mary alice ka‘iulani milham allison leialoha milham
great basin press, 2012
The mind is like a tree that should have its roots deep in the ground if it is to stand firm and unshaken. The greater our understanding of past and of distant cultures, the deeper our roots and the stronger our tree will grow. David Malo, Native Hawaiian historian, 1838
The Source of Life
O
ver 20 million years ago, during the early Miocene epoch, lava began to erupt beneath the surface of the ocean; eventually forming the first islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago. According to Hawaiian mythology, all of creation came from that initial union of our earth mother, Pa‘pa and our sky father, Wakea. The Kumulipo, Source of Life, is an ancient Hawaiian chant, chronicling the origins of the Kanaka Maoli, the Native Hawaiians. Over a century before Darwin’s, ‘The Origin of Species,’ the Kumulipo established that all life forms had evolved from the simplest to the most complex, moving from the emergence of sea creatures to insects, plants, animals, and eventually, human beings. The early Hawaiian people had an intimate understanding of nature and the interrelationships within all of creation. In 1895, while under house arrest, Queen Lili‘uokalani translated the 2,012-line chant, which was published in 1897.
Ancient Hawaiian Way of Life Ancient Hawaiian civilization developed to an advanced degree in a large part due to necessity. Because they lived in the isolation of an island ecosystem, early Hawaiians understood that their livelihood was dependent upon the sustained welfare of the land and thus developed a culture based on the harmonious interdependence of all elements in nature. They had advanced medical practices and sophisticated systems of agriculture; primarily cultivating kalo, or taro, a root vegetable which was the staple of their diet. Because the society had become so organized, ancient Hawaiians had ample time to devote to music, chanting, hula and creating beautiful works of art. Spirituality was woven into their daily lives and mana, or life force, was recognized in all things and acknowledged in one another when saying ‘aloha.’ Aloha was a recognition of life in another. If there was life, there was mana, goodness and wisdom, and if there was goodness and wisdom there was a god-quality. One had to recognize the 'god of life' in another before saying Aloha, but this was easy. Life was everywhere—in the trees, the flowers, the ocean, the fish, the birds, the pili grass, the rainbow, the rock—in all the world was life, was god, was Aloha. Aloha in its gaiety, joy, happiness, abundance. Because of Aloha, one gave without thought of return; because of Aloha, one had mana. Aloha had its own mana. It never left the giver but flowed freely and continuously between giver and receiver. Aloha could not be thoughtlessly or indiscriminately spoken, for it carried its own power. Queen Lili‘uokalani, 1891
A Skiff is Stolen, A Nation is Born When British explorer Captain James Cook arrived in Hawai‘i in 1778, the natives who swam and paddled to greet his ship immediately impressed him as an ‘exceedingly friendly,’ people of ‘vigorous, active, most expert swimmers’ with ‘frank, cheerful dispositions.’ Cook made note of their advanced agricultural practices, too, including a new crop he had never seen: sugarcane. Cook’s dealings with the Hawaiians had taken a retaliatory turn, after his men took stones from a burial structure to use as ship’s ballast. The offended natives took a skiff from Cook’s ship. And when Cook kidnapped their King, holding him ransom for the skiff, the conflict escalated to warfare. Cook was killed, but as his survivors fled Hawai‘i, they left behind a biological last word; a legacy of syphilis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis and influenza, diseases for which Hawaiians had no immunity. It is very remarkable that these Indians appeared to be much more jealous of what was done to the dead than the living. James Cook, 1779
Doubtless Cook’s fateful battle also left a mark on the young warrior, Pai‘ea. Later known as Kamehameha, the lonely one, by 1810 he was King of the entire archipelago. Having unified the islands, Kamehameha I turned his attention to building a government. He laid the cornerstone of Hawai ‘i’s legal system with the Kanawai Mamalahoe, The Law of the Splintered Paddle, a decree guaranteeing the people’s right to dwell in safety. When he died in 1819, passing the mantle to his son, Liholiho, it was the beginning of a dynasty that would rule Hawai‘i for 62 years.
