{"id":641,"date":"2023-12-09T04:49:46","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T04:49:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/?page_id=641"},"modified":"2023-12-11T02:25:59","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T02:25:59","slug":"hawaiian-activism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/hawaiian-activism\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawaiian Activism"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"641\" class=\"elementor elementor-641\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9b3ca01 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"9b3ca01\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3de40d1 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"3de40d1\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c201bad elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"c201bad\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.18.0 - 20-12-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>The path of protecting land rights, ocean rights and self-determination has plagued Hawaii since the time of the \u201coverthrow\u201d of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893. By the time Hawaii became a state in 1959, many <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> had lost their family lands.\u00a0 Others were struggling to survive in a new land system that required the payment of state taxes, by a people who <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> did not recognize as the state or the legal government.\u00a0 What proceeded was a succession of court cases where families were unjustifiably denied their lands and homes, in favor of rich<em> Haole<\/em> who came in and quietly claimed their lands.\u00a0 The result was a growing anger and resentment among the Hawaiian people, \u201cthe broken spirit battens on shattered dreams, illlusion and despair combine to make bitterness attractive.\u201d[157] Year after year, the frustration grew as families lost their lands to the courts in favor of the interests of big business, while watching \u201cinferior developments and acres of asphalt and dozens of concrete towers,\u201d invade their lands.[158] What followed was a progression of land protests including\u00a0 Makua Valley (1968), Kalama Valley (1971), Sandy Beach (1970s), and Kaho\u02bbolawe (1976), and many more since.\u00a0 The issue of land, land loss and the birth of the Hawaiian Rights movement, are closely interlinked.\u00a0 Through acts of non-violent protest, the fight has been on-going since the 1970s.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0135dbe e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"0135dbe\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a5e1dc2 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"a5e1dc2\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>A Call to Action<\/strong><\/p><p>The years to follow would see the proud <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> become a defeated displaced peoples. In 1964, John Dominis Holt wrote an essay \u201cOn Being Hawaiian,\u201d which highlighted the dispair and disillusionment that many Native Hawaiians were now plagued with in their daily lives. In his essay, Holt remarked how:<\/p><p>\u201cmany floundered at the edges of life&#8230;.bewildered&#8230;poor&#8230;cynical&#8230; too many of us, haole culture was a farce, a mess, its values questionable, its goals silly and not worth fighting for&#8230;.times change..people change&#8230;there has been a vast awakening among us Hawaiians of the importance of knowing in some depth about our heritage, our roots.\u201d[192]<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>With entrance of Statehood, <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> gained new citizenship rights; no longer were they prevented from voting, instead they were deemed \u201cequal\u201d citizens of the United States. However, this did not break down the systemic institutions and legislation that had been put in place by the Republic and Territory. Dispossession of <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> lands excellerated around the islands. From 1959 on, American and Japanese business investment changed the landscapes of Hawaii. Historic <em>loko<\/em> (fishponds) where sea life was abundant and <em>K\u0101naka<\/em> fed their families, were filled in for the construction of hotel resorts at Ka\u02bbanapali, Maui. Swamps that had been the home to endangered turtle, birds and plants were covered to make way for hotels and condominiums in Waikiki and Kahulu\u02bbu on Oahu.\u00a0 <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> burial grounds were dug up and desicrated to build shopping malls. Erosion from the bull-dozing of land filled the oceans with mud killing reefs and displacing fish and ocean life.[193]\u00a0 The desire for profits further displaced <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> and destroyed their gathering sites, burial sites, and sacred places.