After a community meeting in Pukalani on March 29, concerns arose about the timeframe for assessing a 30-year water purchase agreement for drilling wells in Kula. The Chicago-based developer, Free Market Ventures, LLC (FMV), has since extended the timeline to allow the council more decision-making time.
“This is an initiative that promotes families’ rights to bodily autonomy and medical freedom,” said Ki‘inaniokalani Kaho‘ohanohano, founder of Mālama Nā Pua o Haumea, a kanaka maoli traditional birth organization on Maui. “State licensure leads to undermining the credible birthing practices and erasure of indigenous and traditional midwifery knowledge passed down for generations, which have been around longer than the model of midwifery that treats birthing as a business.”