Current mood: grateful

My new book The Forbidden Island was published at midnight. A lovely woman bought it and emailed me asking me who the two men were to whom I dedicated it.

They are George Helm and Kimo Mitchell, two of the "Kaho’olawe Nine" - who in 1976 took an historic boat trip to this once sacred island to investigate the effects of 14 years of US military target practice on this last bastion of Hawaiian spirituality.

One year later these two dedicated warriors were lost at sea during another trip to the island. 32 years later are presumed to have drowned. Or, they were murdered, depending on whom you ask.

George Helm was an astonishingly talented singer, one of the first to resurrect the late Queen Lili’uokalani’s haunting songs. He was a handsome, virile ladies’ man with a burgeoning music career. He was performing in different clubs and restaurants around Waikiki and could have been a superstar.

But his very Hawaiianness prevented all that.

This was the road not taken.

George Helm was shattered to learn that Kaho’olawe was being used for target practice. He rounded up some people who, like him, sought to preserve his culture. He was a man who beleived in Aina Aloha - love of the land - and found that despite all the gunfire, much of what made Kaho’olawe sacred and profound was still there!

When George and his cousin Kimo Mitchell made their last, fateful trip to the island, some of the origingal "Nine" had been scared off by threats of imprisonment. George fought every battle he could to have the target practice stopped.

And then he disappeared.

For a few years, there was little activity from the remaining "Nine" until somehow, they galvanized back into action and today, Kaho’olawe once again belongs to the people of Hawaii again.

There is no more target practice.

Amazingly, despite the havoc wresked on the island, ancient, sacred tmples, rare plants and birds exist. And some wild goats.

A few years ago, friends and family found some live recordings of  George Helm and produced a CD. As the songs progress, you can hear the pain in his heart as he tells his audience about his twin obsessions: the music of Queen Lili’uokalani and Kaho’olawe’s troubled fate.

George Helm led with his heart and today, an island is being restored to its spiritual greatness. I think of George and Kimo often and I always think how lucky we are that they chose to take the hard road.

Without honoring the past, we cannot have a positive future. I wish they’d lived long enough to hear the gunfire stop, but I know they are, in some form or other, happy that they didn’t lose their lives in vain.

Where they live, there are rainbows.

 Aloha oe,

A.J.

Currently listening : The Music of George Helm: A True Hawaiian By George Helm Release date: 20 May, 1997