It’s finals week at Waiakea High School. Most students are inside at their desks, ready with pen and paper.
For 51 students in Kawika Urakami’s Hawaiian language class, however, their last project was completed with rakes, hedge clippers, shovels and bare hands.
On Wednesday, the group of freshmen, sophomores and juniors spent the morning knee-deep in murky green water at Richardson’s Ocean Park, clearing layers of algae and invasive seaweed out of the dormant fish ponds at the park’s entrance. Slippers and Crocs lay scattered on the banks, and orange buckets with the words “Let’s Do This” were filled easily.
“The ponds haven’t been worked on for years,” said park manager Kalani Kahalioumi. Kahalioumi is director of special projects for the county’s Parks and Recreation Department. He’s spent the past two years managing Richardson’s seven acres.
Over the years, various groups have attempted cleanup projects at the ponds, but none as large-scale as the county’s current endeavor, which will involve more than 20 groups over the coming months. Each group will spend about three hours at the site, Kahalioumi said, with the ultimate goal of restoring the loko i‘a to their original purpose: aquaculture.
“It’s an opportunity for malama, you know?” Kahalioumi said. “(Other groups) try to maintain it, but it’s so overwhelming.” The more hands involved, the better.
“The kids have been very receptive,” he said.
The Hawaiian language class became involved as part of an overall effort to study the Waiakea ahupua‘a in depth.
“This is the culmination,” Urakami said. “We went over different vocabulary, values, expectations, protocol.”
“You have to have a good mindset,” 11th-grader Napahu Lilly said, adding the big takeaway was the importance of “just giving back to our land.” Lilly has done loko i‘a cleanup before at Richardson’s, but not within the more extensive network of ponds.
Earlier in the year, the class visited Richardson’s to meet with marine scientists from the University of Hawaii at Hilo. Kahalioumi, a member of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, also talked with the class about the importance of the Society’s travels.
“First, it was how you respect the ocean,” Kahalioumi said. With the fish ponds, “it’s how you respect the land.”
To get involved with the loko i‘a restoration project, contact Lisa Robertson at 808-961-8688.
E-mail Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.