Maui: Local Stories + Resources + Tourism's Very White Lie + Vultures + A Helpless Billionaire

Thursday Thoughts (+ links to resources)

There’s so much to be said, so I’m handing the mic to the people. The locals who’ve, despite their own trauma and loss, been defiantly sharing a very real and raw truth about the wildfires — the lack of warning, the local negligence, the media coverups, the true scale of the loss of life (potentially into the thousands), and looming fight against those already trying to steal, recolonize, and eventually privatize their lands.

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First off, Oprah.

She was really sauntering around shelters muttering to the cameras about feeling helpless. Oprah, girl, you are supposed to be the help!

Her first instinct was media exploitation of the people. Thankfully, she was blocked from bringing her cameras into the shelters, presumably to film grieving people in shock and sleeping on cots in borrowed clothing. Just doesn’t feel like the care and community you’d expect from a neighbor who has been living on your island for 20 years. Has she ever come down from the hill? From the bamboo castle? Do locals know her? Does she not know them? She owns over 1,000 acres on Maui. The entire Lāhainā neighborhood, made up of 1700 homes, is approx. 1600 acres.

After backlash for showing up with cameras, she said she’s going to “make a donation.” And no, she didn’t bring her urgent questions or camera crew to city/state officials or their press conferences.

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“This is not Universal Studios. It isn’t a fucking movie set. What in your mind and in your heart makes you guys think that this is OK.” - @misscourtneyyy_

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“We’ve been trying to get insulin flown in from Kona over to Kapalua, but our flights are being blocked by the Department of Health because it wasn’t approved by them. We have no support. They’re actually making it more difficult for us to try to help our our ohanas, our families, and our friends that are in need of us. They’re waiting for whatever reason and I’m not sure what it is. It’s ironic that the people that we put into government to actually help us are making it more difficult for us to just help ourselves.” - Pro Surfer Kai Lenny

@camiladechalusI talked with Pro surfer Kai Lenny who says #government is not being transparent about whats happening in #maui #wildfires #hawaii #mauifire #insulin #medics #update

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“We’re not gonna get fucking pushed around anymore.” - Keoka

@mauimamiof4Kekoa lost everything including his business on front street. Here is the REAL news and whats really going down in Lahiana #lahaina #mauifire #fyp

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“Maui is not closed” - Governor Josh Green & Mayor Richard Bissen

But it should be. The press conference ended abruptly after a Hawaii News Now reporter surfaced pleas from residents dealing with “visitors who can not control themselves.” Locals have complained of tourists sneaking into convoys to jump checkpoints for selfies amongst the ruins and unrecovered bodies, meandering around carefree through a community of people in grief, and demanding hotel discounts from traumatized, exhausted hotel staff because of the fire’s “impact” on their trip.

@roldy_alma96706Just horrible. Lahaina does not have the resources.

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Tourism’s Very White Lie

I recently wrote about how LA’s striking hospitality workers’ pleas to cancel Eras Tour dates went ignored by both Taylor Swift and LA City Hall. Large scale events and seasonal tourism offer little financial benefit to the already-exploited and underpaid hospitality and service industry workers who are consistently left off the gravy train, even despite high occupancy rates and increasing profits. Owners and operators continue to squeeze more out of less, while being empowered to do so by a city who pushes the myth of tourism role in economic viability.

Local business and industry can and should exist without tourism. The expectation of tourists on Maui is that locals are supposed to quickly work past their grief and the trauma of, um, apocalyptic devastation to service them, excellently. Otherwise it’s 1- star Yelp reviews and 0% tips for anyone who’s not smiling wide enough or making cocktails fast enough. At a certain level, invasive tourists are working tactically to destroy community the same way that white Christians used residential schools and slave trafficking to kill off language, last names, customs, and bloodlines. Grief and trauma, at minimum, deserve processing time. Anyone intentionally interrupting that process or demanding the trauma be paused and stored away at the convenience of their leisure is simply acting with violence.

“If we really want to start having the conversation about what needs to be done in Hawaii to allow for people to live on that island in peace and not have to deal with tourism, we’d have to start doing revolutionary thinking on the ways in which we look at money in this world.”

“We have created a world, a society, in which if you don’t commodify your culture, or make your culture into something a lot of white people will pay for, and pay to go do, like, your country collapses.” - @julesbons2

@julesbons2Replying to @ChrystalsChronicles ah yes the “we are doing them a favor” card

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“There is two Hawaii’s right now, the one we’re living in, and the one they’re visiting in. …You don’t see our people swimming, snorkeling, surfing, Nobody’s having fun in tragedy and continuing their lives like nothing happened.” (BBC News)

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“There are people, rich people, that are already trying to buy the land that’s still in ashes. That has families who passed away still in the rubble. There is a boat company that’s still taking out tourists snorkeling in the waters that still have bodies in the water. This is what naaupo¹ looks like.” - @mindfullykai

@mindfullykaiPeople are preying on trauma. This is what naaupo looks like. #trauma #lahaina #maui #tourismisexploitation #colonization #unity #kanakamaoli

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Report Land Grabs

Anyone in Lāhainā who’s receiving calls from realtors and speculators, please email action@hapahi.org or direct message @hiprogressiveaction on Instagram so they can document and send to the appropriate outlets. Include their name, company and address if you have it.

Sign the Stop Land Grabs petition here.

Lastly, here are some ways to directly support:

All links have been shared from locals and include ways to support directly and via 501(c)(3):

• Help Maui Rise: Directly Aid ʻOhana Displaced by Fires (GoogleDoc) (please pull names from bottom since most folks aren’t scrolling all the way down)

• Maui United Way (Donate)

• Council for Hawaiian Advancement (Donate)

• Elissa Brown’s Grandmothers House (GoFundMe or Venmo @elissabrown808 )

• Pūnana Leo o Lāhainā Community Fund (Donate)

• @Lahaina_Ohana_Venmo Multiple Family Support (Instagram)

• Amazon/USPS - For those wanting to send baby formula/bottles, diapers/wipes, tampons, pads, and toiletry supplies, batteries, tents, clothing etc, you can purchase on Amazon and send to:

  • Maui Brew Co, Attn: Maui Relief, 605 Lipoa Pkwy, Kihei, HI 96753

Elissa Brown’s Grandmothers House (GoFundMe or Venmo @elissabrown808)

@Lahaina_Ohana_Venmo (Instagram)

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No lies detected!

@pnukstravel tiktoks do be the worst sometimes #hawaii #hawaiifire #indigenous #nativetiktok #kanaka #maori #aboriginal #cree #inuit #islanders

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1. Naaupo (nā'-ău-pō'), n.

[Naau, mind, and po. night.] Ignorance; darkness of mind; lack of intelligence or instruction; a cloudy mind.