Ukumehame Court Statement September 24, 2025
Statement from the Ukumehame 5
Lahaina District Court | 24 September 2025
Kū ka Uhame i ka ʻOlaukoa, he Uku nō.
We are the Kiaʻi who were illegally arrested and detained by Maui Police officers at Puʻuhonua o Ukumehame for exercising our traditional and customary rights of sanctuary.
Our case is bigger than the five of us.Our case is about whether the practice of Puʻuhonua will be met with care or criminalization, whether Kanaka Maoli laws will be elevated or erased; and whether our unsheltered ʻohana will be given refuge or removed. What happens to us sets a precedent for every Puʻuhonua and every Kanaka seeking the basic right to shelter.
The County is criminalizing Puʻuhonua practitioners who are building places of refuge for our people today. Instead of recognizing Puʻuhonua as a lawful practice of peace, safety, and protection, the County turns our culture into a crime.
Against this injustice, we will continue to plant Puʻuhonua across our ʻāina in defiance of American colonization, occupation, and displacement. We will continue to build Puʻuhonua as a houseless-centered, harm-reductive solution for the most marginalized in our community. And for as long as we live, we affirm that our aloha for our unsheltered ʻohana—and for each other—is itself a Puʻuhonua, a sanctuary we are collectively running toward.
As Kanaka Maoli, we collectively condemn the actions of the County and its officers at Puʻuhonua o Ukumehame as a war on the unsheltered. As Kiaʻi, we collectively condemn the actions of the County and its officers at Puʻuhonua o Ukumehame as a violation of Hawaiian sanctuary law. Puʻuhonua are a living legal and place-based framework for protection, safety, and community defense. Arresting practitioners for building sanctuary is an abuse of power and an attack on the infrastructures of care that keep our people alive.
As an act of accountability, we demand that the County:
Dismiss the charges against Kanealii Terrill-Williams who is an innocent casualty of the illegal arrests carried out by Maui Police officers at Ukumehame
Immediately cease and desist all removals and sweeps of Unsheltered communities
Recognize Puʻuhonua as a traditional and customary Hawaiian practice of the right to shelter and protection
Let us collectively move toward Housing Justice for all. In solidarity with our unsheltered ʻohana, we stand fearless and with aloha, until the very last Puʻuhonua.