Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 37, Number 8, 1 August 2020 — What You Do to the Land, You Do to the People [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

What You Do to the Land, You Do to the People

j HAlMANAO v > OPINION f

By Kaleleonālani Kekauoha-Schultz Iam writing to raise a grave anel immediate eoneem about the spraying of glyphosate-based herbicides at the Waiehu Kou community of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands here on Maui. Reputable studies show that glyphosate-based herbicides raise the cancer risk of those exposed to it by a shocking 41%. DHHL benehciaries need protection from glyphosate exposure. All of Hawai'i, our 'āina aloha, and all people living here need this same protection. Moving to our homestead in 2013 was a prayer answered. With the encouragement of my hālau aunty, I took the necessary steps to get on our land, and I am most grateful to my father who helped us to qualify for our home. Our home was blessed by my hālau brothers and sisters and we were gifted an 'ulu tree to plant for the sustenance of our 'ohana. Indeed, we intended to plant, grow and sustain our family, and it was a very hopeful time. We have tended to our 'āina over many moons to heal it as we ourselves heal. I distinctly remember cheering as I found the hrst earthworm because it took so mueh to build viable soil. We trucked in loads of compost to get started. We sifted rocks and built raised beds. Today our yard is a vibrant testimony to the love of this land and the legacy of homesteading. We have had fruitful

harvests of kalo, 'uala, and a diverse array of garden vegetables and fruits. We harvest medicines from our yard, and we weed with the same reverence that we sow seeds. As for that 'ulu tree, it is quite giving and was a great comfort to look upon amidst the COVID-19 crisis as a sustainable food source for our 'ohana. So, it literally pained me in body, mind and spirit to see a landscape worker spraying just over our backyard fence at midday on May 13, 2020. I ran to him and asked, "What are

you spraying?" And he replied, "Only Roundup." I shrieked for him to stop; the glyphosate-based poison is known to cause cancer. Deep eoneem for our children, our food, and our safety jolted me into a hght mode that, in actuality, left me feeling quite helpless and defeated. I know he was just doing his job. But the damage was done. And this wasn't the hrst time Roundup was sprayed in this area. And in that instant, a light breeze blew toward an open window where my toddler was napping. Who will protect us? What will it take to stop the spraying of toxic chemicals upon our land and people? If it was acknowledged at the passage of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act that our 'āina is an agent for healing, how is it acceptable to poison the land and disregard the impact it will have on people? We must bring awareness to this situation as a start to making a change: an act as hopeful as planting a garden today for the heahh of our families tomorrow. ■ Kalele and her husband, Jeff, are raising their four ehildren to be healthy kanaka in body, mind and spirit with an understanding of the interconnection of Iife and a kuleana to mālama ourfinite resources and ways ofbeing. Practices in pule, 'ōlelo, presence, gratitude, liumility, forgiveness and aloha are daily guideposts for their 'ohana.

Whal is left after heavy spraying of Roundup on both sides of the ditch immediately behind our home. - Photo: K. Kekauoha-Schultz