Haunani-Kay Trask : STUDENTS’ RESPONSES

Kēhaulani Pu'u: “This is part of that history, and we are living the ramifications of that history.”

I guess how it kind of came together was like I realized that that was my history that I was learning about. I kind of connected it to the current situation of Hawaiians today and realized that the life that I led, or the lives that Hawaiians lead, wasn't just because of, you know, some of the myths, like "Hawaiians are lazy" or we don't work and stuff. There's a history connected to that and I felt like I was finding that history. Like somebody opened a treasure box for me and I realized all these things that sort of led to our current situation today. And so for me, especially I guess in my own personal life, a lot of things had happened and I was able to sort of connect it to be able to say, "Oh, this is part of the history, and I guess we're like living the ramifications of that history…" So what happened outside of class, all the activism and stuff - that was just my way of standing up and saying, "I can make a change, I have to, and it has to be me." And it's knowing that this history is what's going to back me. And now, you know, we want to move forward. And I think if not for Haunani, I wouldn't have felt that way and felt strongly about trying to do what I can to help better my people.

Kēhaulani Pu'u: “In my life what’s important is working towards the betterment of Hawaiian people...”

She helped me sort of set this goal for myself that in my life what's important is working towards the betterment of Hawaiian people and not myself, or raising my own status, or you know becoming… I don't know… "upper class" or something. It's just to find my venue, find the way that I choose to help our people.

Kēhaulani Pu'u: “That passion - you know it’s because she loves her people...”

She didn't do a lot of lecturing. We did the reading at home. She wanted us to come prepared. And that's one thing, she expected a lot out of her students. And that passion, you know, it's because she loves her people. I mean, Haunani - she's so good at analyzing politics, and all that theory that we learn about? I mean, she applies that. And even in her classes, you know, some of her classes, like we read Fanon and Malcolm X and Ngũgĩ. And the thing was that, you know, we would read those books and especially Fanon -sometimes it went over my head. But she helped me to sort of understand some of the things. But what really helped me understand it was that she helped us put it into context, today's context. And show that relationship, you know? And knowing that, some of these writers, where they came from too - I don't know - it's not bullshit! It's real! [laughs]

Kēhaulani Pu'u: “My main goal… is to have families and keiki leave with more than they came in with…”

Well right now I'm a director here at Pūnana Leo Honolulu. And most of my work experience has been in Hawaiian immersion in the preschool program. My main goal is to just try and create the best program that I can, and have families and keiki (children) leave with more than they came in with. And for me, I think that this is the three to five age group. And prior to coming here, I worked as a head teacher in Waiʻanae for four years. And it was always my goal, I see preschool as a foundation. It's when language is developing, and social skills. At this level, it's important to instill a sense of belonging and pride, and cultural identity. This is the perfect age group to start that, to help children build that foundation. When I was a head teacher at Waiʻanae, it was really important to build up pride and self-esteem. So, you know, we would teach them oli, which are chants. And we had all Hawaiian kids down on that side. So, even they do these little haiolelo, or speeches, and always at the end, you know, state that they are Hawaiian. And the curriculum is where I would try and bring in a lot of teachings from Haunani. Like, we taught the kids about Liliʻuokalani and what happened to her. And at that young age, they could remember, you know? But also, you know, we taught them about traditional Hawaiʻi. And I guess what a wonderful culture we - they - practiced, had.

Shane Pale: “[Haunani-Kay] articulated a lot of what I was feeling as a Native Hawaiian…”

Actually, I started working with Haunani-Kay probably from 1992, but my family and I had always been aware of who she was. And my family, they knew her sister, Mililani, because they were involved in Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi. My mom, my parents have been members of Ka Lāhui Hawaiʻi since it started in 1987. So by virtue of that, I was able to be aware of who Haunani-Kay was. And not until 1992 when I went to the University of Hawaiʻi is when I really had a lot of interaction with Haunani-Kay. And that was for the construction of the Hawaiian Studies Building. I mean, there was a lawsuit filed against SHAPS - SHAPS [was] the School of Hawaiian, Asian, & Pacific Studies. But basically that whole struggle for the building, because there were actually a lot of groups at the university who were "anti-Hawaiian Studies building." So actually myself, I talked to Haunani-Kay, and then we kind of organized a core student group. We called ourselves eventually Kuikalahiki[?], which is a student advocacy group for Native Hawaiians on the campus. And that's kind of like when I really started working with Haunani-Kay - strategizing, looking at things politically. Because the move to build the Hawaiian Studies building was a very political undertaking… we needed to deal with all types of bureaucrats, as well as other Hawaiians on the campus who were actually against the construction of the building. So that was basically my first political undertaking with Haunani-Kay. I didn't take her class until probably the following semester. But I was already planning to take her course. I mean, it was no doubt that when I went to the university, I'm going to make sure I take every course that Haunani-Kay Trask teaches. Because for me, she articulated a lot of the feelings that I was feeling as a Native Hawaiian, and a lot of injustices that I saw growing up as a Hawaiian. So it was always I knew that if I'm going to go to university, one of the main things I want to do is take all of the classes offered by Haunani-Kay Trask. But that was my first semester. So I kind of got a hedgeway basically into what she was all about, actually doing things - political things on the campus - organizing, strategizing, and very valuable things that she had to offer, I got first hand.