\u00a0<\/p><p>\u201cThe destruction of our land and the prostitution of our culture is planned and executed by multi-national corporations (both foreign-based and Hawaii-based), by huge landowners, and by collaborationist state and county governments. The ideological gloss that claims tourism to be our economic savior and the \u201cnatural\u201d result of Hawaiian culture is manufactured by ad agencies and tour companies and spewed out to the public through complicitous cultural engines like film, television, and radio, and the daily newspapers. As for labor union, both rank and file and management clamor for more tourists while the construction industry lobbies incessantly for larger resorts.\u201d[194]<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>As a result, more <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> families found themselves homeless, hungry and disconnected from their culture.\u00a0 Television exposed disheartened <em>K\u0101naka<\/em> to the growing independence and civil rights movements around the world and on the American mainland. Using the templates of civil disobedience, Hawaiian leaders within the community started to organize around the need to become educated in Hawaiian rights, in order to prevent evictions, reclaim lands and protect Hawaiian access rights of the lands and waters. A new rising of consciousness began to give hope to the <em>po\u02bbe o Hawai\u02bbi<\/em> (the Hawaiian people).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-78ea1ad e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"78ea1ad\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8122e69 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"8122e69\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Moloka\u02bbi: First Spark of Protest<\/strong><\/p><p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The modern sovereignty movement arguably began in the mid-1960s in an unlikely place \u2013 the small island of Moloka\u02bbi, where K\u0101naka Maoli families, like the Ritte family, practiced subsistence agriculture or gathered their meals from the mountains or the ocean. Walter Ritte, a graduate of Kamehameha Schools in 1963, returned home to Moloka\u02bbi only after a year at the University of Hawaii:<\/p><p>\u201cI had nuff da concrete jungle, I just wanted fo hunt da mountains fo deer, goats or pig; gather fish,<em> limu<\/em> (seaweed) and <em>\u02bbopihi<\/em> (limpets) from da oceans. Dere had always been rock walls and gates to keep da cattle in da boundaries of Moloka\u02bbi Ranch, but da community always passed through da property to reach da ocean or mountain. Native Hawaiian gathering rights, yeh! But when I come back from Oahu, da Ranch\u02bbs owners when decided fo put up barbed wire, lock access, display <em>kapu<\/em> (no trespass) signs and start to prosecute what they when call trespassers. But I when go anyways, no barbed wire was goin\u02bb to keep me out of where my <em>\u02bbohana<\/em> (family\/ancestors) always wen go.\u201d Walter Ritte, 2020.\u00a0<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Walter Ritte started on his path of protest and was arrested for trespass.\u00a0 In reaction, Ritte organized a group of friends into what became known as <em>Hui Ala Loa<\/em> (Unite the Long Path) to fight for access rights. From a small group of protestors, Hui Ala Loa grew to over two hundred community members seeking to hike the king\u02bbs path along the shoreline of the island as an act of cultural civil disobedience.<\/p><p>\u201cWhen we first wen reach da fence blocked our access, so we wen take down da fence, but da <em>k\u016bpuna<\/em> (elders) told us \u02bbyou gotta put the fence back up, by n by da cattle from Hawaiian Homes goin\u2019 mix with our cattle, so after we wen put back da fence.\u201d[195]<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Ritte remembers television cameras, news reporters and police officers watching the group from the hill as they traveled along the shoreline, but no one was arrested.[196]\u00a0 It took several years of protest marches and acts of civil disobedience, writing letters to legislators, organizing, signing petitions, and networking between islands for Hui Ala Loa finally to win their goals.\u00a0 As a participant of the Constitutional Convention of 1978, Ritte was not only able to codify Hawaiian access rights, he and others helped to create the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, return the <em>\u02bb\u014dlelo Hawai\u02bbi<\/em> to its rightful place as an official language of Hawaii, authorize the instruction of Hawaiian history and culture in the public schools, and require the state to recognize Hawaiian place names.[197]\u00a0 This would be the first steps towards revitalizing the Hawaiian culture.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-504b176 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"504b176\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c6d38be elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"c6d38be\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Kalama Valley: Resisting Displacement:<\/strong><\/p><p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The 1970s brought more corporate investment to Hawaii, which in turn encouraged large landholders and government officials to reap the profits tourism, resorts, golf courses, and housing developments would bring to Hawaii.