OLA MAHUKONA
Mahukona on Hawaiʻi Island’s Kohala Coast was slated for resort development for years but the Kohala community and Mahukona’s voyagers have long since hoped for the land’s protection. Mahukona is a historic training ground for traditional Hawaiian navigators. The lands include hundreds of ancient cultural sites including Koʻa Heiau Holomoana, an ancient site of worship revered by navigators from all over the Pacific. Mahukona’s clear night skies, free from light pollution, allow for star study, and the combination of its calm bay and rough deep ocean waters create the ideal environment to train young navigators. Nā Kalai Waʻa, local non-profit organization, has been teaching the next generations of voyagers at Mahukona for decades and drydocks the traditional double hull canoe, Makaliʻi, on site.
Shoulder to shoulder with the families of Mahukona, the Kohala community, and Nā Kālai Waʻa, after over four years of negotiations and fundraising, Hawaiʻi Land Trust (HILT), was able to secure the purchase and permanent protection of Mahukona’s 642 acres at the end of 2023. Funds for the purchase were made up from County, State, and Federal funding support. The County of Hawaiʻi holds a perpetual conservation easement, ensuring the permanent protection of the lands, removing all subdivision rights, largely removing development rights, and requiring management informed by the indigenous knowledge systems and life ways of place.
Private funding secured supports the acquisition costs and the ongoing stewardship of the lands. We have raised over $19.2 million toward our total project need of $20 million. While the purchase and protection is complete, we are still working to raise the remaining funds to ensure our ability to steward this ʻāina into perpetuity. Please join us! Your support today will allow us to forever steward Mahukona’s many cultural sites, view planes, ecology, and ensure traditional Hawaiian navigation continues at its source.
And as abundant as Mahukona is in history and culture, it is equally abundant in native species. Mahukona’s clean turquoise waters teem with native fish, rays, dolphins, and whales. Endangered ʻŌpeʻapea (Hawaiian Hoary Bats) feed there, and native coastal plants grow along the shoreline. As we embark on this path together with everyone to build pilina (relationships) with the families of Mahukona, Kohala, and place—and as we enjoy Mahukona—we invite you to join us in learning more about Mahukona and how to come correct. See more below!
Join our efforts to steward this irreplaceable part of the Kohala Coastline.
OLA MAHUKONA CAPSULE
Being of a place from Hawaiian perspective is to know the names of the hills, rains, and winds. Names assign importance and intimacy as kin. The elements of a name can be an exploratory into the characteristic of these natural features. This Ola Mahukona Gear features an ʻohe kapala design serving as a simple first step in learning about the winds and puʻu (hills) of Kohala. Inspired by a description of the ʻĀpaʻapaʻa wind of Kohala, the linear elements represent the wind movement through the famous puʻu (hills) of Kohala. Mahalo to Kuhao Zane of Sig Zane Kaiao for this design and story as we celebrate and gear up.
Check out the Ola Mahukona capsule at our online shop!
ABOUT MAHUKONA
HOW TO COME CORRECT
Mahukona has taught HILT so much about the importance of centering equity and justice in all that we do. We have been called by the community to acknowledge the importance of protocols, guidelines, and invitations to enjoy Mahukona. When Kohala stood up, standing shoulder to shoulder with HILT, they shared that this effort is about “protecting a lifestyle.” As part of a larger community, we are really just beginning to learn how to navigate building meaningful deep relationships with place and people of place that hold sacred life ways and generational relationships with a place and its finite resources. The following is a starting point:
Do Your Research & Study Up
Consider Your Intention for Visiting
Consider your Capacity for Reciprocity with the Land
Consider Your Own Place of Privilege
Cultural sites are stewarded by family and cultural practitioners. Please do not veer off the coastal trail unless invited through HILT programming, by HILT staff, by Nā Kālai Waʻa, or by a cultural practitioner with kuleana to Mahukona—and pass this along with others you know visit or enjoy Mahukona.