Shane Pale: “She does raise your consciousness to a higher level…”

She does raise your consciousness to a higher level. You get out of the personal and you start looking at things more politically. And she's able to do that in the class to the point where you could understand the machinations of what's really happening. And as far as seeing what racism is all about, I think in her class you can see the bigger picture - how Native Hawaiians, because we have a claim to sovereignty and this whole issue about the land, and then you look at the way power is held by certain individuals who have control of land, and then you see your place as a Native Hawaiian - who actually, that's your land basically. The whole university sits on stolen Hawaiian lands. That's one type of racism that's really clear. And when you look at it from that perspective, you understand it politically, then there's questions that arise. Why do we only make up 6-12% of the student population? When you look at our socioeconomic statistics and where we are in education, I mean, it's comparable to third world statistics. It's just really a terrible thing. And when you look at it in that context - colonialism - you're looking at the fact that there's a purpose for racism against Native Hawaiians, and that's to basically keep us away from the land. And I think that was really the foundation of understanding things politically, was the fact that there was a thing called land, and it's this whole historical context that had taken place, and here we are today with the worst socioeconomic statistics you can ever think of. And those are the type of things that I think really needs some investigating, and to look at it within the context of racism, colonialism, imperialism, so on and so forth.

Shane Pale: “The economy. Look who’s economy dominates.”

…Her examples that she uses… she articulates certain things, it really hits home. And one for me was the the economy. I mean, look who's economy dominates. Look what language dominates Hawaiʻi. It's not the Hawaiian language. All of those things needed to be replaced. So, you know, those kinds of ideas and that type of analysis, it really hits home for me too. Because, you know, you can see yourself, and your position and your space within society from the perspectives that she basically articulates. And it's just a very empowering thing. I mean, the whole struggle for sovereignty, you learn stuff in her class and you look at how you strategize to get sovereignty. And then all of these things that she talks about in theory becomes reality. I mean, the fact that native Hawaiians are wards of the state, we're equated with orphan children and mentally incapacitated individuals within mental institutions. I mean, this is like an actual institutionalized law that basically hinders, prevents Hawaiians from getting back their land. So here is a blatant example of what's really going on. So in theory you understand it, but, you know, when you're involved in the movement and you look at sovereignty and then you start looking at this theory and really applying it to what you're going to do and what is the ultimate goal, it becomes reality. It becomes very realistic.

Shane Pale: “As Hawaiians we do have a right to be angry…”

Look at Haunani-Kay and look at this whole thing about (governor of Hawaiʻi) Ben Cayetano, the "FUCK BEN" sign. I think a lot of people were upset because of the way it was portrayed in the media, and so on and so forth. But for myself, when I look at when how she's holding up a sign - "FUCK BEN" - I think it's just really great. Because what she taught us in class was to look at really what's going on. Why is she holding a sign saying "FUCK BEN"? There's a whole reason why. They vilify the wrong person, they vilify her, when she really doesn't have any power in the sense of imposing her will on certain groups. The governor does. And look at now, it's basically the sentiment of the community at this point, with the strikes and all that going on. But I think politically, she does things politically to get people to a certain place, and I think a lot of what she does is well-thought-out. And I can see it. I just think we need 20,000 Hawaiians holding the "FUCK BEN" sign. That's pretty much where it's at, where it should be. So I don't know if I'm making sense... But anyway, decolonizing your mind. That's basically what she does. She challenges you to decolonize your mind. That whole thing just kind of sums it up, that we are going through a process of decolonization as indigenous peoples, and you know, the whole thing about righteous anger - basically as Hawaiians we do have a right to be angry. And I think that as soon as other people start understanding that, that there's all these reasons as to why Hawaiians are angry... the way Haunani does it politically is she brings it out in the open. And I think that is where it needs to start, in the open. And she does it… and she gets attacked for it a lot. But in the end, there's a lot of Hawaiians who are listening to what she has to say. And I think maybe now there's a lot more settlers who are tuning in to what's going on. I don't think that we totally have their support, but at least she brings the issue up to the point where it's in the open and we need to look at it.

