CAN A Hawaiian cultural sanctuary thrive right smack in the middle of tourist mecca? Lahaina's Friends of Moku`ula believe it can and their confident enthusiasm has won them nearly $400,000 in grants since July of 1998 when they received their first one from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' Community-Based Economic Development Program. These awards include $131,000 from the Administration for Native Americans in Washington, D.C., through a program recently supported with matching funds from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. "They are our shining example of what good organizational capacity and a well-defined vision can do," said OHA's Chris van Bergeijk, who oversees the CBED program and helped with the application to ANA.

Friends of Moku`ula has been incorporated as a non-profit organization since 1995. It began in 1990 as a collection of volunteers dedicated to restoring the sacred site, Moku`ula, sitting under the baseball park and a parking lot in downtown Lahaina.

"This was a piko of Hawai`i, a center like Kona and Waikiki, where the ali`i chose to live," said Akoni Akana, former chair of the Friend's board and now the corporation's executive director. "These places were chosen for reasons: the availability of water, the abundance of food, ocean access."

As recently as the late nineteenth century, the natural features of Moku`ula included a swamp area surrounding a pond with an islet in the center.

Spiritually, the goddess Kihawahine, whose earthly form was a lizard, reigned over the grotto as the mo`o `aumakua. Historically, the site symbolizes, among other events, the royal union of Kamahameha I with Maui's high chiefess Keopuolani, known as his "sacred wife." Their son, Kamehameha III, had a retreat there and built a stone mausoleum on the premises.

"Around 1882, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop came to move her `ohana to the grave site at Waiola Church," Akana explained." So there was still something here. But then the sugar plantations began taking the water and the pond started to dry up, become stagnant and attract mosquitoes. It was considered a health hazard and dirt was brought in to fill it. But it was just fill coming in so I thought whatever had been there was still there.

"WE DIDN'T have anything tangible to work with though, just legends and oral traditions. When we began to pursue awareness and conduct our research, we were an informal grassroots organization of volunteers working with just a baseball park and parking lot. But the more we looked into it, the more we realized the significance. In 1992, we requested money from the county for the Lahaina Restoration Foundation to open bids for an archeological study. The Bishop Museum won the bid and produced good strong information that ties into a history previously not that clear. We found the ahu, the pig's head usually buried under it as the marker for the ahupua`a, the rock walls beautifully in tact."

In deference, the community no longer plays baseball on the site and the county has found another location for a park. Akana and the Friends' vision for the area includes bringing back the wetlands; re-establishing the lo`i, the hale and the fishponds; and building a living center where both Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians can immerse themselves in a pre-contact lifestyle. "The question is whether this community organization can take this vision of a cultural tourism run and owned by Hawaiians and show us what it will look like," commented van Bergeijk, who thinks the Friends will rise to the challenges and the opportunities. "This is truly an alternative path for the visitor industry with a much bigger role for Hawaiians."

Just for the environmental restoration, Akana is looking at a $7 million price tag. But he said, "If enough people want to do it, the money will come. It's been like that ever since we started. We didn't pursue the money so much as concentrate on education, and the money came. There's a stronger force moving it along." The Friends' staff of four full-time and three part-time employees occupies office space donated by J.J. Elkin of 3521 Corporation and valued at $60,000 a year. Downstairs, they have a opened a gift shop stocked with merchandise tied to their Hawaiian heritage. Their first fundraiser,a high-end lu`au with such big-name entertainers as Keali`i Reichel, netted them $20,000 last month. "It's going to take years and it's a lot of responsibility," Akana concluded. "But there's a reason why I'm here doing this. It has to do with all those who came before me and are pushing me into this and saying, 'This is your kuleana. Take it on.' A project like this is important not only to Hawai`i but to the world."

Executive Director Akoni Akana at the gift shop which is tied to the Friends ' Hawaiian heritage.

Artist Ed Kayton 's rendering of Moku`ula with its dignity restored is reproduced on notecards and postcards.