The KNL Inspiration
By: Eric Arquero
When people ask us “how did Kaibigan ng Lahaina form?”, you’re sure to see a smile come across our face, or a light chuckle break before we respond with the ever so foundation of Filipino culture: “food”. Food within our culture stems from different sources of personal and community experiences. It’s the food that is shared around our dinner tables that ties our memories to grandparents we have mourned, memories we have embedded in our minds of the homes we grew up in - homes we remember, and the homes we strive to rebuild so we can return to Lahaina. Within the Filipino community, food remains a staple of the motherland, a conduit of connectivity that reminds us of who we are, where we came from and why we are here.
In the early aftermath of the fires in August 2023, the enormous wave of assistance that came into our town was overwhelming. Multiple trucks drove into West Maui daily, carrying necessities like water, diapers, clothing, hygiene products, and of course food. But one thing so many displaced Filipinos yearned for were the comforting dishes that only household gardens and Filipino kitchens could provide. The dinengdeng of leafy greens and bagoong; pinakbet with produce plucked right outside the kitchen door; and blanched salads of kamote leafs or catuday, or palang, or even long green beans to be devoured with fried fish and a big side of rice. In the time where our people were experiencing so much devastation and uncertainty: in light of the immense grief that followed news of loved ones lost, homes and investments that no longer stood, we heard the cries of both stomachs and hearts asking for the chance to come home through familiar meals.
So we gathered, we shared stories, we exchanged ideas and dreamt up solutions to address this request. And as we talked, as we shared and even comforted each other, realizing that resourcing just a meal wasn’t enough to heal Lahaina - but we had to be committed to the ability of restoring those core memories and functions for our people so that Lahaina, as it has for over 100 years for Filipinos, can continue to be a place where homes are filled with the love language of food. We simply didn’t want people to have a meal and move on without any answers to how we can restore families, homes and the ability to create memories in Lahaina again. We wanted our people to find resiliency in one another, sustainability in community and nourishment through the culture that we know will tell the histories of the past and write the history yet to be lived.
Just like a boodle fight, where family members, friends and neighbors gather around a large table digging into delectable dishes with their hands - we too do that now with the work in front of us to assure that Filipinos will call Lahaina home for generations. We are committed to reviving and celebrating the Filipino spirit, creating value and speaking with our community’s voice. Not by running ahead to dream of a Lahaina that is ours, and certainly not to support from the back of the crowd, to settle for a Lahaina that is unfamiliar - but to stand shoulder to shoulder, with our Filipino and immigrant kaibigans knowing that we as Filipinos not only feast in community, but work in community.
Until the day comes where familiar and comforting meals will be placed on dining tables in the homes inLahaina again, we are called and we are destined to help build those tables, to stand up those homes and tend those gardens. First and foremost through the rebuilding of our people.
