Kalo Culture, Tapping into the Roots of Hawai‘i's Life-Giving Ancestral Plant
"One cannot talk about growing taro without talking about water rights, an issue that has posed serious challenges for the farm [Ka‘ala Farm], and for contemporary taro growers in general." Over the last century, large amounts of Hawai‘i's surface water has been diverted away from natural streams and traditional taro areas to support sugar plantations and other modern commercial uses. The effect, Enos says, has been to contribute to "the whole breakdown of Hawaiians' connection to the land and fishing and everything else."
'The [Wai‘anae] valley got dried out to make a town," says Butch DeTroye, Ka‘ala Farm's facilities manager. "But we believe it's possible to put the water back, and share it with the forests, too." Enos says he went through years of bureaucratic struggles to bring water from a diversion ditch down to the valley, where it used to run. "We still don't have enough water," he says. "But I think we're closer to the driver's seat. Before, we weren't even in the bus."
Reference Cited
Lang, L. 2002. "Kalo Culture: Tapping into the Roots of Hawaii's Life-Giving Ancestral Plant." Hana Hou! The Magazine of Hawaiian Airlines 5(1).
