Essay: The Hawaiian Standpoint
"Our story remains unwritten. It rests within the culture, which is inseparable from the land." - Haunani-Kay Trask
Resources for Supporting Hawai’i:
The people recovering from the devastating fires in Maui are in need of cash. Cash donations make the most impact as they are flexible and people can determine for themselves what they need to buy, now. Mutual aid is a community-supported effort, for the community, by the community. And we are one community. If you can, please send support to the following:
Maui Mutual Aid
Maui United Way
Hawai’i Community Foundation
Lāhui Foundation
La Lāhui Lahaina (a native initiative for self-determination) Relief Fund: Via PayPal
What are the chances that the Hawaiian supreme court would be hearing a case against fossil fuel corporations amid the aftermath of the devastating fires in Maui?
In 2020, Maui and Honolulu sued fossil fuel corporations for misinformation and deception about the dangers of using fossil fuels and to hold them accountable for causing climate disasters, including wildfires and drought. Honolulu’s claim rests in the law that deems companies had a “duty to disclose information they knew and that they breached that duty.” In Maui, the case states the corporations created a “coordinated, multifront effort to conceal and deny their own knowledge.” This fact is obvious to me considering the evidence proves fossil fuel corporations knew the damage since the 1970s. The fossil fuel giants have worked tirelessly to get these cases dismissed but to no avail. Honolulu’s suit is moving to trial. Additionally, Native Hawaiian teenagers are suing the Department of Transportation for promoting greenhouse gases. Considering Montana's recent historic win for climate accountability, I am hopeful for the plaintiffs.
What lies at the heart of these climate lawsuits is that corporations (and the American government), as crafted by capitalist ideology and political systems, are built on endless extraction as a means to growth. Earth is their resource. Earth is their commodity and property, and they have a right to ownership, exploitation, and domination over Earth. This way of thinking is the paramount tension between settler-colonial capitalist states and Indigenous societies like Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) and Navajo, Cherokee, Sioux, Ojibwe, Choctaw, Apache, Lumbee, and the many Indigenous nations present in the U.S. Land is central to indigenity. It is a reciprocal relationship that is sacred. It is part of their culture, society, identity, family, home, ancestry, and spirit. The robbing of land and its subsequent destruction is like a violent intruder at the steps of your home. This is colonization.
Cynthia Kanoelani Kenui succinctly captures the swift and steady colonization of Hawai’i right before and after the U.S. illegally overthrew the Hawaiian kingdom,
The process of colonization exterminated, subjugated, oppressed, and assimilated Kānaka Maoli through introduction of foreign diseases; privatization of lands; prohibition of cultural practices such as religious ceremonies, hula, chanting, and healing practices; prohibition of naming children with nongender Hawaiian names; the overthrow of Hawai‘i’s monarchy; and finally, prohibition of ‘olelo Hawai‘i (Hawaiian language) in public schools.
1778: First recorded haole (foreign) arrival in Hawai‘i: British Capt. James Cook. Introduction of foreign diseases triggers massive native depopulation.
1795: Kamehameha I unites the island kingdoms. First centralized Hawaiian government is established. Hawai‘i becomes a major whaling port.
1804: Ma‘i ‘ōku‘u (cholera) epidemic. Thousands of Hawaiians die, population continues to plummet.
1819: Death of Kamehameha. ‘Aikapu (taboo system) abolished, ‘Ainoa established. American Calvinists arrive from New England (Christianity).
1848: Māhele divides lands among maka‘āinana (commoners), the government, and the ali‘i (royalty). Foreign system of private land ownership promoted by foreigners.
1860: Act to Regulate Names. Required newly married native women to take the surname of their husband and children born in wedlock shall have their father’s name as a family name. They shall, besides, have a “Christian name suitable to their sex” (Wood 1999, p. 10).
1893: Queen Lili‘uokalani plans to promulgate a new constitution restoring the power to the throne. Hawaiian monarchy was then overthrown by Euro-American businessmen, supported by the American government. Consequently, the historical significance of this event resulted in the suppression of the inherent sovereignty of the Hawaiian people. Lili‘uokalani abdicated the throne to avoid bloodshed. She asks the U.S. government to investigate the actions of U.S. citizens against the Hawaiian monarchy.
1895: Queen Lili‘uokalani is arrested by the foreign provisional government for treason. She is imprisoned in ‘Iolani Palace. U.S. government admonishes provisional government for its unjust acts.
1896: Republic of Hawai‘i bans Hawaiian language from all public and private schools.
