Hawaiian Resilience: Social Movements, Social Work, and The
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© COPYRIGHT by Christopher Alan Erickson 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED HAWAIIAN RESILIENCE: SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, SOCIAL WORK, AND THE NONPROFIT INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX By Christopher A. Erickson ABSTRACT Hawaiʻi’s political transformation from a sovereign nation to its American statehood represents controversial political, economic, and social phenomena. This research explores the ongoing ramifications of these controversies reflected in Hawaiʻi’s social movements and social work framed within the economic boundaries of the nonprofit industrial complex. Following statehood, the Hawaiian Renaissance Movement formed to challenge the dominant sociopolitical environment. Components of the Hawaiian Renaissance Movement contributed to changes in language, laws, land entitlements, and obtaining federal recognition that Hawaiian sovereignty had been unjustly overthrown. By the turn of the twenty-first century, Hawaiian Renaissance Movement began to lose its saliency. Simultaneously, the nonprofit industrial complex became a dominant political economic force homogenizing organizations through tax coding and legal articles of incorporation. Those who have been most marginalized by the changes in Hawaiʻi are Hawaiians themselves. Higher mortality, poor health, economic and educational status brought social welfare organizations that could address such concerns. The welfare organizations established to help Hawaiians remain and flourish, while the political organizations established to change the conditions for Hawaiians have not fared as well. The Hawaiian Renaissance Movement has ii become factionalized in part due to the State’s selective relationship with particular groups and economic conditions. The nonprofit industrial complex institutionalizes these conditions to favor organizations that do not challenge the status quo in Hawaiʻi. Notwithstanding the process of activist marginalization, the Hawaiian people and their society remain resilient. The inclusion of Hawaiian linguistic and cultural elements is prevalent in most of the public, private, political, and institutional spheres — including the State and agencies operating within the nonprofit industrial complex. Additionally, there is a notable ethnic marking of whites across Hawaiʻi, differing from other American settings. Whiteness warrants attention as a demonstration of the Hawaiian Renaissance Movement’s influence on racial- identity politics in Hawaiʻi’s cultural milieu and decolonization. Outcomes of the Hawaiian Renaissance Movement have been the integration of Hawaiian values into American political economic systems, a re-telling of Hawaiian history to one of American colonization and, in effect, an anti-hegemonic discourse about American involvement in the region. Meanwhile, the nonprofit industrial complex has diluted this movement’s solidarity and effectiveness through a framework that hinders organizations’ capacity to facilitate structural change. As nonprofit organizations grow in size (and power) their resources and activities become more closely scrutinized by the IRS, the State and the general public. Having a mission to change social injustice has become more difficult to fund than a mission of assisting people who endure the consequences structural inequity. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS [In alphabetical order] All my students in ANTH 3600 Poverty & Culture who conducted interviews Charlie Mays for his patient editing & political restraint Dana & Bruddah Joe Dr. Brett Williams Dr. Lynette Cruz Dr. Patrick Bratton Dr. Rachel Watkins Dr. Serge Marek Dr. Ulla Hasager Hawaiʻi | Oʻahu | Honolulu Hawaii Pacific University’s Department of International Studies AKA Social Science Ka Wahi Kaiaulu | Waiʻanae Neighborhood Place Kapua Tani Lei, Kokona & Behr San Malama I Na Ahupuaʻa Mom & Dad Nagano | Saku | Takenoya Next Step staff & members StreetWorks Collaborative Susan Phillips Utu Langi iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iv Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 The Developmental Phases of Research ............................................................................. 8 Reflexivity & Bias ............................................................................................................ 15 Contents Summary ............................................................................................................ 22 2. SETTING ...................................................................................................................... 24 History............................................................................................................................... 25 Sovereignty ....................................................................................................................... 27 Key Dates in Changing Hawai‘i ....................................................................................... 28 Scope & Literature ............................................................................................................ 30 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 34 3. MERTHODOLOGY. .................................................................................................... 36 Ethnographic ..................................................................................................................... 36 Ethnohistoric ..................................................................................................................... 41 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 43 4. SOCIAL WORK ........................................................................................................... 45 Susan ................................................................................................................................. 49 Background ....................................................................................................................... 52 Dana & Waiʻanae Neighborhood Place ............................................................................ 58 Dana Talks Story ............................................................................................................... 62 Excerpt I ............................................................................................................................ 62 Excerpt II .......................................................................................................................... 65 Brudda Joe ........................................................................................................................ 69 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 82 5. SOCIAL MOVEMENTS .............................................................................................. 85 Development ..................................................................................................................... 88 Contestations ..................................................................................................................... 94 Outcomes .......................................................................................................................... 98 Significance ..................................................................................................................... 104 6. NONPROFIT INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (NPIC) .................................................... 110 History............................................................................................................................. 111 Money & Politics ............................................................................................................ 114 Office of Hawaiian Affairs ............................................................................................. 121 Alu Like Inc. ................................................................................................................... 125 Next Step ......................................................................................................................... 127 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 140 7. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................... 144 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................... 151 vi 1 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In June of 2006, I came to Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. My research agenda, at that point, was to document the epistemology of homeless youth living there. I hoped to build upon Jerry Fest’s training manual, Street Culture: An Epistemology of Street-dependent Youth (1998)1, based upon his Master’s thesis. Ambitiously, I imagined the work I would conduct would result in a practical tool kit for social workers and applied anthropologists, combining the crafts of ethnographic methodology and social work. This tool kit might change attitudes about and practices