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Apr 3 2010
Lane Beck
Old Hawaii Ready For Cultural And Economic Rebirth
In today’s world, Hawaii is thought of as the ultimate tropical destination, a tourist paradise with an economic engine to match. But for most of the last 150 years, the backbone of the Hawaiian economy wasn’t tourism, it was sugar cane.
The Big Island of Hawaii was one of the major sugar cane agricultural centers in the world. Wealthy families and corporations such as Dole owned vast tracts of land, especially on the East side of the island, known as the Hamakua Coast. These massive plantations could stretch for thousands of acres. The local Hawaiian families often worked for generations as employees on the same plantation. Small towns up and down the Hamakua coast thrived.
It was a time dominated by large business interests and many aspects of the local Hawaiian culture weren’t only discouraged, for decades it was actually illegal to practice Hawaiian rites or even speak the language. That condition continued into the 1970s when a few courageous local people began the cultural resurgence that is still in evidence today. Around the same time, tourism to Hawaii started to become the dominant economic force in the islands.
And then in the 1990s, with the emergence of the global economy and the collapse of the price of sugar, the old economic engine completely collapsed. The plantations on the Big Island were sold and divided, the companies withdrew, local small town economies up and down the Hamakua Coast collapsed in turn and the only jobs available were in the new resort hotels on the other side of the island. The entire economy of the Hamakua Coast vanished almost overnight.
But one of the reasons that cultural resurgence is even today still gaining momentum in Hawaii is because tourists drive the new economic engine of Hawaii, and they want exposure to the native culture. The Hawaiians have had bad experiences interacting with many of the business and real estate people that have targeted the islands and are understandably reluctant to engage with outsiders. It is just one of the facets that makes their latest resurgence that much more remarkable. Because they have begun to re-create an economy, for the first time on their own terms, by bringing the best of old and new together. And they are using an endlessly sustainable resource to do it-- the native community itself.
Responsible companies like Soul of Hawaii connect travelers with kahuna, the wise and powerful leaders of Hawaiian culture, for private healing experiences that take place out in the wide open spaces of the Hamakua Coast. The company arranges locations with private landowners and works directly with the kahuna to facilitate the meeting with the client. By providing income to both the kahuna and the landowners, the economic impact is maximized.
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Old Hawaii Ready For Cultural And Economic Rebirth
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