Haunani-Kay Trask : CONTEXT QUESTION 3 : What are the dominant social and political realities that most concern you right now?

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Transcript

We're in a great stage of reactionary assault, no question about that, from the political system, both nationally and locally. So we have to worry about all these lawsuits that will take away existing entitlements, some of them very old entitlements. So it's a reactionary time. It may be that we're moving into a second period of dark ages because of the assault on the entitlements.

But if education has any contribution - critical education - I'm hoping that the movement does not die, that the next generation in their 20s carries on.

And we'll see if they do that because the economy, of course, has a great deal to do with what people actually participate in.

I don't see, yet, anyway - and it might just be too early - I think people are just reeling from all of these assaults. I don't see the opening for a new evolution of resistance. I don't see the resistance evolving.

Part of it is because I think people are so stunned by the potential loss of all Hawaiian homelands,(1) for example, and also the economy.

The outmigration of Hawaiians is just phenomenal, and the last census was just a shocker.(2) Our population has plummeted in Hawaiʻi, the Hawaiian population.

So that's going to change, and that's the great sadness for me that we didn't achieve sovereignty thanks to the Democratic Party, especially Daniel "One-Armed Bandit" Inouye. We didn't achieve federal recognition.(3) That means all the entitlements, I predict, are going to go under, all of them, and that's going to be the end of it.

Every generation only promotes and infuses within a short period of time that generation's mission, and then it's finished. We discovered our mission, meaning we and my generation, and the reaction against us is proof of how strong we were.

But since we didn't get federal recognition, and since I think the sovereignty movement is definitely on the wane, what we're leaving for the next generation is very little.

And movements don't generally continue generation after generation. They go up and down, up and down.

So I feel a tremendous depression amongst my students.

Notes

(1) Hawaiian homelands: Approximately 200,000 acres of ceded lands set aside for Hawaiian homesteading in a trust created by the Federal American government through the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920. Since statehood, the trust lands have been administrated by the State of Hawaiʻi:

[§101. Purpose.] (a) The Congress of the United States and the State of Hawaii declare that the policy of this Act is to enable native Hawaiians to return to their lands in order to fully support self-sufficiency for native Hawaiians and the self-determination of native Hawaiians in the administration of this Act, and the preservation of the values, traditions, and culture of native Hawaiians.

(b) The principal purposes of this Act include but are not limited to:

(1) Establishing a permanent land base for the benefit and use of native Hawaiians, upon which they may live, farm, ranch, and otherwise engage in commercial or industrial or any other activities as authorized in this Act;

(2) Placing native Hawaiians on the lands set aside under this Act in a prompt and efficient manner and assuring long-term tenancy to beneficiaries of this Act and their successors;

(3)  Preventing alienation of the fee title to the lands set aside under this Act so that these lands will always be held in trust for continued use by native Hawaiians in perpetuity...

(c) In recognition of the solemn trust created by this Act, and the historical government to government relationship between the United States and Kingdom of Hawaii, the United States and the State of Hawaii hereby acknowledge the trust established under this Act and affirm their fiduciary duty to faithfully administer the provisions of this Act on behalf of the native Hawaiian beneficiaries of the  Act.

(d) Nothing in this Act shall be construed to:

(1) Affect the rights of the descendants of the indigenous citizens of the Kingdom of Hawaii to seek redress of any wrongful activities associated with the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii...

From the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, Act of July 9, 1921, c42, 42 stat 108, Article 1A.

Although some Native Hawaiians have received land parcels, more than 20,000 Natives have been waiting for years for their allotments. Federal and state mismanagement has plagued this trust since its inception. For example, instead of awarding Hawaiian Home Lands to Hawaiians, the federal and state governments have used the lands for airports, shopping malls, etc. and for private settler businesses. Currently, non-Natives are attempting to dismantle this land trust and other Native entitlements by filing lawsuits alleging discrimination against white people.