\u00a0 Bishop Estates, the trust that was dedicated to supporting education for<em> K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> children, was the largest landowner, owning eight percent of the land in Hawai\u02bbi.\u00a0 Shortly after the death of Charles Reed Bishop in 1921, the Estate trustees began seeking avenues to enrich themselves and build the trust\u2019s assets, first by building the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in 1927. As Oahu\u2019s population multiplied after Statehood, Bishop Estates started the process of developing their lands into upper-income subdivisions, condominium projects and hotels while levying lucrative leases on their lands.\u00a0 The consequence of this, families who had originally lived on Princess Pauahi\u02bbs Royal Patents under the caveat, \u201cthe rights of the <em>K\u0101naka Maoli <\/em>shall be preserved,\u201d began to be systematically evicted from their ancestral homes leaving them with no where to go. When Bishop Estates planned to transform the Kalama Valley into the new city of Hawaii Kai, including an elite subdivision, hotel, golf course and marina, one such community of <em>K\u0101naka<\/em> refused to be evicted from their homes.\u00a0\u00a0 A conflict of wills arose in the hills of Kalama Valley when the Estate chairman of the board called in the police to begin to evict the one hundred and fifty families who had lived their for generations.\u00a0 Some had already relocated numerous times as Bishop Estates had pursued various development projects in other parts of Oahu. Andrew Richards\u2019family, for example, had moved to Kalama \u201cafter being evicted by Bishop Estates from Koko Head.\u201d[198] For many, it was the last straw, the result would be the first organized Hawaiian land protest in Hawaii.<\/p><p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Some families responded to the eviction notices, rather than fighting, by moving into \u201ccrowded high-rises or in makeshift beach villages,\u201d while others stood strong refusing to move.[199]\u00a0 Those that remained included vegetable farmers, pig farmers, one junk yard and some construction workers. Moose Lui had lived in Kalama for twenty-two years, raising eight children; with his large family he virtually had no hope of finding another place to live, other than the beach, due to the high cost of living that had gripped Hawaii.\u00a0 What the chairman of Bishop Estates, Richard Lyman, \u201ccalled a \u2018rural slum\u2019 was to Valley people one of the last places left on O&#8217;ahu where local people could enjoy a way of life\u201d that was based on traditional values.[200]<\/p><p>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kalani Ohelo, whom activist and author Haunani Kay Trask called one of \u201cKalama\u2019s early leaders,\u201d was radicalized at the Youth Congress of 1970.[201]\u00a0 At the Congress, students were encouraged to look at social movements, the anti-war movements and were trained to organize and protest in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.\u00a0 Spring of 1970, newly graduated Larry Kamakawiwo\u02bbole, Pete Thompson, Soli Thompson and Kalani Ohelo organized together to become the K\u014dkua Kalama Committee to help the residents of Kalama.\u00a0 In an interview with Haunani Kay Trask the Summer of 1983, Kalani Ohelo shared why he got started in the movement:<\/p><p>\u201cBishop Estate\u2026 said they had rights to evict the family and to smash everything in their house\u2026 he had spinal surgery. He had nine children. He had just gotten home\u2026 from the hospital. And he was still hurting\u2026All the kids were crying and you could see the helpless look in their eyes. \u2026they felt hopeless\u2026the Bishop Estate agents, who had a very cold heart, they told the bulldozer driver to go ahead and smash the house. That&#8217;s when my friends and I became physically involved with the Bishop Estate. We started throwing rocks at the bulldozer\u2026It was the kind of experience that anybody with a little humanity in them would do the same thing.\u201d[202]<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>K\u014dkua Kalama organizing protesters to block the bulldozing.\u00a0 Three students entered one of the homes to prevent the destruction, while others climbed on roofs. When off-duty police started arresting protesters in July 1970, the K\u014dkua Kalama Committee began setting up camps in the valley. By 1971, they had renamed themselves K\u014dkua Hawaii and had increased their numbers substantially.\u00a0 K\u014dkua Hawaii was struggling with bad press which focused on \u201cpig farmers,\u201d \u201cjunk yards\u201d and \u201chippies.\u201d Initially, several <em>Haole<\/em> activists were involved, however since many had \u201cfocus on class lines with Marxist ideals and didn\u2019t address the strongly felt need to be self-reliant and self-determined.