 Welcome to another episode of Talk Story with John Wahee and as usual we have a guest for you this afternoon that should really hold your interest for more time than I have on this show. I have with me a good friend, Gary Kubota, award-winning journalist, playwright and I think, I think my personal opinion, most important community activist. Welcome Gary, thanks John. It's good to have you. You know, I could spend the whole half an hour just talking about your life, which is extremely interesting, you know. Okay, let's start off with being a journalist. You worked for years with the Honolulu advertiser. Star Bulletin and the Maui News. I worked at United Press International when there was a wire service in Honolulu, specifically daily news on Guam. Yeah, those are the good old days when we actually had newspapers in this town. And along the way you got to cover a lot of interesting stories. I did. I remember Walter Ritty and him at a Lulie standing in front of the Ilani Palace on a press conference and I was the only journalist there because I felt it was important to have a minority voice expressed and for people to listen to. You know, I got to ask you this question, there's a technical thing. I mean, I hope you take that interview. You might have something really historic. Well, you know, the historic part about it was I was so disorganized because I was really new to the thing that I pulled out a pen and I didn't have a paper sheet. I had to write the notes on a brown paper bag. Oh, you got to keep the bag. I hope you kept the bag. No, no bag. But you also had a way with dealing with people like Walter and Emmett and others because you yourself were was very active in community issues in Honolulu in the state of Hawaii. Before I became a journalist, I had been an activist with Kukua, Hawaii, and we organized the number of eviction struggles despite evictions and work to save ethnic studies. So this is Kukua, Hawaii. Kukua, Hawaii, as I remember it, was probably the very first organized activist group in contemporary Hawaii. And that would be sometime about 1970 or 69. 1970, 1971, we were very active. And what was the first issue that you were involved with? It was Kalama Valley. Kalama Valley is now, that's out by Sandy Beach, Hawaii, Kaia, right? And it was basically to help the farmers and native Hawaiians who live there try and stop the eviction or at least give them a voice in terms of what was happening around them. This was when, I think it was the Bishop of State. Yes. Bishop of State had decided to build houses out there in Kalama Valley, which was at that time, people might not, some of the young people listening today might not realize that that whole area was actually farmland at one time. So these people were farmers. They were actually making their living and they were getting evicted. And a lot of them, for a lot of them, it was the last place. I mean, there really was no other place they could go after that. It was the end of the farmland. So that's why they made this stand. Well, I think my wife had some relatives that got shoved off of that area and sent to Waianae. Yeah. And so the Kalama Valley started, it was a good cross-section of people, but the Kukuhawai didn't let it go then. I mean, they took one step beyond that. What happened is people began calling Kukuhawai up. And like, especially Larry Kamakwe-Vivole and Solini Hill, they asked for help. And they were usually asked for help. They were asking for help to do what? Organize and resist. Organize and resist. Well, that's great words. I mean, that's, you know, that kind of stuff. Organize and resist. You know, I show, picture number one, we got a great picture of organizing and resisting. This is, but at this time, Kukuhawai was one of the active groups pushing for ethnic studies. That's right. And we had already begun. We, at that time in ethnic studies to preserve in 1972, we were already in about eight different communities in Hawaii that were organizing and resisting evictions. So when we called upon the residents to come and help to support the students in ethnic studies so that their minority voices could be continued to be heard, they came in hundreds. Can you imagine the University of Hawaii without ethnic studies, without Hawaiian studies, without any of the special studies that we now have? And you, Kukuhawai actually kicked it all off. Yeah, I would think, right? I mean, we never knew what was going to happen, you know, but we just felt that something needed to be done. Because I remember the call, you know, our history, our way. That's right. Our history, our way. You know, Larry Kamaka Vivioli was a giant of a person. He was. He was an incredible founder, really, of ethnic studies. And unfortunately, he just passed away. But we have a picture of him, I think. What's the next picture we got in our set of pictures? Okay, so this is, you wrote a book, by the way. Right, and it's a collection of interviews and it includes Larry Kamaka Vivioli. A lot of different people who were involved in activism and research. And that picture on the left is of a demonstration that we had at the state capitol that involved thousands of people, including Save Our Surf. Yeah, you were the umbrella organization. And this was, you've got to remember, this was even before things like the Hawaiians and others had ethnic groups that specifically got it started. And what was really lovely about it, you wrote this book. And this book is pretty much all about Kukua Hawaii, right? Kukua