Speeding across the waters off Kaua’i’s west coast in a Zodiac raft, the morning breaks silver and pink. The inflatable 17-passenger watercraft skims over the flat sea past the cane fields of Kaumakani and a pod of spinner dolphins before we reach Polihale Beach at the western end of the Na Pali Coast.

Our destination is Nu’alolo Kai, one of Hawai’i’s best-preserved historical and cultural sites. I am traveling with UH anthropology professor Terry Hunt and David Burney, the director of conservation, living collections and horticulture for the National Tropical Botanical Garden. Fellow botanists, plant collectors and graduate students enrolled in an archaeological field class jointly taught by Hunt and Burney are also on board.

We make the 24-mile journey from Port Allen to Nu’alolo Kai to get a first hand look at the restoration work being conducted under the direction of the Na Pali Coast ‘Ohana, a non-profit organization based on Kaua’i but supported by volunteers from around the state and beyond.

Since its inception in 1992, Na Pali Coast ‘Ohana has helped protect and preserve the 6,000-plus-acre Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park. After years of organizing beach clean ups, invasive plant eradications and native plant re-introductions, the ‘Ohana now puts emphasis on restoration, conservation and educational efforts at Nu’alolo Kai, which is believed to have been inhabited for at least 600 years.

It is a beautiful, calm late summer morning as we make our way to Nu’alolo Kai where Na Pali Coast ‘Ohana president Sabra Kauka awaits our arrival. Kauka is camped near the beach with a group of teachers, archaeologists and botanists who are volunteering their time and labor to help clear invasive brush, map archaeological sites and restore the cultural landscape.

For most of us on the Zodiac, this is our first landing at Nu’alolo Kai, since access is limited by the state (Department of Land and Natural Resource landing permits required) and effectively cut off by high winter surf for half the year.

A rare gathering

When we arrive, the sun is still rising behind sheer basalt cliffs that soar almost 1,500 feet out of the sea, forming a curved bowl-like valley. Wearing black tabi, Kauka greets us with a welcome chant after which we follow her from the blue lava rock beach to a camp site of half a dozen tents, tables and tarps accommodating volunteers working with the ‘Ohana during the second of three five-day working visits Kauka will lead this summer.

By chance, this is the one day that Hunt, Burney and DLNR chair Laura Thielen are all at Nu’alolo Kai. Also present is Marjeta Jeraj, a Slovene researcher from the University of Wisconsin who is studying plant history through wood charcoal and other remnant materials.

As a group we follow Kauka on a walking tour of Nu’alolo Kai flats, through a large stand of noni trees.

Inhabited as recently as the early 20th century, Nu’alolo Kai’s Hawaiian-built structures remained well preserved for centuries, but began to fall into ruin as families with ancestral ties to the area were no longer able to regularly visit and care for the remote site.

Feral goats, driven by hunting pressure in neighboring valleys found a safe haven at Nu’alolo Kai where hunting was prohibited. With no human population, the goats thrived, steadily damaging the Hawaiian sites and surrounding plants in the process. Three years ago, the ‘Ohana requested State Forestry and Parks to allow bow hunting to help curb mushrooming goat populations.

As we stand under the canopy of the low-density noni forest, the high-pitched cry of goats just beyond sight is heard. The powerful smell of fallen noni–everywhere–wafts up into our noses and Kauka speaks.

“Nu’alolo Kai may have supported 200 or more people, but up to 90 percent of the population was decimated by introduced diseases. Sudden, dramatic changes in Hawai’i’s economy and governance led to this area being abandoned to feral goats and invasive plants.

“Our initiative here is three-fold: first, to restore the archaeological and cultural site, second, to restore native plants and third, to educate the public about caring for Na Pali’s natural, historical and cultural legacy.

Kauka goes on to describe the genesis of Na Pali Coast ‘Ohana.

“A week before Hurricane ‘Iniki (1992), we brought our first internment back here. It was a very moving experience for all of us, to bring those ancestral remains back to this place. At that time, the question or challenge of taking care of this place came up.”

Kauka, a cultural practitioner and Hawaiian studies teacher said that she and the others she was with thought, “I really can’t assume this responsibility. I’ve got a full-time job, I’m too busy.”

Gradually, things fell into place.

She explained how Mike Wilson, former DLNR chair and State Parks administrator Dan Quinn helped the ‘Ohana as they forged partnerships and alliances with a host of individuals and groups leading to formal incorporation in 1995.

All in the ‘Ohana

Today the ‘Ohana receives support not only from volunteers, but sponsorship from individual, public and private entities.

Kauka says Na Pali Coast ‘Ohana also receives help from the three boat tour companies granted landing permits at Nu’alolo Kai.

“One condition of their permit is to support us, but they go above and beyond just because they want to,” Kauka says. “They provide us with transport, bring us water and ice and have sent their staff to volunteer and train with us. They are here far more than us so they act as our eyes and ears.”

When the group reaches a terraced area called K-3, Hunt recounts his last visit to Nu’alolo Kai–eighteen years earlier. In 1990, Hunt was part of an excavation that re-examined a small section of the first major archaeological work at Nu’alolo Kai by the Hawaiian Archaeological Program led by Kenneth Emory between 1958–1964.

Hunt describes Nu’alolo Kai as presenting a tremendous opportunity to study an entire landscape wholly representative of how some Hawaiians lived pre-contact in a setting that hasn’t been destroyed by modern activities like agriculture, road building or development.

We stand gathered at the edge of the valley overlooking the well-defined remnants of cliff house sites as Hunt explains to the group why Emory’s excavations were so fruitful.

“We found tremendous preservation of plant materials, bones, shells and artifacts including organic material like kapa, gourds and cordage. The preservation here was very good because it is dry and salt crystals picked up from the ocean probably helped preserve material.”

“In many ways, Emory must have been overwhelmed by the sheer volume of material excavated from here. It was absolutely unprecedented anywhere in Hawai’i, and in fact anywhere in Polynesia there wasn’t anything like this.”

Hunt tells the group that material from his 1990 dig is still being analyzed.

“The moral of the story here is dig small holes and plan on lots of time if you are excavating a place like this. There is so much we can learn from a two by one meter excavation here–I am going to die before all this work is done.”

As he talks, I look up at the wall of lava rock that rises 1,500 feet over us.

“If you hear a whistling sound from above, move,” Kauka warns.

The archaeological sites at Nu’alolo Kai are impressive but were largely hidden by invasive lantana, guava, papaya and castor bean until Na Pali Coast ‘Ohana arrived.

Moana Lee, sees ‘Ohana’s work at Nu’alolo Kai as imperative if there is to be a broader understanding of the subsistence strategies that took place prior to contact. This is where knowledge can be tested, myth stripped from fact and, she adds, will help “preserve pride in the past and “a deeper understanding of our kupuna and ourselves.”

“Archaeology has done more to define our ideas about Hawaiian culture than any other discipline,” Lee says. “Places like Nu’alolo Kai and the work of Na Pali Coast ‘Ohana can be the foundation of a Hawaiian classroom where we, the keepers of our ancestral knowledge, will define and refine the interpretations of our cultural material past.”

“It will not happen in my life time, but the seeds are being planted and it is my hope that it happens.”

Visit [napali.org] for more information.

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