;J A Masterpiece!" Ha nani- ay Tras -Alice Walker • . Haunani-Kay Trask addressing 15,000 people gathered at 'lolani Palace in Honolulu on the centenary of the American military invasion of Hawai'i and overthrow of the Hawaiian government. January 17, 1993. Haunani-Kay Trask Fro • Dau Revised Edition A Latitude 20 Book University of Hawai'i Press Honolulu In Association with the Kamakakflokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai'i at Manoa © 1993, 1999 by Haunani-Kay Trask Published by Common Courage Press 1993 Revised edition published by University of Hawai'i Press 1999 All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 10 09 08 07 06 05 987654 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Trask, Haunani-Kay. From a native daughter; colonialism and sovereignty in Hawai'i I Haunani-Kay Trask.-Rev. ed. p. cm. "A Latitude 20 book." 11Inassociation with the Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai'i." Includes bibliographical referencesand index. ISBN 0-8248-2059-2 (paper: alk. paper) I. Title. DU627.8.T73 1999 320.9969-dc21 98-47188 CIP University of Hawai'i Press books are printed on acid-free paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Council on Library Resources. Designed by Nina Lisowski Printed by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group www.uhpress.hawaii.edu For my parents Bernard Kauka'ohu Trask and Haunani Cooper Trask who taught me to love Hawai'i and to protect her fo r our children to come Despite American political and territorial control of Hawai'i since 1898, Ha­ waiiansare not Americans. Nor are we Europeans or Asians. We are not from the Pacific Rim, nor are we immigrants to the Pacific. We are the children of Papa-earth mother-and Wakea-skyfa ther-who created the sacred lands of Hawai'i Nei. From these lands came the taro, and from the taro, the Hawaiian people. As in all of Polynesia, so in Hawai'i: younger sibling must care for and honor elder sibling who, in return, willprotect and provide for younger sibling. Thus, Hawaiians must nourish the land from whence we come. Therela tionship is more than reciprocal, however. It is familial. The land is our mother and we are her children. This is the lesson of our genealogy. In Polynesian cultures, genealogy is paramount. Who we are is deter­ mined by our connection to our lands and to our fa milies. Therefore, our bloodlines and birthplace tell our identity. When I meet another Hawaiian, I say I am descended of two genealogical lines: the Pi'ilani line through my mother, who is from Hana, Maui, and the Kahakumakaliua line through my fa ther's fa mily from Kaua'i.I came of age on the Ko'olau side of the island of O'ahu. This is who I am and who my people are and where we come from. Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 I Part I Sovereignty: The International Context Hawaiians and Human Rights 25 Politics in the PacificIslands: Imperialism and Native Self-Determination 41 The New World Order 58 I Part II Sovereignty: The Hawai1i Context Kupa'a 'Aina: Native Hawaiian Nationalism in Hawai'i 65 Women's Mana and Hawaiian Sovereignty 87 Neocolonialism and Indigenous Structures 101 I Pa rt III The Colonial Front: Historians, Anthropologists, and the Tourist Industry From a Native Daughter 113 What Do You Mean "We," White Man? 123 "Lovely Hula Hands": Corporate Tourism and the Prostitution of Hawaiian Culture 136 I Part IV Native Hawaiians in a White University Racism against Native Hawaiians at the University of Hawai'i: A Personal and Political View 151 The Politics of Academic Freedom as the Politics of White Racism 169 Native Student Organizing: The Case of the University of Hawai'i 185 I Appe ndixe s Draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 197 Ho'okupu a Ka Llihui Hawati: The Master Plan 1995 211 The Ka Lahui Hawai'i Platform on the Four Arenas of Sovereignty 237 The 1989 Hawai'i Declaration of the Hawai'i Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism 245 Typology on Racism and Imperialism 251 Index 253 Acknowledgments For the second edition of this book, I am indebted to Eiko Kosasa who contributed both technical and sister­ ly support to enable me to finish my revisions on time. For her, a sin­ cere mahalo nui. In Indian country, mahalo nui to Ward Churchill for his gracious support in the publication of the first edition of this work. In Hawai 'i, aloha nui to David Stannard who has accompanied me on all the journeys; political, intellectual, personal. To Anne Landgraf and Ed Greevy, photographers and political comrades, my deep respect and aloha. The following articles were first published in these journals and books: "New World Order," appears as "Ma.lama 'Aina: Take Care of the Land," in Global Visions: Beyond theNew World Order (Boston: South End Press, 1993), pp. 127-131; "Racism against Native Hawaiians at the University of Hawai'i: A Personal and Political View," in Amerasia Journal 18:3 (1992); "Kupa'a 'Aina: Native