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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb.1, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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On "Sovereignty Sunday"--Jan. 15--"Ea!" was the rally cry for Kanaka Maolis (Hawaiians) and non-Kanakas. Ea means sovereignty.
Several thousand people gathered at 'Iolani Palace in a protest demonstration commemorating the Jan. 17, 1893, overthrow of Queen Lili`uokalani and the Hawaiian nation. They joined in solidarity to hear speeches and watch entertainers perform--all for sovereignty, self- determination, and a nuclear-free Pacific.
Among the speakers was Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask, director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai`i-Manoa. Trask spoke of the "second theft of Hawaiian lands."
That refers to the first State of Hawai`i Plebiscite, which in 1959 denied the Kanaka Maolis their right to sovereignty and self-determination--thus creating the 50th state of the United States.
The architect of the second theft was former Gov. John D. Waihee III, a part-Hawaiian, who proclaimed that as governor he would help the Hawaiian people. Waihee's "help" consisted of bringing in foreign investment, which resulted in the overdevelopment of Hawai`i during the 1980s.
Also, Waihee created the Sovereignty Advisory Council, which became the Sovereignty Election Council under state law in 1994. The SEC's members have full power to call a plebiscite on Hawaiian sovereignty. Every person claiming to be of Hawaiian descent, with or without verification of ancestry, would be eligible to vote.
Ka Lahui Hawai`i and most sovereignty groups are against the plebiscite because if it passes the state of Hawai`i will have binding control of Hawaiian sovereignty, lands, and natural resources.
And which political entity is behind the plebiscite? It's the Democratic Party, which is in control of the electoral process. At the Jan. 15 rally, Dr. Trask said, "After 103 years, Hawaiians have not been sovereign in our own country."
The participating groups that came together to form "Of Sacred Times and Sacred Places," which sponsored Sovereignty Sunday, are: Ahpua`a Action Alliance, American Friends Service Committee, Friends of `Iolani Palace, Institute for the Advancement of Hawaiian Affairs, Ka Lahui Hawai`i, Kuikalahiki, Na Mamo O'Hawai`i, Nation of Hawai`i, Pacific Women's Network, Pono Kaulike, and Pro-Kanaka Maoli Independence Working Group.
Ku`umeaaloha Gomes of Mama O` Hawai`i spoke of the struggles faced by gay, lesbian and transgendered people of Hawaiian ancestry and other people of color. Gomes recalled a tragedy caused by this oppression.
A young woman, Kela Kinau Ka`i`awa`awa, committed suicide because the owner of the store where she worked had laid her off. The reason given her was that "the ahole [white] customers in the store do not like you because you are gay."
Discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgendered people goes against Hawaiian history. Before the coming of the haoles and their missionaries, Hawaiians lived in a society free of sexual oppression.
Miri Vidal of the Hawai`i Coalition Against Nuclear Testing represented Tahiti at the protest. She said her people will continue to struggle against the French occupation of Polynesia, and that the French government's nuclear testing is creating an environmental and health hazard for the people of Tahiti.
During the day performers spoke in dance and song of Hawai`i's history, sovereignty and struggle. Halaus (groups) such as the Aloha Dance Hula Halau and the Ko Kia` Ao Hula Halau danced the legendary story of Pele, the fire goddess; of Hawai`i's beauty and its people; and of the struggle to regain Kanaka Maoli land.
Singers like the Hawaiian hip-hop group Southern Rush and Dennis Pavao were well received. Pavao's last song, "Hawai`i Loa," brought everyone to their feet. People formed a big circle around the `Iolani Palace coronation stand and sang the people's movement national anthem of Hawai`i.
A rap by Southern Rush received thunderous applause from young and old alike. Its lyrics are in part:
"Fight, Hawaiians, fight,
no matter what the cost.
Do you want to live in Paradise,
or in a Paradise Lost?
You take my house, take my car,
and try to take my name.
But the blood that flows through veins
will always be the same.
No matter what your color,
what your race,
If you love the land,
you belong in this place.
We say what we want,
fighting for the land.
The people who want to buy it, try it--
and remember the L.A. riot."
- END -
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