(2) Census 2000 findings: The 2000 U.S. Census counted 80,147 people who chose "Native Hawaiian" as their race, 58,605 fewer than in 1990. The tremendous outmigration of Hawaiians can be largely attributed to the extreme oppression they face, but also to a local economy characterized by high levels of foreign speculation and a vast tourism industrial complex - both of which drive up inflation and the cost of living. Many Hawaiians can no longer afford to live in their ancestral homeland - about one half of all Hawaiians now live on the continental United States.

(3) Federal recognition: Currently, Native Hawaiians are not federally recognized by the U.S. government as a Native nation entitled to self-government. A federal recognition policy similar to the one many Native American tribes currently have would protect Native Hawaiian lands, resources, and entitlements from settler interests, including the State of Hawaiʻi. As a Federally recognized Native nation, Native Hawaiians would control their assets such as the ceded lands and terminate their status as wards of the state.

Excerpts from Ho‘okupu a Ka Lahui Hawaiʻi:  The Master Plan of 1995:

I.    Endorsement of Fundamental Principles

Ka Lahui Hawaiʻi Master Plan for Hawaiian Self-Government is founded upon a firm belief in and commitment to certain fundamental principles which set international standards for the protection of individual human rights and civil liberties, for maintaining the well-being and peaceful coexistence of our nation with other sovereigns, and for the protection and recognition of collective rights of our citizenry.  

These Fundamental Principles include the following:

A.    Commitment to Peace, Disarmament, and Non-Violence

The practice of peace requires that we resolve conflict in a non-violent manner. This commitment to non-violence relates not only to our undertakings in the political arena, but involves the seeking of non-violent solutions to family, personal, and community problems.  Violence in all forms including spouse and child abuse, elderly abuse and neglect is rejected.

Disarmament means that the Hawaiian Nation shall not engage in acts of militarism, nor shall it endorse military undertakings on its land or territories.

Civil disobedience is the use of non-violent means to oppose injustice, to stop violations of human rights, and to stop the degradation of our trust assets. Civil disobedience should be utilized only after good faith efforts to resolve conflict have failed. Where civil disobedience is contemplated, the community impacted should be supportive of the event and fully informed of the reasons for the event.

B.    Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the Equal and Inalienable Rights of Native Hawaiians and their Descendants Under International Legal Standards

Considering the obligation of States, including the United States, under the Charter of the United Nations to promote universal respect for and observance of human rights and freedoms of all peoples, Native Hawaiians and their descendants endorse and assert the rights and principles contained in the following international covenants, declarations, and agreements:

1.    The Charter of the United Nations (done at San Francisco, June 26, 1945. [entered into force for the United States, October 24, 1945. 59 Stat. 1031, T.S. No. 993]);

2.    The Draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (E/CN.4Sub.2/1993/29);

3.    The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (999 UN Treaty Series 171, I-14668, 19 December 1966);

4.    The International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights (993 UN Treaty Series 3, I-14531, 16 December 1966).

C.    The Right to Self-Determination

Native Hawaiians and our descendants have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right, we are entitled to freely determine our political status and freely pursue our economic, social and cultural development (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Section 1.1, 999 UN Treaty Series 171)

D.    The Right to Self-Development

Native Hawaiians and our descendants have the right to determine and set priorities and choose strategies for development. This right includes the development and administration of programs relating to land, housing, economic and social needs.

Native Hawaiians and our descendants have the right to maintain and develop our own political, economic, and social systems; to be secure in the enjoyment of our own means of subsistence and development; and to engage freely in all traditional and other economic activities (UN Draft Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Articles 21 and 23, E/CN.4Sub.2/1993/29).

E.    Termination of Wardship

The imposition of the Western Doctrine of Manifest Destiny and the Tyler Doctrine in the Pacific Region resulted in the colonization of the Hawaiian Archipelago. The consequences of Hawaiʻi’s unique legal and historical experience are:

1.    The current political status of Native Hawaiians and their descendants as wards of the State of Hawaiʻi; and

2.    The usurpation of our people’s collective rights to land and to political and social power by state agencies and instrumentalities; and

3.    The violation of the human and civil rights of Native Hawaiians and their descendants by the United States of American and its agent, the State of Hawaiʻi.