Hawaiian Nationalism in Hawai'i," in Politics and Public Policy in Ha wai'i (New York: SUNY Press, 1992); "'Lovely Hula Hands': Corporate Tourism and the Prostitution of Hawaiian Culture," in Border/Lines, no. 23 (1991 /1992), 22-34; "The Politics of Academic Freedom as the Politics of White Racism," in Restructuring fo r Ethnic Peace (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Institute of Peace, 1991), pp. 11-22; "Politics in the Pacific Islands: Imperialism and Native Self-Determination," in Amerasia Journal 16(1990): 1-20; "From a Native Daughter," in The American From a Native Daughter Indian and the Problem of History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 171-179. The evolution of my thinking owes a great debt to some of the most creative intellectuals and revolutionaries of the twentieth century: Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, and Ngiigi wa Thiong'o. Genealogically, I am indebted to those many chiefs of old, from the Pi'ilani and Kameha­ meha lines especially, who believed the dignity and inheritance of my Hawaiian people could only be taken in war. I am descended from these chiefs, in whose memory I have written these words. Haunani-Kay Trask He'eia, 1999 x Introduction We protest against the movement in favor of doing away with the independence of our country; we protest against the effort to force annexation to the United States without consulting the people .... Memorial to President Cleveland from the Hui Aloha 'Aina (Hawaiian patri­ ots) on the American overthrow of the Hawaiian government, 1893 I do not feel. we should forfeit the traditional rights and privileges of the natives of our islands for a mere thimbleful of votes in Congress; that we, the lovers of Hawai'i from long association with it should sacrifice our birthright for the greed of alien desires to remain on our shores .... Kamokila Campbell before Congress on statehood for Hawai"i, 1946 Our country has been and is being plasticized, cheapened, and exploited. They're selling it in plastic leis, coconut ashtrays, and cans of "gen­ uine, original Aloha." They've raped us, sold us, From a Native Daughter killed us, and still they expect us to behave. .. Hawai'i is a colony of the imperialist United States. Kehau Lee on evictions of Hawaiians from Native lands, 1970 The time has come to create a mechanism for self­ government for the Hawaiian people. The question of Hawaiian sovereignty and self-determination needs to be dealt with now. Mililani Trask before Congress on Hawaiian sovereignty, 19901 Spanning nearly a hundred years, these statements by Native Hawaiians stun most Americans who have come, over the course of their consumer society, First World lifetimes, to believe that Hawai'i is as American as hot dogs and CNN. Worse, Americans assume that if an opportunity arises, they too may make the trip to paradise, following along after the empire into the sweet and sunny land of palm trees and "hulahula" girls. This predatory view of my Native land and culture is not only opposed by increasing numbers of us, it is angrily and resolutely defied: Hawaiians commemorated the centenary of the overthrow of our government with mass arrests and demonstrations against the denial of our human right to self-determination. For us, Hawaiian self­ government has always been preferable to American foreign govern­ ment. No matter what Americans believe, most of us in the colonies do not feel grateful that our country was stolen, along with our citizen­ ship, our lands, and our independent place among the family of nations. We are not happy Natives. On the ancient burial grounds of our ancestors, glass and steel shopping malls with layered parking lots stretch over what were once the most ingeniously irrigated taro lands, lands that fedmillions of our people over thousands of years. Large bays, delicately ringed long ago with well-stocked fishponds, are now heavily silted and cluttered with jet skis, windsurfers, and sailboats. Multistory hotels disgorge over six Introduction million tourists a year onto stunningly beautiful (and easily polluted) beaches, closing off access to locals. On the major islands of Hawai'i, Maui, O'ahu, and Kaua'i, meanwhile, military airfields, training camps, weapons storage facilities, and exclusive housing and beach areas remind the Native Hawaiian who owns Hawai'i: the foreign, colonial country called the United States of America. But American colonization has brought more than physical transformation to the lush and sacred islands of our ancestors. Visible in garish "Polynesian" revues, commercial ads using our dance and language to sell vacations and condominiums, and the trampling of sacred heiau (temples) and burial grounds as tourist recreation sites, a grotesque commercialization of everything Hawaiian has damaged Hawaiians psychologically, reducing our ability to control our lands and waters, our daily lives, and the expression and integrity of our cul­ ture.