(c) Copyright 2023
Kenneth R. Conklin, Ph.D.
All rights reserved
INDEX OF NEWS REPORTS AND COMMENTARIES FROM JANUARY 1 through April 30, 2023
January 3, 2023: Newly elected Hawaii Congresswoman Jill Tokuda attends Day#1 of 118th Congress wearing a blouse solely displaying photo of anti-annexation petition from 1897; Ken Conklin online comment demands explanation why she singled out that topic from Hawaii's history.
Jan 14: Leon Siu, who imagines himself to be foreign minister of the Hawaiian Kingdom, looks ahead by listing all the Kingdom holidays whose anniversaries in 2023 will be special because they multiples of 5s and 10s of years since they were proclaimed.
Jan 28: Leon Siu describes plans for influencing the Hawaii legislature on specific topics during this year's session (mid January to early June).
February 1, 2023: Monthly column by OHA Trustee at-large Keli'i Akina: "Federal Recognition of Hawaiian Sovereignty: One People, Many Views" [with comment by Ken Conklin]
Feb 3: Honolulu Civil Beat columnist Lee Cataluna "Native Hawaiian Soccer Team Has International Aspirations" describes how the team, whose players are exclusively ethnic Hawaiian, will display the State of Hawaii flag as actually the flag of an independent nation of Hawaii; and will sing the state anthem "Hawai'i Pono'i" as actually the Hawaiian national anthem, thereby helping "to reubild my country’s collective sense of national identity."
Feb 11: Leon Siu: "letʻs not forget that while waiting for the legal and political issues to be resolved, there are more fundamental and more important components that are essential for Hawai`i to be a sovereign, independent nation" and Siu lists some of those components.
Feb 18: Hawaiian Kingdom blog [describes itself as "Weblog of the acting government of the Hawaiian Kingdom presently operating within the occupied State of the Hawaiian Islands"] provides summary and more than 5 hours of video of "University of Hawaii Symposium on War Crimes Committed in the Hawaiian Islands by the United States"
Feb 25: Leon Siu, "Free Hawaii blog" Ke Aupuni Update describes his 10 years of work attending "various meetings of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), the Polynesian Leaders Group (PLG), the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) to connect and maintain contact with Presidents, Prime Ministers and government officials of those regional groups" is his effort to have Hawaii "rejoin our Pacific Family" but not under auspices of USA.
March 11: Leon Siu, "Free Hawaii blog" Ke Aupuni Update: "Pasifika, not America, is our real, natural family. We have begun the process to be reunited with our Pacific family. ... The Pacific Way is a set of ideas, visions and processes that are dynamic, renewing itself under new contexts while simultaneously grounded to the core values of the native culture. Simply put, its doing things island style...."
March 19: State Archivist Adam Jansen is flying to New York later this month to bring home to Hawaii items from Bonhams auction house related to the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani. They include Liliuokalani’s Royal Standard, the queen’s personal flag that flew over her Washington Place home in Honolulu on Jan. 17, 1893, the day she was overthrown. He will also be bringing back the personal letters and documents of Col. John Soper [Provisional Government], who was in charge of the military troops that amassed, banding together to threaten violence if the queen did not step down peacefully.
March 27: Leon Siu, "Free Hawaii blog" Ke Aupuni Update: From 2014–2016 the Decolonization Alliance a group that I chaired in New York, held a series of dialogs to jumpstart the United Nationsʻ decolonization process. Some of those talks were sponsored by the United Methodist Church asking what they could do to initiate acts of repentance to make amends for the damage they caused by their involvement in colonialism. One idea: Encourage breastfeeding of infants to break away from colonizer factories & cultures.
April 15: Leon Siu, "Free Hawaii blog" Ke Aupuni Update: On March 30, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church issued a stunning statement repudiating the “Doctrine of Discovery” ... that gave license (blessings) to European countries to colonize and plunder the lands of peoples who were not Christians. ... our path to Free Hawaii is to initiate a call for the General Assembly to conduct a review of its role in validating the statehood of Alaska and Hawaii.
April 18: Disgraced former OHA board member Peter Apo complains that "OHA Abandons Commitment To Self-Governance. Under its new strategic plan, the agency has defaulted on one of the primary reasons it was created in the first place." OHA board candidate in 2022 election, Sam King, replies that "Native Hawaiian race-based self-governance through OHA was an historic aberration. ... Hawaii the nation-state was created by a multi-ethnic coalition of Hawaii-island-Hawaiians and Europeans. After that, every person born in Hawaii was a Hawaiian. We were one of the first post-racial societies! There were no race-restrictive citizenship laws."
