Howzit Everybody,

"So," I asked to a group that included some key rainbow focalizers, the property owner, a hawaiian auntie kupuna, and several residents of Waipio.
"Should I say on the website that the gathering is cancelled, or what?"
"No," said the kupuna, her eyes starting to water, her kuleana as deep as Hawai'i Nei itself, "Please don't."
She told us about how she felt we, the hawaii rainbow family, really were taking care of and respecting the land, bringing people together from all walks of life, all races, and many nations, and helping to show them how to live in and love the earth together in community, like in the old ways. She said I should use the power of the website to give this struggling gathering a push forward.

Her bedroll was ready to go, she was ready to gather with the rest of us.

Yet by now, half the gathering had already been scared off.

These residents who opposed us mischaracterized us from the beginning, rehashing the same tired counterculture stereotypes that were already old and off-base in my parent's generation. I have to say, I don't think they actually believed this-- the hard drugs and hepatitis thing-- because if we truly were as unwholesome as they protrayed, we would already have been run off, private property notwithstanding. Instead, we found ourselves facing off extremely non-neighbourly behaviour-- our signs being cracked in half, guys drinking beer intimidatingly from behind a "No Hippies" sign on a public access road. An anonymously dropped off letter purporting to be from some kind of authority, filled with complete hearsay, threatened "more persuasive" action to be taken against us. Then we heard about the death threats against a resident who supported us.

The question became-- did a respected land owner-- an actual land owner, not just a leaseholder-- born and raised in Waipio, have the right to host a gathering on his own private land? As of when I left earlier today, it was decided that the gathering would continue-- but only for those who had already have arrived. Those who have not yet made the journey are respectfully asked by the land owner to not come to limit the impact of the gathering, both ecologically and politically. So for those who have already made it, have a great gathering. Everybody else-- see you next year-- or maybe at the Malama Ki "non-rainbow" gathering this weekend.

If you don't want a gypsy caravan like this to happen again-- and to instead enjoy a properly long and uninterrupted gathering, don't leave the scouting and focalizing to somebody else. We need a vastly larger inventory of good sites and we need to keep exploring to find out just exactly how far we can go before we get slapped down. We need functioning scout councils, and we need long-- and perhaps multiple and simultaneous-- seed camps to get a better feel for sites before the international caravan arrives. We need awesome PR and a portfolio of happy landowners who have been hosts and who may want to host us again in the future. And above all, we need to practice what we preach, and demonstrate our love for the 'aina by keeping it clean, and keeping the larger community in mind when we gather.

Otherwise, the era of Big Island gatherings may be drawing to a close.

Aloha,
Benjamin