mākua in documentaries/film
Click on the image above to watch the documentary Mākua - to heal the nation.
MĀKUA - TO HEAL THE NATION is a 1996 documentary produced and directed by Puhipau and Joan Lander of Nā Maka o ka ʻĀina. It tells the story of Mākua as a place for healing, a pu’uhonua, a place of refuge, not only for a few but for the larger Hawaiian community, which is crying out for answers to cure its social ills. But the occupying forces of the U.S. and their agent, the state of Hawai’i, have continuously evicted people from Mākua, from shortly after Dec. 7, 1941 through 1996. A 1983 eviction was also documented by Na Maka o ka ‘Aina.
This documentary was produced to try to ward off another threatened eviction by the state of Hawai’i. The eviction finally took place in June of 1996.
Featuring Mālama Mākua founding members Sparky Rodrigues and Leandra Wai-Rodrigues, as well as David Henry Rosa Virginia Bernard, Reggie Crawford, Kaimana Kyle, Joseph & Keoni Victor, Barbara Avelino, Sia Vaana and Eddie Keo.
MĀKUA HOMECOMING is a documentary produced and directed by Puhipau and Joan Lander of Nā Maka o ka ʻĀina about the stand taken by Kanaka Maoli (native Hawaiians) at Mākua beach to resist eviction by police and government agents in 1983. The event was a milestone in the movement toward independence and sovereignty.
Featuring Eddie Pihana, Stella Pihana, Irene “Tiny” Maynard, Rocky Naeole, Kawehi Kanui, Sam Mahiai, Ku’umealoha Gomes, Elaine Keliiheleua and Poka Laenui.
The military occupation of Mākua Valley features prominently in this award-winning documentary by Anne Keala Kelly.
Quick facts about the U.S. military in Hawaiʻi as found on the filmʻs website, nohohewa.com:
- Hawaiʻi is one of the most militarized groups of islands in the world.
- The military controls over 20 percent of all land in the Hawaiian Island chain.
- The military population makes up over 11 percent of the state of Hawai’i, as opposed to less than one percent of the U.S. population.
- The U.S. Army secretly tested chemical, biological, and deadly nerve gas agents in Hawai’i watershed/forest reserve areas, facts repeatedly denied but later confirmed.
- Currently 7.1 million live rounds of various weapons are fired annually on sacred Hawaiian lands at the Pōhakuloa Training Area (PTA) on the Big Island of Hawai’i.
- More than 400 square miles (250,000 acres) on Hawai’i Island may contain live arms and other military toxins and should be considered military hazard areas.
- In 1995, there were 405 toxic sites in 122 military facilities statewide.