\u201d[203] It was decided as a group that the H\u0101\u02bbole supporters should step back so that their movement could be seen in the media as a totally Hawaiian movement.\u00a0 Then the newspapers tried to claim that they were racist. Reverend Larry Jones, special columnist for the Sunday Star Bulletin and Advertiser, defended the group, insisting in a public letter that the \u201centire question of racial and ethnic identity was out of perspective. K\u014dkua Hawaii was not racist, they were struggling very hard to express a strong sense of non-haole identity.\u201d[204] In response to negative press, focus turned to promoting their image during protests as being authentic grass-roots K\u0101naka activists. Ed Michael, the executive responsible for serving the evictions, told reporters that, &#8220;in today&#8217;s modern world, the Hawaiian lifestyle should be illegal.&#8221;[205]This enraged many Hawaiian readers. Despite the bad press, their movement grew. In March of 1971, three thousand supporters rallied at the capital in Honolulu.<\/p><p>The fight in Kalama ended just two months later, with bulldozers and police arriving early in the morning of May 11, 1971. In an effort to stop the evictions, several protesting residents, made a last stand by climbing on the roof of the last home standing, pulling up the ladder and remaining there all day.\u00a0 Just before nightfall, police with the aid of a fire truck forcibly removed them and arrested thirty-two activists, before the bull dozers laid waste to the area.[206]<\/p><p>Kalama Valley had been lost, but it had lit a new movement akin to the American Indian Movement (AIM) on the U.S. continent.\u00a0 Soon residents and allies in other threatened communities began to organize and resist displacement: Sandy Beach, Makua Valley, Makapu\u02bbu Beach, Sand Island, Waimanalo, and so many more. As Pierre Bowman so eloquently expressed the deep-seated frustration that energized these protests: \u201cI sought and found, there was a simultaneous rage at the way stupid, greedy people, year after year, had exploited Hawaii with inferior developments and acres of asphalt and dozens of concrete towers.\u201d[207]<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-108f2d4 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"108f2d4\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3daa1eb elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"3daa1eb\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Kaho\u02bbolawe: Taking on the United States Military<\/strong><\/p><p>The United States military had been using Kaho\u02bbolawe, an island off the coast of Maui, Moloka\u02bbi and Lana\u02bbi for target practice since the 1920s. There militaristic activity accelerated after the start of World War II, as Naval bombers barraged the island daily. The bombs could be felt as far away as Oahu. The homes in <em>Maui nui<\/em> (Maui, Moloka\u02bbi and Lana\u02bbi) shook from the man-made earthquakes, property was damaged, students were disrupted during their classwork, and nights were interrupted with incessant flashes of light and shockwaves of explosions. Two events in the second half of the 1960s sparked a more assertive and organized campaign to evict the military from the island. In 1965, the US Navy used five hundred tons of TNT to \u201csimulate an atomic blast and observe its effects on ships offshore\u201d[208]and in 1969, the \u201cdiscovery of an unexploded five hundred pound bomb in a West Maui cane field\u201d [209] alarmed local political officials. The Maui County Council passed a resolution requesting that the US Navy halt bombing, a call echoed by Hawaii US congresswoman Patsy Mink, a Maui native. In response, military officials doubled down, insisting that \u201cthere is no room for compromise compared to combat readiness, [therefore] all other considerations must remain secondary in the interest of national security.\u201d [210] The US military refused would not return the island, leaving Maui County officials without was without any recourse. Various groups representing anti-war, environmental and Hawaiian cultural interests kept voicing their concerns, but little action was taken.\u00a0<\/p><p>The Protect Kaho\u02bbolawe \u02bbOhana (PKO) refused to step away from the fight, unlike their political leaders. PKO members shared a common view. As Maxine Kahualelio recalled, \u201cWe didn\u02bbt know what was the Hawaiian way. All I knew is we gotta stop that sucking bombing, we have to stop that bombing.\u201d[211] In 1976, after suffering a defeat in a US federal court for lawsuit which PKO filed against the US military in an effort to stop the bombing, the members of Protect Kaho\u02bbolawe \u02bbOhana believed that they needed to take a strong force of action to end the bombing.\u00a0 Charlie Maxwell, a former police officer and leader of PKO, began to organize an occupation of the island, in order \u201cto draw national attention to historic injustices suffered by Native Hawaiians.