Hawaii and the activism that happened. Basically, if you read it, it's almost like a primer for how to organize. Yeah, but it was great, because this was a young people's movement, essentially. And it was a young people's movement and they were basically telling the Hawaii political establishment, wake up. Things are not going as well as you see. Because this is all happening like a decade after, roughly, a little more than a decade after statehood. And we got another picture for you coming on up. And this is Larry. This was Larry at his prime. This is the professor. This is the guy who started ethnic studies or became the symbol of it. He was the first director of ethnic studies. He was a mentor of mine. I mean, he taught me a lot. And a lot of times when I'm out there, I still think about him and what Larry would think we're sick. That's fantastic. We got this just to show. We got another one of these photographs, which you should see. Okay, this is a great picture. It's a Chinatown eviction struggle, and there's Pete Thompson and Suley Nehal. This is a fantastic picture. Can you imagine this? This, the gentleman, I think, I don't know how to describe him, but he's like the second person. He's looking right at us. He was the first person looking at us. And he ended up being a stockbroker. He was one of the best in the world. He was a brilliant researcher. He was a brilliant debater. He was an economist. All you have to do is make that five-degree turn. So you have been writing about the movement. Before we go into all of that, I got to tell the folks at home this, though. You have not stopped being an activist. I know that you retired from the newspaper work, but you were also very recently involved in some community action at the U.S. What happened is that on my home island of Maui, there are these 250 front-street apartment tenants who would be evicted by this time as we speak. I had not been for two years ago them organizing, reorganizing, and me helping them try to guide them into how to get a bill pass that would keep that land and the buildings for affordable housing for the tenants there. I took a bit of a struggle, but because of my experience as a community organizer in Ota Camp, that was a Filipino community. There's another one. We won there, too. We say, we, there are a lot of other people. There's a lot of people. But again, the roots are all here, right? All in the books. So you took all of that and you organized in Maui. What happened? Well, the governor signed a bill this year that enables the purchase of the land and they're in the process of purchasing the buildings now. Really? Yeah. So the state of Hawaii is going to take over that area? Yes, it's going to keep it in there as state housing for poor and people who, I mean, there was a Vietnam, a Gulf War veteran fighting cancer who was one of the tenants there. There was a woman who had to have dialysis every other day. A great-grandmother who was taking care of her great-grandchild. Well, what's inspiring about that is that the people that you knew way back when at Kalama Valley probably would have been there helping you and Maui had they been there. And actually, some of them helped me out when it came to being there. Like at the state capitol, I called on Larry Kamakavi Voole. Really? Ke Kapali, Bob Nakata. Bob? They were sitting in the same room at one of these committee hearings, those committee hearings and some of them were holding signs. Fantastic. That's so fantastic. That's so fantastic. Waihole Waikani, the royals, Pat Royals and photo camp representative, the president, they were there too. Wow. So we brought back a lot of the coalition people to help these people. And it was really gratifying because they wanted to help because they knew what these people were going through. You know, because, okay, as you're saying this, Bob Nakata, for example, I mean, Waihole Waikani, in a way he was one of the, I would say, the founding fathers of the Water Commission that we now have in the state of Hawaii. Because these movements grew and really changed Hawaii entirely. Bob was a, for Waihole Waikani, he represented a lot of the farmers who were there who had interest. And they respected him because he was pretty educated. I mean, he had a master's in some kind of physics and things like that. And plus he was a reverend. So you know the reverend would be looking out for you. You know, okay, that was your latest foray into activism. But you also became a playwright. Yes, sir. You wrote a very important play, which we are going to take a break very shortly. And I want to come back and talk about that play because it has its roots, really, folks, in all of the things we have just discussed, including Hukua, Hawaii. I mean, the idea of writing the play has its roots there. But this story, which you wrote about, actually may have been the ancestor of all the things that you did. And so, and the name of the play is Legend of Ko'olau. A Legend of Ko'olau. So folks, be with, we are going to be back very shortly. Well, no, I think we got about another minute. So I don't have to leave. A Legend of Ko'olau. And this, when does it take place? It's taking place this Saturday and Sunday at the Doris Duk Theater at the Honolulu Museum of Art. And let me see, it's 7 p.m. on Saturday and 3 p.m. on Sunday. Okay, so this coming weekend, the play will be shown. We will be right back into the story itself with the person, the playwright, Gary Kuboda. Hi, guys, I'm your host, Lillian