Sand Island in Honolulu could officially take up its Ōlelo Hawai‘i name after over a century of other names.
The Honolulu City Council will on Wednesday consider a resolution urging the state Board on Geographic Names to rename Sand Island “Mauliola,” the traditional Native Hawaiian name for the island.
Honolulu Councilwoman Radiant Cordero, whose district includes Sand Island, introduced the resolution in April, and told Aloha State Daily via email that the name Mauliola can be interpreted to mean “breath of life” or “power of healing.”
“I believe that this renaming honors the island's cultural and historical significance and celebrates the island’s Hawaiian heritage,” Cordero said.
Cordero said the resolution came at the request of the O‘ahu Hawai‘i Canoe Racing Association. Rhonda Burke, OHCRA’s advocacy chair, testified at an April committee hearing stating that the name change would embody the “values of healing, renewal and interconnectedness that resonate deeply within our paddling community.”
Cordero has said at previous meetings that the resolution is merely the start of the Board of Geographic Names’ renaming process, and is separate from the process of renaming related infrastructure such as the Sand Island Access Road.
Sand Island’s history has been a checkered one since the arrival of American powers to the Hawaiian Islands. Originally a small tidal island, dredging and infilling of Honolulu Harbor expanded the island through the 1800s.
The island was once called “Quarantine Island” in the 19th Century, as it was used as a place to house sailors who arrived on O‘ahu with contagious diseases.
During World War II, the U.S. Army established an internment camp on the island to house Japanese Americans and other foreign expatriates between 1941 and 1943. Following that, the island served as a prisoner of war camp.
The island then became a dumping ground for several decades until a collective effort by Native Hawaiians to clean the island and build a community there in the 1970s. The state then evicted that community in the early 1980s in order to redevelop the island for industrial and recreational purposes.
Cordero said feedback from her constituents has been positive toward the change. The Sand Island Business Association, which represents the businesses within the Sand Island Business Park, made a statement in support of the resolution last week.
The Honolulu City Council will discuss the resolution at its meeting on Wednesday, May 14.
