Human Rewilding
Honolulu 1979 Kau 1989
Reminiscent of communalism experienced ten years earlier. The land in Kau evoked cherished memories of family among the youth in the valleys and hills of Honolulu, when family ties were loose and tribal.
With gasoline cents a gallon, America was at its pinnacle. We didn't know it, but we were children of wealth. But we did not own the land, an issue a newly born son of the islands was determined to correct.
After buying land on the Big Island, things went slowly as we built by hand. By the time the money ran out, we had a large shed that we used for vacations.
Friends, family, and my wife asked, "What the hell are you doing?" I couldn't explain it. I didn't know that I was Rewilding like Jack London's Buck.
Even if I had, at the time, I didn't dare to say so until now, many years later.
My practice of a timeless way of building has become a ruin. Initially, I could leave a hammer on the ground for months between visits and return to find it where I left it. But slowly, things changed. Drug addiction and poverty washed over the area. Property crime and theft became common in areas left unguarded, halting development.
