Hawaii Land Trust — in partnership with Na Kalai Wa‘a; federal, state and county agencies; and the Kohala community — has completed its largest purchase, permanently protecting 642 acres of land at Mahukona on Hawaii island, the nonprofit announced last week.

“We feel so privileged to have been welcomed by Na Kalai Wa‘a and lineal descendants of Mahukona to a place of such cultural significance and community importance,” HILT President and CEO Olu Campbell said Wednesday in a news release. “This is an immense kuleana and we are committed to caring for this aina to the best of our ability to ensure it continues to support the well-being of Kohala’s people.”

A statewide nonprofit organization that protects and manages Hawaiian lands, Hawaii Land Trust’s purchase of the Mahukona land, along with Hawaii County’s conservation easement, “ensures permanent cultural site protection, environmental resilience and indigenous-­led, community-based stewardship and education for all,” according to a news release.

“If you read everything in books, it becomes a legend. If we have a place of our own, where everybody can come, feel and touch, it’s real,” Patti Ann Solomon, whose ancestor trained as a navigator in Kohala, said. “Our people were real.”

Mahukona lands have been planned for use in development projects, including for resort development, since the 1980s.

“Under private owners, there’s no way our access would have been as much as it is now. Now we have an opportunity to learn more about the area,” HILT steward and educator Keone Emiliano said in a video interview. “Now we can say, ‘We’ll always have Mahukona.’”

The property encompasses the coastal regions of six ahupuaa, or self-sustaining land divisions, and includes part of the Kohala Field System. The region also provides habitat for threatened and endangered species, including the endangered opeapea Hawaiian hoary bat. According to the news release, Mahukona is “a rare space for Hawaiian cultural practice and subsistence gathering to thrive.”

The area — which was ranked first priority for protection by Hawaii County’s Public Access, Open Space &Natural Resources Preservation Commission in 2020 — is a place referenced in ancient chants as aina kupaianaha, meaning extraordinary lands. Once a “bustling harbor town,” Mahukona was home to noninstrumental navigation training for the past 1,000 years. According to the release, 175 ancient cultural sites have been identified in the region, including villages, shrines, trails and four Hawaiian heiau, including the highly regarded navigational heiau Ko‘a Heiau Holomoana.

Ko‘a Heiau Holomoana, along with other cultural sites, will be co-stewarded by HILT and Na Kalai Wa‘a, a Native Hawaiian nonprofit that utilizes noninstrumental navigation and open-ocean voyaging to perpetuate Native culture. The founders of Na Kalai Wa‘a studied under Mau Piailug, who studied himself at Mahukona.

“Twenty years from now, I can see that Ko‘a Heiau Holo­moana will continue to be that school,” Na Kalai Wa‘a executive director, senior captain and pwo navigator Chadd Paison said in the release. “It will continue to write the stories from this generation now, to allow them to see the importance of caring for place.”

“The youth of Kohala, having them (at Mahukona) every week, we teach them about certain things that we learned, and their eyes open wide,” Emiliano said. “That’s a good feeling to see.”

In partnership with Hawaii County, the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serv­ice and private donors, HILT has raised $18.86 million of its $20 million goal since 2020 and completed the land purchase. The nonprofit continues to ask for support to raise the additional $1.14 million to fund community co-stewardship of the land.

“We are deeply grateful to Hawaii Land Trust, Na Kalai Wa‘a, lineal descendants and our collaborative partners for working together to secure the perpetual protection of 642 acres at Mahukona,” Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth said. “This huge undertaking ensures the safeguarding of cultural sites, fosters environmental resilience and highlights community-based stewardship on a truly massive scale.”