 Aloha kakou, my name is Shar Chan Lam and I am your guest host for Out and About Today because Winston is not here today, so he's kindly let me help to do this show and I'd like to thank the people who have come to appear on the show. This is Ike, Kameke Ohelo, and Maureen Harnish, both from Save Our Sharewoods. And we'd like to talk today a little bit about the situation in Sharewoods and let the audience know because I don't think everyone does know the story about why you are so impassioned about trying to do this for your community. So before I guess we get the first slide to come up, show us a little bit about Sharewoods. So this is the area that we're talking about that you discovered suddenly that these bulldozers are coming. So can you tell us a little bit about what happened when you first saw them doing this? What was your initial response? When we first found out about this project, it was as quick as this. This is the timeline. One day a board was erected that says building a better Ramanalo and the next day we know you see a bunch of machines rolling in, pushing over trees. It was pretty heartbreaking for us to see all of this happening in our community and not being informed, nobody telling us about it. What initially sparked all of this was the interest of what's really going on, what's really happening. Okay. And you've been really successful at gathering and keeping community support. So for example, the slide shows that this is just one slide of the kind of gatherings you have. The next one, slide number two. So I think you've been helping people sign waiving regularly, right? Is that the case? Yes. When we first started for the first two months, it was every day, Monday to Friday, from four to six. And then recently, in the last month, we've been doing a Ramanalo Wednesday. So every Wednesday is from five to six thirty. There's a solid core group that comes out and we've been seeing people on the side of the road and during the good fight. Well, that's great. So the community is really getting involved in behind this. So part of it is I'm going to the next slide I think shows the desecration basically. So you want to talk about this a little or either you or Maureen, either one. One of the things is that this area, we sent a drone up to photograph this because it didn't look like what the master plan said they were going to be doing. And they did deviate from it. And we've questioned the city office of design and construction and said, you know, why, why doesn't this look like the original plan? And they said, oh, we decided to go another way. We can always put it back later. Okay. So just to back up for the audience that might not know about this plan. So there is a master plan supposedly that the city has proposed doing and suddenly they put up a sign and then the next thing, you know, they're bulldozing. So they, what is the extent of this plan? I mean, they're taking away this before you got them to stop, but how much of the forest are they destroying? This is only phase one, a couple of acres, right? Three acres, four acres? Yeah. So just under four acres. Just under four acres. But the whole master plan that they intend to do is 75 acres. And we don't want to see this last coastal forest taken away. Right. So the object they said or the reason they were giving for this master plan is to provide parks. Yes. I mean, not parks, but to provide fields for people to play. Right. And I know you guys have brought up the situation like why, why not fix what you have? And can you say something about that? Yes. Well, I was born and raised in Guamanalo. And in my youth have utilized the parks with playing baseball, went there to watch football, never necessarily participated in football. But I've just seen over my lifetime just the parks deteriorate. So the city and county, you know, they have this problem where they start things and mismanage or don't even manage it also. There's a bunch of neglect happening. No maintenance. No maintenance at all, you know, and our dugouts are rusting out, my fields have holes in them, you know, and the grass is not green, it's not being watered or maintained and amongst other things. That's one of the reasons why we spoke out against this project is because looking into the master plan, they have no maintenance plan. And within the master plan, according to their maintenance plan is they recommend or suggest maybe partnering or getting a nonprofit, a local nonprofit to do the maintenance of this new sports field. Okay. So it's a field that you feel is, I mean, they can't even take care of the ones that you have. Right. They're going to introduce a new one that's going to cost a lot of money and going to take another nonprofit, maybe not from your community to maintain this. But there's no guarantee. No. Because you've seen all this neglect on the other fields, too. They should stop and discuss that before they continue with this development. So plus, I think part of the fields, I think I heard this discussion about water, that they were talking about using, like, have to water the fields. They're water everything, but they're not, and they're talking about using recyclable water, but there is no recyclable plant. There's that situation. Do you want me to take that? Go ahead. Okay. So the Waimanalo Bay Beach Park Master Plan says it calls for R1 recycled water from the Waimanalo sewage treatment plant. Well, there is no R1 water in Waimanalo from the sewage treatment plant. That's an R2 facility. And it's millions and millions of dollars and years away from an upgrade. The interesting thing is, is they're laying pipes, water pipes out there now. They're digging trenches, and they're laying pipes, and pipes are different color for different things. And they're not laying recycled water pipes. They're laying potable drinking water pipes, a nice bright blue color. And the plan calls for 157,500 gallons of potable drinking water to be used every day to irrigate this thing. So this is water, and you already have a water shortage in Waimanalo. Correct. So, yeah. There's water shortage in Waimanalo, and especially when we get notices in the mail from the border water supply to limit or reduce the usage of water because of such water shortage. And to hear about potentially up to 170,000 gallons of potable water a day to water