A Paradise Lost - KOPS - Universität Konstanz

Kaho’olawe is important as a signal, a symbol, and a token today, and its
significance is captured in contemporary fiction and poetry, such as Morales’ own short
story “Daybreak over Haleakala/Heartbreak Memories (A Two-Sided Hit).” 556 In it, three
part-Hawaiian university students join in an “access trip,” working
either on the traditional hale – a planned meeting house; the hula mound – to be
used for traditional dancing and other cultural ceremonies; and the garden of
indigenous plants. These were all symbols of the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana’s
efforts to make valid their claim of a Hawaiian resettlement of the island (93).
Activist Kaeo has told the others: “Da t’ing about the island, boy, is dat nobody comes
back da same” (89). The young men are indeed changed by their visit to the target island.
While it unsettles Bud to the point of “flipping out,” the narrator is struck by its
unexpected beauty:
I loved it immediately. Charcoal-grey sands sparkled even in daylight. I was
intrigued by the sparse kiawe, the smooth stones, the claylike, crumbling rock.
The solitude. […] Everyone seemed taken by the view, a lei of islands and
mountains – Lanai, Molokai, West Maui Mountains, Haleakala – that seemed to
surround the target island. Like they did, I’m sure, I experienced moments of
cutting serenity (93/95).
He had thought of his friend as haole, but Kaeo relates how observing the desecration of
Kaho’olawe had stirred Bud’s Hawaiian side awake:
…said he figured da only way he was goin’ get anywhere was by being full on
haole…an’ das true, right? […] Da problem is, kinda hard fo’ fo’get t’ings like
eating guava and lilikoi off da tree, picking limu wit grampa, goin’ net fishing,
eating poi wit da fingah – […] an’ all dat. Hard fo’ get into all da competition shit
(97. Lilikoi is the Hawaiian word for passion fruit, and limu are algae).
Months later, when seeing the university dropout who has moved to Maui and turned to
activism again, the narrator muses:
556 In Rodney Morales, The Speed of Darkness, Honolulu 1988: 86-105. A recent example of the invocation
of Kaho’olawe was Morales’ introductory speech at an evening talk of the English department’s 2002
visiting writer, John Pule from Niue on March 7th: Morales reminded the audience that this date marked the
25 th anniversary of Helm’s and Mitchell’s deaths, but he reassured them with his remark that in bringing a
Pacific artist to the university, they were working towards Helm’s goal of pulling together Pacific people(s)
to strengthen past and present links (personal attendance).
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