(Photo by Yuki Iwamura/AFP via Getty Images)
Strengthening community through connection to the ocean is the core mission of the nonprofit Nā Kama Kai. On August 19, Nā Kama Kai held a community paddle-out—or an ocean memorial—at Honolulu’s Kuhio Beach to honor those who have perished and suffered from the Maui wildfires earlier that month. Conch blowing, pictured above, is a ritual that commences a paddle-out.
At least 97 died and 22 remain unaccounted for in Lahaina, Maui, after it experienced what is considered the deadliest wildfire in the United States in over a century. More than 7,100 residents remain displaced.
While the cause has not been determined, experts suspect that a confluence of high winds and derelict and fallen power lines may be to blame. But native Hawaiian and national director of the Green New Deal Network Kaniela Ing cited “the dangerous dance between climate change and centuries of colonial greed.”
Read more stories by Marcie Bianco.