As we approach the upcoming weekend and the first Hamakua Sugar Plantation Festival in Honokaa Town on Saturday, Aug. 16 – what do you remember? The Center on Oral Histories shares, “In Hawaii, sugar plantation companies, in addition to creating many thousands of acres of cropland, irrigation ditches, tunnels, wells, reservoirs and railroads, and building huge mills to process the raw sugarcane, provided modest wages, housing, fuel, and other perquisites to the workers. Company towns with schools, churches, businesses, hospitals, and recreational facilities emerged as workers raised families on the plantations.”
As we approach the upcoming weekend and the first Hamakua Sugar Plantation Festival in Honokaa Town on Saturday, Aug. 16 – what do you remember? The Center on Oral Histories shares, “In Hawaii, sugar plantation companies, in addition to creating many thousands of acres of cropland, irrigation ditches, tunnels, wells, reservoirs and railroads, and building huge mills to process the raw sugarcane, provided modest wages, housing, fuel, and other perquisites to the workers. Company towns with schools, churches, businesses, hospitals, and recreational facilities emerged as workers raised families on the plantations.”
“Well, the plantation has been really the only way of life we knew, growing up as children. And at that time, we just assumed that the plantation would be here forever. And growing up in the plantation town, you knew about the company, you were familiar what was going on, you knew who was doing what, and so it was an easy transition for me, coming out of school and needing a job and going to work.” — Clyde Silva, former Kau Agribusiness Company worker
“Before, when we was growing up Paauilo, everybody had love for one another. You do something, you invite the other one, or you make party, you invite these people. In sports, you play together. Work together. There was no more dog-eat-dog kind, you know. … Before, our community was our community — togetherness was there all the time.” — Stanley Mendes, former Hamakua Sugar Company worker
With the closing of the three remaining sugar plantations on the Big Island of Hawaii — Hamakua Sugar Co. in 1993, Hilo Coast Processing Company in 1994, and Ka’u Agribusiness Company in 1996 — residents of surrounding communities faced a daunting challenge: coping with a future without the area’s major source of employment. To document these changes, the UH Center on the Family asked the Center for Oral History (COH) of the Social Science Research Institute to conduct life history interviews with displaced workers of Hamakua Sugar Company and Ka’u Agribusiness Company who were surveyed in an earlier research project assessing the impact of job loss.
The interviewees represent two generations of sugar workers—one generation retired, the other laid off due to the closure of Hamakua Sugar Company and Ka’u Agribusiness Company. Interviewees talked extensively about what the end of the sugar industry in Hawaii meant to them and their families — how the closings affected their sense of security and their individual and community identity.
“I used to always hear [from the old-timers] like, ‘Ah, you young guys, you don’t care. How come you folks not out looking for job? How come you folks still here?’ kind of questions. So I gotta explain to them, ‘You know, I see you guys work thirty, forty years on the plantation… . We always wanted to work for the plantation, you know, drive truck … or tractors. … For see this [sugar industry] just put away on the side is really hard to accept. Even for us, being the younger generation.’” — Darren Gamayo, former Hamakua Sugar Company worker
“I remember one evening, this was about the last time that they were harvesting the cane field that is right close to our home. And we all decided that we were going out there and we were gonna watch the last time that they were harvesting that field. And there was my father-in-law, there was my husband, and there was my son, and they were all standing together… And something just struck me as three generations here, and we’re seeing this — it’s as if they were burning up our lives.” — Cynthia Juan, Honokaa resident
“At one point I just sat on the steps, and I just listened to the mill, and then I finally felt what the workers were talking about. Like the mill was tired, like it was time, like it was dying. And I could actually feel all of that: The plantation took care of us. The plantation was everybody’s mom over here. They held us. I mean, you had plantation life, and then you get the real world. And we were so sheltered. … I don’t think the hurt ever going go away.” — Dardenella Gamayo, Paauhau resident
Yet at the same time they were able to reflect upon the values they gained on the plantation—values such as hard work, reliance on family and neighbors, respect for the older generation, and concern for future generations.
“I want [my children] to remember that the parents, grandparents were part of that company, the sugar company. The parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents, you know, down the line, the older generation. I want [my children] to think about the older generation, what they gone through for make you possible, as a young generation coming up, eh? That the sugar made you a family, too.” — John Mendes, former Hamakua Sugar Company worker
Thank you for the above reflections by our community members and families that The Center for Oral History (COH), Social Science Research Institute, College of Social Sciences, University of Hawaii at Manoa has preserved for us and our generations to come. The Center for Oral History was established in 1976 by the Hawaii State Legislature. COH preserves the recollections of Hawaii’s people through oral interviews and disseminates oral history transcripts to researchers, students, and the general community.
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By uniting the islands under a single ruler, Kamehameha I (the Great) laid the foundation for what would eventually become the 50th state of the United States of America. Yet between those two events were attempts by France, Great Britain, and even Russia to take control of the islands for themselves! Hawaiian monarchs variously embraced or rejected American political and economic influence … so just how did Hawaii move from being a kingdom to becoming a territory and then a state? And what did the Hawaiian people think of all this? At the Lyman Museum on Monday, Aug. 18, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., Big Island historian Boyd D. Bond unravels the events that led to Hawaii’s statehood.
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Here are two free workshops on Fall Prevention and Better Health and Home for our kupuna and their families. Find out how to maintain or improve health and avoid falling. Learn about home modifications and technology that can make your home a home for life.
The workshops are sponsored by the AARP, Hawaii State Department of Health, Disability and Communication Access Board, Assistive Technology Resource Centers of Hawaii and Project Dana. To register for either location, please call toll-free, 1-877-926-8300.
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The workshop in Hilo will be on Wednesday, Aug. 13, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Honpa Hongwanji Hilo Betsuin at 398 Kilauea Ave.
Kona’s workshop will be held on Thursday, Aug. 14, from 9 a.m. to noon at the King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel at 75-5660 Palani Road, Kailua-Kona.
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The 42nd annual Establishment Day Celebration at Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site: is this coming weekend on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 16-17. The day begins with Na Papa Kanaka o Pu’ukohola Heiau performing the ho’okupu and ho‘oku‘ikahi ceremonies from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, with festivities continuing till 3 p.m. on Sunday.
To submit news items for Kokua Way, call Carol Yurth at 936-0067, or send her an email at waiukahenutz@gmail.com.