Question: Whatever happened to the stone ahupuaa marker at Castle Junction that was vandalized in August?
Answer: The first traditional ahu pohaku or stone marker that Hawaiian civic clubs erected and dedicated July 27 to mark the boundary between the Kaneohe and Kailua ahupuaa remains a pile of stones after a vandal wrecked it.
The Koolaupoko Hawaiian Civic Club and the Oahu Council of the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs are asking the public to help fund the rebuilding of the ahu, which was vandalized Aug. 24.
The groups are reaching out to the community in hopes of raising $4,400 to rebuild the ahu and to install an informational sign to explain its significance.
“It’s really for our community to understand this concept of stewardship and caring for our resources,” said Mahealani Cypher, spokeswoman for the Koolaupoko Hawaiian Civic Club, which spearheaded the ahupuaa boundary marker project for Windward Oahu.
A witness caught the vandal on video and turned it over to police, Cypher said. The witness said the man went crazy, throwing rocks, she said.
No arrests were made because police did not know who owned the ahu and whom to contact, so a new sign will include that information, she said.
The new ahu will be more secure, and plants will be used to make it less inviting to vandals, Cypher said.
The marker is part of an islandwide program by the Oahu Council to use brown signs to identify ahupuaa boundaries, the traditional land divisions from the mountains to the sea ancient Hawaiians used to manage cultural and natural resources.
Ahupuaa boundaries were traditionally marked with stone ahu, monument-type structures like the one at Castle Junction, the Oahu Council explained in a news release. The junction is at Kamehameha and Pali highways.
The Oahu Council will try to build one more, Cypher said.
“The goal of the program is to renew the connection between each ahupuaa’s residents and their kuleana (responsibility to be good stewards of their resources,” the group said.
The traditional Hawaiian ahu that had stood at Castle Junction was built by a master stone mason renowned for building heiau and stacking Hawaiian stone walls.
The civic clubs want to rehire Billy Fields to rebuild the ahu, which was to have been a sample for future stone ahupuaa markers elsewhere.
“Because this is an example, we want to make it the best we can,” Cypher said.
The Koolaupoko civic club and the Oahu Council had obtained grants, which funded the original project to put up 16 brown signs in the Koolaupoko District from Waimanalo to Kualoa.
For donations, checks should be made out to Hawaii Maoli with the notation “Ahu Pohaku Fund,” and mailed to Hawaii Maoli, 91-1270 Kinoiki St., Kapolei, HI 96707.
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This update was written by Leila Fujimori. Suggest a topic for “Whatever Happened To…” by writing Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210, Honolulu 96813; call 529-4747; or email cityeditors@staradvertiser.com.