grass is... We don't want that. Yeah. We don't want that. It's unnecessary. The way Sherwoods was, I mean, people weren't irrigate, regularly sprinkling the trees, kind of provided that canopy in that they could survive in that, but now they've kind of taken it away. I know I think I heard the mayor say something about, oh, we're going to give them back Hawaiian plants to plant there, but these are not... That means there's going to be a tea leaf next to your car and your parking stall and the parking lot, and you can step on as you go by. But the trees were also important because it wasn't just... I mean, wasn't it a habitat for the Hori Bat? Yes. There are several endangered species that use that area. The Hawaiian Stilt, Hawaiian Duck, the Shearwaters, the Wedgetail Shearwater, and the other Shearwater, whose name I forgot, but there's two different protected Shearwaters that are using that area. And the Hawaiian Hori Bat. And we went out there the other night, and the whole forest was filled with bats, so it's very upsetting because they're not going to use this baseball field, they need their forest. Right. And the bats normally nest there when they're young. They do. So that was... They're already an endangered species, and now they're being more endangered by this action. Well, their habitat is being completely decimated by Sydney County. So they're decimating the habitat that's not only for the wildlife, but also you feel for the people, because that's where your people normally would go and picnic or have you. So this next slide, just really quickly up there. This is kind of showing the whole extent of the plan of where it would be. No, actually. This is a little different. This is something that we mapped out. This area is on the National Registry of Historic Places. And we took the GPS coordinates from the National Registry in Washington, D.C., and remapped it just to make sure we had it clear, and the area they're developing in Sherwoods is right in the middle of this map. And so they're developing, they set in their SMA permit, their Special Management Area Permit, that this area is not on the National Registry, but we checked, and it is on the National Registry, inside, anything inside that box. The National Registry, the State Registry, and the City and Counties Historical Registry. And they're pretending that's not true. And it is true. Okay, I think the next slide, we have sort of shows of proof that this is true, okay? This is the original form for the National Registry that shows this is an early prehistoric site. And they refer to it as the bellows field, and they gesture in the direction of bellows and say, oh, it's over there. It's not over there. They're calling all of that area, all the way from Lonnie Kye to where the McDonald's is, they're calling that all is this archeological area that's got federal protection. And they refer to it as the bellows field. This document has the GPS coordinates on there, and we wanted to make sure we knew what we were talking about. So we remapped it based on the coordinates. So that was the previous slide. You took the coordinates, then you made them out of map. Okay, that makes sense. Okay, so it- And this is currently on that registry. Right, so even though the City said, oh, there's no problem because it's not on the National Registry. They're not telling the truth. They're not telling the truth. Right. And the City said it in the permit that they filed for back in 2013, and it's right there after line item 10A, I believe. Page 4. Page 4. You guys, I don't have to read those documents very carefully. And it's, so it's, in other words, the premise upon which that they said it was okay to put a field out there is incorrect. It's not true. It's based on, I mean, they could have found this out. Couldn't they have themselves that it really is? Absolutely. It wasn't hard. Kaweke and I, we're not, we've got an amateur group of people. Right. We're just regular people. And if we can find it out, I'm pretty sure with all the resources the City has that they could have put somebody on it and found it out. I know. Well, let's, let's go back a little bit to the, you know, your everyday people, because, you know, a lot of times when people form a group, they say, wow, is there some big money behind this or whatever. But tell us a little bit about Save, Save Our Sherwoods. Who makes up the group and what's your mission and those kinds of things? Well, Save Our Sherwoods is a native Hawaiian non-profit. And we're a totally community-based. And it's just a group of concerned citizens from Waimanalo, concerned school Aina from Waimanalo that opposed the development of the space, the Waimanalo Bay Beach Park, that we also know of Sherwood. So, we got everyone from, I mean, I myself am a farmer. And we talk about the simple folk. You know, and then, of course, I have other family members on there, mothers who work from home, and people who work in the corporate field as well, and community members like Maureen, and a few others that basically, you know, just your normal community folk. I mean, I really don't know how to explain it. All different kinds of people. All different kinds of people. That care about this area and don't want to see it destroyed. So, you guys have been really good. I so admire the social media you guys have used, your Facebook page, your website, because you've posted a lot of videos from people, you know, walking through and maybe telling them, telling people why they feel this is so important to them. And I guess the really frustrating part is that, and maybe, by the way, maybe that is why you're getting more and more people, right? Because I think, don't you have an online petition? We do. We have an online petition that has more than 28,000 signatures on it at last check, and the city discounts it because they said it can't be audited, but it's 28,000 signatures. There have been so many projects that have stopped with less. Right. They've been stopped with less. So, just for, okay, so we're nearing the halfway point of our show, and I'm going to just talk a little bit about Save All Wanted Beach Park. Sure. And then we're going to come back and go to break. But just because we were on the show two weeks ago with Winston, and I just wanted to give you an update on what's happened. So we were talking