On Saturday I attended the first meeting of the Hamakua Steering Committee.

I am a part of this wonderful group of people, which will spend the next two years translating the desires of the Hamakua community into a plan that will take us through the next 20 years. More on the other members and some of the details about the Hamakua Steering Committee here.

I met everybody for the first time on Saturday, when we spent all day getting to know each other and learning what our role is to be. I could not be happier about working with this diverse group of caring people, each of whom bring special skills to this planning process. We all like and respect each other.

All the steering committee members are grounded in the idea that it is the land that takes care of us, and so we need to take care of the land.

My friend Ka‘iu Kimura explained it to me like this. She said that our kūpuna have a wise saying: “He Aliʻi ka ʻĀina, He Kauā ke Kanaka.” “Our land is the chief, and we the people are kauā to it.” She said she translates this as saying that we are subservient to the land, as it is the land that provides for us.

Every single member of the steering committee understands and lives by this idea. I feel really privileged to be a part of this special group of people.

Everyone was asked to bring some soil from where they came from, and it was mixed together in a bowl. Our hands in the soil is symbolic of our commitment to work together for the benefit of Hamakua.

We all want to do the best for the coming generations.