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Three weeks after the fire, when asked what people in L膩hain膩, Hawai鈥榠, needed the most, Chris Mangca didn鈥檛 answer with a list of supplies. Instead, he said, 鈥淭hey need a break, love, some happiness, to see that people care about them.鈥� 

Mangca, a boat captain from Moloka鈥榠, an island 25 miles away, had been making daily boat trips to L膩hain膩 since footage of the wildfires began rolling in on social media on August 8th. After the intensity of the previous weeks, Mangca and a dozen others from the neighboring island returned for Labor Day weekend to relieve some of the resident volunteers who were cooking thousands of meals at a few of the community-led distribution hubs, and to help throw a local-style luau to bring people some normalcy and joy after what had happened.

The wildfires, which were started by downed power lines during high winds from Hurricane Dora, rapidly turned the historic town in West Maui to ash, destroying thousands of homes, businesses, and a beloved Native Hawaiian cultural center. According to officials, it also led to the deaths of nearly 100 loved ones, with several still missing more than a month later.聽

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Government aid has trickled in slowly, so the community from Maui and the surrounding islands have risen up to help one another. 

鈥淔or four days there was no food, no water, no supplies, no help,鈥� says Mangca about the lack of government support, which was made more problematic after the National Guard set up checkpoints and blocked delivery of mutual aid going into L膩hain膩鈥攕omething officials later said was to .

Mangca, who initially went in to rescue people while the island was still in flames, then found himself one of several in a fleet of boats, Jet Skis, and catamarans from all over the islands that came in daily to drop off food and other supplies to the Kahana Boat Ramp in Napili鈥攖o get around the checkpoints and meet the community鈥檚 needs.

West Maui Council Member Tamara Paltin, who had also been on the ground helping her constituents, spoke to the resilience and relationships of the community at a county council meeting, quoting a friend who said, 鈥淭he kupa驶膩ina, the people of this place, are not the passive recipients of aid; they are the navigators.鈥� 

Kahana Boat Ramp in Napili became one of the core supply centers, even as limited access opened up for those with a L膩hain膩 ID or pre-approved aid. Volunteers would pick up the supplies from the fleet鈥攕ometimes by wading through waist-deep water鈥攖hen deliver them to several shelters and other community-led distribution hubs all over the island. 

All were run by a vast ecosystem of volunteers, many who had lost everything, all of whom were navigating constantly changing needs.

鈥淪ince the beginning of the disaster, it鈥檚 been the community helping the community,鈥� said Blake Ramelb . He grew up in L膩hain膩 and has a lot of family living up the hill from the burn zone. Ramelb has been using social media as a platform to give words of encouragement and address the needs of the community so his followers can help amplify and crowdsource those needs.

He鈥檚 been able to secure hundreds of air purifiers and respirators, among other items, and is now looking for independent air specialists to test the air quality since state and federal agencies have yet to release their final results. 

鈥淚鈥檓 just a concerned citizen trying to do my best because I have people that I love who could potentially be put at risk,鈥� Ramelb says. 鈥淟et鈥檚 keep the people that are still here safe.鈥�

Providing Direct Assistance

Volunteers from the organization (HHH) were among those turned away at the National Guard checkpoints on the first day, when trying to supply meals to the West Side. Steven Calkins, one of the co-founders of the organization, whose kitchen is in Central Maui, made use of his contacts and was able to get into the area with someone who had a L膩hain膩 ID. After that, Councilwoman Paltin tapped into her connections and obtained continued access for the organization.

When other meal charities approached Calkins to see if HHH could help deliver thousands of their meals that had been turned away, Calkins reached out to West Side restaurants and instead asked whether, if HHH supplied the food, the restaurants would make the meals. Several signed on, alongside food trucks. 

Every day now, volunteers pick up and distribute 1,000 pounds of produce from , which works with local growers to supply those kitchens. Calkins says they also ride into communities ice-cream-truck-style for people to come get what they need. Volunteers then pick up more than 400 meals per day cooked by their West Side partners at to deliver to the neighborhoods that need it most, like those living on the edge of the burn zone in L膩hain膩luna. 

鈥淭hey are still without power and clean water,鈥� Calkins said at the end of August, adding that HHH had gotten the community a refrigerated truck to store food alongside big jugs of water to fill up at water tanks. 

鈥淗HH has always been a grassroots project, all directed at people helping people through the heart,鈥� he says. The goal, since the organization began during the COVID-19 pandemic, is to create a sharing economy, with partner organizations donating goods instead of money. Calkins says they never accepted a dime up until a few weeks ago, but with the abundance of donations now coming into the organization, he says they are now accepting and saving these funds to meet long-term goals like funneling money into local farms, restaurants, and businesses to pay their rent and keep them going. 

