Nanakuli Homestead Cemetery to receive upkeep
By James Gonser
Advertiser Leeward Bureau
NANAKULI — Weary old Nanakuli Homestead Cemetery is about to receive a much-needed boost.
Kyle Sackowski • The Honolulu Advertiser
The cemetery, one of only two belonging to a Hawaiian homestead, has been maintained by the community since it opened in the 1930s.
Volunteer caretaker Stella Enos oversees more than 200 graves at Nanakuli Homestead Cemetery.
Volunteers and family members have done their best through the years, even "paying for everything out of their own pockets, including simple things like rakes and shovels," according to Kamaki Kanahele, president of the Nanakuli Hawaiian Homestead Community Association.
But they fell further and further behind.
The cemetery needs major improvements. To that end, an act signed into law by Gov. Ben Cayetano will provide $76,020 for maintenance and upkeep.
"The money is a real blessing," said Kanahele.
The money will be released July 1, but no timetable has been set for work to begin, said Kenneth Toguchi, spokesman for the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
The Nanakuli homestead cemetery, unlike commercial cemeteries, does not have built-in sources of money for maintenance and preservation. It has received limited financial support from the DHHL over the years, say those familiar with the situation. The deterioration of the cemetery, at Haleakala Avenue across from Nanakuli Elementary School, has been a sore point with members of the community.
Kanahele said grave sites are free to homesteaders, who must provide for the digging and upkeep.
Various cleanups have been conducted since December 1992, with church organizations and community groups pitching in to help with beautification projects.
But heavy work still must be done, including clearing and removing rocks; setting and replacement of original grave markers; bringing in soil; building retaining walls; grading and filling driveways, replanting trees and other greenery; and installing sidewalks.
Stella Enos, chairwoman of the association's cemetery committee, has been volunteering at the cemetery for about 10 years. She said more than 200 graves have been identified at the site, but she believes that an additional 100 people are buried in unmarked graves.
As Enos walked under the kiawe trees and along the dirt paths dividing the graves, she pointed out the last resting places of several friends and relatives, including William K. Kapaona, the former janitor at Nanaikapono Elementary who befriended Enos as a child, and high school classmate Stephen Pilialoha, who died in 1991.
One of the more recent graves is that of Iwalani Kaleikoa, who died in May 1999. Kaleikoa was a cafeteria supervisor at Wai'anae Intermediate School who died after being inadvertently struck in the chest during a fight between two 14-year-old girls at the school.
Many headstones are homemade with personal messages — "I will love you forever" — or a musical instrument etched into the stone. Some graves are marked only by a circle of stones. Others have fences, concrete walls and benches, creating a park-like setting.
"It is up to the family how extensive or how little they do," Enos said.
Enos, 65, is working on a map of the cemetery and has been searching the state archives for the names of Nanakuli homesteaders who may be buried there.
Hawaiians believe that their ancestors have a special place among the living and the mana of the departed kupuna gives living descendants their own strength and power. Kanahele said the cemetery allows Nana-
kuli homesteaders to ensure that their ancestors are protected and safe.
"In the ancient times as well as the present you need to preserve the iwi, the bones of your family," Kanahele said. "Burials on Hawaiian homelands is still very important because of the preservation of the bones."
The Nanakuli homestead opened in 1930 with the awarding of 109 residential lots, said Toguchi.
Today, there are 1,035 residential lots in what has become the largest homestead area in the state. The only other homestead area with its own cemetery is on Moloka'i, Toguchi said.
