Hawaiian Issues

This year has been a milestone for Native Hawaiians. New voices are emerging in the community, and the debate is no longer whether there will be a Hawaiian nation; the struggle now is over what form it will take. Key events included protests against the construction of new telescopes on Mauna Kea and Haleakalā, several important new publications by Kanaka Maoli authors, and controversial efforts toward nation building and federal recognition.

On day 68 of the ongoing vigil to protect Mauna Kea, Ku‘uipo Freitas, a student in the master’s program at Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani (the College of Hawaiian Language) at the University of Hawai‘i–Hilo and one of the young leaders of the vigil, wrote: “There’s a difference between protesting (western perspective) and aloha ‘āina (Hawaiian perspective). We love our ‘āina [land], our language, our culture, our keiki [children] and we will do whatever it takes to protect our future” (Freitas 2015).

No‘eau Peralto is a scholar engaged in kuleana-based research and activism in Hāmākua on the island of Hawai‘i, his kulāiwi (homeland). “We are the Mauna,” he proclaimed, “and our treatment of it reflects a deeply ingrained notion of the ways in which we now view and treat ourselves and each other. In neglecting our kuleana to mālama this ‘āina [our responsibility to care for this land], we ultimately neglect our kuleana to the future generations of our lāhui [our nation]” (Peralto 2014, 241).

Ku‘uipo and No‘eau are but two of the next generation of Native Hawaiians raised in aloha ‘āina and well schooled in contemporary politics and traditional values. They arise out of a legacy of Native Hawaiian activism that was the Hawaiian cultural and political renaissance of the latter half of the twentieth century. These children and grandchildren of the first aloha ‘āina warriors are showing up at rallies for Hawaiian independence, making impassioned pleas to the trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (oha) to stand with them in the struggle to regain control of Hawaiian lands, and, under the watchful eye of their kūpuna (elders), these young people are leading the movement to prevent construction of a thirty-meter telescope on Mauna Kea as well as the Daniel K Inouye Solar Telescope on Haleakalā. This review focuses on the resistance on Mauna Kea, but it must be noted that similar arguments are being made on both mountains concerning state stewardship of resources. (For more on the Haleakalā telescope project, see Associated Press 2015; Cocke 2013).

Much of the work of Native Hawaiian activism over the past sixty-five years is documented in A Nation Rising: Hawaiian Movements for Life, Land, and Sovereignty (Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, Hussey, and Wright 2014). This book is one of a number of groundbreaking works by Native Hawaiian scholars published in 2014, including volumes by Kamanamaikalani Beamer, Katrina-Ann Kapā Oliveira, Aiko Yamashiro and Noelani Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, and Iokepa Casumbal-Salazar. Collectively these works contribute to the growing body of scholarly works grounded in Native Hawaiian knowledge systems and beliefs.

Through essays and photographs, A Nation Rising paints a vibrant and dynamic picture of the emergence and growth of the Hawaiian independence movement. One of the major themes in the book is Native Hawaiian political activism to regain control of the Hawaiian Kingdom Crown and Government Lands, also known as the ceded lands. The contested sacred site, Mauna Kea, is included in this inventory of lands.

Another Native Hawaiian issue that has heated up this year is the realpolitik of building a Hawaiian nation. The US Department of the Interior (doi) and the State of Hawai‘i, including the legislature, the governor’s office, and the semi-autonomous state agency oha, have attempted to address the mechanics of nation building. oha, in conjunction with the state, stepped up efforts to create a roll of Native Hawaiians and to organize a structure for Native Hawaiian governance. Meanwhile, the doi took initial steps toward federal recognition for Native Hawaiians through executive order. Hawaiian independence advocates are contesting both these efforts, arguing that neither addresses...