“…each lei is distinct to the place that it is made.”
Just as each lei is distinct to the place where the plants derive from, so are kānaka maoli. The Hawaiian people are rooted to the ʻāina they come from. Uncle Jeff is rooted to the ʻāina of Hāʻena. By sharing the moʻolelo of Uncle Jeff, people may view Hāʻena with a different light. Some only view this ʻāina as a place of recreation, a mere playground. Malihini, visitors, do not know the ancestral knowledge. Perhaps if they did they could see the cultural significance of this place.
Mehana Blaich Vaughan speaks of these places and people with reverence. I belive she wants her reader to feel the same. She yearns for others to place value in these places just as she does. I can see a reflection of myself through her writing. As she values her ahupuaʻa, I value mine just the same.
Change has been a hard pill to swallow. In my short 29 years of life, I have seen my ahupuaʻa transform. A once small community, where I would see familiar faces, has turned into a sea of strangers. Strangers who see only the physical beauty of this ʻāina, not the cultural significance. Maybe if they knew, they would see this place in a new way?
Dominique's Blog 
Exactly! You touched on a other point that I also touched on in my own posts about these values that we all have that we practice and cherish. and that feeling of seeing ourselves in the story she shares with bring us that feeling of reminiscence and that feeling as if we need to do something or do more to share our views. Not only is our land beautiful, it is also our home! Not solely in the sense that this is where we live, but also, this is where our ancestors and our family, for generations have taken care of what we have and why our values to this place is more than what most people can see on the surface.
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