From Missionaries to Mahele Soon after Liholiho’s ascension as Kamehameha II, an even more fateful event occurred with the breaking of an ancient law, the ai kapu (forbidding men from eating with women) by his younger brother, future king, Kauikeaouli. Signalling the decline of the ancient Hawaiian religion, this symbolic act created a breach into which, in 1820, stepped the first wave of Congregationalist missionaries from America. Come to Christianize the ‘heathen’ natives through Biblical instruction, the missionaries taught them to read and created a written Hawaiian language that spread even wider than the diseases the foreigners brought. Native Hawaiians embraced reading with such a passion that by the mid-1800s gave Hawai‘i the highest literacy rate in the world. Foreshadowing the future toll of the Hawaiians’ contact with foreigners, Kamehameha II died of measles quite early in his reign, during a journey to meet King George IV in Great Britain. Too young to rule at 11, Kauikeaouli initially served under a regency. His reign as Kamehameha III spanned nearly 30 years of rapid changes; during which the young nation evolved from
an absolute monarchy to one based on a written constitution. Commercial production of sugarcane began in 1835 and in 1848, under pressure from land-hungry planters and missionary advisers, he enacted the Great Mahele, a land division system instituting private property ownership.
Education and Extinction Relying on foreign advisers in the interim, Kamehameha III was determined to prepare the next generation of high chiefs, the ali‘i, to rule. In 1839, he asked missionaries Amos Starr Cooke and his wife Juliette to operate a boarding school for the education of Hawai‘i’s highest royal children. Within a few years, 17 royal children would be sent to the Chief ’s Children’s School, including Lili‘u Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamakaeha, (Queen Lili‘uokalani), who arrived in tears at the age of three. Neither of the Cookes had experience as teachers. The New England-style education Lili‘u and her schoolmates received within the walled compound was heavily dosed with deprogramming and indoctrination. Amos banned their native tongue, banished their caretakers and forbade the feathered kahili’s denoting their royal status. He beat them almost daily, wrote casually of the coming extinction of their race and in 1850 schemed to take advantage of the new law allowing foreigners to buy land. During this period of Lili‘u’s life, measles epidemics killed more than 10 percent of Hawai‘i’s population, including her classmate, Moses, her-four-year-old sister Kaiminanaauo and her brother James Kaliokalani. Somehow in this harsh environment, Lili‘u thrived. Education became my salvation. Lili‘uokalani, Hawai‘i’s Story by Hawai‘i’s Queen
Hawaiian Independence To strengthen Hawai‘i’s independence, Kamehameha III sent ambassadors to the United States, Great Britain and France, seeking recognition of the independence of the Hawaiian Kingdom. A treaty, conferring recognition, with the United States in 1842, was followed by the Anglo Saxon Treaty in 1843, with Great Britain and France. Before his ambassadors could return to the islands, Lord George Paulet, wayward Captain of hbms Carysfort, overthrew the government of Kamehameha III. The historic event did not go unmarked in the Chief ’s Children’s School. On the day appointed for the transfer of power, Amos Cooke marched his students to the fort in Honolulu to bear witness the lowering of Hawai‘i’s flag. At age 5, Lili‘u’s reaction was likely internalized. That of her seven year old brother David, the future King Kalakaua, was one of resistance. In a school-boy’s bid to take action, he formed an ‘Indignation Club’ with his royal classmates. When word of Paulet’s coup reached England, King Geoge VI sent Rear Admiral Richard Thomas to restore the islands to Kamehameha III. Thereafter the day has been celebrated in Hawai‘i as La Ho‘i Ho‘i Ea: Restoration Day.
Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ‘Aina i ka Pono, The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness. Kamehameha III
The Bitter & the Sweet
Hawai‘i’s sovereignty was restored, but other threats to the Kingdom were spreading. By the time Kamehameha III died in 1854, the native population had plummeted to 60,000, one fifth what it was at Cook’s arrival. Increased trade and imported labor for the sugar plantations brought waves of smallpox, measles, plague and influenza. The approaching extinction of the Hawaiians was openly discussed. As Alexander Liholiho, Kamehameha III’s adopted son, ascended the throne as Kamehameha IV, a new scourge, leprosy, brought from China with the first imported laborers, was infecting the Kingdom. Infertility, exacerbated by syphilis, kept birth rates low as death rates soared. Meanwhile, Hawai‘i’s foreign population was rapidly increasing. As more Hawaiian lands came under sugarcane cultivation, wealth accrued to foreigners. Demand for Hawaiian sugar increased, after the outbreak of the American Civil War cut off supplies from southern plantations. In 1849, America’s brewing struggle with racism left a lasting impression on Liholiho. Traveling by train across the continent, under the guardianship of missionary doctor Gerrit P. Judd, a conductor threatened to remove the young prince and heir apparent to the throne from his seat based on the color of his skin. In his journal he wrote, I am disappointed by the Americans. They have no manners, no politeness, not even common civilities to a stranger.
A Dying Dynasty: Kamehameha to Kalakaua Kamehameha iv’s opinion of Great Britain, was far more favorable. When his half-British wife Emma Na‘ea Rooke gave birth to their son, they named him Albert Edward, after Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert. Preferring the Anglican Church over that which the missionaries had established, they invited the first Anglican missionary to the islands. During Kamehameha IV’s reign, treaties were concluded with France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, and The Netherlands. But disease continued its toll on the population. After the death of Albert, at 4 of meningitis, the king fell into despair. He died within a year at age 29. Prince Lot ascended the throne as Kamehameha V in 1863, but refused to support the 1852 Constitution, which had stripped rights from the monarch. Under the motto, ‘Hawai‘i for the Hawaiians!’ he wrote a new constitution himself and promulgated it in 1864. A bachelor, in poor health, he died in 1873. By this time, the Kingdom had consulates and embassies throughout the world. But at home, it was under attack, with pro-British and proAmerican factions contending for control. The Constitution directed the Legislature to elect a King from the Ali‘i. William Lunalilo, grand nephew of Kamehameha I, was chosen on January 1, 1873. He died of tuberculosis within a year, a bachelor without an heir like Lot before him. In an election in 1873, in a bitter contest with Dowager Queen Emma Rooke, David Kalakaua emerged the victor.
Reciprocity In 1875, Kalakaua concluded a Reciprocity Treaty with the United States, allowing Hawaiian sugar to be sold duty free in America. A fabulous boon to plantation owners, the Reciprocity Treaty increased social inequality. Most plantations were owned by descendants of American missionaries. Importing thousands of Asian laborers to live in near slavery, the sugar barons, with their exploitative practices, were the 1 % of the age. Kalakaua, whose motto was ‘Ho‘oulu Lahui!’ ‘Increase the Nation!,’ sought to inspire pride in his people. He revived the hula and other cultural practices and built a modern palace, equipped with electric lights years before the White House. Furthering Hawai‘i’s international relations and prestige, in 1881 Kalakaua became the first world leader to make a world tour, trusting his sister, Lili‘uokalani to rule as regent in his absence. Her authority was soon tested when smallpox, brought from imported laborers, broke out in Honolulu. Lili‘u responded immediately with a quarantine that, though it prevented an epidemic, interrupted sugarcane production, which infuriated the plantation owners. As the treaty reached the end of its term, the Hawaiian sugar market declined and the Kingdom fell into recession. The United States agreed to renew the treaty in 1884, but only on condition that Hawai‘i grant its Navy exclusive use of Pu‘uloa, Pearl Harbor.
Bayonet Constitution
Fearing a depression, Kalakaua signed the new treaty in 1887, only after adding a clause to ensure Pearl Harbor remained under Hawaiian sovereignty. Joseph Nawahi, a Native Hawaiian legislator and journalist, called it ‘the first step of annexation.’ Lili‘uokalani, whom Kalakaua had named heir apparent in 1877, was blunt: ‘It should not have been done.’ But the plantation owners weren’t satisfied with reciprocity. They now wanted control of the government and annexation to the United States. To get it, they formed the dubiously named ‘Hawaiian League’ and a militia, ‘The Honolulu Rifles.’ In June 1887, while Lili‘u was in London attending Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, their members kidnapped Kalakaua and forced him to sign a new constitution transferring power from the monarch and the Hawaiians to the landowners. With high income and property qualifications it disenfranchised 75 percent of Native Hawaiians, banned Asians from voting based on race alone, and gave American and European males the right to vote, regardless of citizenship. The Hawaiians responded in strong opposition. Facilitated by the Hawaiian-language newspaper Elele, they formed the first Hawaiian political association, the Hui Kalaiaina, drawing between 500 and 1,500 attendees to its very first meeting. In 1889, seeking to reinstate the prior constitution, the people, led by Robert K. Wilcox, revolted. Though they stormed the palace, the revolt was quickly put down by the Honolulu Rifles, leaving several loyalists dead and many wounded.