back then about the resolution meeting to go to the City Council, but it passed unanimously, so everybody in the council actually voted in favor of this urging the mayor to do a third draft, and I know similarities Sherwoods is asking to stop and do another EA or EAS. Okay, and then, so the next steps, like you, we're waiting the mayor's response to listen to the voices of the people, and in this case, the City Council. For us, it's listen to the people and keep All Wanted, the people's park, but for you, I mean, you're living in that community. So it's not just, you know, I visit the park, I don't live in the park, but you live right next to Sherwoods, and so I can understand how critical this is for you. So just to let you know, we're going to have to take a break because they're, take a break to identify some other people who have other shows, and we'll be back in about 60 seconds. And then we'll continue on talking with Kuike and Maureen more about Save Our Sherwoods because I know a lot of you would want to get involved. And so thank you so much for tuning in. Please keep tuning in for the next when we come back for the second half. Thank you. Hey, hello, everyone, and welcome to the Think Tech Hawaii studio. My name is Andrew Lanning. I'm the host of Pretty Matters Hawaii. We air here every Tuesday at 10 a.m. Hawaii time, trying to bring you issues about security that you may not know, issues that can protect your family, protect yourself, protect our community, protect our companies, the folks we work with. Please join us and I hope you can maybe get a little different perspective on how to live a little safer. Aloha. Hi, guys. I'm your host Lillian Kuike 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. Welcome back to Think Tech and Out and About with my guest here, Kuike and Maureen, and they're from Save Our Sherwoods. And we're just starting to talk about some of the key issues for the group. And this next slide that's coming up here, this show is a recent rally, I guess yesterday even, right? That you had a vigil. So you want to explain a little bit about this? Yeah. This image right here is from yesterday's vigil that we held alongside of a Kalanianola Highway in the same space that we occupy every week to express our concerns and opposition of the development of this space. So yesterday, August 11, 2019, we, the community, we at Save Our Sherwoods, we wanted to educate the community, basically, and remind them of the Iwi Kupuna, of the remains that have been already excavated and found and dug up and repatriated back in the early 1990s from 1971, 1972. So, Kuike, I understand that you and some others actually made all the crosses for this event. So the cross is the next slide, I think. Good friends of mine at Kenai Eha have agreed, you know, open-heartedly to help us manufacture and paint these 94 crosses. So it's 92 and plus two crosses so we can have and hold this vigil and demonstrate. Right. So this isn't the actual burial spot because the burial spot is right beyond the fence, right? Well, it's a secret. But I've heard you testify, Kuike, that you and your mother, they were bones returned to be re-interred, right? Mm-hmm. From, is it Smithsonian? Yeah. So in the early 90s, when the Iwi Kupuna were re-interred, my mom participated with a small group to repatriate these Iwi Kupuna back to this space. And fast forward to 2019 for us to, for the stars to be aligned and for us to be called back to this space to defend the same Iwi Kupuna, to defend the same space. I mean, there's something much larger than us. There's something spiritual that's pulling us back. Mm-hmm. You know, so that's why, I mean, that's why I'm really passionate about this place and protecting it. And I know, Maureen, you did some research. Yes. On the next slide, I think that shows where you got the number of a pool because of these other studies that were done. Right. And one of the things that we found there on the table is a report of the findings. Now, this study was done by the city. This is from the archaeological monitoring plan that the city hired Pacific Legacy to do. This is page nine, table one. And on the right-hand side, it lists all of the different years that Iwi Kupuna have been located in this area and where they were found. And so we just counted them. And that's how we came up with the number 92. So, you know, normally when there's Iwi discovered or Iwi in an area, you can't touch that. Well, you can if you lie about it and say that they're not there. Yeah. And so basically the idea that people are told, no problem, no problem. But they're basically lying because I mean, they have it on paper. They have it from a report. So it's questionable about that EA being appropriate or being... Oh, the EA is so not appropriate. It's from 2012. But you have to remember that 2012 was not the year that the numbers were based on. That's old information. It was based on a year 2000 census. We're about to have another census next year. Why not wait and see if these numbers are actually working for that community. They're not. And then the traffic statistics, the numbers for the traffic were based on 2007. And I don't know if you've driven through Waimanalo lately on the weekend, but it's bumper to bumper in all directions. It didn't use to be that way. The water use is just another thing. The EA says they're going to use recycled water back from 2012. There's still not even a plan. I called the wastewater treatment people within the Department of Health and the Board of Water Supply. There's no plan to upgrade that sewage treatment plant to an R1 facility. There's some budgeted money for upgrades to the treatment plant, but not to upgrade it to an R1 facility. So they don't even have the intention to do what they said. If that doesn't trigger a supplemental EA or an EIS, which should have been done around the beginning, I don't know what will. So, you know, basically you're talking about people living there, having concerns about their park disappearing into all these acres of gone forever. Parking and it's gone. It feels that need to be maintained and really not being listening to your people about your concerns. And I know you've also said, I think you've also just said that, and I guess it's also in the findings that this is one of the original landing spots, the Plymouth