City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2016 Geographies of Desecration: Race, Indigeneity, and the Militarization of Hawai'i Laurel Turbin Mei-Singh The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1390 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] GEOGRAPHIES OF DESECRATION RACE, INDIGENEITY, AND THE MILITARIZATION OF HAWAI‘I by Laurel Turbin Mei-Singh A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Earth and Environmental Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2016 © 2016 LAUREL TURBIN MEI-SINGH All Rights Reserved ii Geographies of Desecration: Race, Indigeneity, and the Militarization of Hawai‘i by Laurel Turbin Mei-Singh This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Earth and Environmental Sciences in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. _______________ ______________________________ Date Ruth Wilson Gilmore Chair of Examining Committee _______________ ______________________________ Date Cindi Katz Executive Officer Supervisory Committee Kandice Chuh Dean Saranillio Rupal Oza THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Geographies of Desecration: Race, Indigeneity, and the Militarization of Hawai‘i by Laurel Turbin Mei-Singh Advisor: Ruth Wilson Gilmore Geographies of Desecration: Race, Indigeneity, and the Militarization of Hawai‘i develops a genealogy of military fences and their relationship to Hawaiian struggles for self-determination and national liberation. Military occupation has transformed entire ways of life on the islands by altering Hawaiian land tenure systems through displacement, disruption of subsistence practices, and environmental degradation. Hawaiian mo‘olelo (stories, history) also structure life in a highly militarized place, centering interconnectivity between human and nonhuman realms while impelling grassroots efforts that shape its landscape. This dissertation develops in-depth case studies of militarized sites on the Wai‘anae Coast of O‘ahu, where military bases occupy 34% of the land and Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders comprise 62% of the population. Conducting ethnographic research from 2011-2015, I gathered data regarding the everyday lives, perceptions, and experiences of the local population. I conducted fifty interviews with subsistence practitioners, community leaders, and homeless people, as well as veterans and military personnel. I also engaged in participant observation, which included fishing, farming, and supporting the day-to-day operations of community organizations such as the Wai‘anae Environmental Justice Working Group. Archival research entailed excavating the files of a grassroots community organization that has confronted military presence in Hawai‘i since the Vietnam War. I identified two recurring themes: the pervasiveness iv of fences in Wai‘anae, and the histories that assert ongoing interconnectedness between Kanaka Maoli (Hawaiians) and particular places. Based on this research, I arrived at three findings. First, stories and histories articulated through Hawaiian mo‘olelo inform community-based initiatives that shape the landscape of a highly militarized place and reveal significant capacity to shift the structures and logics that undergird militarization. For example, the remaking of wahi pana (storied places) spurs environmental justice activism and anticolonial self-organization. Second, partitions as a defining feature of military occupation contain the real possibility of noncapitalist, demilitarized futures. They give form to settler colonialism in Hawai‘i—the elimination of Native alternatives (Wolfe, 2013)—while advancing racism, or group-differentiated vulnerability to premature death (Gilmore, 2007a). In this vein, I understand settler colonialism and racism as distinct analytical frames pointing to mutually imbricating historical processes. Third, class positionality inflects claims to land and livelihoods in Wai‘anae. Highlighting narratives of the maka‘ainana (commoners), locals, and poor and working class people, I approach class struggle and cultural nationalism as dual political strategies in the context of Wai‘anae activism and community self- organization. The Pacific has held a prominent position on the world stage for over a century, and Hawai‘i serves as a linchpin for the diplomatic, military, and economic ambitions of the U. S. in Asia and the Pacific. This dissertation prompts strong consideration for how the punitive policies of the militarized “carceral state” structure indigenous dispossession. Further, generating an analysis of the under-studied topic of the socio-environmental implications of military bases, this project conveys the centrality of human-environment relationships to the militarization and policing of poor and indigenous spaces as well as to resistance to such projects. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project would not have been possible without the mentorship and support of two formidable women. First, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, my advisor, taught the meanings of scholar- activism by actively demonstrating the centrality of intellectual work to struggles against racial capitalism. Ruthie’s warm and generous mentorship, incisive and powerful thinking, and unyielding commitment to making the world better have molded my thinking and given me a fuller sense of purpose as a person. In addition, I have witnessed with excitement Ruthie’s efforts to continue the work of transforming geography into an academic discipline with more relevance and potential for humanity. I am proud to be a product of this legacy and hope to one day help shape it as well. Second, Lucy Gay, my mentor in Wai‘anae, opened her office and made the Leeward Community College Wai‘anae campus my intellectual and activist home. Like Ruthie, she taught by example, demonstrating the ways pedagogy can spur community organizing. Lucy also spent hours teaching me about history and current issues in Wai‘anae, calling people for me to meet, pointing me to key documents, and bouncing around ideas. Our organizing styles synergized fantastically, and together we opened more spaces for critical community dialogue in Wai‘anae. I am honored to be Lucy’s ‘opio. At the CUNY Graduate Center and in New York City, I was able to assemble an all-star dissertation committee. In addition to Ruthie, Dean Saranillio carefully read drafts of my writing and provided hours of his time to help me frame my thinking as well as the historical and geographical orientation of my work. Kandice Chuh opened up spaces for me to develop and share my ideas while also providing generous feedback. Rupal Oza also offered critical mentorship and support. The late Neil Smith, the first advisor that I had at the CUNY Graduate Center, was so many things. He was a friend, attentive teacher, and host extraordinaire to whom vi I can give partial credit for bringing me into Ruthie’s world. His biting brilliance and sometimes reckless spirit live on, and at many moments I felt him prodding me along as I wrote. All of the people that I have thus far mentioned gave me confidence that I was in good hands throughout this process. Several entities provided resources that enabled me to complete this project. I would like to acknowledge the CUNY Graduate Center’s Center for Place, Culture, and Politics for a one- year fellowship and for providing a venue for me to share and receive feedback on the first substantial chapter that I wrote for this dissertation (Chapter 5). The Cornell Land Institute, led by Ray Craib, Chuck Geisler, and Paul Nadasdy funded a one-week workshop in Ithaca, where I was able to incubate a second chapter (Chapter 4). I also received financial support from CUNY Macaulay Honors College, the Dean K. Harrison Award, a Dissertation Completion Fellowship, the Applied Research Center Knickerbocker Award for Archival Research in American Studies, the Provost’s Digital Incubator Grant, a Doctoral Student Research Grant, and an Enhanced Chancellor’s Fellowship, all from the CUNY Graduate Center. I would also like to acknowledge the unions and organizers that have fought for CUNY and its adjuncts. My parents and Manu Mei-Singh also helped me financially over the last seven years. This dissertation has been in the making for a lifetime, from well before the first time I traversed from where I grew up at the base of the Ko‘olau Mountains and around the Wai‘anae range to finally make it “home.” Speaking of formidable women, my mother, Rai Saint Chu, has shown me that tenacity, careful planning, and hard work can act as veritable forces in taking on the injustices in the world, and that these efforts must necessarily contribute to a good beyond individual advancement. I aspire to continue your line of fierce Chinese women. I am also indebted to my father, Richard Turbin, with whom I share an adventuring spirit and insatiable vii curiosity. During the summer after I finished college, he took me biking in the Wai‘anae Mountains and then to Mākua for the first time, an event that changed the course of my life. And while my father’s history lectures taught me the fine art of daydreaming, it