Peleke Flores
Pictured: Peleke Flores & Heanula’iulukauikamololani Sakamoto-Flores
Photographer: Erica Taniguichi, Kalalea Photography
“If we look back in history to our peoples on the land and the names of the places, the most important thing was wai and ʻai. Food and water…When we talk about cultural ʻike, our kūpuna named everything- the mountains, the ridges. I feel like you only could get to that point when you’re well-fed and you have your systems fine-tuned. Then they started thinking about systems that can last not for them now, but more for the kids, their kids, and their kids, which is us right now walking around.”
Peleke Flores was born in Hilo, Hawai‘i and raised in Waimea, Kaua‘i. He is a 2001 graduate of Waimea High School and attended Kapiolani Community College in the Pre- Travel Industry Management Program then transferred to UH Manoa taking up Hawaiian Language and Hawaiian Studies with a special focus on Mālama ‘Āina. He has dedicated over 15 years of his career working for ‘Āina Based Non-Profit Organizations. He served as the Kū Hou Kuapā Coordinator at Paepae o Heʻeia fishpond on the Ko'olaupoko district of Oʻahu, where his knowledge of mālama ‘āina practices and dry stack wall-building were of great value in the restoration of this sacred space. Peleke currently works for Mālama Hulēʻia where his ʻike and expertise are integral in restoring this wahi pana including the 600 year old Alakoko fishpond. He is experienced in Traditional Hale Building, Uhau Humu Pohaku (hawaiian dry set) and restoring traditional Hawaiian food systems such as lo’i kalo, lo’i pa’akai, ko’a/limu, and loko i’a.
We caught up with Peleke on July 30, 2020, almost 5 months after Hawai’i recorded it’s first case of COVID-19
Could you start with a little picture of who you are and the work that you were doing pre-COVID?
I’m Peleke Flores, and I work with a nonprofit called Mālama Huleia. Their main focus is to remove the red mangroves that have been growing within Hulēʻia water stream (it is about 70 acres worth of mangroves) and at a spot called Alekoko fishpond. It's about a 40-acre fishpond that was covered with about 26 acres of mangroves. It is also in our mission that we try to restore the values and culture too. I was brought on board because of my prior experience doing restoration work on Oʻahu at Heʻeia fishpond.
Right now our main grant is for the removal of mangroves to support the return of the native birds. That’s why we are taking down the mangrove. But we also try to share that if we restore a fishpond to its full capacity—as best as we can from the microorganisms up—the birds will be fully supported.
We can start with the brackish water system and then work up to the phytoplankton, the limu; kind of take care of the base of the food chain; the fish and crabs and oysters, and slowly grow from there. [The fishpond] can regenerate itself. Kind of like a self-feeding, self-sustaining fishpond. Then all you gotta do really is maintain. We try to show that picture right now, so we can set the path right for this pond to become as resourceful as it once was.
But one step at a time. Removing the mangrove is first and then restoring the wall. A lot of sediment deposits were formed in the pond from the mangrove.
90% of the world is trying to save mangroves. In Hawaʻi, we are like the 2% trying to get it out of here, but it's because it's been damaging our resources since it was introduced over a hundred years ago.
It really blew up in our fishponds. People argue, “It's a good reef system. Where I come from people go fishing in the mangroves.” Yeah, but come look at this mangrove. Our native fish don't live in it. And after a while, it has no water. It just builds land. So it's closing up that fishery source and everything else with it.
“90% of the world is trying to save mangroves. In Hawaiʻi, we are the 2% trying to get it out of here, because it's damaging our resources.”
How do you get rid of that sediment and what will you do with it?
We’re going to have to dredge it and pull it out until we get back to the sand layer. That’s as close as we can get it back to its original state. From there, it's just making sure that the freshwater is flowing, and the saltwater is still coming in, and the walls are maintained so you can hold the water inside and just let the pond do its magic. It will slowly start building up those microorganisms.
One part is using it to restore the kuapa. This kuapa is made up of a sand/dirt mixture, with a rock wall separating the river from the pond. So using what we have onsite to restore the kuapa is one of our options. The [sediment] would help bring up the level of the fishpond wall because of sea-level rise and everything else we’ve got to adapt to. The rest will go on the land side of the pond to be used as compost to regenerate the soil.
Also, there's a lot of invasive fish, like little guppies, that we’re utilizing as fishmeal and mixing it with the sediment and wood chips. Then hopefully being able to share it with the farmers. We can also use it to plant and get rid of invasive plants and to plant more fruit and native trees.
