On the Road to 'Aha 2016

This summarizes my view of our condition, generally good-natured but impatient. Among our group we are discussing many solid steps and great designs. I hope our meetings can generate substantive future development proposals. Our role is to propose & suggest -- not to impose or rule.

We gather at the 'Aha to discuss suggestions & concerns for the future of Native Hawaiians.

We are each Native Hawaiian, each nominated by ten Native Hawaiians, part of a peaceful effort where tens of thousands of Native Hawaiian people actively participated -- until our voting process was imperiously blocked in a 5-4 injunction by the U.S. Supreme Court. Subjugation of Native Hawaiians in Hawaii is continuing.

Our combined voices are nonetheless heard worldwide: do not expect continuing silence about colonial suppression and the American militarization of our peaceful homeland. Our legacy is the beautiful Hawaiian archipelago, cherished, farmed and protected by Native Hawaiians over many centuries.

Native Hawaiians speak of struggle. We struggle against genocide; naturally we seek to avoid further destruction of our people. We've withstood deadly infections brought from overseas. We've survived occupation by hostile settlers. But we've also learned new techniques and technology, and we have welcomed many newcomers into our community with love & aloha.

We are descended from Native Hawaiians, the indigenous people of Hawaii. But we Native Hawaiians are now multiracial and multi ethnic, a peaceful community still delivering our world-famous Aloha.

We welcome visitors and non-Native friends, sharing blessings between families and the wider community. Some arrive seeking to steal from us, taking criminal advantage of Hawaiian hospitality. Sadly, some in America encourage bad behavior. We do not accept the occupation & theft of our common & Crown lands and surrounding seas.

Hawaii's indigenous & aboriginal people seek peaceful reconciliation, but we will not give up our legal claim to the lands of our ancestors we inherit as descendants. Yankee tries to block many paths with race-based claims of exclusivity. Yet most American grandchildren & great-grandkids are not kept from their inheritance simply because a qualification to inherit is greatly exclusive (e.g., descended from grandma Bush or great-grandfather Rockefeller); these others inherit through their mix of great-grandparents, only indigenous peoples in America face such prejudice and property pilferage.

We inherit responsibilities from ancestors as well as benefits. Native Hawaiians perpetuate the righteousness of our lands, protecting and nurturing wider life and the natural world. WE SHALL NEVER SURRENDER. We are determined to greatly improve the pervasive health problems and substandard living conditions hobbling many Native Hawaiians.

The 150+ Native Hawaiians meeting for 'Aha 2016 are eager to help improve the lives of our families, cousins, and community. We are not empowered to institute new treaties, or to impose our decisions on anyone. Nothing we do is intended to relinquish any past, present, or future claims of sovereignty by Native Hawaiians.

Native Hawaiians belong to a family and community association stretching back many centuries, and have welcomed all races and religions.   Aloha.

Kanaka Māoli: I Support Native Hawaiian Inheritance

I'm involved in a process for Hawaiian rights, where I mean Native Hawaiian -- descendants of the indigenous Hawaiian people. I feel part of an ancient & sacred inheritance. Welcome support for our effort may be offered & received by temporary visitors, American soldiers billeted in Hawaii, recent immigrants, and the families of naturalized Hawaiian Kingdom citizens, etc. But I'm not working for them.

Sorry to be a naysayer, and appear disrespectful.

I'm tempted to say "the more the merrier" because a larger group might have more success. But I believe the core constituency should define ourselves as the descendants and heirs of Hawaii's indigenous or aboriginal people, Kanaka Māoli.

We can hope many social groups will call for the recovery of Native Hawaiian lands. I hope people in other nations will also care about and work for our welfare. We've been very accommodating, with reason to hope others have noticed. Aloha is a well-known reflection of Hawaiian values.