\u201d[212] To build alliances, PKO joined with three leaders of the Hui Ala Loa, the Moloka\u02bbi group who had gained Hawaiian access rights: George Helm, Walter Ritte and Dr. Emmett Aluli. These men would become known as the leading force behind the reclamation movement to protect Kaho\u02bbolawe, through their organizing expertise, their communication skills, George Helm\u2019s falsetto voice, and their unwavering commitment to the cause.<\/p><p>PKO and Hui Ala Loa\u02bbs plan was to travel by boat, anchor just off Hakioawa (the opposite side of the island from the military base of opperations) landing activists and cultural experts on Kaho\u02bbolawe in a effort to quell the bombing. PKO asked Walter Ritte to come serve as the occupiers\u2019 designated hunter.\u00a0 On January 5, 1976, the first landing resulted in several military helicopters hovering over their boats warning them to turn back or their boats would be confiscated, which caused the boat owners to get nervous.\u00a0 PKO members, nonetheless, landed their boats on the Northeast side of the island when the helicopters went back to their base encampment. With a protective lei of ti leaf, Walter Ritte and Dr. Aluli quickly took off into the hills to explore the island and look for goats.\u00a0 The other members remained on the beach, with the purpose of conducting culturally religious protocols (chants, prayers). However, the coast guard returned, arresting all the participants.\u00a0 Ritte and Dr. Aluli, conversely,\u00a0 hid in the grass-covered crevices as helicopters searched the hills for them.\u00a0 They hid for several hours, Ritte recalled, \u201cwe was over there looking for the <em>Mana<\/em> (spiritual power)&#8230;looking for all these kinds of things..like you see in the movies eh. We never know that mana comes from the ground, that it slowly goes into you..not like in the movies.\u201d[213]\u00a0 When they finally returned to the beach, they knew they needed to return with others.<\/p><p>\u00a0News of the courageous Kaho\u02bbolawe landing and the arrests that followed spread through the media and the <em>\u02bb\u014dhana<\/em> network (by word of mouth). PKO began a process to publisize their cause and purpose throughout the Hawaiian islands. The poetic musician with the falsetto voice, George Helm, became PKO\u02bbs new leader and spokesmen.\u00a0 For Protect Kaho\u02bbolawe \u02bbOhana it was important to spread the spiritual meaning of Kaho\u02bbolawe to the students of Hawaii\u02bbs schools, so they began visiting any classroom that would welcome them. Helm persuasively shared their message, Kaho\u02bbolawe has:<\/p><p>\u201cMore meaning that just a rock, Hawaiians saw it as very sacred. Cannot use our American mental telescope and look at the old Hawaiians,&#8230; but let our mental telescope look at things that the history books do not record, such as the place must have been very sacred. But whose gonna tell us that, not the scholars..the older Hawaiians? For Protect Kaho\u02bbolawe \u02bbOhana we want to leave that island alone, we can give mother nature back to the island. But we gotta go fight the military,the politicians and different kinda ways of thinking.\u201d[214]<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>In this way George Helm was able to inspire both the youth of Hawaii, and the broader community.<\/p><p>In the Spring of 1967, Protect Kaho\u02bbolawe \u02bbOhana also met with Vice Admiral Coogan of the Pacific fleet and other representatives of the United States Navy in the hopes of helping them to understand why the island was so important to the Kanaka Maoli. Questioning the officers and admiral, Loretta Ritte asked, why war? :<\/p><p>\u201cOne thing I have learned from my kupuna as a Hawaiian is the great respect for the \u02bbaina, for the \u02bbaina is the giver of life&#8230;and if we do not respect the land..then where would we be&#8230;how do we take care of Papa, our earth&#8230;by filling her pores with concrete, her beauty so she cannot breathe, by digging into her, drilling into her, by bombing her to leave wounds and scars on this earth&#8230;is that how we take care of our land?\u00a0 And why the stress on war? Why is it so important that we practice to kill? Huh? Why can\u02bbt we practice peace?\u201d[215]<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>The Vice Admiral\u2019s abrupt answer reflected Cold War paranoia, and the imperatives of the Vietnam war:<\/p><p>\u201cThere is a very real requirement for the Kaho\u02bbolawe island target complex the past and projected utilization fully sustantiates the military\u02bbs need for this complex.\u00a0 Training facilities afforded at Kaho\u02bbolawe for all services cannot be duplicated at any of the existing training areas in the Hawaii area&#8230; permitting the training necessary for the military forces to effectively coordinate the deployment of all available supporting arms.\u201d[216]<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>Even with numerous meetings with the upper brace of the military in the Pacific and letters to Washington, the President and the Pentagon, the activists failed to convince the military leaders to cease using the island for weapons testing.