Mokauea Island
From dKosopedia
A Honolulu Advertiser article dated July 2, 2006, describes the State of Hawaii's eviction of homeless from Mokauea Island:
- And at Ke'ehi Lagoon, public outrage helped stop evictions at the fishing village on Mokauea Island, where state officials set fire to the homes of 17 families in 1975 to make them leave.
- Evictions had created a growing homeless population, and the poor responded by creating shantytown communities, such as the one that stood between the state and its desire to complete a park on Sand Island.
- On the eve of their December 1979 eviction, a vocal group of 80 to 100 "squatters" — a community of parents, children and the elderly — vowed to stay in the tidy, weather-beaten homes they had built from scrap lumber.
- It would be more than a month before state bulldozers were able to clear the village.
- By dusk on the last day — Jan. 23, 1980 — police had arrested 19 people who wouldn't get out of the way, the last of the homes had been reduced to piles of timber, and plastic bags filled with household possessions were scattered throughout the former shantytown. [1]
External links
- Land struggles Honolulu Advertiser, July 2, 2006.
- Hawaii Pacific University Anthropology Class Making a Difference
- Nichols, Katherine. Rebirth of Mokauea -- Activist-athlete Donna Kahakui inspires volunteers Honolulu Star-Bulletin, July 5, 2007.