Shane Pale: “Her whole life has been a controversy…”

I think Haunani-Kay demonstrates clearly what her responsibility is. It is to be honest, to be truthful about what's going on. And she does that, you know, to the point where her whole life has been a controversy. Her academic life and her leadership within the Hawaiian community has been a controversy. And she's always done that. You know, for the eight years I've been here, doing stuff with her and being well aware of what she's doing, she's always put into practice what she's been teaching. So I think a lot of that - as far as her responsibility - she really takes it seriously and she carries it out to the point where she's down at the ʻIolani Palace talking before 15 to 20,000 Hawaiians, airing out her righteous anger to the system and what's really wrong. And she's very responsible in the way that she does that too.

Healani Sonoda: “You need to have struggle…”

I think that the classroom is like a beginning - you need to have the education… you begin in the classroom, but then you also need to have struggle. And I think struggle makes it totally clear. You begin to have a better understanding of everything you learned in class. So I think that you need to learn in class and to get the foundation of analyzing politically, how do you analyze politically. And you also need to struggle in order to apply your ideas and to test them, actually sometimes. And I think struggle really sharpens your ideas, your political ideas, and it helps you. So the more struggles you're involved with, the more politically astute you are. And of course, Haunani's been involved in so many struggles… it's like she can just say something, you know, do her political analysis on a situation, and, nine times out of ten it'll come true. You know, she just has this great political analysis because she's been involved in struggle for over 20 years.

Healani Sonoda: “The responsibility of the student is to go [into the classrooom] with an open mind.”

One of the things about our class… it's as if almost every class, there was at least two people that would break down in class and just say, "I wish I knew this before," and "I hated you before, because the media made you look so bad…", and da-da-da. You know, they'd just go off. But I think the responsibility of the student is to go in there with an open mind. But what's strange is that when you go into Haunani's class, a lot of us had animosity towards her, and we didn't even understand why. And when we sat in there, it's like we just rejected, rejected everything she said, at first. But then we began to open up and really see the connection between our own lives and what she was saying.

Healani Sonoda: “For five years, that’s all I did on campus… I organized.”

Working with Haunani with the struggle over racism, I got a lot of experience organizing and doing things like that, organizing students and rallies… you know, we made signs, and we really protested. So I got all this experience organizing. And from then on, with my group Kalai Po, I think for five years, that's all I did on campus. And I went to school, and I organized, and I joined the Associated Students of the University of Hawaiʻi (ASUH). I was a senator. And then, because of all my experience and Haunani just encouraging and supporting us and things like that, I was able to actually create a slate. I got some money to do the slate as well, to get the advertising, the posters done. I had a friend come and take pictures of the candidates, and I got about twelve Native Hawaiian students to run for office. And we actually, at one point - this was like the heyday of Kalai Po, my organization that I basically ran - we took over ASUH, and we got the majority of the votes, basically. And we were able to control a portfolio of about five million dollars, basically. And I thought that was just like, you know, the pinnacle of all the organizing on campus. And then, of course, doing things like that, I made a lot of friends. University, you know. I've learned a lot of skills on how to talk to people, how to call people, how to get organized. And I still do forums now, so I still do forums once in a while for Haunani-Kay and Mililani Trask. And so, I have all these organizing skills, and I've gone on to Ka Lāhui, and I've done organizing in the community, and now I'm doing another group. We formed another group, which is with the prison issue. But Haunani also did, she gave - well, she didn't give me - but she encouraged me to apply for a teaching job at Hawaiian Studies. So that was like my first teaching job, and since then, I've been teaching, and I've been out there. I've been able to support myself, and I never thought that I could get up in front of a class and teach. And Haunani always tells me that, you know, she remembers when I was first going through my first struggle, I was very inexperienced about speaking in front of people. And sometimes, I would get so emotional, you know, I'd cry sometimes. But you know, she encouraged me, she supported me, and you know, now I'm a teacher. So now I'm able to get up in front of people and speak.

