March 2024 – Lānaʻi Culture and Heritage Center led a group of volunteers to an ancient site of an agricultural community on Saturday, March 16. Hiʻi is located about two miles from Koele.
The center’s volunteers have worked for the last nine years to protect and preserve the site, which includes an ancient heiau and remnants of traditional house sites. Efforts have been ongoing since 2015 to eliminate introduced trees and clear invasive plants from the area, helping to open up the canopy to restore the native understory.
This heiau was first documented during a 1920s archaeology study by visiting archaelogist Kenneth Emory. In summer 2016, student participants in Lānaʻi CHC’s cultural literacy program remapped the area. Hiʻi is a place of cultural significance. It sits on a terrace of land that’s about 1,100 feet above sea level on rich agricultural lands stewarded in traditional times by native tenants.
Lānaʻi CHC brings the community together to preserve and protect important cultural sites across the island like Hiʻi.