George Helm

And this is where that kind of 70s moment an 80s and 90s moment of political and cultural resurgence is really successful.

And so this is how we get to Kaho'olawe and thinking about folks like George Helm, who I don't believe was a part of the Hawaiian language revitalization effort.

as a leader specifically, but he was a musician and he was a hula dancer and he educated across the islands in a public popular educational campaign to talk about the militarization of Hawaii, to talk about the bombing of unrelenting and unapologetic by the U.S. government of a sacred island that no one inhabited and that was reserved primarily for practicing war and for destroying culturally relevant and in some cases sacred sites on the island.

He was somebody that was vehemently considerate of the ways in which song and politics could help to re-educate people.

And the island itself is significant culturally for a variety of elements and components, but one is in terms of navigation.

And The moment of the 1970s was a moment of enough is enough and no means no.

And so folks like George Helm, Kima Mitchell, the protector, Kaho'olawe Ohana, and many other individuals that were in it and around it were educating people about the issue to engage the U.S. federal government in the kind of PR battle, making claims about... cultural belonging and tradition and practices for political purposes to wrest the island away from the military's jurisdiction.

But also the bombing of Coho'olawe was just dreadful.

A- and this is a movement that comes with heartbreak, it comes with sacrifice, and it comes with, uh, relentless work that has taken place over the course of decades right now.

You hear the stories of George Helm, uh-

Yeah

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Auntie Davianna McGregor, and just being able to talk story with them for extended periods of time, to spend days with them on the access to Kaho'olawe.

You hear the stories about George Helm.

You hear the stories about the early days, okay? So think about this, right? 1976 is when the first occupation happens of the Kaho'olawe Nine, and then from that point on, the 'Ohana started going to the island, uh, throughout the 1980s, throughout the early '90s.