We have a lot of coconut trees. Those kinds of trees keep giving for a long time. You don't have to touch the soil after that once they're in. Just the product that coconuts give out- from the water to the milk, to the oil, to the meat, to the husk, to the leaves—that whole tree is useful once it gets older. It's always giving if you use it right.
Listening to you talk about microorganisms; if you can build that from the ground up, the whole system is supported in a healthy way. It applies to our whole community. As we do these interviews, this is a recurring theme: “If we just handle this baseline of nutrition, of feeding people, then everything else grows from there.” Thank you for opening my mind to this parallel to microorganisms level in the loko i’a because it weaves the story.
Yeah, I saw you were interviewing the farmers during this time and thought- we're not producing food yet, but we’ll get to it.
You’ve already said so much that fills in the story. So how did COVID change your efforts or your organization?
We took the first week, but we got lucky. We got to keep working. We were considered essential under agriculture too, even though we aren’t there yet. But we did get some flack, “Oh, why are they still working? They're not ag.” We're a fishpond. People don't see the fruitfulness yet. Our kūpuna know that this could pack food, but the guys who don't know anything about the pond think of it as an artifact already. But fishponds touch everything. It’s the middle of the ahupuaʻa system. So if that fish run is well balanced, it pretty much means mauka to makai is well balanced too.
Peleke Flores at Alakoko fishpond. Photography by Kalalea Photography
“People don't see the fruitfulness yet. Our kūpuna know that this could pack food, but the guys who don't know anything about the pond think of it as an artifact already. But fishponds touch everything. It’s the middle of the ahupuaʻa system. So if that fish run is well balanced, it pretty much means mauka to makai is well balanced too.”
Unfortunately, the groups stopped. Totally. What we mostly rely on is volunteer work. But we just got a certain machine that needed the space, and not people walking around, so we can take down the mangrove a lot faster. It kind of helped within these last 3 months to clean out 16 acres of mangrove without worrying about the safety of the people. And now we're getting into the planting stage, to put back in natives, so they can take over the ground and not another invasive. In the meantime, we’re trying to move to the next step, which would be figuring out how to get back to the pond’s original capacity of holding water.
“A lot of people became farmers again. You can go into the stores, and you can’t find even a rake. Every store was sold out of your basic tools. All the dirt was sold out. Which is good. “
What are the food system vulnerabilities that you've seen exposed during this time?
A lot of people became farmers again. You can go into the stores, and you can’t find even a rake. Every store was sold out of your basic tools. All the dirt was sold out. Which is good. I’m also part of a nonprofit that is attached with a for-profit farm currently located in Hanapēpē. During COVID, that moved from one spot to another. We’re doing aquaponics there and trying to get the land cleared to do dry land and lo’i kalo. It's on loʻi land, but because of the water issue, we had to cut that in half and just turn half of the loʻi into dry land. And then we've got about nine loʻi that have a chance to restore back into kalo. So there are diverse ways of farming going on there, with the lo’i kalo, the mālaʻai garden, and the aquaponics modern loʻi—loʻi lettuce, I guess they call it. Iwikua is the nonprofit and Kuamo’o Farms is the organization.
Peleke Flores by Kalalea Photography
In addition to people going back to the land and growing things for themselves, are there things happening now in COVID that you want to see stay in place as we move forward?
The CSA boxes have been abundant. The Kīlauea guys have been dishing out 2,000 boxes a week, and then spreading it out to the islands. But I'm trying to think of the long run. That's cool the CSA boxes are going out. We're getting food out...free food. This is the most food we ever had actually, during this time. Also, our fishermen friends have been fishing more, but now that they're not selling it to the big companies they’ve been having fish for cheap. And hunting pigs and goats have been coming in... actually deer from Maui have been coming. Our freezer has been stocked.
“This is the most food we ever had actually, during this time, which is kind of cool. Also, our fishermen friends have been fishing more, but now that they're not selling it to the big companies they’ve been having fish for cheap. And hunting pigs and goats have been coming in... actually deer from Maui have been coming. Our freezer has been stocked.”
That's been a good part, but how can we stay sustainable? People are farming, but what is that magic number of how much you have to farm to cover your bills and all that financial stuff? Are you okay with stopping there? Or how much do you keep wanting to expand? Is the land available for that, is the water available for that? I think the land and the water is available. It’s the system that's not making it available. That's the only part I don't have an answer for. I see that part coming up soon. This is where we're going to make or break farmers.
