The thought of feeding her baby ‘ulu as her ancestors once did brings Anuhea Yagi to tears.
The cultural practitioner was part of a group of voluntary arborists and landscapers intending to save trees, both native and non-native, in Lāhainā that were scorched by the Aug. 8 wildfires.
"Having the honor of getting to be a part of saving these trees so that future generations can also eat from these trees leaves me breathless," she said.
Long before the wildfires ripped through Lāhainā, it was a coastal wetland covered in ‘ulu groves.
‘Ulu, also known as breadfruit, was brought in by early Polynesian voyagers as they sailed across the Pacific Ocean.
In fact, the fruit's arrival predates the banyan tree on Lāhaināʻs Front Street. As the 150-year-old banyan has shown signs of recovery, experts remind the public that it is not the only tree that should receive attention.
Preserving Lāhainā's ʻulu
The historical name for Lāhainā is Malu ‘Ulu o Lele, which means "the shaded breadfruit of Lele."
"In the past, you could walk from one end of Lele to the other and never leave the shade of this image grove of superfood-bearing trees," Yagi said.
Efforts are underway to preserve Lāhaināʻs breadfruit trees as a team of arborists work on propagating and replanting ‘ulu.
But the conditions of the breadfruit trees vary, according to Noa Kukuewa Lincoln, an associate professor of Indigenous crops at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.
"All of the trees we visited were extremely charred," said Lincoln. "Basically, black from the top to the bottom."
His mission is to treat and propagate ‘ulu by digging a few feet into the ground and cutting some of its roots. Lincoln said at least one root can produce between 200 and 500 breadfruit trees.
According to his findings, only one tree per several that he visited has the potential to regrow and preserve its lineage.
He emphasized what breadfruit trees represent to the West Maui community.
"These trees — that probably date back to the 1400s or say, represent a time when Lāhainā was self-sufficient, a vibrant, productive landscape before it was vastly transformed through colonization, through the sugar plantation, and more recently through tourism and extractive economies," Lincoln said.
He noted that at least eight breadfruit trees from the original groves blanketed Lāhainā.
"For me, I choose ‘ulu."
Conversations of restoring landscapes are complicated, according to Lincoln.
"But a key part of that conversation is restoring to what?" he said.
The resprouting of the banyan has conjured mixed emotions in the West Maui community. Although the tree is not native to Hawai‘i, it was a gift from India.
The banyan was planted by William Owen Smith, an attorney general who was a part of the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.
"At what point in history and vision of that history are you trying to preserve?" Lincoln said. "With the banyan tree, I think it symbolizes very heavily a fairly traumatic point in the history of Hawaiian people.”
He added that it represents the erasure of cultural landscapes.
"I think that ʻulu trees, which represent our Indigenous culture, which represent self-sufficiency, which represent landscapes that are more in harmony with our natural environment, I think that's a much better symbol than the banyan tree," Lincoln said. "For me, I choose ‘ulu."
