Lahaina, a close-knit community of immigrants and deeply rooted residents, has been dramatically altered since the deadliest wildfire on U.S. soil in more than a century ripped through its core in early August.

The Maui town has been reshaped by loss, grief and a powerful new force: distance between neighbors.

Families who lost their homes, or lost access to their homes, have been dispersed across the island or even beyond. They’re renting apartments in new communities, bunking with friends in different ZIP codes or living in temporary FEMA-funded condos and hotel rooms.

Some have left Maui for more affordable living opportunities off island. Those who continue to live in sections of Lahaina spared by the inferno find themselves constantly confronted by the absence of several thousand people who’ve been displaced.

“Anyone who lives in this community right now, regardless of if you have a house or not, is suffering,” said Archie Kalepa, a Lahaina resident whose family dates back nine generations in the West Maui community. “Whether we agree or disagree with one another on the path forward, we need to come together to find ways to build a recovery plan that we can all buy into.”

The community faces many difficult decisions about the rebuilding process. And Kalepa, a renowned Hawaiian waterman and community leader, said the town’s residents can’t make those decisions if the community is not united. 

So Kalepa, through a new nonprofit he formed last month called Lele Aloha, is organizing a unity gathering that aims to convene the town’s scattered residents, along with its non-residents who wish to show support for Lahaina, in what he hopes will be a healing, consensus-building event.

The Hoʻulu Lahaina Unity Gathering is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. on Jan. 20 with a 4.5-mile walk from the Lahaina Bypass Road to Launiupoko Beach Park, where there will be family-friendly activities, including keynote speakers, food and multicultural dance performances, until 4 p.m.

The unity walk route will traverse the coastal Honoapiilani Highway, which will be closed to vehicular traffic for the event. Along the way, participants will pass some of the fire’s ruins, as well as the roadside memorial for fire victims located near the starting point.

“We’re inviting everybody to come for this one day, so you can be with us, so that you can see what we lost.”

Community organizer Archie Kalepa

The walk and subsequent beach park festival are free and open to the public. Participants are encouraged to register online at LeleAloha.org, where there is an option to make a suggested $5 donation.

Kalepa anticipates thousands of people will participate in the event, and he said it’s particularly important that people from Lahaina’s many cultural and ethnic groups are represented.

He said he’s invited a diverse set of Lahaina community leaders to encourage members of their own networks to join in. Residents from other Maui communities and other islands are also encouraged to participate.

For those who’ve avoided the Lahaina area as a gesture of respect for people affected by the fire, Kalepa said the event is an invitation to go there, witness the devastation and aid in the healing process.

“The reality is we need everybody, we need each other,” Kalepa said. “We’re inviting everybody to come for this one day, so you can be with us, so that you can see what we lost. And then maybe you will feel those internal questions about why this happened and how we could have prevented this.”

Lele Aloha’s mission is to honor Hawaii’s genealogy and protect its water, land and cultural resources — starting with Lahaina, which was once the capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Aiding Lahaina’s recovery will be the nonprofit’s proving grounds, Kalepa said. 

Addressing the post-fire housing crisis and rebuilding the seven Lahaina churches incinerated by the blaze are some of the nonprofit’s primary goals.

The group also has its sights set on rebuilding Moku‘ula, a one-acre island surrounded by a spring-fed fish pond that once served as the site of King Kamehameha III’s royal palace. The island was abandoned in the late 1800s and filled in by local government in 1914 to create Maluulu o Lele Park. 

The unity gathering is slated to be the nonprofit’s inaugural event.

“Rebuilding Lahaina by being honest, by having integrity toward our community, will give us traction,” Kalepa said. “And in turn, one day we want to be able to support other communities globally to continue to keep their communities enriched with culture, belief and love of place.”

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by grants from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.