The number-crunching makes me think of all this beautiful, amazing food that's been produced in the islands. And a lot of people haven't been able to eat it because it's all gone to tourism. So that's part of the equation too. If we get back to adding 10 million tourists’ mouths a year, having to account for that.
How do you think this crisis will be described in the history books of the future?
It was time that people had a reality check that the most important thing is food. Being in Hawaiʻi, you still hear people say that the most important thing is tourism, but tourism is not really going to feed you right now. If we look back in history to our peoples on the land and the names of the places, the most important thing was wai and ʻai. Food and water. If you never have that, you would never survive. When we talk about cultural ʻike, our kūpuna named everything...the mountains, the ridges. I feel like you only could get to that point when you’re well-fed and you have your systems fine-tuned. Then they started thinking about systems that can last not only for them now, but more for the kids, their kids, and their kids, which is us right now, walking around.
If we think the same and keep amplifying that within our time, we would be good with food resources and then we could be using modern technology to make money.
Photo by Kalalea Photography
“It was time that people had a reality check that the most important thing is food. Being in Hawaiʻi, you still hear people say that the most important thing is tourism, but tourism is not really going to feed you right now.”
Tourism should be a bonus on the side. I think once we get to that level again, when tourists come, everything will be like bonuses, and with or without them we can run like we never even stopped.
What can everyday people in Hawaiʻi do to help fortify a strong, resilient food future or to help your organization?
Just keep supporting ag. Supporting agriculture and aquaculture farms that are already established. They can either start learning from there or start creating their own food if they want to be their own business owner. It depends where they like to flow. For me as a nonprofit, we tell people we're not going to be able to feed the world with this fishpond. The manaʻo that comes from it can be duplicated so that it'll be more sustainable in other places to help feed their areas. This is thousand-year-old knowledge that has been waiting and incubating for a while.
“This is thousand-year-old knowledge that has been waiting and incubating for a while.”
Who are you inspired by right now? Who is really stepping up in the community in terms of food and your efforts?
Fishermen, even if it’s just individuals that have been helping and passing out fishes to families. Our Aloha ʻAina Poi Company has been doing kūpuna dinners on Fridays. Kuamo’o Farms has been passing out the CSA boxes and lettuce. The Kīlauea gang. Mālama Kauaʻi. I don't know all the names, but I know people been moving, people been trying, working on their farm, posting, sending food out, even if it's just to their immediate neighbors. I think Kauaʻi is different, it's almost like Iniki time when everybody just helped each other after the hurricane and just kind of went into village mode.
The groups that galvanized to respond to the 2018 floods too, that’s been mentioned in other interviews I’ve done on Kauaʻi.
We were already fortifying our village mentality. It’s been good to see all over.
At the fishpond, we're just trying to see how fast we can catch up with the funding we have now and try to get this place as productive as we can. When this COVID stuff is over and when the community comes back, they can see a little more of the vision. When we had groups visiting, and the mangrove was still up, I had to keep the time with them in the mangrove and in the mud short because they'll lose faith. You know, this is too hard. This work is a different animal when you are removing mangrove by hand. You can't really see the vision. So I try my best to create that vision in their head so that they feel like when they leave, they did something that's going to help the next generation, not just us now.
And when they come back, they're going to come back to a spot that has no mangrove, at least no big mangrove. That's a little closer to the picture. Also, being able to see the baby fish that we want to grow inside here would be another visual. And hopefully what I’ve been telling them is falling into place and they still remember, and they can be more confident. Our generation gets it the hardest. We’re trying to restore the loko i’a, plus cut down these invasives, which our kūpuna didn't have to worry about when they first created this, to get it back to a system that had been running for hundreds of years.
It’s also a different mindset to think about of how we will feed the community from it. People ask, “How is it going to get distributed? Are you guys going to sell it or use it?,” We’ve gotta figure that out one day, because we're not eating from the pond the same way our kūpuna ate.
One vision for the future is once we know the production levels, trying at least once a month to get something into every school cafeteria. Like how they started doing the kalo. But now we get chance for limu, crab, clam, oyster, fish, something just to get that ʻono back into the younger kids’ mouths, because they're not eating that kind of thing. Everyone’s not eating mullet as often as before. Most fishpond fishes are herbivores. Which are healthier than the carnivore fishes we are used to eating today such as the tunas, the mahis, the onos—all those big fishes.
Peleke Flores & Heanula’iulukauikamololani Sakamoto-Flores, photo by Erica Taniguichi, Kalalea Photography
Just like we have to train a new generation of farmers up, we have to build a new generation of taste buds too.
To learn more about Peleke’s work visit https://malamahuleia.org/