Cumick, from Lillian's Vegan World. I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. And this is the show where I talk about the plant-based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health, regarding your health. And just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier, and have fun at the same time. So do join me. I look forward to seeing you and aloha. Aloha. My name is Wendy Loh, and I want you to join me as we take our health back. On my show, all we do is talk about things in everyday life in Hawaii or abroad. I have guests on board that will just talk about different aspects of health in every way, whether it's medical health, nutritional health, diabetic health. You name it, we'll talk about it. Even financial health. We'll even have some of the Miss Hawaii's on board. And all the different topics that I feel will make your health and your lifestyle a lot better. So come join me. I welcome you to take your health back. Mahalo. Welcome back to Talk Story with John Wahee and my very special guest this afternoon, Gary Kubota, standing journalist, community activist, and playwright. So, Gary, your play, the legend of Ko'olau will be playing this week at the Doris Duke Theater. And we got up there for our people to see. That's Mournaikani Ko'olau. He's the actor. He acted in – he was one of the stars of Kuliana, the film. Okay, okay. And he's been touring, and so Anthony Sopovita is the first quote. Anthony saw Mournaikani acting in Los Angeles. And send me an email. So this is the guy for your play? Well, this is the guy – no, he saw the play. And he said, this is the guy. Let's have more of it. Okay, I got it. Now, okay. For our people out there, the legend of Ko'olau is really – it's obviously a – you wrote a play around it. But it's based on real event and a real person. It's historically based. I think the reason I use the legend is because Ko'olau never was quoted in the newspapers or anything. He does actually basically speak for himself. It's – but the story is about love and survival. Well, tell us about – tell us the story. I mean, really. His love of his wife and his son during the time when there was the overthrow of the Horned Monarchy, there's a lot of turmoil going on. And his – and their survival as a family against the new government that wanted to step up and enforce leprosy laws because Ko'olau and his son contracted leprosy. So, this is the story. This – so, this takes place roughly around 1893. 93. 93. So, this is right after the overthrow. Right after the overthrow. And the Republic of Hawaii, or the insurrectionists, which by the way as an editorial remark, which I get to do from time to time as the host of this program, was probably the most oppressive government in the history of Hawaii. Oh my God. And so, you know – and I know that there are people running around today who think the state's pretty bad, but I've got to tell you, the Republic of Hawaii was really bad. See, I think we need that background because I don't think people know, for example, that doing the Republic of Hawaii, unlike the Kingdom – I'm going to contrast the two so we can get, you know, this story into the right place – doing the Republic, no Asians could vote in the Republic. Exactly. So, whereas under the Kingdom, there were Asian subjects who would participate, elect members of the legislature, and we're talking – it's a lot of Chinese people. And Hawaiians had to be Hawaiians of property. And not only would they – they have to be people of property. They also had to have a lot of it. Yeah. You know, the point is that at one time with commandment of the third, they didn't need – they didn't have the property requirement. Correct. The other interesting thing which I don't think people know about is that if you spoke a Western language, it didn't matter whether you considered yourself a subject or not, or a citizen of Hawaii. If you spoke any Western language, which means anything from Europe, you got to vote. You didn't need a – you didn't need a requirement. So, you don't need property requirement. You didn't need anything. You just need to be able to speak English or French or Spanish. So, this is the government that your main character has to deal with. And go ahead. Well, one of the things – it's kind of a reckoning of facts that I researched. At one point, when you talk about cruelty and just plain meanness, when the new government and the military weren't able to capture Kulao, and Kulao was getting the better of this. So, what they were doing was they were trying to send him to Kalapapa. Yes. So, he had contracted leprosy in his son. And they went to Kalalao Valley in North Kauai. Now, the Kalapapa was happening before all of this. I mean, it's one of the sad chapters in our history. But as I understand it, starting at the time with Kalakau, the monarchy was backing off of sending people to Kalapapa. They didn't think it was a good idea. In fact, I think Kalakau originally had a plan to build settlements or something like hospitals on every island. But when the Republic came in, they started to enforce the laws of Kauai. They stepped it up in there. Right. And that – they wouldn't even let Kukuhas go to the island. And the Kukuhas are people who would be there to help whoever had that. Right. Who weren't sick, but they were relatives a lot of times. Like, Pilani wanted to go, but she couldn't go because they wouldn't let her go. Pilani was Kulao's husband. I mean, Kulao's wife. All right. So this is a great