Healani Sonoda: “Every student that comes out of her class hangs on to something she says…”

With imperialism and colonialism, she gives you examples - like the university is a racist institution, and that it's part of the colonial system in Hawaiʻi. I think what she does is she goes into this wide range of things. I remember every student that comes out of her class always hangs onto maybe something she says. I remember one thing she told me that really hit home about imperialism was that when the colonizer comes and takes over another people's land, what they try to do is make that land look like their own homeland. And that really just hit home. Just that one idea that I thought about, you know? Why do we have all these foreign trees? And why do we have foreign ducks in our ponds? And it's kind of weird. It's unnatural! So I think what she does is she gives all these examples, and whatever example works - everybody has a different example that works for them. And she's very intelligent. She's able to back it up with statistics, with information. That's what works for me. She's just intelligent. You need someone intelligent and fearless to really talk about hard issues like colonialism and imperialism. If not, then they'll start backing down and they'll start compromising the issue with the students. And she never does that. She never compromises the issue.

Healani Sonoda & Shane Pale: “Decolonization is an indigenous issue.”

Healani Sonoda: I think decolonization is an indigenous issue and it's an issue that mainly indigenous peoples of the world are dealing with. And I don't think it's a minority issue or a people of color issue. Indigenous peoples are the ones that really have the tie to the land, and their whole livelihood is dependent on the land. So I think it's an issue that only indigenous peoples are really struggling with right now. And for non-natives and settlers to say that they should be included in that whole process, or they should benefit somehow, I think it's really unfair.

Shane Pale: Well, I mean, the role of settlers, they need to determine for themselves how they want to assist us in our movement. But to the point of colonization, there's only one people who have been colonized, and that is the Native Hawaiian people. When you look at colonization, what it means - the fact that we had our own economies, our own language, our own government, our own kingdom - basically we had power in our own homeland. And in 1893, that totally just shifted. So, I mean, here it's plain and simple as when you look at historically who has a claim is Native Hawaiians. And why do we have the claim? It's because we were colonized. A lot of people get mixed up because there are settlers who are oppressed. I mean, the Samoans, the Polynesian Islanders, all these other people. But, you know, they're different - they deal with oppression, more so than native Hawaiians. We deal with colonization. I mean, look at our history again of colonization. There's people who have actually reaped off of it, who have actually benefited. I mean, you know, this is not by accident. The whole DOE (Department of Education) is run by Asian settlers, Japanese. I mean, I can give you stories about growing up in Molokaʻi and having, every teacher I ever had was Japanese. You know, if I had to think of every racist comment or remark that I heard from Japanese teachers, you know, if I was to have five cents, I probably would have at least three dollars and twenty-eight cents or something, I don't know. I mean, it's just really, really a bad situation. And I think they need to realize that they've actually benefited from our demise. When you look at Hawaiians and where we are, you know, we're on the bottom of the socioeconomic strata. And the reason for that is because of our colonial history. So I think that a lot of it, going through decolonizing our minds is actually going and, for myself, looking at bettering the conditions of our people. And what it means to better the conditions of our people is sovereignty. That's why I consider myself a nationalist. Which is what I got out of Haunani-Kay's class, the fact that I believe that we need a Hawaiian nation to be restored. And, you know, that's relative to all of what the response has been to colonization.

Healani Sonoda: “I think of myself as a steward of the knowledge…”

I always hear about kumu hula (a master teacher of hula) having their knowledge, the genealogy of their hula knowledge going back to Mary Pukui and things like that. And I think that as a political activist, Hawaiian activist, intellectually my genealogy I see it as going back to Haunani-Kay; and hers to Frantz Fanon, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, and other great thinkers. And I think of myself as someone who is kind of like passing on that genealogy, that intellectual genealogy to other people. And in a way where it's… an important thing, and the concepts that she teaches are not easy to grasp. And I think of myself as the steward of the knowledge that she's passed down to us, and I have a responsibility to pass it on. And I'd like to compare it to knowledge of the kumu hula because it's no less important than cultural knowledge. Political knowledge is important as well.

