happened with the vandalism of the grave sites and how the community pulled together to today, on this very day, restore all the grave headstones that had gotten thrown over. For those of you that want to ask our guests any question, the number to call is 808-374-2014. We have with us the Cahu of Kauai Hau Church, Kenneth Makua Kani, and we have the chairman of the Board of Trustees, Senator Brickwood Gullateri. So here we are talking about the Kauai House. You know, actually, you know, we did have one call that just came in and the question was about vandalism. I just wanted to make sure that we know that's not vandalism, that's desecration. Desecration. And desecration. Absolutely. I apologize for using that word. No, no, I thank you to the caller for calling in because desecration means that you have taken something that's sacred and you have turned that around and something that's very heavy. You know, and so it's like going into somebody's house and victimizing you. More than just throwing rubbish on your yard. Because how can you say, you know, that's desecration when, what do these families and their kupuna do to you to make you want to desecrate or something that's sacred to your families? That is sacred and that is so meaningful. Right. So yeah, desecration and thank you for bringing that up and actually correcting me because I don't think we should ever use the word vandalism. You know, interesting what it's done for the church to ingest this short amount of time since the desecration up until today. And one of the really warm parts of the story is there's a young lady, her name is Yvonne, I can't recall her last name, but she works right across the street and she saw what happened. She came over and who indeed was her great-grandma. Wow. Was her family great. And she was crying. And today, I saw her walk out of the church cemetery. She had just gotten through checking out the grave and she got a chance to talk to the bricklayers themselves. Right. And to thank them. She had this beaming smile on her face. You know, it was a new day for her and so it's not a lot for different people in different ways. Well, I'll tell you what, it's a new day and we got an exciting time coming up. You were just beginning to tell us about the 200 anniversary, but before we got quite there we had a little bit of history. Yeah, we went to 1893. We were at 1893, from 1820 when the... Yeah, right. When the church was erected. When the church was erected. Bingo, I guess. Reverend Bingo. It was the first one. The first one. By the way, he was the missionary who converted a lot of people and then went home, you know. Yeah, well, it was just an idea. The idea actually went to Boston. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he started that... But I mean, this one went home. He didn't hang around and mess around with everybody else. Okay. So 1893, well, tell us what... Well, 1893 obviously was the overthrow. Yeah. Right? And then the days that led up to the overthrow. Now, history would suggest, in fact, we'll probably confirm and ask for apologies again, but you know, quite how it was complicit in some of this. Oh, unfortunately. And that's why Lili Okalane actually left the church. This was the mother church. And she went to... St. Andrews. St. Andrews, yes. Yes. Which has its own history. Right, right. But this church since then has done practically everything it could to support Hawaiian culture and the Hawaiian community. Well, absolutely. I mean, this is the home of where... Of the Hawaiian Lahuwi. The Eliti Sundays. Yeah. Where the societies and the civic clubs all come together to celebrate the birthday of a... Of a royal... So you were telling me you had this meeting with the royal societies and you had to tell them... He had to tell them... No, when Kamu came, it first came, which was about a year ago, you know, new season, right? Right, right. And so he was doing things that, you know, we're not used to. Sorry. For you. For me. You've got a young couple. Things are going to be different. Well, you've got to tell them why you did what you did. We cry because this is our people. When we talk about home. You know, we try to split up. Are you Hawaiian or are you Christian? Right. No, no, no. We are and. We are people of and. We are Hawaiian. We are Christian. We are humans. And so we have to embrace everything. He talked about being universal. You know, we are all about humanity and about all of creation. And so when he was talking about the church being complicit, and that was during the time of the Reverend Henry Hodges Parker. Oh! You know, Henry Parker, who did... He was kind of, I think kind of related to me. Somehow. Maybe. Right. But anyway, what did he do? What he would be the only relative I had. You're going to apologize too? Maybe. No. So at that time, the Royal Societies came in and also the Board of Trustees for Liliu Kalanitras. And it was during Liliu's birthday. Lili Sunday. It was Lili Sunday. And they sat there. And I started talking about all of the things that Liliu did. And he had a great saying from that timeless princess. Oh, yeah, yeah. What was it? He needed to end that. She stood down so that we can stand up. Yes. She stood down. Yes, yes, yes. That was his, yeah. What a beautiful saying. She stood down so we could stand up. Which is exactly a very apt description of what she did in respect to the overthrow. Right. And so that's what