Here we go again.
Hawaii News Now reported last night on another manufactured dispute over land rights based on a family’s claim to be descended from the original holder of a royal patent granting title to the land, this time on Maui.
Dozens lined Kahekili Highway near Waiehu Beach Road on Monday holding signs and Hawaiian flags.
The area they say they are protecting is where non-profit organization Maui Economic Opportunity plans to build 120 affordable rental units for low-income families.
The Native Hawaiian family says the land belongs to them.”
Legal title to the land is held by the Maui Economic Opportunity, which hopes to build 120 affordable rentals on the property. Their plan is now opposed by supporters of the family claiming ties to the original title holder.
It’s similar to the claim asserted earlier by a group that took over part of a Waikele agricultural subdivision on Oahu in support of a family claiming lineal descent from the original royal land patent recipient.
Those asserting these claims under the banner of Hawaiian rights believe modern legal land titles should yield to sometimes vague or simply mistaken Hawaiian claims.
More details are needed in order to fully understand the claims being made. Hopefully I’ll be able to follow-up on this later.
See:
Standoff In Waipahu: Hawaiian Rights ‘Army’ Has Illegally Occupied A Private Pot Farm, Civil Beat, June 7, 2022
The once-and-forever land title theory loses again, iLind.net, June 12, 2022
Squatters buy time by bluffing HPDWa, iLind.net, June 23, 2022
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Hawaii desperately needs affordable housing on all eight islands. K?naka are being manipulated, duped and one can’t help but wonder why they believe.
But, but, but there’s no treaty of annexation! Doesn’t that mean I get to plop a junk car and pile of crap on any place I find convenient, call some friends over and fly flags, threaten people and use racist epithets, and nobody can make me leave?
Because if you don’t agree, you’re not a real Hawaiian!
That story was poorly reported.
It refers to a Hawaiian family claiming ownership of the land but never names the family or describes the number of people residing there, and instead quotes a “family liaison,” whatever that means.
The story says the family claims the land is kuleana land, and notes that such ownership is often poorly documented. But then the story says the recognized legal owners state they can document ownership back to a royal patent dating to King Lunalilo, and that courts have ruled against claims to the contrary.
So is there any basis whatsoever for the unnamed family to claim ownership? The implication is “no,” but the story just kind of dances around that key question.
Is this Tutu and multiple generations who have lived there as long as anyone can remember? Or is it a couple bums in a tent who muscled their way in just recently?
And since the plan here is to build 120 affordable housing units in an extremely expensive and problematic housing market, one might consider that rather than quoting a “liaison” bemoaning the displacement of one unnamed family of apparent squatters and making inflammatory statements about “displacement” and keeping Hawaiians on “Hawaiian land,” it might be pertinent to reveal just how many people we’re talking about, how long they’ve been residing there, what structures or improvements they’ve made, and whether their claims have any basis in reality.
Otherwise, the stage is just being set for another divisive emotionally and racially charged standoff of the type that state and county authorities so often shy away from resolving in a reasonable manner but “activists” and woke selfie-seekers tend to so eagerly embrace.
It does seem odd to not only grant anonymity to a family that obstructs new affordable housing while seeking public support of those actions, but to also fail explain why such anonymity was granted. It’s not like this is some secret whistle blower or something. It’s people who are publicly obstructing implementation of an important public policy, with supporters demonstrating on their behalf alongside a public highway.
It should be noted that the “family liaison” publicizing one highly charged view of this issue is a current candidate for Maui County Council, which went unreported but could explain a lot.
Developer slogans like “Affordable Housing”, “Live, work, play” or “Transit Oriented Development” are usually buzzwords for taxpayer ripoff. Is it affordable for workers in low pay service jobs? Is it affordable in perpetuity or will they be kicked to the curb in a few years by the developer? What percentage of the units are affordable?
Fix the glut of vacation rentals first before trusting and subsidizing developer schemes. Do we ever even look back at the miles of broken promises from previous developers?
It will be interesting, to say the least, to learn more about this.
I wonder if there is a specific event or person who prompted this
style of “legal title” action or have they been ongoing historically.
I often wonder how “mistaken” these types of claims really are. After all, the consequences tend to be pretty meager once all the nonsense gets sorted out. In the meantime, squatters enjoy rent-free living and might even become something of a cause célèbre. Were the Kunia/Waikele “army” squatters really held accountable? Or were their trespassing cases just quietly dismissed after the main goal of booting them out was finally accomplished? It was recently reported that the fake colonel claiming his junk sailboat was a “warship” owed $30k in state slip fees when another dufus threatened to behead the Waianae harbormaster over the issue. So what happens when that bill doesn’t get paid? Will it too just evaporate?