Several members of the community and other Hawai鈥榠-based organizations have also stepped up to help get financial aid directly to affected families.

Thus far, families have only received a one-time payment of $700 from the federal government, which some say is blown in one visit to the grocery store, given how high food prices are on the islands. The majority of food in Hawai鈥榠 is imported and prices are .

through direct Venmo donations. Early on, a group of community members worked tirelessly to put together an for donations to go directly to families in need, who have been vetted by the group.

There has also been a community-sourced shared on social media. It lists how much each family or business has received in donations thus far, to help donors spread wealth more evenly. So far more than $20 million has been raised among 250 fundraisers on the document. 

Other fundraisers, managed by local organizations like the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement and the Hawai鈥榠 Community Foundation, have also funneled resources straight to the community. , for example, raised $3 million dollars and put $1 million of that toward the Hawai鈥榠 Community Foundation鈥檚 ; the organization delivered $500,000 directly to families and an additional $350,000 to nonprofits.

Staying Home

L膩hain膩, once the seat of the Hawaiian Kingdom, has long been home to a deeply rich and diverse population of multigenerational families. The population is not just K膩naka Maoli (Native Hawaiians), but, like much of Hawai鈥檌, also includes large Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, and Western populations that integrated there during the plantation era. In West Maui, there is also a large Latino population. This diverse culture of people, Mangca says, always comes together when they need to. 

Once a verdant wetland, K膩naka were upended and displaced by illegal occupation and the plantation era, which eventually destroyed the Indigenous ecology. Water diversions for sugarcane dried out the land, and the introduction of invasive plant species, paired with a changing climate, turned L膩hain膩 into a tinderbox, aiding the rapid spread of the blaze on August 8th. 

According to officials, more than 2,200 homes, apartment buildings, and other structures have since been destroyed. And the island had already been struggling with a housing shortage prior to the fires.

Mangca says many L膩hain膩 residents who have lived there for generations have refused to leave because they are afraid that when they do, they鈥檒l lose everything. They fear people will buy up their properties, leaving them with nowhere else to go. Some residents say they fear complete cultural erasure.

Many of those who did leave L膩hain膩 went to shelters. Some 6,000 people were reportedly housed temporarily in hotels or vacation rentals. Community members are hosting friends and family in their homes, often several together under one roof. Many people are concerned about what will happen next and are skeptical of FEMA, due to longtime government distrust, continuous displacement, and , which FEMA has since refuted. Some residents have already been hit up by realtors and developers trying to buy their properties, preying on them at their most vulnerable. 

Many also found themselves up against Governor Josh Green鈥檚 emergency affordable-housing proclamation, which streamlines development while suspending protections for cultural resources, iwi k奴puna (ancestral bones), and environmental resources鈥攁s well as suspending the Sunshine Law, which ensures transparent public participation in government processes. 

These actions have resulted brought by environmental law group , which represented Sierra Club of Hawai鈥榠, ACLU of Hawai鈥榠, and Kanaka Maoli鈥搇ed groups such as N膩 鈥極hana o Lele. Due to public pressure, on September 15th, Green decided to reverse those suspensions.

L膩hain膩 taro farmers have also found themselves in the midst of litigation by prominent land developers that build luxury real estate and have been notorious for trying to 鈥攁ncestral lands awarded in 1850 to K膩naka Maoli tenant farmers. 

In order to provide further support, the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement just opened up a relief and aid services center in Kahului, called K膩ko驶o Maui. It is a culture-based hub providing wraparound services that involve financial support, legal support, and application assistance, with the goal of connecting the community to resources. The center is staffed by L膩hain膩 residents who lost their homes. 

In order to keep people in L膩hain膩, community members and organizations have again been working more quickly than the government by bringing in temporary housing. Local nonprofit Family Life Center flew in 60 quick-assembly modular homes manufactured in Hungary to be placed on a 10-acre lot owned by the King鈥檚 Cathedral church.

Farmer Eddie Garcia of Regenerative Education Centers is using his farm south of L膩hain膩 as a staging area to build 200 self-sufficient tiny homes that will be given, free of charge, to residents displaced by the fires. Garcia is also working with landowners to find locations for the homes. His goal is to keep the L膩hain膩 community in L膩hain膩.

鈥淎ll the things [that] were saved in the museums here to show what the history of what L膩hain膩 was, all of that is gone. So what do we have to tell the history of this place? It is the people who live here who survived it, they need to be able to rebuild and reintegrate,鈥� Garcia said on . 

