Lahaina, site of incalculable Native Hawaiian importance, reels from cultural losses

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/15/maui-wildfires-lahaina-hawaii-rebuild


Lahaina, site of incalculable Native Hawaiian importance, reels from cultural losses

Residents hold on to hope for historic town that ‘represents transformation’ as it prepares to rebuild

Aweek after wildfires ripped through western Maui and killed at least 99 people, residents and historians are still processing the full scope of destruction in Lahaina, an 18th-century coastal town that was, for a time, the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Designated a national historic landmark in 1962, Lahaina is a place of incalculable importance for Native Hawaiians. In 1810, King Kamehameha I unified all the Hawaiian islands and made the town his royal residence for the next three decades.

Following the fires, thousands of homes, businesses and cultural treasures lay in ruins, including a church where royals were buried and a 150-year-old banyan tree believed to be the largest in the US.