happened was because of what he was saying it made me feel really bad. So you made things porno with... Right. I said this is a hundred-year, you know, a little over a hundred years later. It is time. And so I went to the trustees who were sitting in the front views and I went on my knees and I apologized on behalf of the church. Wow. You know, I'm sure that... I'm sure there was a very moving moment for everybody. Yeah. And I'm sure that there were a few little older conservative members that might have... Yeah, what are you doing that for? But you know, that's why you want a young pastor. I don't know. But the thing like today... Reasonable. But just like today. You know, the news came over because they were repairing the headstones. And so they asked me, so what do you want to say? I want... I said, I want to say I forgive you. Wow. Wow. Because just as much as we ask for forgiveness, we also have to be the ones to offer forgiveness first. Because in terms of the church and in terms of the spirituality of it, you know, this... Whoever did this, you know, you want to forgive them. Sure. That's somebody else's job to make sure they never do it again. Yeah. But let me just say as the chair of the board, if we do find someone, we will, to the fullest extent, of the law take care of that. Right. But until such time, I mean, we said we're going to, you know... Yeah, no, I understand. I understand the difference between forgiving and making sure that the consequences... That's correct. You know, in fact, if I was younger, I would say that if I found the guy... Yeah. We will forget our Christianity. But just for a moment, Pastor, I promise you, we will afterwards ask for forgiveness ourselves. Okay, okay. Definitely. Okay, let's talk about the 200 anniversary. Yeah. So we go to next year, the 200 anniversary. Are we planning events leading up to that? I mean, what happens? I mean, this is a great moment. The Westminster Abbey of Hawaii, where I guess the kings were actually crowned. Okay. You want to get back to 200. Let me talk about 200. How we care only. Kamehameha III. Remember, France was the first one that overthrew us. Right. For six months, when they gave us back the kingdom, on the stairs of the brand-new Kauaihau church, is when Kamehameha III proclaimed on the front steps of Kauaihau, Oamao, Kea, Otakaina, Ikapono. Right there. Yeah. And that was the beginning of the, you know, and it was at those moments that made Hawaii the civilized country that everybody wrecked. You know, we got 200 years. Was it the French or the British that took it over? I think it was Admiral Thomas. It was the British, right? You know what? There was all Europeans to me. Yeah. One of those guys. Just between us. They sound different, but they all look alike. Just between us. Just between us, guys. Anyway, we got the 200 coming up. Yeah. It's going to be quite coin and eventful here. Yeah. We're already, we've begun documenting it and, you know, it'll probably begin with a full-scale documentary about the history of the church. So it's going to go on major media. Okay. We'll move in that direction. We've got some incredible events that are planned for the entire year. A time capsule that we're going to assemble together. Isn't there a kind of already a time capsule someplace in the building? It was already open several years ago. It was already open. It was a cornerstone. And under the cornerstone. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to put, you know, items from 2020 to be opened up in maybe 21 to 20. What kind of stuff would you put in? You make it interesting. You know, sometimes in the old days, they used to make it so... We're going to put this show in there. I don't know if you want to be that interesting. We may both jump in there. You know, I'd say it's funny, but I remember when I was governor, we did one of those things, you know? And years later, I thought, man, it was the most boring stuff. We put in some fake budget. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we've yet to determine what that is, but probably, you know, the Hawaiian Bible. You mean the budget? The state budget. The church budget. The church budget. Okay, so we got that. We got a number of events planned. And when would be, like, the major day? Okay, so on September 22nd is what we call the commissioning Sunday. So there will be a bunch of us, including the senator, that will be going to Boston. And why Boston is because Henry Upoka Hia went to the East Coast, became a Christian, wanted fervently for Hawaii to be Christianized, but he passed away prior to that in 18... And that's why Bingham and the rest of the mission? Yes, and so on, what is October 15th of 1820 is when they were commissioned at the Park Street Church in Boston. So are you doing these things like with the home church, I guess? The home church we are. So we will be delivering the message, the same message that was delivered in 1820. We're going to deliver the same message, 1819, the same message in 2019, both in English and in the Hawaiian language. Well, that's fantastic. So they're going to hear Hawaiian in Boston. I want to thank both of you for being here today. And for those of you listening, we got a great, great year planned over the course of this year and beginning again in 2020 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Westminster Abbey of Hawaii. Aloha, everybody. Join us in two weeks.