<\/p><p>A year after the first landing, PKO tried again, this time bringing a larger group, as well as<em> k\u016bpuna<\/em> (elders) to bless their landing with chants.\u00a0 Walter Ritte and Richard Sawyer, equipped with their protective ti leaf <em>lei<\/em>, some ammunition, and water, disappeared into the hills before the coast guard could arrest them. The others returned to Maui, evading capture.\u00a0 Ritte and Sawyer eluded capture for thirty-five days, hiding among the hills and crevices. They scoured the coastline, using <em>\u02bbopihi <\/em>(limpets) for bait, and subsisted on fish, crustaceans, and <em>limu<\/em> (seaweed).\u00a0\u00a0 When the water they brought ran out, they drank coconut water or caught rain water.\u00a0 They hunted the hills and rounded up some fifteen baby goats.[217] Their perserverance won a thirty-five-day ceasefire on the island.<\/p><p>Back on Maui, the PKO continued their work to stop the bombing by meeting with military representatives, holding educational concerts, instructing students, and cultivating journalists to win positive media coverage.\u00a0 They sent five members to meet with President Jimmy Carter: Pae Galdiera, Martial Kaanoi, Rev. Charles Hopkins, George Helm, and Francis Kauhane.\u00a0 The families of the men still on the island began to worry for their safety and well-being. At the urging of Hawaii\u02bbs Senator Daniel Inouye, and Representatives Cec Heftel and Daniel Akaka, the Admiral of the Pacific Fleet finally agreed to allow the PKO, accompanied by Navy personnel, to search the island for Ritte and Sawyer. Even Inouye, Heftel and Akaka participated in the search. The men were no where to be found.\u00a0 The military ended the search.<\/p><p>Knowing that the bombing was going to resume, another landing was planned in hopes of finding Ritte and Sawyer. However, since the military had increased surveillance, George Helm, Adolf Helm, Kimo Mitchell, and William Mitchell, departed Maui in the dark, slipped off the boat a mile off of the island on their surfboards and planned to paddle in.\u00a0 This was before rip-cords had been invented, and the water was rough with a heavy current. Adolph Helm was lost jumping off the boat, his board broken. Walter Mitchell managed to paddle to the island, and was picked up by the Navy. Mitchell reported that the last time he had seen Kimo Mitchell and George Helm they were near the Ala-a-Kahiki channel, \u201cGeorge was suffering from a cut on his head; he and Mitchell were last seen clinging to a surfboard, near Molokini\u201d[218] Yet, Adolph miraculously made it to shore, he remembers, \u201ctwo akule (fish) swam by me, as if dey was showing me the island. Dey nevah leave my side. I always thought while I was swimming it was both George and Kimo taking care of me.\u201d[219]<\/p><p>The men\u2019s family had to seek help from the Navy again, in hopes of staving off the bombing and needing helicopters and the coast guard to help search.\u00a0 In a meeting with Governor Ariyoshi, the Naval command, Hawaii state legislatures and Melanie Helm, mother to George and Adolf, agreed to allow the family to do an extensive search of the island for another two days; they searched for three. Family came from H\u0101na, Moloka\u02bbi and central Maui to help search, as did explosives disposal experts.\u00a0 They too could not be found.\u00a0 A \u201ctelevision cameraman had filmed two men swimming off of Kaho\u02bbolawe on Wednesday,\u201d so the family remained hopeful, knowing that both men were skilled swimmers.[220] George Helm and Kimo Mitchell were never to be seen again. Their fate remains a mystery. Some conspiracy theorists believe they lost their lives because the military wanted to end their activist behavior. The family believes that <em>Kanaloa<\/em>, the god of the sea, called them home.[221]<\/p><p>After the search the public officials and the Navy decided that the men must have found some way off of the island or were lost at sea, and determined that target practice could resume.\u00a0 While the families were grieving their loss, Ritte and Sawyer, still hiding on the island, believed that as long as they \u201c[were] on the island they won\u02bbt bomb da island. But dey went ahead and started bombing. Da bombs came so close to where we was camping. We decided, we gotta turn ourselves in.\u201d[222] Both Ritte and Sawyer were arrested and sentenced in Federal court for\u00a0 trespassing on Federal military land. They were fined $500 and six months in Halawa High Security Prison.<\/p><p>The disappearance of the Helm and Mitchell only fortified PKO members\u2019 determination; they now saw their cause as a way to honor the memories of their fallen \u02bbohana.<\/p><p>\u00a0Through PKO\u2019s persistence, their negotiations with the Navy and governmental officials, eventually won their cause Hawaiian cultural access rights once a month. In 1980, PKO\u02bbs first access to Kaho\u02bbolawe, over one hundred members, cultural experts and k\u016bpuna visited Kaho\u02bbolawe to practice their cultural heritage.\u00a0 They chanted their prayers, baked a pig, surveyed the island, and created a memorial for the men they had lost men.