Deeper and richer: Volunteering makes Hawai'i trip more fulfilling

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Wearing a traditional kapa cloth over his park ranger uniform, Kekoa Rosehill earnestly chants to bring good energy.

“E hō mai ka ʻike mai luna mai ē” … ‘O nā mea huna no’eau o nā mele ē … E hō mai, E hō mai. … E hō mai ē …”

The mantra, composed by Hawaiian cultural icon Edith Kanakaʻole, roughly translates to “Grant me the knowledge, grant me the knowledge of the songs and the chants, grant me, grant me, grant me.”

Looking at the thick rainforest surrounding us, every bit of goodwill is needed. Our group of volunteers is heading into Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawai’i to cut down invasive Himalayan ginger that is threatening native plants.

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‘“As stewards of the land, all of you are like little ‘ōhiʻa seeds. So as you go out and cut ginger, you’re rejuvenating this place; you’re part of that revivification of the rainforest,” Rosehill encourages.

So, head down and loppers in hand, we push our way into the lush, wet thicket. At first concerned about cutting the wrong plants, we soon fell into a rhythm. The tall stalks of ginger, reportedly introduced in the 1940s as a decorative plant, become easy to identify among the other tropical plants. We move deeper into the forest: snip, pull and pile the discarded fronds. Repeat, repeat.

It isn’t until the sun breaks through the early morning cold and we begin to shed layers of clothing that most of our group looks up and surveys our now unfamiliar surroundings. Where exactly are we?

Before panic set in, the leader of our little group eases our fears. “If you get separated, just follow the fresh piles backwards to the main path,” explains Paul Field.

Twice weekly, Field 77, and his wife Jane, 80, lead volunteers in a program called Stewardship at the Summit. They launched it as a partnership with the park in 2013 after retiring. Since then, volunteers have spent around 14,000 hours removing invasive plants like the ginger, faya trees and strawberry guava from 45 acres near the Kīlauea Visitor Centre.

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“We do it because we don’t want to just enjoy the park; we want to leave it in a little bit better shape,” says Jane. Returning the park to its original natural state, “in all honesty, would take millions of man-hours and science we probably don’t even have yet.”

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes volunteer co-ordinator Kupono McDaniel says donated help is vital to conservation efforts at the Kīlauea volcano and the Field’s efforts make a big difference.

“The Fields are such amazing stewards for the park and have made an enormous impact on the resources and visitors alike… Not only do our volunteers make the park a better place to visit through the work they provide, but they are also advocates, community liaisons, mentors and friends, and the fact that they are doing it for free reminds me how important this work is for our future generations.”

The majority of volunteers are locals, either mainlanders who have retired to paradise, or those who have grown up here and want to see it flourish. But visitors are always welcome to participate in what is increasingly termed mindful or restorative tourism.

It is just one of many volunteer opportunities across the islands in a program called Mālama (to care for) which encourages visitors to dive deeper into Hawaiian history, culture and landscape. You can help rejuvenate a native fishpond, or restore the Battleship Missouri on O’ahu, remove debris from trails in Maui, help out at a cat sanctuary on Lāna’i, do beach cleanups on Kaua’i, and restore endangered plants on Moloka’i.

On Maui, volunteers can immerse themselves in ‘Hands-On History’ at the Lāhainā Restoration Foundation, a non-profit society celebrating 60 years. Participants learn about Maui’s history by processing artifacts and documents from its past, including Kingdom of Hawai’i, missionary, whaling and sugar eras.

“People who volunteer here are typically more educated and are looking for a better connection. They’ve been to Maui before but want to go beyond the usual tourist thing,” said Kalapana Kollars, the foundation’s cultural programs director.

“Lāhainā is known as a former whaling town with a lot of missionary influence. But it really encompasses all of human history.”

Lining the shelves in a storage room at the foundation’s antiquated headquarters are objects found or donated by families in Lāhainā, Maui or elsewhere in Hawai’i: a women’s old leather shoes, wooden bowls from the Kingdom era, an original bento box from an Asian worker, a candy dispenser from a former mom and pop shop on Front Street, an opium scale, worker housing records and boxes of documents.

A volunteer named Bruce is deep into transcribing 150 letters between sisters of the Baldwin missionary family. “I’ve gone from the 1830s to the 1870s so far. There are some interesting family stories in there.”

When an item comes in, it is documented, cleaned, stabilized to stop deterioration and assessed. Not everything is kept.

“We’re not the Smithsonian, but we do the best we can. We need to understand first what we have and then we figure it out,” said Kollars.

“We’re now in the process of asking three questions: Does it speak to an era in Lāhainā’s history? Can we display it digitally or in an exhibit? Can we take care of it?”

With a steady influx of interested volunteers, Hawai’i is well on its way to caring for its history, land and culture.

If interested:

You can sign up to volunteer for any program on the website (gohawaii.com/malama), but there are other opportunities offered through various hotels. By booking a Mālama Hawaiʻi package and participating in the hotel’s designated activity, you’ll qualify for a discount or even a free night. See who’s involved at gohawaii.com/malamaoffers

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includedIf interested: