A Tale as Old as Time: Post-Wildfire Policies Open Deep Wounds for Native Hawaiians

Lahaina residents plead for government aid after the wildfires that set their community ablaze. Source: Time Magazine.

In early August, the country watched fearfully as the deadliest series of U.S. wildfires in over a century broke out across Maui. In Lahaina, the West Maui town hit hardest by the disaster, the wildfires took at least 98 lives, left dozens of people missing from the evacuations, and destroyed an estimated 2,200 buildings, 96% of which were residential.

Now, nearly two months later, Hawaiian citizens not only continue to mourn their losses but are speaking out against the state government’s recovery efforts, which many say have prioritized big development companies in the wake of the disaster and could threaten local environmental and cultural rights to Maui’s resources.

Native Hawaiian skepticism of state government is no new development; Pacific-islanders, wealthy developers, and both state and federal government have been in a long-standing battle for the limited supply of Hawaiian land and resources since Hawaii’s illegal annexation by the U.S. government in 1898. As an island paradise with a complex colonial history driven by the exploitation of Hawaii’s natural resources and native labor, Maui’s economy today is dependent on its rich tourism industry, which relies on increasingly expensive real estate, resource-rich property, and the employment of low-wage workers, 35% of whom are Pacific-Islander natives to Hawaii. 

As rent and home prices climb across Hawaii, where houses currently cost 3x the national average, low and middle class indigenous Hawaiians constitute a major proportion of locals struggling to maintain housing. To make matters worse, there are over 23,000 Hawaiians waitlisted for a homesteading lease promised to them in the Hawaiian Homes Trust of 1995 as compensation for their ancestral land loss. Thousands of people have died on the waitlist with no result.

Government backlash erupted in July, three weeks before the fires, after Hawaii Governor Josh Green declared Hawaii’s housing shortage a state-wide emergency, with a proclamation meant to expedite affordable housing development. However, this proclamation also suspended environmental and cultural reviews of future developmental projects, regulations put in place to protect local farms, indigenous land claims, and the environment from excess extraction. It also suspended Hawaii’s open meetings law, which allows local people to voice their opinions on policies impacting their community. 

For locals, who have worked for their native rights to the land, it feels like a “slap in the face.”

 “All we’re trying to do is uphold our constitutional rights and protect Mother Earth and our environment,” Native Hawaiian farmer and Lahaina resident Ed Wednt told NPR. 

With less environmental and cultural protection, and less room to challenge those in power, local farmers and activists fear that Green’s policy will open the door to development companies for extraction of resources from a population and natural environment that are already vulnerable. Climate change continues to cause more extreme weather and increased frequency of natural disasters. Hawaii, a lush island reliant on rainfall, has seen a stark decrease in annual precipitation over the last few decades that has contributed to drying vegetation and increased susceptibility to wildfires, both in frequency and severity. Rising temperatures only worsen the state’s unusually dry and dangerous conditions, a trend affecting rainforests around the world. Due to these alarming developments, locals believe that the government must do more to protect Hawaii’s future.

Though criticism from Hawaiian citizens prompted Green to rewrite his original proclamation, a second policy proposal written after the fires in late August called for the suspension of water code regulations that farmers say would allow developers to divert more water from farmlands to a reservoir owned by the West Maui Land Company (WMLC), which manages water for luxury resorts and homes. Water is a major conflict of interest among stakeholders such as farmers and developers, and the government has faced criticism for its management of the issue since the fires. Top water official Kaleo Manuel was removed from his appointment in late August after a land developer accused him of delaying to transfer additional water to WMLC reservoirs that could have been used to fight the fires. A group of activists has since rallied to support his reinstatement, blaming the government for scapegoating Manuel instead of imposing more restrictions on developers. Maui taro farmers say the WMLC has used the fires as a way to tap into his stream in the name of its dependents, which locals view as just another example of the government undermining their native rights to appease wealthy companies. 

In the painful aftermath of the fire, Native Hawaiians fear a Hawaii that prioritizes development, not just for their communities but for the natural lands and resources they serve. While intimidating government proclamations put more pressure on native Hawaiians to advocate for both themselves and the natural environment, the impact of the wildfires weakens their capacity for providing this protection. Many working and middle class Lahaina locals cannot afford to rebuild their lives while they await government compensation– seemingly a trend for indigenous Hawaiians– which threatens to force many into homelessness or to relocate to the mainland. While Gov. Green has spoken out against companies from attempting predatory land acquisition in the wake of the disaster and continues to encourage native Hawaiians to “stand their ground,” the government must put its words into actionary policy supporting its local people, who bear the brunt of the loss.

Native Hawaiians fear that if they “cannot rebuild Lahaina to what it should be, the rest of the state will give up hope.” If the state and federal government do not prioritize native Hawaiian rights and voices as they move forward with recovery, Hawaii will continue to suffer in more ways than one. Before Hawaii was a tourist attraction, a development hot spot, or a federal territory, it was home to people that have advocated on its behalf ever since.