Lili‘u Ascends At a time when sugar accounted for $12.16 million out of $13 million in annual exports, passage of The McKinley Tariff Act threatened to instantly obliterate Hawaiian sugar’s advantage in U.S. markets; an advantage dearly won through the cession of Pearl Harbor. Under the looming economic crisis and under constant threat of assassination, Kalakaua’s health declined. On his doctor’s advice, he traveled to San Francisco in late 1890 and died there within a few weeks on January 20, 1891. Lili‘u did not learn of his death until the steamer U.S.S. Charleston arrived in Honolulu bearing his remains. That same afternoon, she was made to swear an oath upholding the Bayonet Constitution. Petitions began pouring in from throughout the islands immediately upon her ascension, begging Queen Lili‘uokalani to give them a new constitution restoring native rights. Under the Bayonet Constitution, the Queen could only act with the advice and consent of her cabinet. Working with her ministers, she drafted a new constitution, and, with their express support, prepared to promulgate it on January 14, 1893. The same men who coerced Kalakaua, convinced Lili‘u’s ministers to thwart her plan. As she prepared to promulgate the new constitution, they withdrew their support.
An Act of War On the pretext of a backlash from the frustrated Native Hawaiians, the conspirators formed a ‘Committee of Public Safety,’ led by missionary descendants Lorrin Thurston and Sanford B. Dole, and plotted in secret with U.S. Minister to Hawai‘i John L. Stevens, an ardent annexationist, to land troops off the U.S.S. Boston. As they marched to ‘Iolani Palace,
the Boston’s 162 troops paraded their Gatling guns in front of the Queen, as she watched from the veranda, before taking up positions with weapons facing the palace.
The Queen immediately sent a letter of protest to the U.S. ambassador asking that the troops be withdrawn. The next day, January 16, 1893, members of the Committee of Safety went to the Government Building and declared themselves the Provisional Government of Hawai‘i, naming Dole president. On Jan. 17, 1893, Queen Lili‘uokalani met with her ministers and advisers and, with the armed might of the United States outside her window, reluctantly decided to delay the new constitution until ‘some future day.’ She surrendered her authority temporarily to the United States, until it should undo Minister Stevens’ illegal act. Now, to avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps loss of life, I do, under this protest, and impelled by said forces, yield my authority until such time as the Government of the United States shall, upon the facts being presented to it, undo the action of its representative and reinstate me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands. Queen Lili‘uokalani, January 17, 1893
The Blount Report Thurston immediately boarded a privately chartered ship to Washington D.C. with a treaty of annexation. Although U.S. President Benjamin Harrison instantly submitted it to the Senate for ratification, his term ended before they could approve it. Loyalist newspapers were shut down, meanwhile, and their newspapermen jailed. American newspapers, initially supportive of the coup, soon became its critics; the New York Times calling it, ‘The Political Crime of the Century.’ Having received Lili‘uokalani’s letter of protest, incoming president Grover Cleveland swiftly withdrew the treaty and appointed James G. Blount, former head of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, to investigate. Arriving at Honolulu harbor, Blount was met by Stevens and members of the Annexation Club, who, ‘had rented an elegant house, well furnished, and provided servants and a carriage and horses for my use.’ Refusing their offer, he instead ordered the American flag removed from ‘Iolani Palace, and the troops returned to their ship. Conducted over a period of several months, Blount’s investigation included interviews with those on both sides; including the Queen, her ministers, Dole and the other participants in the coup, as well as commoners. His 1300-page report concluded the coup was illegal. President Cleveland, declaring the overthrow ‘an act of war’ on a ‘feeble but friendly state,’ recalled Stevens and sent Minister Albert Willis to negotiate Lili‘uokalani’s restoration. I am very much impressed with a belief that a large majority of the people of these islands are opposed to annexation and that the proofs being taken will verify this opinion. Special Commissioner James Blount, 1893
