The 22nd Annual Native Hawaiian Convention gets underway today at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Kahului, Maui. The four day event was moved to Maui this year to uplift the voices and people following the Aug. 8 wildfires.
Shaun “Buge” Saribay felt like giving up. Hours of makeshift firefighting with garden hoses and buckets of water across Lahaina didn’t stop flames from consuming his house, his rental properties and thousands of other structures in his beloved hometown.
To the outside world there has been no more vivid symbol of the storied history of Lahaina, and its potential for rebirth, than a 150-year-old banyan tree in the center of town whose scarred branches are now, nearly three months after a devastating wildfire, sprouting new, green leaves.