Rock, I guess it is, for Hawaiian people. Can you explain a little bit more about that? Well, I've said it a few times in, you know, in the testimonies that I've delivered that according to science, the space here, yeah, hold the Iwikupuna that true science have been carbon dated and proven that these Iwikupuna that remains are as old as 500 AD. There have been some dispute about what year everybody has a different opinion about it, but they're really old. It's really old. And I think I read in one of the papers you gave me that there was actually like symbols of royalty on one of the bodies. So there's some question about whether this was not just, well, it wouldn't matter whether it was just for common people or royalty, but it was a place Yeah. It was a village. It was a village. Iwikupuna So I won't necessarily give the description of how this body was found, but yes, there have been, there is evidence that our kupuna and this particular person was adorned with symbolisms of, you know, that she was possibly royalty and because of how she was found, how she was wrapped, as well as the red sand that she was found in. You know, and that's not necessarily a common practice. Right. So this place is more than just a place to have another playground or another park which apparently you don't necessarily need. I mean, what would be more important would be to keep the park the way it is. Yeah. The current narrative, you know, in County has been playing for the greater community was that the Wamanalo community is divided over a park. And this is not for me from the very beginning from my first testimony when I first spoke out about this. It's not about a park. This is about the erasure of history. This is about the bulldozing and the covering of our identity and without our identity what do we have as a native people? What do we have as the first peoples of this land, of this Aina? We have nothing so we need to speak out and stop and stop this kind of desecration from happening. Right. And I think that every community has their own Sherwoods or Mauna Kea or what have you that we need to keep preserved. Enough already. Enough already. Right. And we certainly hope that the people who are in government will really pay attention to the people. And I think one thing you said you want to get the people involved in every step of development that involves them so can you explain that a little bit more? We have five city councilmen that are city council people that are in our favor right now and hope that helps us along the way somewhere. Originally there was a couple of planning meetings and the city did some outreach but it wasn't very much and the community clearly didn't hear the communication as the responsibility of the communicator. They knew they weren't getting through to this community and if they weren't getting through they needed to try another way and try again not try to slide this by when nobody was looking. This is too precious to the Hawaiians and too precious to the environment to destroy this without very careful consideration before moving forward. Can we go to the next slide please? I wanted this slide of all generation your multi-generational people getting involved in making a statement about the community so can you want to talk a little bit more about that? What we see are the faces of the aloha aina past, present and future and what we see are also kiai so part of the narrative as well is we're protesting no, no we're here to protect and these ohana right here that we see on the slide are here the need the feel necessary it's necessary to protect their history and identity and that's why they speak out and that's why they aloha aina and you know I delivered a speech yesterday and one of the lines I said was all we have is aloha and that river never runs dry and this is what we see it's captured encapsulated in this image forever I think now people older people to vote or be involved in government and you've managed to get whole community the keiki and the and the people who are working and have to you know kind of come home from work and go stand there and sign wave but they're willing to do it because they really care so much about their community and I think there are very few communities left like you in this effort because I know that it isn't cheap to do this you've been doing this since May actively since May April 23 April 23 thank you April 23 and it's been months and months of having to try to write to people trying to influence people so I think the next slide happens to show how people could support you so there is a GoFundMe page you want to talk a little bit about that go to GoFundMe.com or our Facebook page will lead you to it and we are raising money for our legal fees for our campaign that we're working on that we're not ready to talk about yet I'm very proud of you guys that you managed to make yourselves a non-profit and you're taking action really we feel strongly about this and that's really just been in a few months so you should be commended for the great job you're doing and I want to thank everybody for such an important issue for our people and it's not just about sure it's about as you say the larger thing about why people being disregarded and not listened to and really this is our we are the host people we need to have people recognize that we have the wisdom we have the knowledge we have the aloha and we also have truth and we have truth the truth is on our side the truth is on our side thank you I want to thank everyone for tuning in to think tech I want to thank the production crew for helping us get through this because this is the first time for all three of us to be in these positions I haven't been the host before and I think for you too it's probably the first time you've had to be on television for so long I mean you get these 30 minute six or three minutes to testify but it's a longer show so thank you for letting us go in depth about this and I hope everyone who watches this will pay attention as a lot of the next steps you're going to do please find us on our social media on Facebook save our share words and tonight is the Weimanala neighborhood board meeting and that's another chance if you feel like taking a little road trip tonight so we're ended now but thank you thank you for coming again and aloha hui hou hui hou