Counter-Revolution & the Queen’s Imprisonment Upon negotiating amnesty for the conspirators with Lili‘uokalani, Willis presented Dole with Cleveland’s request that the Provisional Government stand down. Dole flatly refused, stating, ‘We do not recognize the right of the President of the United States to interfere in our domestic affairs.’ After two years waiting for justice, Hawaiian nationalists reached the limit of their patience. On January 4, 1895, they launched a counter-revolution, during which seven men were killed. Over the next month, 355 men were rounded up, 185 of them jailed and charged with treason. Suspected of supporting the counter-revolution, Lili‘uokalani was arrested, charged with treason (later reduced to “misprision” of treason) and imprisoned in a small bedroom of ‘Iolani Palace. A Military Tribunal was established and, upon conviction of treason, six leaders were sentenced to hang. The Queen’s health rapidly declined under the strain. Suffering from ‘nervous prostration’ and treated with electric shocks, her pulse became erratic. Told that by her abdication, they would be spared, and all the prisoners released, she signed a shaky signature to the document the Provisional Government had prepared, abdicating the throne January 24, 1895. At her own trial, Lili‘uokalani declined to enter a plea, speaking only Hawaiian during three days of testimony. She was convicted three weeks later, given the maximum sentence of a $5,000 fine and five years at hard labor. During her 8-month imprisonment she began her memoir, ‘Hawai‘i’s Story by Hawai‘i’s Queen’ and soothed her soul with music, composing several of her over 200 songs. Among them were, The Queen’s Prayer, Ku‘u Pua Paoakalani and ‘Umia ke Aloha i Pa‘a i Loko, a song containing secret messages to her
people reassuring and encouraging them to persist, which was smuggled out and published in the Hawaiian-language newspaper Ka Makaainana, ‘The Commoner.’ Look not on their failings, nor on the sins of men, but forgive with loving-kindness. Lili‘iuokalani, The Queen’s Prayer, 1895
Hawaiian Resistance After eight months, Lili‘uokalani was released from her palace prison, only to begin subsequent terms of house arrest at Washington Place and ‘island arrest’ on O‘ahu, under constant surveillance. Finally freed on October 23, 1896, she immediately boarded the steamer Independent en route to the United States and Washington, D.C. to fight for the rights of her people. While there, to raise public awareness of Hawai‘i’s plight, she completed and published her memoir. Back home, the Hui Aloha ‘Aina (Hawaiian Patriotic League) and Hui Kalai‘aina formed a coalition and began petition campaigns to restore the Queen and protest annexation. By late 1897, they gathered over 38,000 signatures, from a total population of 40,000 Native Hawaiians, on what came to be known as the Ku‘e petitions. They sent a delegation to Washington, delivering the petitions to the Queen to be submitted along with her formal protest. In a matter of weeks, the vote in the U.S. Senate, initially in favor of annexation, shifted from 58 to 46, less than the ⅔ needed for passage. The Hawaiian delegation returned to O‘ahu victorious. In 1894, Queen Lili’uokalani created a garden called, ‘Uluhaimalama,’ as a symbol of hope for Native Hawaiians. It was a place where people could gather, plant, enjoy the beauty of
their works, and talk. The kaona, or hidden meaning, of the word uluhaimalama is, ‘as the plants grow up out of the dark earth into the light, so shall light come to the nation.’ Upon learning of its significance, the Provisional Government had the garden destroyed.