Celebrate being along this learning journey with us as we all navigate how to be in right relationship with the lands sustain Hawaiʻi, informed by the indigenous people of place.
We would like to mahalo (thank) Sogorea Te Land Trust as their work has helped to inform this starting point.
MAHUKONA: A THRIVING HAWAIIAN CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
The 642-acre Mahukona property includes the coastal regions of six ahupuaʻa (historic land divisions), from north to south - Kapaʻa Nui, Kou, Kamano, Mahukona, Hihiu, and Kaoma. This expansive cultural landscape with ancient cultural sites throughout, provides space for Hawaiian cultural practice and habitat for a variety of native marine animals and plants.
The cultural significance of Mahukona largely centers around its key location for traditional navigation, as its dynamic winds and currents provide ideal conditions for training. It is home to Koʻa Holomoana, a navigational heiau located on the bluffs of Kamanō bay. The heiau is known throughout the Pacific and to this day, visiting navigators often make a pilgrimage to the heiau upon arrival in the islands. As a young navigator, one is able to experience and train in ripping rough water currents and heavy winds as you near the ʻAlenuihāhā channel, and swiftly navigate back to the calmer waters and lighter leeward breezes of Mahukona.
To date, 175 ancient cultural sites have been identified including four heiau (places of worship), agricultural and housing villages and complexes, shrines, burials, and ancient trails including the alaloa. In addition to the ancient sites, many historic sites from when Mahukona harbor was the main sugar plantation port, and much of the land was ranched remain from the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Kohala community and partners are committed to preserving and sharing the stories and traditions of Mahukona from ka wā kahiko (ancient times) to the rise of sugar and ranching, to the restoration and revitalization efforts happening at Mahukona today.
Today, Hawaiian navigators have revived star and elemental study and ceremony at Koʻa Heiau Holomoana, and the Hawaiian voyaging canoe and many other canoes can be seen sailing in Mahukona’s waters. The public harbor, clear coastal waters, and coastal trail are important recreational resources for the Kohala community and are used and loved by Hawaiʻi island residents and visitors. Youth education programs at Mahukona are thriving, and community is planning for cultural use and community native reforestation.
Protected in 2023, the land is now owned for the community’s benefit by Hawaiʻi Land Trust. The land is forever restricted by a conservation easement held by the County of Hawaiʻi. Our partner, Nā Kālai Waʻa stewards Koʻa Heiau Holomoana among other sites, drydocks the sailing canoe Makaliʻi, and holds cultural navigational education programs at Mahukona. Hawaiʻi Land Trust and Nā Kālai Waʻa also partner with Kohala High School’s Naʻau ʻŌiwi Alternative Learning Program, and Kohala Middle School’s Kohala Unupaʻa after school program and hosts quarterly Talk Story On The Land events. Learn more about those here.
MAHALO to our generous project partners and donors:
County of Hawaiʻi (Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Program)
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Recovery Land Acquisition Program), with assistance from the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Land and Natural Resources
The State Legacy Land Conservation Program
Mortenson Family Foundation
Dorrance Family Foundation
Richard & Christine Karger
Mauna Kea Resort
Peter & Vicki Merriman
William & Lynn Swank
Metabolic Studio of Annenburg Foundation
The Mankoff Family
Hawaii Life
The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation
Atherton Family Foundation
The Laurence H. Dorcy Hawaiian Foundation
The Sydney E. Frank Foundation
Christopher Lynn
Hawaiʻi Pacific Brokers, LLC
Harvey Calcutt
The Healy Foundation
Cynthia & Edwin Sorenson
Dale & Don Franzen
The Poha Fund
Tim Lee
Brian Ng & Jennifer Lee
Daniel & Donna Schoerner-Pitteri
Charlie Anderson
Andrew & Anne Strawbridge
Several anonymous donors and dozens of individuals and families whose passion for Mahukona and conserving Hawaiʻi’s most important lands sustains us.
