Lineal Descendants of Polihale Describe the Area as Endangered

The lineal descendants of the area, now known as Polihale State Park, speak of the land’s enduring beauty and sacredness. Unfortunately, this West Kaua‘i gem is endangered due to illegal activities and bad behaviors.

“Polihale is like our home,” Raylene “Sissy” Kahale said in a video for Department of Land and Natural Resources. “You don’t go to the bathroom at the same place you sleep or eat off. This place is so sacred. I don’t think people realize the mana that it brings and gives. When you come here it feels like coming home.”

Sandwiched between the Nāpali Coast State Wilderness Park and the US Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility, Polihale was closed for most of 2020 due to overuse and abuse. Over a three-day holiday weekend last year, an estimated 1,000 people camped illegally.

“Social media has images of people driving nilly-willy across the sand, leaving heaps of rubbish behind, setting up waterslides on the dunes, and generally showing complete disrespect for Polihale’s ecological and ancestral importance,” DLNR stated. “Of particular concern is people defecating in the trees and bush that line the beach, rather than using the available comfort stations.”

The park reopened to day-use only in December. The DLNR Division of State Parks erected new signs to better define where it is OK to drive.

“Fortunately,” State Parks Administrator Curt Cottrell said, “the measures we put in during the park’s closure last year, seem to be making a difference. We are getting fewer complaints of indiscriminate driving on the sand, fewer reports of large unpermitted (and unsafe during the pandemic) gatherings, and less illegal camping.”

Officer Armalin Richardson of the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement, who regularly patrols Polihale said, “After the closure, the park has been really mellow compared to the past and I think community involvement has a lot to do with that. Having the people so tied to the land explaining how special Polihale is, helps people be on their best behavior.”

Managers continue to deal with a litany of rotten, inappropriate, and culturally insensitive behaviors, not just at Polihale, but in parks across Hawai‘i.

“We have about 30 stewardship agreements or curator agreements across the system,” said State Parks Assistant Administrator Alan Carpenter. “Parks with formal community involvement are some of the best managed and best cared for places we have.”

Carpenter said he is looking for an agreement for Polihale with the families who have ancestors buried there and continue their cultural practices.

“We just want a more compliant and understanding visitor, who gets culture first, and then recreation, if it can be accommodated,” he said.

They are hopeful education and an agreement between the state and the lineal descendants of Polihale will ensure good behaviors, enjoyment, and recognition of culture, for everyone who visits.

“A lot has to do with education,” Kahale said. “Social media just shows Polihale as a big beach. It’s actually not just a big beach. It’s a home and resting place to a lot of our family members and it’s still home. I think education has become an endangered species. That’s actually what Polihale is…an endangered species.”

Kahale and other members of her family participated in the making of the video above that describes the cultural significance of Polihale.