the Hawai'ian Islands
JULIO
Hawai'i is a complex and difficult place to surmise without giving a little background on its history and its political quagmire. I'll do my best to summarize it and please forgive me for being brief and glossing over a lot.
It's unclear when and which group of Polynesians settled in Hawai'i and many myths exist of a mythical continent called "The Mu," which fell to a great war between ancient civilizations and sank into the ocean, of which the islands are the tips of that land mass.
Old Hawai'i was fertile and rife with natural resources, with a diet rich in seafood and canoe plants like taro, coconut, sweet potato, and breadfruit. Hawaiians were ultra-healthy master farmers and flourished in sophisticated water irrigation, voyaging and their own tribal government.
The more modern telling begins in the mid 1700's when Captain Cooke (or Captain Crook as he is often referred too) landed multiple times finally meeting his demise at the hands of local chiefs at Kealakekua, Island of Hawaii. Shortly thereafter European guns and technology were brought in and traded for Sandalwod and agricultural products and eventually enterprising warrior chief Kamemeha united the islands by conquer after many bloody battles and invasions in the late 1700's.
Spanish traders introduced sugarcane, pineapple and coffee forever changing the native landscape and Protestant missionaries began their efforts in introducing Christianity, paving the way for droves of different missionaries from various offshoots splintering Hawai'i's original earth-centric, polytheistic and experience based spiritual practice.
This all gives way to the plantation days when Chinese, Portuguese, Filipino, Korean, Japanese and Puerto Rican immigrants were shipped in to work the plantations and fight for the scraps of the plantation bosses. The Hawaiian way of life, language and values were actually made illegal and punishable to be later revived by various monarchs and the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970's before being completely lost.
This Aloha spirit, Hawaiian language, culture and practices have also been revived and are maintained by a blossoming charter school movement which provides an alternative to the Island's decaying public school system.
The Kingdom of Hawai'i at its peak in the 1800's, was internationally recognized as a democratic constitutional monarchy boasting the highest literacy rate in the world and visited by allies, royalty and foreign emissaries. After American interests infiltrate and intermarry into the monarchy, the government is illegally overthrown and the rightful Queen Liliuokalani is convicted, fined and sentenced to five years in prison and hard labor, which was later reduced to imprisonment in an upstairs bedroom of the Palace for nearly eight months. Sanford Dole (yes that Dole) is declared to be President of the provisional government and the new republic's first constitution is adopted and now becomes the (illegal) Republic of Hawaii on January 17, 1893. On October 13, 1896, the new Republic gave her a full pardon and restored her civil rights but the damage had been done and Hawai'i is now in the hands foreign interests benefiting the US military, phony land grabs, foreign owned plantations and looting of her natural resources.
The U.S influence also had negative effects on the culture making English the predominant language and eventually banning the Hawaiian language from schools and government. The American-Spanish Civil war meant the use of the Hawaiian islands as a mid-Pacific stop for the American Navy and Military and the shameful use of the most fertile fishing grounds in the Hawaiian Islands, Pu'uloa or Pearl Harbor as a navel base. In the latter part of 1898 Congress passes the Newlands Resolution which annexes Hawaii as an American territory.
In 1900 Author Jack London visits the islands and pens the Cruise of the Snark and enthralls readers with tales of the royal sport of surfing and its natural wonders setting the stage for a sixty year ramp of tourism that would never end. From idealistic ukulele songs on the radio to the Brady Bunch, Hawai'i would become a highly produced and curated experience for foreign tourists that would conveniently gloss over social issues and a catalogue of crime covered in plastic flower leis and plastic Mai Tai cups. The results and local sentiment are most poetically and honestly portrayed by activist Haunani Kay Trask's seminal piece "Lovely Hula Hands"
In 1941 the Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor and Hawai'i is placed under Marshall Law and becomes the main staging ground for the Pacific Fleet and the major theater of World War II and the battle against the then Empire of Japan.
Hawai'i goes through what are called the territorial years as a US outpost making military rations like Spam, Vienna Sausage, Eggs and cheap Calrose rice the mainstays of the local Hawaiian diet even to this day. In part due to the colonization of the diet and water resources, Hawaii's health, obesity and diabetes statistics are some of the worst in the world.
After the war in 1959 Congress passes the Hawaii Admission Act to make Hawaii the fiftieth American State. This was partly responsible for spawning the Hawaiian Renaissance of the 1970's where Hawaiian culture, language and values became in vogue thanks mostly to activist George Helm and the Protect Kaholawe Ohana. Through there brave protection of Molokai's neighboring island Kahoalawe, which was used by the U.S. military as a bombing range and training ground the island was returned and made a cultural preserve. The movement of cultural pride was also fostered by the national fascination with the Polynesian Voyaging Society's double hulled canoe Hokulea, that aimed to show that Polynesians undertook voyages throughout Polynesia navigating without modern instruments.