story. I got to set it up for the people. So you have Kulao. He's a whole native Hawaiian living on Kauai. And I'm assuming, given the time and the personage, that somebody there was probably at home in nature and living off the land and all that. He was a foreman for two branches like that. He was like the Hawaiian foreman for the two branches. So he was a cowboy. He was a cowboy. But Paniolo. Yeah. And he was – he also was a crack shot. I mean, he even named his rifle after – and when somebody names their rifle, you know, you really don't want to mess with them. Okay. So he gets – he has leprosy. They want to – the government now decides to bring back this very archaic system and my own sense of reading of this whole background history, because this story, by the way, your play is so fascinating. That is because they didn't want to spend money on doing the little hospital type settlements that Kala Kau wanted. So they were starting to shove people back to Kalapapa. They told him, I'm sorry, you got to go. He says, okay, I'll go initially, but can I bring my wife? And they tell him, no way. They're bored. And tell us the story. What happened? Well, basically they went into Kalalau Valley. There was a small leper colony there already. One of the guys there was a judge. Really? A judge, Kauai. I think that was his name. Yeah. And so – and he basically said to them, if you come into the valley, you try and get me. I'm going to defend myself. And that's what – what is the name of your protagonist? He was a Stokes. Stokes. The judge Stokes? No, he was a deputy sheriff. Oh, okay. Yeah, who went into the valley against the advice of the sheriff. Okay. I think it was like, you know, the term is Tantaran. Yeah, he was going to be tough. He was going to show the guys in Honolulu. You know, there's a little precedent. He was like those people who are nowadays looking at protesters and saying, why don't they enforce the law, you know, and all of that stuff. Yeah. So he's one of the – why don't they enforce the law? And he was shot dead by Kauai. Oh, my goodness. Okay, I hope that doesn't happen. I don't want to stop. Yeah, no, I don't – no, no. And the purpose of this is to tell the story, basically. Yeah. Yeah. So people understand that there's a sad history here of people pushing other people whether, you know, they feel like they're backed into a corner. Right. And the story was that this gentleman went out to get – what is the Hawaiian cowboy's name again? Kaluwai Ko'olau. Yeah, Kaluwai Ko'olau. Yeah. And he – nobody could catch him, right? No. And they sent us – they sent soldiers to try and catch him like that and they weren't able to – and a couple of soldiers were shot and, you know, died and then one person accidentally shot themselves. I guess the whole point – one of the major points is that in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy, there have been some arguments in the past about, oh, you know, the new government was responsible for the overthrow of the monarchy. Well, in this particular instance, the new government couldn't even catch one Hawaiian. Well, he was special, though. He was special. He was special. I think we got some pictures of the actor, your main actor. Right. And those are pictures. That's him, right? Yeah. And is that an actual picture? That's Kaluwai Ko'olau, his wife, P. Lani, and Kale Manu. And I think that's his mother. Okay, so these are the people that the story was written about, that guy that looks like I should look like. He's the main actor, right? He's the main actor. He acted in the film Kuliana, too, more than I can recall. And he does an excellent job. And then you got him there. Right. And then you got another picture of him. And he is a... That's in Sacramento, where more than 600 people attended that play. Oh, you did the play on the mainland as well? Yes. In Sacramento. We've been to Los Angeles, Berkeley, and Sacramento's within 600 people standing over Asia. This is a very timely story because it is a story of people standing up for what they believe, for their culture, just like he did. And it's tragic, but it's kind of a happy ending in the sense that he was free. He was never, or neither he nor his son, were ever caught. They were never caught. And basically when the military left, that was it. That was the end. That's what... You know, if they had just left him alone... Nothing would have happened. Nothing would have happened. And he would have been a cowboy doing this thing. So we got one last picture for you, which I think is... See that? That's a whole bunch of people from Kukuawhi. Just to let you know that now, folks that don't be afraid to stand up for what you believe in, because someday you will be prominent citizens just like these group of people. Yeah. You know, prominent peaceful citizens. Peaceful citizens. Yeah, that's one of the things that we did. I think that's a good precedent that we set as far as organizing peaceful demonstrations and trying to reach out to people and talk to them. Okay, the legend of Kolawhi, this coming weekend at the Doris Duke Theater. Yes. Right? And I hope that all of you take a few minutes out and see this very good play. It's a legend of Kolawhi.com. Oh, yeah. A legend of Kolawhi.com. Yeah. Well, Gary, thank you. Thank you. It's always a pleasure. And I hope everyone takes the time to go and see, first of all, this great work, but also this great actor. And it's a one-man play, right? Right. It's a really awesome. Yeah. Thank you all. Thank you.