Kauai’s Hawaiian salt makers seek help restoring harvest area

HANAPEPE (HawaiiNewsNow) – The 22 Kauai families keeping traditional Hawaiian salt making alive in Hanapepe are seeking the community’s help to restore their harvest site.

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Storm surge from Hurricane Lowell drastically changed the area.

“The sand dunes were depleted. It was gone. It was a new landscape. I didn’t recognize it,” said Malia Nobrega-Olivera.

Nobrega-Olivera and her ‘ohana have been Hawaiian salt makers for decades. She said the storm damage was the worst she’s seen.

“It is different from all of my 55 years growing up in Hanapepe. It was a new space,” she said.

Lowell pushed incredible amounts of sand into the beach park and salt beds, changing the composition of the land, making the clay more porous.

“We are using this clay to seal the aina so that it can evaporate over time. But with the mixture of the sand, the practice doesn’t exist,” she said.

Nobrega-Olivera is also the president of Hui Hana Pa’akai O Hanapepe, the group established for the salt makers. Together, they’re hosting a community work day on Saturday to restore the area.

“Bring your tools. If you don’t have, just show up and your hands will be a good enough tools to be with us,” she said.

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They’ve also been getting assistance from the county and other partners to move sand as they prepare for the work day.

There have been floods in recent years, and the group was already working on a dune restoration project.

“Our practice is dictated by the weather, so you know, we wait until everything dries up and then we’re ready to go back in,” Nobrega-Olivera said. “And once the place is flooded, our salt-making time gets shorter and shorter.”

She added the best harvest she’s had yielded 55 large buckets worth of salt. But if conditions aren’t right, that number is drastically less.

Steeped in tradition, Hawaiian Salt is crucial to the culture.

“Salt is not only used for our food, salt is used for medicinal purposes, for healing in all different ways,” she said.

The workday runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and more will be scheduled in the future. To stay connected with the group, contact them online at ProtectPaakai.org.

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