Lanai museum hopes to teach respect for heritage, land

By Karin Stanton
Lanai, Hawaii (AP) 11-07

Kepa Maly grew up on Lanai, adopted and raised by a Hawaiian couple who taught him how to respect and love the land. Now he wants to ensure the values are preserved so others  resident and visitor alike  can learn to do the same.

During November, Maly and his wife Onaona, opened the Lanai Culture and Heritage Center to spread the word about Lanais history, heritage, and traditional ways.

Our basic goal is to ensure that a greater awareness of and appreciation for the history and resources of the island is fostered, Maly said. Its all about respect. We are all related as one big family  the stars and heavens, every breeze and wave, man and earth.

The museum, in Lanai Citys Old Dole Building, teaches visitors about what Maly called 1,000 years of Hawaiian history, 100 years of sheep and cattle ranching history, and 70 years of pineapple history.

The center also highlights the lives of various immigrants who came to live on the island during the plantation era: Filipino, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, and Puerto Rican.

The last plantation pineapple was harvested in 1992. The fruit is no longer grown on the island except in a few small family gardens, Maly said.

Today, tourism is the main industry on the island.

Maly said he is delighted to share his 141-square-mile island and its heritage with visitors, but he cautions against overuse and overcrowding.

According to state tourism figures, visitors to Lanai numbered fewer than 40,000 in 1993, the year after the last pineapple harvest, and topped 85,000 by 2006.

That still is only a fraction of the approximately 1.5 million visitors Hawaii welcomes each year.

Its our smallness that gives it the aloha. It takes a special visitor to come here and really, really appreciate it, Maly said. Back in the 1950s, 1960s and even into the 1970s, they were selling Hawaii as sand, surf, sun, sex and mai-tais. Now, visitors more and more want to experience the real side of Hawaii.

As more visitors look for a Hawaii experience beyond the beaches, Maly said he hopes they would be respectful of the land and the people.

Everything has a capacity and we need to find that careful balance to maintain the heritage and still live in today in a way that is healthy for our community, he said. We are strongly rooted in agriculture, but as we move toward a more tourism-driven island, we mustnt lose our place of identity.

Before Westerners arrived in Hawaii, Lanais population was 6,000, Maly said, and the islanders lived within their resources. Today, the number stands at about 3,000 people, who increasingly rely on goods and products shipped in regularly.

We have to use what we have wisely, rebuild in the footprints of things we feel are outdated. We hear that a lot from the kupuna. If we speak their names, stories and places, they become a part of us, he said. People dont see how we can progress without earning more money, but we also need to look for sustainability in our communities.

Maly said he would support a cap on the number of visitors to Lanai.

If we look like San Diego or Miami, why would anyone spend the time or money to come here? he said. We could make it so inviting and desirable, they would wait for years to get in. And thats not a bad idea.