While colonization is the process of erasure and replacement, racial capitalism is the practice for profit, and Christian patriarchy rounds it out to set social norms. A new government, systems, values, language, education, and social practices have taken over like the invasive species it is. The threads between colonialism, racial capitalism, and climate disaster cannot be cut because they feed off one another.
The fire in Maui may have woken up the mainland U.S. to the voices of Native Hawaiians, as it was the most deadly wildfire in U.S. history, but these are the issues the Native Hawaiians have been screaming about since the 1700s. Colonial occupation did not go away but evolved to include excessive tourism, private property ownership by wealthy elites (Bezos, Zuck, Oprah...), and environmental destruction at the expense of the Native and local people. Even in the aftermath of the current disaster in Maui, with hundreds of people dead and thousands still missing, survivors are receiving phone calls from real estate companies and developers to buy their property. Capitalism does not stop for tragedy. Instead, it pursues an opportunity.
The colonial myth of “free” and “new” land up for grabs completely disregards that millions of people were on this land before Europeans arrived. It has to because the mere existence of Indigenous people punctures the American myth of discovery. This land was not “free” or “new” as unclaimed or unlived. Again, people were here! There were over 600,000 Native Hawaiians and around 13 million people in North America before colonization. In her book, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz refers to this erasure as “firsting and lasting”,
In the case of the British North American colonies and the United States, not only extermination and removal were practiced but also the disappearing of the prior existence of Indigenous peoples-and this continues to be perpetuated in local histories. Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) historian Jean O'Brien names this practice of writing Indians out of existence "firsting and lasting." All over the continent, local histories, monuments, and signage nar rate the story of first settlement: the founder(s), the first school, first dwelling, first everything, as if there had never been occupants who thrived in those places before Euro-Americans. On the other hand, the national narrative tells of "last" Indians or last tribes, such as "the last of the Mohicans," "Ishi, the last Indian," and End of the Trail, as a famous sculpture by James Earle Fraser is titled.
Indigenous people from the land in Hawai’i and the nations across the United States are very much still here. In Hawai’i, their communal leadership, knowledge, and care are leading recovery efforts in Maui:
Native Hawaiians and locals are taking to social media to talk about the issues they face on the ground. At first, mainstream media focused on the state talking points, tourism, and capital-centric point of view. Soon after the fires were out, an NYT reporter shared a story about a white couple finding the family Rolex which received immediate backlash as it was entirely inappropriate. But since then, I noticed more stories that amplified Native Hawaiian perspectives, including this piece from Kaniela Ing, the National Director of the Green New Deal Network, former state legislator, and a seventh-generation Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) from Maui, for TIME.
The perspective of the disaster and who we are hearing from absolutely matters. Because depending on the person and their values, experiences, and objectives, we get a different story. We all need to hear from people who are the most impacted, on the ground, dealing with the repercussions because it is the most accurate assessment of the reality. This is the idea behind Standpoint theory.
Standpoint theory argues that “knowledge stems from social position" and that those who experience society from the margins have access to information and knowledge that those with privileges do not have. When it comes to colonialism, as a white American, I only learned about Hawai’i’s resistance, landback, and sovereignty movement during graduate school when I read Remembering Our Intimatices: Mo’olelo, Aloha, 'Āina, and Ea by Jamaica Heolimeleikalani Osorio. I know for damn sure I never learned a thing about Hawai’i at any other point in my education.
I think Maui and Hawai’i are striking such a chord in the mainstream and holding America’s attention across social media because we’re at a very tense social breaking point. There is a paradigm shift happening where the interconnectedness of all things is less and less deniable. We have access to more information and more diverse perspectives, and voices are being heard, wealth inequality is growing, inequitable access to healthcare and fair wages and housing is increasingly difficult, climate destruction is rapid, and our mental health crises are all just collapsing onto one another. We may have finally gotten to the straw that will break America’s back.
Roxane Dunbar-Ortiz offers guidance for those of us who are settlers,
The early twenty-first century has seen increased exploitation of energy resources begetting new pressures on Indigenous lands. Exploitation by the largest corporations, often in collusion with politicians at local, state, and federal levels, and even within some Indigenous governments, could spell a final demise for Indigenous land bases and resources. Strengthening Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination to prevent that result will take general public outrage and demand, which in turn will require that the general population, those descended from settlers and immigrants, know their history and assume responsibility.
The ask is not to take the blame for what generations have done before us but to take responsibility, which is active and rooted in action.
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Adriana
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