The protesters weren’t allowed to linger in front of the construction site.
Since loitering in city parks during the COVID-19 pandemic invites a criminal citation, those who objected to the excavator digging into the earth at Waimanalo Bay Beach Park on Monday could only walk by and offer their words: “Shame on you.”
Kalokahi Kauka was one of more than a dozen protesters who defied the city’s stay-at-home order to protest the arrival of heavy machinery at the park near Sherwood Forest.
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
As thousands of Oahu residents shelter in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, a construction crew started work on a controversial ball field project at Sherwood Forest. Although the project would be only part of a $32 million master-planned ball field complex and 470-car parking lot, members of the Native Hawaiian community say it amounts to desecration of the aina, or land. The site, a national historic landmark, was a Hawaiian burial ground that historians believe may have been the first landing place in the Hawaiian Islands for Polynesian voyagers.
Mahealani Martin, an Oahu resident with strong ties to Waimanalo, said she cried on Sunday when she heard construction would begin. Early Monday, she arrived to protest wearing a “kiai” hat, gloves and a makeshift cloth face mask and holding a large Hawaiian flag.
“That’s our ancestors,” she said. “They keep destroying, or desecrating, our iwi kupuna. That’s not right.”
Opponents protested for six months straight last year, a demonstration that culminated in the arrest of 28 people who sought to block the arrival of construction equipment in September. Under pressure from the nonprofit Save Our Sherwoods and other activists, the mayor proposed what his administration considered a compromise: they would nullify the project’s master plan and stop the project after “Phase 1” and give the site a new name, Hunananiho Park, to highlight its association to Hawaiian history.
Save Our Sherwoods and the Waimanalo community in general, however, never agreed to the construction, according to Kukana Kama-Toth, a member of Save Our Sherwoods and the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board, which voted 10 to 1 in opposition to the project in June.
A lawsuit filed by Save Our Sherwoods and four individuals against city agencies and the U.S. Department of the Interior is ongoing.
In a recorded video statement released Sunday, Mayor Kirk Caldwell said the city’s current plan is the result of many community conversations.
Sherwood Forest demonstrators had to keep moving to avoid being cited for loitering in a park during the pandemic.
Cory Lum/Civil Beat
“While there’s been a lot of emotion around the project, I think it’s everyone’s hope at the end of the day when this field is completed, and when it’s planted and surrounded by Native Hawaiian trees, people can gather here as a place of healing, of remembering what’s so important about the aina and the people who have lived on it in the past, and those who will be celebrating life on it today and in the future,” he said.
Monday’s protest was attended by over a dozen people despite the state’s stay-at-home order. Franki Hernandez, an Aikahi area resident with family in Waimanalo, said it was inappropriate for the city to start construction during a global pandemic, inviting protest at a time when people should be sheltering in place.
“It doesn’t need to be done right now,” she said. “If you care about the aina, you’re going to show up.”
Police officers issued 28 warnings on Monday morning, according to the police department. Two people were cited for violating emergency laws after they ignored the officers’ warnings to leave, department spokeswoman Michelle Yu said. No one was arrested.
Waimanalo resident Louise Keawe said she’s been “holding space” in front of the park entrance continuously since late January. She said the protesters do not intend to interfere or have a confrontation with police but they want their position known.
“Today we stand with aloha,” she said.
The post Construction Resumes At Waimanalo Park Despite Pandemic And Protest appeared first on Honolulu Civil Beat.