Posted on: Tuesday, September 11, 2001

Hawaiian group contests sale of former cane land

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua‘i Bureau

HANAMA'ULU, Kaua'i — A group of Hawaiians yesterday put their own chain and padlock on the road leading to a 440-acre block of former Lihu'e Plantation cane land, claiming ownership.

The land lies between the Nukoli'i resort and Hanama'ulu Bay, seaward of Kuhio Highway.

At last report, the land had been sold to an undisclosed Mainland owner by Amfac Land Co., which owned the now-closed plantation. Information on the new owner was not immediately available.

The group argued that Amfac did not have the fee-simple title to the land and could not sell it.

Nor does anyone else have fee-simple title to most Hawai'i land, said Butch Durant, who says that as the last Hawaiian living on his ancestral lands in the Hanama'ulu area, he is the konohiki, or overseer, of all the land in the area.

"What we're saying is that these lands can never be sold," Durant said, standing at the gate near the busy intersection of Kuhio Highway and Kapule Highway outside Hanama'ulu town.

Durant said his family has lived on family property in the region "since the first Hawaiians that stepped in that 'ili," or land section.

Durant and his supporters take the position that the only fee-simple lands in the Islands are the fewer than 8,000 house sites issued to commoners during the Great Mahele of the mid-19th century. The lands distributed to the royal family, chiefs and others were meant to be held communally by the Hawaiian people, the kanaka maoli, he said.

"Our interests have never been extinguished," said backer Liko Martin. "We are not making a claim on this land. It is already ours."

Durant said that as konohiki, he expects to oversee Hawaiians being placed back on the coastal area.

"We want to put taro back on the land," said supporter Durgh Kane.