May 15, 2022

Many people are struggling these days to find reasons to hope.
Environmental degradation is rampant. Indigenous cultures, a source of timeless wisdom, have been tainted by exploitation or wiped out altogether.
Growing numbers of citizens feel powerless to bring about change. How can a thoughtful person find a foothold against despair?
In “Kealohapaoule, A Love That Never Ends,” author Jack Kelly, an advocate, activist, former tennis pro and coffee farmer, dives deep into a different kind of story – about a ragtag band of Native Hawaiians who overcome a relentless onslaught on their ancestral lands and sacred cultural practices by developers and others bent on destroying both. After a hard-fought, sometimes terrifying battle, these activists regain the right to preserve their native culture and the breathtaking beauty of their native land -- the sundrenched Kona district on the western shore of Hawaii Island. 
“Kealohapaoule, A Love That Never Ends” offers three valuable perspectives:
It is a history -- a colorful, detailed narrative that draws on Kelly’s firsthand experience and painstaking documentation of Hawaiians’ battle for access to their land and cultural practices. Through oral histories, court documents, audio recordings, interviews with participants, and public testimony, Kelly weaves a story of Kona of old, told by those who once lived it.
The book is also an ethnography, rich in vivid but factual descriptions of the customs and practices of a disappearing breed of Hawaiians. As a resident of the Big Island who lived and worked alongside Native Hawaiians for decades and recorded numerous oral histories himself, Kelly learned to understand the people and their culture from within. The images he shares of the destructive threats they faced are unforgettable: Powerful earth-moving machines engaging in “terraforming,” literally reshaping the Earth; a mile-long mudslide plowing into the ocean, killing coral and suffocating divers in a cloud of dirt; aged Hawaiian women pleading with officials not to bulldoze the sacred graves of their ancestors; and human remains crushed to powder and shelved like trash. 
 Finally, “Keaolhopaoule, A Love That Never Ends” is an activist manual – a call to action with a solid template for community action. Readers will accompany Jim Medeiros, a descendant of Hawaiian kings, as he emerges from his longtime vocation as a farmer and construction worker to embrace a dynamic, spiritually charged calling as an activist. Anyone who leads activists, or aspires to become one, will find multiple tools in this book:
Legal principles, including the Public Trust Doctrine and indigenous-rights protections embedded in the Constitutional and federal law, that can justify action by any citizen group striving to protect natural and cultural resources essential to the quality of life.
Examples of how to rally community members to a shared cause.
Tactical tips on doing the hard work required to mount a winning legal challenge.
Strategic guidance on earning a seat at the table and making the most of it, by negotiating forcefully but strategically for change.
A negotiating model for maintaining a voice in decision-making long after your dispute is no longer in the public spotlight.
Throughout “Kealohapaoule, A Love That Never Ends,” readers will experience the warmth and depth of Kelly’s extraordinary friendship with Medeiros, from moments of triumph to days of sheer terror as they become poster boys for the land-use revolt. 
Regardless of whether you have ever lived or spent time in Kona, savored its famous coffees, or simply grown to love it as a tourist, you will never think of Hawaii and its people in the same way again.

Jack Kelly is a writer, photographer, and cultural and environmental advocate and consultant. He worked as a tennis pro, coffee farmer and reporter in Hawaii before environmental and cultural threats to the South Kona community led him to a new career as an advocate, consultant, and dispute-resolution specialist.  

Contact: Jack Kelly at konajack@earthlink.net or 1-808-345-9229.