Healani Sonoda & Shane Pale: “We educate the community about Native Hawaiians in prison…”

Healani Sonoda: A few years ago, we helped… it was actually Shane's idea to bring Angela Davis to Hawaiʻi. And we were able to bring her down with the support of all these organizations, the Center for Hawaiian Studies, Haunani-Kay. And [Angela Davis] did a talk on prisoners. And at first I was like, what is she talking about? We thought she was going to talk about, you know, racism. Or she's going to talk about racism in education, or something like that. But she was talking about racism in the prison system. And that really just affected us a lot. And from then on, there was a few of us that really wanted to go into the prisons and do something. Right now what we're doing is, we formed an organization, it's called Protect Our Native ʻOhana (PONO). And it's an organization where we educate the community on Native Hawaiians in prison. We educate them and tell them that there's a disproportionate number of Native Hawaiians incarcerated, and, you know, it's a huge problem. We also teach classes at the prison at Halawa medium security correctional facility. We've had all kinds of meetings with administration, and we've done all kinds of advocacy for individual prisoners as well. But we have classes there, and it's mainly based on a lot of the ideas that we've learned in Hawaiian Studies. And we try to apply them to help the prisoner to build up self-esteem and to be knowledgeable in their own history, and things like that.

Shane Pale: A lot of times, the prison don't want us talking about sovereignty and all of these things, but we do just that. And a lot of times, it helps. And it's very… you know, Hawaiians in the prison, they just totally… I mean, it's sad, but they go through a process of feeling really bad about crimes that they've committed. It was really senseless. But here's this bigger picture, and they see their lives for what it is and what's really going on. So in that case, it's really good for inmates. They really like it. It's really empowering to talk about politics. And we do have some deep discussions. In fact, they film our class so that we don't do that, but we still do. We can get in trouble right now. I mean, we're seeing some of the stuff that we said about the Department of Public Safety, because we signed a contract saying that we weren't going to advocate for any inmate outside of the prison, because we volunteer, right? But we're just kind of challenging, challenging, challenging. And Haunani-Kay has given us the tools, actually, to look at racism. We're challenging (prisons director) Ted Sakai, we're challenging the administration - "That's racist!" And they're like, "What???" It pushes up the fight, raising the consciousness to a level where it becomes like, to show them the damage that they're doing. Haunani-Kay is responsible for that.

Healani Sonoda: So when we finally get our class going, we started teaching, and right in the middle of our semester half of our class gets shipped out to the [continental U.S.]. And so, we began to really advocate for prisoners.

Shane Pale: Part of the issue that our organization was looking at was the deportation of Native Hawaiians to private facilities or prisons on the continent. And it's a big strain on Native Hawaiians, because Native Hawaiians make up like about sixty percent of the prison population, yet we only make up twenty percent of the population. And a lot of it, again, ties into our colonial history and poverty. One of the biggest factors is poverty and drugs and so on and so forth. But they basically send Native Hawaiian inmates out to facilities on the continent and severs ties completely with family members here in Hawaiʻi. I mean, the cost... A lot of these prisons, which are run like private corporations, have contracts with AT&T and all these telephone companies. So a lot of times, Native Hawaiian families who are very poor or impoverished families can't afford the telephone calls. One call for ten minutes is like thirty dollars, and the family needs to pay it. I mean, it becomes really clear when you talk about racism and what's really going on here, the fact that there are twelve hundred Native Hawaiian men who are incarcerated. We don't even have the number for who's in the federal penitentiaries, but for state, twelve hundred Native Hawaiian men. I mean, you look at it within the context of colonialism and genocide, these are twelve hundred men who are being prevented from, you know, reproducing, which is a very Hawaiian thing. So, you know, when you look at it in terms of that - I mean, just the whole thing that it prevents more Hawaiians from being born. I mean, to me, that in itself says a lot about the problem, and it says a lot about the fact that something's happening here, and it's racist, and Hawaiians are being held down in a position where we're almost powerless in our own homeland. If you go to the state legislature, one woman who works with us in the prison, her thing was, "They want to lock every single Hawaiian up and send them out of here." And I believe that. That's the way I think about things. Because I mean, like Haunani-Kay always says, you look at the lowest rung in society, and that is a reflection of the society. So here we are, and it's the situation that we're faced with right now. The brutality in the State of Hawaiʻi prisons is just horrendous. There's like lists and lists of all of these human and civil rights violations. And a lot of it is Hawaiian-on-Hawaiian violence. It's very interesting, but you know, a lot of that we need to look at it too. Because it's institutionalized to the lowest level, the lowest rung, which is, you know, all the guards just so happen to be Native. The majority are Polynesian Islanders or Native Hawaiians. But it's just a very big issue. Because when you look at the issue, I think you talk to every single Hawaiian in present-day Hawaiʻi, I mean from every class, they'll at least be connected to one incarcerated Hawaiian - either that's their friend, or they know them personally, or a family. So you know, the issue is such that it affects every Hawaiian.

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