A Pretext for Annexation: Militarization
Three months later, on February 15, 1898, the U.S.S. Maine exploded in Havana Harbor. and the U.S. declared war on Spain. Congressman Francis G. Newlands, an ‘avowed racist,’ introduced a resolution to annex Hawai‘i. Under the pretext of Pearl Harbor’s strategic value to the war in the Pacific, a Joint Resolution of Congress was passed, circumventing the U.S. Constitution. On the day of the formal annexation ceremony at ‘Iolani Palace, most Native Hawaiians stayed home. Queen Lili‘uokalani and the other members of the royal family, dressed in black, shuttered themselves within Washington Place. U.S. troops began arriving at ‘Camp McKinley,’ at the base of Diamond Head, by the thousands. Development of Pearl Harbor as a major U.S. Naval Base began in 1910 and was followed by the construction of Fort Shafter, Fort Ruger, Fort Armstrong, Fort DeRussy, Fort Kamehameha, Fort Weaver and Schofield Barracks.
By December 7, 1941, Native Hawaiians had been living peacefully with their Japanese neighbors for a century, with treaties, and, at one time, a royal marriage proposed between Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito and Princess Ka‘iulani. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Hawaiians were forced to interment camps, just as they were throughout the U.S. The U.S. expanded its military presence in Hawai‘i and began using the sacred island of Kaho‘olawe for bombing exercises that continued until 1990. By the dawn of the 21st century Hawai‘i was the most militarized land in the United States.
Hawai‘i is ours. As I look back upon the first steps in this miserable business, and as I contemplate the means used to complete the outrage, I am ashamed of the whole affair. Grover Cleveland, December 1898
A Fake State
The Americanization of Hawai‘i after 1898 was aggressive. Overnight, English became the official language of instruction in Hawai‘i’s schools. Americans, especially military personnel, poured into the islands, while the missionary elite sugar baron families grew into powerful corporations, the largest of which would become known as ‘The Big Five,’ a cartel dominating shipping, hardware, banking and politics.
Speaking out against the authority of the U.S. became a cultural taboo among Hawaiians as their entire culture; language, religion, hula, traditional arts and crafts and healing, slipped further underground. In 1959, Hawai‘i’s listing with the United Nations as a ‘Non-Self-Governing Territory’ scheduled for de-colonization prompted the placing of a Statehood referendum on the Territorial ballot. Hawai‘i’s electorate had undergone a sea change, with the massive influx of American military personnel and civilians and other immigrants, such that Native Hawaiians had gone from a 98 percent majority at the time of annexation to just 20 percent. The long-awaited Non-Hawaiian majority, necessary for the appearance of American-style democracy, had finally arrived. The propaganda for statehood was shameless, featuring American flag-waving Hawaiian children and Boy Scouts in a massive publicity campaign. It was also illegal under international law, as set forth by the United Nations, violating the ‘sacred trust’ obligation of the ‘Administering Power’ (U.S.) to place the interests of the colonized (Hawai‘i) above their own. The limited choices on the Statehood referendum were another violation of international law, as set forth by the United Nations, which requires three options: integration, free association and independence for Non-Self-Governing territories. Limiting the options to ‘statehood’ or remaining a ‘territory’ meant the statehood referendum offered only integration. Furthermore, no public education or public debate of these issues was presented. Although just 35 percent of the electorate voted, as most Hawaiians boycotted the election, statehood proponents spun the results to claim 94 percent of the ‘voters’ had approved it.
Suffering from Statehood After 50 years, statehood has been an unmitigated disater for Native Hawaiians, devastating the land and waters upon which they depend, while supplanting their traditional diet and active lifestyle and undermining their economic welfare and pride in their heritage. The following statistics illustrate its effects. Today, Native Hawaiians: • comprise only 9.2 % Hawai‘i’s population • account for 12.5% of Hawai‘i’s poor • are 30% more likely to suffer from cancer • are 2.3 times more likely to be overweight than other Hawai‘i residents • die of heart disease more than any other ethnicity in the U.S. • have twice the rate of diabetes as others in Hawai‘i and 5.7 times the death rate from this disease • have an infant mortality rate that is 1.7 times that of NonNative Hawaiians • account for 23% of all arrests in Hawaii, have twice the incarceration rate of all others, and are increasingly deported to serve their sentences on the U.S. continent, making family visits nearly impossible • account for 37% of Hawai‘i’s homeless, a situation exacerbated by the lack of affordable housing and aggressive removal tactics and policies of the Honolulu Police Department • have the third-highest rate of homelessness in the U.S., 39% of the state’s homeless are children and as much as 42% are employed full time • face a cost of living that is 76.7% higher than the rest of the U.S., while the average weekly wage in Honolulu is $834, less than the national average of $870
• live in the second most expensive housing market in the U.S., often forcing those who can afford homes to live in cramped, multi-generational households • residents face a mean housing price of $621,458 statewide and average rents, for a two-bedroom apartment in Honolulu, of over $1,700, even during the 2009 recession. • homeland has suffered more extinctions than anywhere else on Earth and is known as ‘extinction capital of the World.’ Nearly half of Hawai‘i’s native birds, 140 species, were extinct by 2008.
Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance & ‘Onipa‘a
In the 1970s, Native Hawaiians began once again to organized to protect their lands and revive their traditional culture. After more than three decades of non-stop bombing, in 1976, the Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana, pko, filed suit in Federal District Court to stop U.S. Military attacks on the small but sacred island of Kaho‘olawe. Some of the strongest voices of protest came from artists and musicians like George Helm, a phenomenally talented singer and musician from Moloka‘i and a leader of pko. Herb Kawainui Kane, the renowned art-historian, author, artist and founder of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, became
a leader of what came to be called the ‘Hawaiian Renaissance.’ Hawaiian language, underground since missionary days, began to resurface with the creation of Hawaiian language schools. Hula, banned by the missionaries and widely discouraged, even at the all-Hawaiian Kamehameha Schools, was also revived. The traditional Hawaiian songs of the ‘Makaha Sons’ from Ni‘ihau helped them to become Hawai’i’s most popular band; with its most famous son, the legendary Israel Kamakawiwo‘ole emerging as a solo artist in 1990 and going on to record the protest songs, ‘Hawai‘i ‘78’ and ‘E Ala ‘E.’ Writers were contributing their mana’o (thoughts) to the renaissance too. John Dominis Holt’s ‘On Being Hawaiian’ explored the cultural trauma inflicted by the overthrow on native people, while Mary Kawena Pukui’s ‘Nana I Ke Kumu,’ reintroduced Native Hawaiians to traditional Hawaiian cultural practices. Michael Kioni Dudley and Keoni Kealoha Agard’s, 1990 book, a ‘A Call to Sovereignty’ was followed in 1992 by Michael Dougherty’s ‘To Steal A Kingdom.’ Native Hawaiians began to talk about regaining their ‘sovereignty’ and in 1997 University of Hawai‘i professor Noenoe Silva recovered the long-lost Ku‘e Anti-Annexation Petitions of Hui Aloha ‘Aina from the National Archives; compelling evidence of the absolute opposition of Native Hawaiians to annexation. Silva’s 2004 book, ‘Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism,’ was honored as the most influential book of the decade in 2011, by the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. In 1993, 100 years after the overthrow, President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Bill, officially acknowledging the United States’ responsibility for the acts of war committed against Hawai‘i. By this time, Hawaiians had established dozens of sovereignty and native rights groups. Under the sponsorship of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, they united to organize the
‘Onipa‘a: Five Days in the History of Hawai‘i’ centennial event that staged real-time reenactments of the historic events of the January 1893 coup at ‘Iolani Palace and other historic sites; an event attended by an estimated 20,000. Recent developments include a deeper understanding of Hawai‘i’s legal status, especially through the research of David Keanu Sai, PhD, whose work shows that Hawai‘i’s sovereignty, under international law, is intact and in that Hawai‘i is therefore under a prolonged illegal occupation. The Hawaiian Independence Movement, as well as the growing trend away from modern American culture and towards increased self-reliance and sustainability, hearken back to the old ways of Native Hawaiians; the voices of our ancestors guiding us into the future.