Native Hawaiians worked for centuries on the islands. Naturalized newcomers to the Hawaiian Kingdom joined at a time of great disturbance and cultural genocide. They brought help and new ideas, and many have been great neighbors. But some worked to destroy the Hawaiian Kingdom:

http://tinyurl.com/jehsfnh

http://hialliance.com/Lambert-Hawaiians-DoleOut-Peace-proof.pdf

The US 1910 Census (at least in Hawaii) intrusively required answers to "Color or race" and "Place of Birth" as well as places of birth for mother and father, and two questions on Citizenship (Year of immigration to Hawaii or other part of United States) (Whether naturalized or alien). A dozen years before, and since 1893, heavily armed paramilitary groups had commandeered all major streets around Honolulu to discourage uppity or defiant natives resisting the overthrow. Should we divisively examine the community at the time of overthrow and make decisions about treason or saintliness, clouded by time and generation gaps? No naturalized citizens of the Hawaiian Kingdom remain alive. We've no possibilities to cross-examine. What are appropriate penalties? Could we be fair?

Many descendants of Hawaiian Kingdom naturalized citizens now have a "place at the table" through intermarriage with da kine. Kindly requesting others to wait seems not terribly cruel when the glaring status quo alternative is we recover nothing of our inheritance. Of course, we can share freely, and show aloha to anyone (or everyone). But that approach has not proven wholly successful...

Our Native Hawaiian constituency has claims as indigenous people that receive separate scrutiny in the global community and at the United Nations. We share solidarity with native peoples elsewhere. We've been robbed of ancestral lands & our inheritance by extravagant military occupation... a resonant story worldwide.

Peaceful Thinking - Don't Race

It's difficult to root-out indoctrination. Powers wielded over us may be unrecognized.

Opponents of our process to assist Native Hawaiian people are arguing (even repeatedly to the U.S. Supreme Court) we're racist and nasty.  I don't see it.

Our activities have a qualifying condition. Sitting at a family breakfast table also has certain requirement(s). Our wider society abounds with prerequisites. Virginia won't issue a driver's license to someone who's never been there. Male golfers aren't allowed to compete in the LPGA Championship. It's not possible everyone becomes a Roman Catholic priest. The Muscular Dystrophy Association only funds certain people. Voting rights are denied to many Americans due to supposedly insufficient age.

Kamehameha Schools have admission requirements. But children of many backgrounds are admitted. We could analyze a class and regroup the members in dozens, perhaps hundreds of ways.

Look around in American society and you'll see many doors closed. Most require money to enter: no money, no entry. Think of $10,000-per-plate political dinners.

Very few doors require Native Hawaiian ancestry. We belong to a family and community association stretching back many centuries, and have welcomed all races and religions. 

Celebrate Our Aloha.

IMUA

IMUA

Da kine puaʻa warriors

Gathered angry for a fight

Some had felt a taste of freedom

They'd been cooped-up very tight...

One wee piglet cursed another

Causing pushes, pokes & bite

Hid by pounding waves & jet wash

Master sniggers in the night...

"You are giving up our kingdom!"

Screamed one captive at his kin

In the brawl he gored their cousin

Disregarding who would win.

"Keep on holding-out forever!"

Counseled military swine...

As they gated off our country

Forcing total redesign.

Fruitful common lands, so long our own

Paved anew with Yankee trash

Native woes; whole families drowning

Kept afloat with drabs of cash.

Let's ask ourselves: Who's got my Land?

Who's actually our foe?

It is not Kanaka Māoli

It's Commander G.I. Joe

Weep for grunts & front-line sailors

Who face danger everyday

Heavy global fighting forces

Serving Corporate USA

Angry factions; much infighting

Battle on abusively

Goaded grossly by deceptions

Hatched in Washington, D.C.

Wave your protest signs at Nimitz

Or the Pentagon's front gate!

Ain't your cousin who's the problem

WE must make our country great.

We inherit much around us

But it's started now to rot

Celebrate all things Hawaiian

Or we'll die an afterthought.

We'll wake up one lovely morning

Just poor pigs, and mighty glum

And we'll sniff a tasty breakfast

Of the sausage we'll become.

With our blood of mighty warriors 

And consensus we can share

We are heirs Aloha ʻĀina

We must steadily prepare.

Let's push back from Occupation.

Native land & worldwide seeds

As a fresh Hawaiian Nation

Making good our local needs.

by Genki

2016-Jan-15

Crushing Native Hawaiians?

What might grow from stifling peaceful Native Hawaiian efforts?

Native Hawaiians are seeking to hold a convention to discuss their future. They've been hampered by a pending lawsuit, AKINA, KELI’I, ET AL. V. HAWAII, ET AL., and intervention by the USA. The Akina troop continues to solicit aid from distant forces. Militarist-controlled Hawaii remains on alert for dictates by the U.S. Supreme Court in far-off Washington, D.C.

