By Blaine Fergerstrom, special to the Star-Bulletin
Sightseers take a look around the Haiku portals of the H-3 freeway
during "A Taste of H-3" held last April. When the Great Trans-Koolau
Trek passes through here in May, runners and race organizers
may get a taste of native Hawaiian dissent.

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Trans-Koolau Trek’s
first steps will be
in protest

Native Hawaiian groups
decry H-3's desecration of culture

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

The first footsteps in the Great Trans-Koolau Trek won't be heard on the H-3 freeway next month but in downtown Honolulu on Monday.

That's when opponents of the 10-mile footrace will march at noon from the First Hawaiian Bank building on Bishop Street to the event's race office at 50 Beretania St. to raise awareness of the impact the H-3 has had on ancient Hawaiian sacred sites, heiau and burial grounds in North Halawa and Haiku valleys.

It is the first of a series of events by a coalition of Hawaiian and community groups leading to the May 11 race.

First Hawaiian Bank was targeted because it is among the main sponsors of the race, billed as one of the largest timed races in the world.

Protest organizer Laulani Teale said the fight over the 30-year-old freeway project won't end with the opening of the roadway in mid-December. She said Hawaiians will continue to protest until the H-3 is dismantled -- no matter how long it takes.

Teale and others want participants to boycott the race and not endorse the damage the freeway has done to native Hawaiian culture and religion.

"We're trying to draw attention to this issue to get people who have signed up for the race to quit," Teale said.

Race officials yesterday said Monday's march and rally won't affect race preparations in the final weeks. The office staff said event organizer Dr. Jack Scaff would not comment on the protests.

After initial estimates of 100,000 participants, organizers now expect about 25,000 runners.

First Hawaiian Bank spokeswoman Lisa Halverson said the protests will not affect the bank's support of the race.

Hawaiian advocate Mahealani Cypher said the H-3 has been a symbol of struggle for Hawaiians. She said the events are to get people to realize the desecration being committed against the islands' indigenous people.

"The major reason for all of this and the major reason for the picket is to kind of raise awareness to runners or potential runners that they should really think twice about it if possible," Cypher said.

Kalawai'a Moore, secretary of Kalai Po, a Hawaiian advocacy group at the University of Hawaii, called the H-3 race a gross destruction of native Hawaiian culture, religion and politics.

Opponents question the celebratory nature of the race because the freeway, according to Hawaiian religion, goes through the sacred birthplace and home of Papahanaumoku (Mother Earth) in Halawa Valley.

"How can anyone with a conscience celebrate such a violation of Papa, who represents the very bounty of nature we depend upon for life?" Teale said. "And especially on Mother's Day?"

Other concerns include:

The ecological damage from construction of the highway. Opponents say native forests and ecosystems have been lost.

The threat of harm from an electromagnetic frequency field generated above the freeway. But Marilyn Kali, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, refutes the notion that the transmitter is dangerous.

Kali said the 40,000 people who took part in a public tour of the H-3 recently were not affected by the electromagnetic field, which will be dismantled by the U.S. Coast Guard in October in time for the planned mid-December opening of H-3.

"It is a nonissue," she said.