This Friday, The Conversation will take the show on the road and broadcast live from Kauaʻi. In advance of that, we wanted to highlight a historic Hawaiʻi event that will feature the story of Kōloa.
An online event on Thursday will peek into the history of the historic area of the Garden Isle. Hallett Hammatt, an archeologist and the president of Cultural Surveys Hawaiʻi, will take part in a webinar.
He will be joined by others, including Kauaʻi resident Erika Kamālamalamaonālani Ishii, a Hawaiian studies graduate student at the University of Hawaiʻi.
Kōloa, about 10 miles from Līhuʻe, was the site of the state’s first sugar mill and one of the early archeological surveys conducted in the islands. Hammatt said the area is a golf course today but was once home to one of very few irrigated agricultural systems.
"The genius of the Hawaiians to be able to design a system like this to deliver the water into this rocky, uneven landscape was quite amazing," he said.
Hammatt said he believes every community has an interest in its past.
"Kōloa is obviously a very special place. The interest that the people in Kōloa have in historic preservation, in their monuments, in their past, and all this is exemplified," he said.
Ishii said this webinar means a lot to her as someone from Kōloa.
"Seeing all these people talk about especially where I came from, it's just so interesting, and it has a special place in my heart, especially since I grew up in Kōloa — I was born there. It just means a lot to me seeing everyone talk about Kōloa so much nowadays," she said.
She hopes people attending the webinar will take the knowledge and pass it along.
The Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation webinar will take place at noon Thursday. For more information, click here.
This interview aired on The Conversation on Nov. 13, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