What's their goal?  To aggressively cutoff peaceful discussions will force Native Hawaiian people to crisis: to forget high crimes against the Hawaiian nation; to forget felony theft of sacred lands, whole districts, entire islands --- often to serve an externally-imposed military; to forget Queen, culture, heritage and inheritance; and to accept life as standard-issue dark Americans... or to struggle & fight in other ways, perhaps less peaceably.

We who hope to gather are friendly, hopeful Hawaiians seeking peaceful solutions to deep-rooted problems. We're forbidden from counting the ballots cast in our recent election by edict of the U.S. Supreme Court (2 Dec 2015 by 5-4 split), which hides the legitimacy stemming from many many thousands of Native Hawaiians exercising freedom to vote & select spokespersons.

A key question is obscured by Anti-Hawaiian rhetoric: who should participate in choosing Native Hawaiian spokespersons?

The seriousness of the fight to silence us signifies fear. The clamor indicates we've many active enemies. But we continue to search for peaceful solutions and to spread aloha. Is it wise at this stage to crush our efforts? 

Aloha. 

 

Coalitions & Common Dreams of Freedom

Hawaiian struggles against military occupation have taken many decades.

I just watched a film tonight on TV ("Pride" 2014) about how gay activists assisted Welsh coalminers & their families during the 1984-85 UK miners strike. If we Hawaiians truly expect success, we'll need help & alliances.

The Native Hawaiian fight may last long; best we share experience & successes amongst many groups.

Can we form a headquarters for global outreach & collaboration? Or shall we continue to reach out less effectively in smaller groups & individually? If we've representative people to visit other indigenous peoples elsewhere, and are able to receive similar visitors, there's much to be learned. When Hawaiians are visited by a delegation of Macuxi indians or Nordic Sami people (and vice versa) it's a great, positive international media story with focus on collaboration rather than exclusiveness. Whether or not we create an application path for official delegations, we still must get word out more widely: Native Hawaiians are not dead.

I've brought-up the annexation experience many times in Korea when teaching place marketing. Most people there wholeheartedly condemn Japan's many decades of occupation, and celebrate restoration as a recognized nation. But when I've criticized Koreans for now turning their backs on other occupied peoples, they're generally surprised. "We thought Hawaiians were very happy within the USA..." Mmm - happy as y'all were under rule from Japan!

Too many decisions on Hawaiian people & Hawaiian lands are formulated half-a-world away in Washington D.C. by people who know little about local needs and care nothing of our history or for making things right. Peaceful change will require sustained, strategic & concerted efforts. Coalition-building is a key to success.

THEFT in Hawaii

Other peoples in the USA can peacefully assemble, inherit, and enjoy living in stable communities. But the Hawaiian experience is fractured by confiscation of land for military bases and unrestricted non-resident real estate speculation -- all controlled from far-away Washington, D.C. (Justice John-Boy Roberts & the Supremes; Big Daddy Warbucks) and filtered through corporate media (Oceanic Time Warner Cable, Black Press, Hearst).

Due to election demographics our State of Hawaii elected leaders cannot peacefully declare an ANTI MILITARIST position (even if they felt that way)...

Hawaii has far too many mammoth U.S. military bases. Hawaii houses many tens of thousands of U.S. Armed Forces. They & their dependents are a potent voting force (one of many criticisms against the illegal statehood vote). Militarism is of course also an important source of State revenue, and business with the military seems essential to many local enterprises.

Let me add mandatory disclaimers of not personally heaping blame on individual soldiers, or even on military preparedness. But I'd prefer the US military were cut 60% or more, and withdrawn from overseas to the U.S. mainland. Arms dealers contrarily insist America is weak and needs upward of three to five times the present military budget.

The fortified violence of U.S. militarism in Hawaii balances precariously with marketing Vacationland Paradise.

When we threaten to rock the boat, however peacefully, entrenched powers can be expected to criticize (or worse). Big corporate media may take the worst possible perspective on our dilemma.

There's no need for community polarization. The USA should stop blocking Native Hawaiian inheritance. We're seeking redress from THEFT -- how is that racial?