A traditional Hawaiian fishpond on Kauaʻi's north shore is now permanently in the hands of the community.
This is welcome news to generations of Hanalei families who pushed back against resort development more than 40 years ago.
Halulu Fishpond, which sits on a quarter-acre of land along Hanalei Bay, is now the property of the Waipā Foundation.
The nonprofit stewards more than 1,600 acres in the ahupuaʻa of Waipā, which it leases from Kamehameha Schools, said Stacy Sproat, the executive director of the Waipā Foundation.
“We’re here because in the early 1980s, the ahupuaʻa was coming out of a long-term pasture lease and it was slated for resort development,” Sproat said.
“And so our kūpuna and ʻohana through activism were able to convince Kamehameha that what we chose as our mission, that getting our people on the ʻāina, and being able to have a land-based specifically, that was more important than obviously having a resort at Waipā,” she said.
Waipā hosts thousands of farmers, educators, families and school groups annually to join in mālama ʻāina education programs on Kauaʻi’s north shore. But their current lease with Kamehameha Schools expires in 2050.
“We feel like we have shown that this is really the highest and best use of the entire ahupuaʻa, but still until we have been able to acquire this property we had no actual perpetual or long-term right to anything in Waipā,” Sproat said.
"And so, I mean it’s a really small piece of property. But it actually gives us the opportunity to be in Waipā forever.”
More than 100 community members joined Sproat earlier this month to celebrate the purchase with a planting of green ti-leaf. The hope is to expand programming to the site and provide a space for local families to reconnect to the land.
“Thinking maybe a little bit differently, like running the whole cycle in reverse, you know? Like people were dispossessed of land, maybe this is an opportunity to bring people back to ʻāina,” Sproat said.
Sproat said the $1.3 million land deal also gives the foundation power and a seat at the table when it comes to decisions on the future of land use in Hanalei.
