On a warm summer afternoon, Tina Taniguchi was working close to the ground. Wet soil had gotten on her clothes and her hair. Taniguchi smiles a lot when she is working in the corner of the Hanapepe salt patch（盐场）on the west side of Kauai.
Taniguchi drives about an hour to get here. "It's hard work. But for me, it's also play," Taniguchi said, adding with a laugh. "I play in the mud all day," Taniguchi's family is one of 22 families that have devoted themselves to promote the cultural tradition ofpaakai, the Hawaiian word for salt.
This is one of the last remaining salt patches in Hawaii. The salt produced here can be traded or given away, but it is not to be sold. Hawaiians use it for cooking, healing and protection. However, this place has been facing many kinds of threats（威胁）over the past decade, including social development, pollution from a nearby airport, and sand erosion（流失）from vehicle traffic and rubbish thrown by visitors.
Besides, climate change poses a big threat to salt-making with rising sea levels and changing weather situations. In 2023, the salt-making season lasted only three months, from July to September, because of high rainfall. During a good year, work often begins in May and ends in November.
Malia Nobrega-Olivera is an educator who leads efforts to protect centuries-old traditions. Her grandfather played an important role in forming a group of salt-making families called Hui Hana Paakai. The organization's goal, Malia said, is to protect the traditional practice of making salt by hand, which had been passed down for many years.