Early in September, the governor called for tourism to reopen on the West Side of Maui on October 8th, but this has received pushback, partly because it will force some families out of the hotels, so Ramelb responded by asking for Lowe鈥檚 and Amazon gift cards to help purchase tools to build temporary housing. 

Jon Kinimaka, a L膩hain膩 resident who lost his home, has been helping run the distribution hub at Honok艒wai. He has also helped secure temporary tiny homes that will be able to house some families on Hawaiian Crown Lands property nearby, where residents will be able to stay for two years. Afterward, they鈥檒l be able to relocate that tiny home to their original properties.

Kinimaka also emphasizes the need for more land for immediate shelter, as some people have already been asked to leave the hotels and are turning up at the distribution center. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to be as helpful as possible and coordinate between private sector and government so that we can work together as a community,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to need immediate shelter, like tent villages, while we鈥檙e looking for land for temporary housing.鈥�

Many in the L膩hain膩 community, particularly K膩naka Maoli, are asking to be centered in the conversation moving forward in order to keep L膩hain膩 land in L膩hain膩 hands, and to design a future that is more sustainable for the land and its people鈥攏ot just for this generation, but future generations as well. 

Processing Grief

First, though, many people say they want the space to grieve. 鈥淗ow do we create space for healing [from] strife and conflict and devastation? It鈥檚 a difficult thing to do, but also super critical that we do it,鈥� says Kalamaoka`aina Niheu, a physician and medical director on O鈥榓hu and in California. 鈥淎nd we鈥檙e not just talking about physical injury, but emotional, spiritual, all of that community injury that happens from these types of violent acts.鈥� Niheu is the co-founder of , an organization that facilitates putting medical and traditional health practitioners on the ground, which mobilized the day after the fires.

鈥淭here was no FEMA, no Red Cross; 911 wasn鈥檛 functioning. When you tried to call, they鈥檇 say contact Maui Police, and you鈥檇 call them, and nobody would answer,鈥� Niheu says. And since they were stopped from bringing supplies to the community at the roadblocks, the group also organized people on Jet Skis and boats to bring those supplies to Kahana Boat Ramp. 

Wanting to be proactive in the prevention of illness, the group鈥檚 volunteers went door-to-door to warn about contaminated water and explain why it鈥檚 toxic, even before the Hawai鈥榠 Department of Health. The group also provided N95 masks, and explained to those downwind of the fires鈥� ash why the air was toxic.

Since then, the group has set up hubs with both allopathic and natural care, alongside traditional cultural modalities like lomi lomi massage and traditional mental health care like ho鈥榦ponopono to empower the patients to choose for themselves. The group doesn鈥檛 ask for IDs and doesn鈥檛 charge for its services.

鈥淎t the beginning, everything is 100% a gift we give freely, and we fund it ourselves,鈥� Niheu says. The volunteers cover the cost of supplies and their own flights if they are coming in from another island, which enables them to move in quickly. Then afterward they  and provide leaders in each area of expertise. 

Niheu says the organization currently has 150 people on the ground with another 700 who want to participate. They are prioritizing Maui practitioners first and K膩naka Maoli from other islands.

鈥淲hen you center the most marginalized, the most impacted, then you are able to take care of everyone else too,鈥� she says. 

Niheu developed this model of care in August 2016 while volunteering at Standing Rock in support of the Sioux Tribe鈥檚 protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline. She wanted to support and heal the protectors of land, water, and Native rights. 

Niheu then co-founded the Mauna Medic Healers Hui with colleague Noelani Ahia in 2017 to address police violence during protests against the telescopes at Haleakal膩 on Maui, and later during protests against the Thirty Meter Telescope on Mauna Kea. She says the model is inspired by a greater journey involving her mo鈥檕k奴鈥檃uhau, or genealogy. 

鈥淭he only way we鈥檙e able to come this far and do what we do is because our k奴puna, our elders, have laid down their own lives and blood and sweat and tears for a path so we can actually get through here. Because the path is so thorny and so difficult that we can鈥檛 do it alone,鈥� Niheu says. 鈥淭his work requires generations.鈥�

In order to be there for the long haul of the rebuilding process in L膩hain膩, Ahia, who lives on Maui and has lineage in L膩hain膩, started a sister organization called Maui Medic Healers Hui. Niheu says that it鈥檚 important to have people from the area lead, to build people up, and to connect them with like minds so they can walk into the future together. She likes to leave places better than when she arrives; Ahia told her it鈥檚 like 鈥減lanting seeds in the ash.鈥