Afterword The reenactment of the overthrow was directed by my grandmother, Dallas Kealiihooneiaina Mossman Vogeler; who spent the last 15 years of her life working with other activists in the fight for Hawaiian sovereignty. Her legacy was far reaching and many family members have followed in her footsteps. My uncle, Kuhio Vogeler, has been an active voice in the movement for over 20 years. A PhD in political science, his dissertation outlines in detail how Hawai‘i can reassert its independence. My mom, Mary Alice Ka‘iulani Milham, cowriter of this text, has followed my grandmother’s theatrical footsteps, presenting the historical reenactment, ‘Ka Lei Maile Ali‘i: The Queen’s Women historical’ reenactment about the anti-annexation petitions of Hui Aloha ‘Aina. She is currently at work on a screenplay about the life of Queen Lili‘uokalani. My last memory of my grandmother is from when I was 12. A few days before her death from leukemia, I asked if she would teach me how to play the uku‘lele. The song she taught me was, ‘All Hawaii Stand Together,’ a sovereignty song by Dennis Pavao. It wasn’t until much later that I began to understand the significance of her sharing that song with me. Though I am only a quarter Hawaiian, my native roots have made it easier for me to see my connection to this history. To most, Hawai‘i is simply a tropical vacation spot. A place to relax and enjoy. But if you look closer, buried beneath the hotels, restaurants and bars; below the helicopter rides and golf courses; down underneath the strip malls and tanning lotion, there is nation whose people and land are suffering. There is a nation who has been telegraphing distress signals to an impassive America for more than a century through songs, news articles, books and organized resistance. Underneath our limited understanding and our indifference, a Nation.
I believe Hawai‘i’s story is one to which we are all connected and that it is a responsibility we share as human beings to understand the past so we may move into the future with awareness and compassion. As Subcomandante Marcos, the Zapatista leader fighting for the rights of the indigenous people of Mexico, said, ‘...it is necessary to build a new world. A world in which there is room for many worlds. A world capable of containing all the worlds.’ In broadening our knowledge of related struggles, both past and present, we see that Hawai‘i’s story is but one chapter in the long and dark history of Western Imperialism. And with this knowledge comes the responsibility to act. Though we may at times feel helpless or unable to express our desires to do what is right, the best course of action might be as easy as looking to the ‘old ways’ of our ancestors and to the wisdom of indigenous peoples around the world to restore a balance and re-chart our course. I believe that our destiny is in our own hands and how we use them. This is our kuleana, our part; to reconnect to our past, to each other, to ourselves and the world and to see the connections between the way we choose to live and the ongoing extinction of ancient wisdom. I have much hope in all of us and am encouraged by the growing diy culture in America and the underlying sense of need for action, which have manifested through the Occupy movement and worldwide self-determination movements. There is burgeoning interest in slowing down, in making things, in growing food and in building relationships within our communities; all fostering a greater capacity for self-reliance. When we can provide for ourselves and live within our means, we can stop exploiting others. I am also encouraged by you, that you've taken the time to read this and hopefully to reflect upon the integral part you play in this process. We live in a time where all of the tools we need are right in front of us and like my uncle says, ‘all we need to do is wake up and get to work.’
You must remember never to cease to act because you fear you may fail. The way to lose any earthly kingdom is to be inflexible, intolerant and prejudicial. Another way is to be too flexible, tolerant of too many wrongs and without judgment at all. It is a razor’s edge. It is the width of a blade of pili grass. To gain the kingdom of heaven is to hear what is not said, to see what can not be seen, and to know the unknowable, that is Aloha. All things in this world are two; in heaven there is but One. Queen Lili‘uokalani, 1917
Notes & Colophon For more information on the history of Hawai‘i, including links to the primary documents referenced in this text, plus many more resources, visit hawaiiankingdom.org. Additional links and a complete project archive can be found at greatbasinproductions.com and, it should be noted that our most valuable resource, ‘Hawai‘i’s Story by Hawai‘i’s Queen,’ and be viewed, in its entirety, for free online. This book was created as a supporting component of the record release, ‘Uluhaimalama, Legacies of Lili‘uokalani: Music and Mana‘o of Hawai‘i’s last Queen.’ Fifty copies were letterpress printed and are included with the limited edition, box set release, the first ten of which are on handmade paper and the following forty, on French paper. An open edition, printed both letterpress and/or digitally also exists in varying formats. Endsheets feature a pattern made up of signatures from the 1898 Ku‘e anti-annexation petitions. Designed, printed and bound by Allison Leialoha Milham in Tallahassee, Florida, spring of 2012.