Hawai'i's so called privilege of becoming the "Aloha state" has come with a heavy price including housing approximately 118 military sites, over 200,000 acres, about 6% of the islands’ land and 23.1% of O‘ahu, the most populous island where Honolulu is located. The Us military apparatus has also made a common practice of occupying and continuously desecrating the most powerful, spiritual and meaningful sites to Native Hawaiians such as Makua Valley (Oahu), Pu'oloa (Pearl Harbor), Pōhakuloa Training Area (Hawai'i Island) and Kekaha (Kauai).
More importantly all land or Aina is sacred in Hawaiian culture and one cannot simply stake claim to land that is not theirs to take or desecrate that which holds the bones of generations that honored, revered and cultivated it. This is also exacerbated by the constant construction of hotels and recreational zones for tourists where ancestors have been laid to rest and are constantly being unearthed during new ventures.
The main issue is that the actual overthrow of the crown and subsequent actions by the United States were carried out illegally with much cloak and dagger conspiracy and actually violate International law. The Queen abdicated her throne under protest and the takeover violates international humanitarian law, which includes the 1907 Hague Conventions IV, the 1949 Geneva Convention, IV, the 1977 Additional Protocol I, and our Hawaiian Kingdom domestic statutes. These facts are a huge part of the story and the unjust ownership of the natural resources, water rights, agricultural land use and private property sale go against the laws of the kingdom government and Hawaiian way of life. The result of the history, disease and ill health have nearly snuffed out the full blood quantum Hawaiian people from one million to 8,000. Most people considered Native Hawaiian by the federal government must have at least 25% Hawaiian blood quantum and are mixed (or hapa) with other Polynesian races or immigrants including Chinese, Portuguese, Filipinos, Korean, Japanese, Puerto Rican and American.
In a nutshell, Hawai'i is a melting pot of different local cultures heavily inspired by American militarism and plantation era racial stereo types built on a uniquely Hawaiian cultural foundation. This creates a strong racial tension of ownership among the various immigrant communities and creates a climate akin to the crabs in a bucket scenario. This simile refers to a bucket of live crabs, some of which could easily escape (especially if they work together), but other crabs pull them back down to prevent any from getting out, ensuring the group's collective demise. Nowadays many locals focus there pent up rage against the newest arrivals, Micronesians, who are escaping Nuclear fallout perpetrated by the US and given asylum and the ability to to relocate to the "US".
I came to know, experience and be aware of all these intricacies by living on the West Side of Oahu known as the Wai'anae Coast in the communities of Makaha, Wai'anae, Ma'ili and Nanakuli far from the tourists of Wa'ikiki. Although being a hotbed of Hawaiians, locals and culture it also suffers from rampant crime, drug problems, spousal abuse, poverty, homelessness, teen pregnancy, health problems and generally some of the most depressing statistics in the Islands. I had no idea what I was moving into as I came to the place blindly and just fell in love. After my time there I learned that there is Hawaiian culture, local culture, colonial culture and the what was built by the tourism industry to sell the idea of Hawai'i. Its important to know the difference especially when visiting, moving or living there. Through all these cultural threads there can be found an underlying ignorance and all pervading racism for everyone that seems to bubble up, and I believe it is in part due to the history, and justly so .
After two years of living on the West side after studying from various cultural practitioners , teaching in local schools, counseling at a local cultural drug rehabilitation center, and becoming somewhat of a local activist, I was generally accepted (by a mostly closed community) but still hated by some for being Haole and an intruder. As much as I played bongos on the beach with the old timers on Makaha Beach, worked at a cultural learning center on Ka'ala mountain and taught at Waianae Intermediate school teaching Hawaiian Cultural practices and Polynesian history, I would and could never be one of them. It was easily the happiest yet challenging time in my life, but would prove to be personally, socially and financially unsustainable although I tried many times to make it work. There I learned alot about my need to be accepted, and truth be told I learned that it was not my place to be there and participate in the politics and culture in that manner. The best way for me to help the islands was not to be a community activist but to make boat loads of money and give it to the people and programs I believe in and that need it.
All this being said. There exists no place like it on the entire planet. It's lands, culture and people speak and move in unison with the unseen like nowhere else. It's Hawaiian cultural foundation endures and evolves nobly refusing to submit. The legendary concept of Aloha does exist. Yet when there is unresolved history, pain, competition, criminal acts and not enough resources, discontent rears its head and eventually explodes.
Hawai'i for me is so powerful, full of memories, friends and happy times just the thought of it brings tears to my eyes. Most of the time I have to push out my affection for it to not re-consider going back or just culturally dwelling there constantly through the music, lore and all other things Hawaiian. I had stronger relationships and affection for people there then with friends and family I have had all my life. It is my favorite place on earth. Someday I'll go back and give back to all that it showed, taught and gave to me. Until then I can live with the occasional visit and reminder. It truly was the greatest adventure I have ever had the blessing of living and it is always in my heart and life's mission.
For more information, please see the work of David Keanu Sai, Ph.D.