\u00a0 Their deaths too, woke up the Hawaiian community\u2019s need to gain their rights.\u00a0 Growing support came from the ranks of a new generation of College educated Hawaiians, Hawaiian cultural practitioners, environmental activists, and anti-war activists.\u00a0 In 1990, President Bush issued a memorandum ending the bombing on Kaho\u02bbolawe and the military requirement to clean up the island of ordinances.<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d9f2682 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"d9f2682\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-settings=\"{&quot;content_width&quot;:&quot;boxed&quot;}\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8cfba57 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"8cfba57\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/p><p>Finding their voices in non-violent acts of protest.\u00a0 The rising tide of what was to become known as the \u201cHawaiian Renaissance\u201d had started as increasing development began to displace more and more <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> from their ancestral homes.\u00a0 Today, although the decolonization process is far from complete, the groundwork is being laid. The prevalence of inter-racial relationships within the local community, <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> are beginning to redefine what it is to be a Hawaiian, rejecting blood quantum concepts, and accepting all who link their ancestry to <em>Papa<\/em> and <em>Wakea<\/em> (the original parents). While the scars of the colonial process still are reflected in the racialization of Hawaii, its class stratification, and within many of Hawaii\u2019s governmental institutions, there is an increasing number of <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> who are gaining political influence and recognition as leaders.<\/p><p>The struggle to regain <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> rights has been a long painful one. Over a hundred years have passed since the Hawaiian Kingdom was stolen. A time of displacement, homelessness, and oppression. However, through the efforts of these early activists the path was laid for the <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> to regain some of what they had lost.\u00a0 Much of the lands that had been taken still have not been returned, nor has their been any reparations, but there has been a few victories. The struggle in the Waiahole-Waikane Valley to maintain their rights to grow taro did succeed.\u00a0 Keeaumoku Kapu\u2019s family\u2019s court battle against Dole Pineapple proving that the land that Dole had stolen was indeed theres and forced them to return all the lands.\u00a0 Kaho\u02bbolawe too, in November of 1993, was returned to the State of Hawaii \u201cto hold the island in trust for the Hawaiian sovereign government.\u201d[223] Today the island has been cleared of munitions, and is being utilized as an environmental, cultural, and spiritual educational island.\u00a0 Management of the island is held in the hands of Protect Kaho\u02bbolawe \u02bbOhana on the East side of the island and the Kaho\u02bbolawe Island Reserve Commission on the West side. Both groups work with volunteer student programs who spend a week at a time on the island, learning soil conservation practices, planting native plants, eradicating invasive species, and their culture.\u00a0 <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em>, through the 1978 Hawaii Constitutional convention, were able to end the ban on the Hawaiian language and recognize it as one of Hawaii\u2019s official languages and regain Native access rights to both the land and the mountains, thereby preventing the privatization of beaches.\u00a0 Hawaiian cultural education is now returning statewide.\u00a0 Hawaiian language too has been reborn through the implementation of Hawaiian immersion programs island wide encompassing all grade levels.\u00a0 Although the scars of the colonial exploitation of the oligarchal powers have remained, through the voices of determined activists, <em>K\u0101naka Maoli<\/em> are slowly reclaiming some of their cultural rights, their Hawaiian traditional lifestyle, and their spiritual connection to the land. \u201cWe need to understand who we were to know who we are. That is what it means to de-nationalize and erase the harm of the colonial oligarchy, sovereignty is next,\u201d Walter Ritte, 2002.[224]<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The path of protecting land rights, ocean rights and self-determination has plagued Hawaii since the time of the \u201coverthrow\u201d of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1893. By the time Hawaii became a state in 1959, many K\u0101naka Maoli had lost their family lands.\u00a0 Others were struggling to survive in a new land system that required the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/641"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":819,"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/641\/revisions\/819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ehoalakaea.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}