The policy of wardship imposed by the United States and the State of Hawaiʻi is explicitly rejected as a fundamental violation of Native Hawaiians' right to self-determination. The Ka Lahui Hawaiʻi Master Plan seeks to establish a new relationship between the Hawaiian people and other sovereigns, including the United States of America and its agent, the State of Hawaiʻi.

V.    Establishment of a National Land Trust

D.    The Establishment of a National Land Trust

The preservation and management of our Traditional lands and natural resources require the establishment of a National Land Trust under the control and management of the Hawaiian nation. Hawaiian lands and resources are currently under the control of state and federal agencies, private trusts, corporations, and individuals.

The termination of the United States imposed policy of wardship shall require that Hawaiians devise a new way to:

1.    Marshal our lands and resources, and

2.    Collectively manage our lands and resources in order to ensure their appropriate use for future generations, and

3.    Most importantly to prevent other sovereigns and private corporations who may attempt to deplete, encumber, tax, or otherwise utilize and diminish our resources.

To this end, Ka Lahui Hawaiʻi asserts that a National Land Trust should be established immediately as a preliminary primary undertaking. This undertaking should precede any formal negotiation or claims settlement with the United States or the State of Hawaiʻi. The criteria used above should be utilized in the process of amassing the lands of the Hawaiian nation.

Land and water resources which have been toxified, polluted, or rendered dangerous by virtue of military, state, commercial, or industrialized uses should not be automatically transferred to the Hawaiian Nation. Rather, the Hawaiian Nation and its citizens shall establish a method to secure lands and resources which can be used or need to be preserved for future uses.

The National Land Trust shall be comprised of lands currently called:

1. Hawaiian Home Lands;

2. State Ceded Lands;  

3. Federally held lands; and

4. Private Land Trusts

Ka Lahui Hawaiʻi asserts that the current and immediate needs of the Hawaiian people for economic development, housing, education, health, and for the protection of cultural ecosystems and historic and sacred properties requires not less than two (2) million land acres. It is Ka Lahui Hawaiʻi’s position that the National Land Trust of the Hawaiian nation should eventually encompass all of the traditional lands of the native Hawaiians and their descendants.  

(reproduced in Haunani-Kay Trask, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaiʻi, revised edition. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1999. pages 212-230.)

Excerpt

...Rice claims [the Hawaiians-only] voting requirement for OHA discriminates on the basis of race, thereby violating the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

In 1996, Rice made application to vote in the OHA election, which was denied on grounds that he wasn't Hawaiian. He sued, and lost at both the district and appellate levels. These courts ruled that the voting restriction to "Hawaiians only" was based, "not on race but rather on the status of Native Hawaiians as an indigenous people who have a guardian-ward relationship with the United States and the State of Hawaii."

Moreover, this voting restriction was a "rational means of furthering the state's obligation under federal law to act for the betterment of Native Hawaiians."

Finally, at the appellate level, the court concluded the voting restriction to Hawaiians only is not primarily "racial," but "legal" and "political"...

(Haunani-Kay Trask and Mililani Trask. "Rice's Discrimination Claim Reveals Legacy of Overthrow," Honolulu Advertiser, October 3, 1999.)

Excerpt from "Racism, Rights of Indigenous People Argued: Sovereignty Stolen by U.S. Must be Restored."

Under International human rights law, indigenous people - including Hawaiians - are defined as those who have a historical continuity with preinvasion and precolonial societies that developed on their territories. The critical document here is the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Historical continuity is defined by:

- Occupation of ancestral lands.

- Common ancestry with original occupants of these lands.

- Culture, including membership of land-based communities.

- Language.

Critically, the significance of territory differentiates indigenous peoples from minorities.

Indigenous peoples have the right of self-determination and, by virtue of that right, they can determine their political status.

Minorities, by contrast, do not have the right of self-determination under international law...

(Haunani-Kay Trask. "Racism, Rights of Indigenous People Argued: Sovereignty Stolen by U.S. Must be Restored." Honolulu Advertiser, October 1, 2000.)

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