A Nation Rising: Hawaiian Movements for Life, Land, and Sovereignty ed. by Noelani Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua, Ikaika Hussey, and Erin Kahunawaika‘ala Wright (review)

HAUNANI-KAY TRASK’S FROM A NATIVE DAUGHTER may have been published twenty years ago, but it is still the go-to volume for academics and activists interested in Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) resistance to U.S. colonialism. A new volume, A Nation Rising, offers a timely update. Organized in three parts—“Life,” “Land,” and “Sovereignty”—this book features sixteen chapters and six “portraits” on various aspects of the contemporary Hawaiian movement. An introductory essay by Noelani Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua sets the stakes for the volume, arguing that “a diversity of positions and perspectives is a mark of a healthy nation,” and that ea (life, breath, sovereignty) is an Indigenous political concept that unifies ka lāhui Hawai‘i (the nation) in its manifold struggles and distinguishes Native Hawaiian aspirations from Western definitions of sovereignty.

The book represents a milestone in public discourse and scholarship on Kānaka Maoli resistance. It is also an achievement of great merit for its diverse assemblage of twenty-eight writers and editors, each representing a distinct voice and perspective. The editors have intentionally included works by both academics and on-the-ground activists, and many contributors fall somewhere in between. No other book has so well captured the diverse threads that constitute the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.

Three themes stand out as the book’s major contributions. The first is class, represented by six “portraits” offering short biographical essays of Indigenous working-class people on the front lines of resistance to dispossession, militarization, and settler colonialism. Goodyear-Ka‘ōpua acknowledges in her introduction that “an Indigenous movement without a class analysis can be vapid in terms of its ability to produce meaningful change” (12). Essays by Anna Keala Kelly and Puhipau show that the most marginalized Hawaiians (including those without employment or shelter) experience colonialism differently than do Hawaiian “leaders.” Kelly forcefully argues against the elite “Hawaiian intelligentsia,” those with “doctorates and law degrees” who speak out about sovereignty while “actual physical resistance . . . is left to the most vulnerable Hawaiians, the most impoverished, those who have no choice but to hold their ground” (46). Essays by Kalamaoka‘āina Niheu on the reclamation of Mākua Beach by “houseless people” as a pu‘uhonua (sanctuary) from militarization, and Le‘a Malia Kanehe on the biocolonial enclosure of Hawaiian plants, animals, and genes as private property, also contribute to this theme.

Debates over terms such as Indigeneity, colonialism, and occupation constitute the second major contribution of this volume. Kūhiō Vogeler and J. Kēhaulani Kauanui each articulate the stakes of defining Hawaiians either as an occupied “independent state” or as colonized “Indigenous peoples.” Kauanui argues that Kānaka Maoli should resist domestic dependent nation (“nation within a nation”) status as represented by the so-called Akaka Bill. Vogeler’s “occupation theory” marks Kānaka Maoli as citizens of an overthrown state rather than as Indigenous subjects. These distinctions matter because they potentially lead to strikingly different legal standing for Native subjects in federal and international law.

A third major contribution concerns debates over economic growth versus environmental protection. Davianna Pōmaika‘i McGregor and Noa Emmett Aluli’s essay on resistance to geothermal energy and Leon No‘eau Peralto’s portrait of Mauna a Wākea establish the sacredness of fire on the Island of Hawai‘i and amplify the role of genealogy and religion as bases for Kānaka Maoli environmentalism. D. Kapua‘ala Sproat and Pauahi Ho‘okano discuss similar themes as they relate to water rights. Journalist Joan Conrow rounds out this theme with a narrative of the long history of Kānaka Maoli resistance to development on Kaua‘i Island.

This volume also points to areas for future research. Davianna Pōmaika‘i McGregor and Ibrahim Aoudé, Kekailoa Perry, and Noenoe K. Silva all celebrate the central role of activism at the University...