April 20: Hawaii's Governor Green holds a press conference upon signing into law a bill passed by the legislature establishing that "November 28 of each year shall be known and designated as La Kuokoa, Hawaiian Independence Day, to celebrate the historical recognition of the independence of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This day is not and shall not be construed to be a state holiday." Ken Conklin's detailed explanation and testimony.
April 29: Leon Siu, Free Hawaii blog, discusses "What is a “Hawaiian National”?", complains they are mistreated under U.S. "occupation", but concludes with the delusional assertion "The U.S. occupation will end soon." However, after this year's legislature refused to give a committee hearing to his resolution to remove McKinley's name and statue from that high school, Leon has now stopped pushing that concept in his twice-monthly essays.
April 30: Tom Coffman commentary in Honolulu newspaper, "U.S. imperialism and Hawaii’s place in history", describes a Smithsonian exhibition in the national portrait gallery. Extensive online comments and rebuttals by Ken Conklin and various readers.
END OF INDEX
==================
FULL TEXT OF ITEMS LISTED IN THE INDEX, FROM JANUARY 1, 2023 AND CONTINUING
https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/01/gop-infighting-puts-jill-tokudas-swearing-in-ceremony-on-hold/
Honolulu Civil Beat online newspaper Tuesday January 3, 2023
GOP Infighting Puts Jill Tokuda’s Swearing-In Ceremony On Hold
The first-term Hawaii congresswoman hopes that Tuesday’s disarray will show Republicans that working with Democrats will be in their best interest moving forward.
By Nick Grube
[** First portion of news report]
WASHINGTON — Jill Tokuda — and the rest of Congress for that matter — will just have to wait.
Tokuda was elected to represent Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District in November to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele. She was supposed to be sworn in Tuesday, but GOP infighting over who should be speaker derailed the celebration.
Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, repeatedly failed to garner enough votes within his caucus to win the speaker’s gavel, something that hasn’t happened in at least 100 years.
“I don’t think anybody quite expected this to happen,” Tokuda said.
The House adjourned until Wednesday at which point lawmakers are expected to try again to elect a new speaker. Until that happens, new members will not be sworn in and legislative business will be put on hold.
Tokuda had planned to take the oath of office on her late mother’s bible.
She even played the part of an incoming member of Congress from Hawaii by handing out chocolate-covered macadamia nuts and donning traditional lei, including one made of white orchids that was gifted to her by her mentor and former boss, U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono.
But it was her clothing — a blouse and red blazer — that she wanted to stand out.
The print on her shirt was made from an image of the Kue Petitions that were submitted to Congress in 1897 to oppose U.S. annexation of Hawaii. It was signed by both Native Hawaiians and Asians who feared losing their right to vote under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
“To me, it was just very symbolic,” Tokuda said. “When we come here, we represent all of our history and we represent all our facts and our truths, which is not always just nice palm trees and wonderful pineapples. It’s complicated and it’s messy. It requires us to acknowledge it and do something about it.”
-----
* Ken Conklin's online comment
"But it was [Tokuda's] clothing ... that she wanted to stand out. The print on her shirt was made from an image of the Kue Petitions that were submitted to Congress in 1897 to oppose U.S. annexation of Hawaii. ... 'To me, it was just very symbolic,' Tokuda said. 'When we come here, we represent all of our history ... It requires us to acknowledge it and do something about it.'"
So why did Tokuda choose to call attention solely to this one particular element of Hawaii's history? Did she have an ancestor who signed the anti-annexation petition? Does she herself wish annexation had never happened? Does she favor secession, to make Hawaii once again an independent nation? What exactly does she have in mind that we must "do something about it"? More megabucks from taxpayers of all races to give benefits solely to people of one racial group, violating her oath of office to support and defend the Constitution [14th Amendment Equal Protection clause]?
Tokuda chose this particular topic, alone among all others, to advertise about Hawaii. She owes us an explanation why she did that and what she has in mind.
-----------------------
http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2023/01/ke-aupuni-update-january-2023-year-of.html
Free Hawaii blog Saturday January 14, 2023
KE AUPUNI UPDATE - JANUARY 2023
A Year of Special Anniversaries
Aloha Makahiki Hou
For some reason, we think anniversaries occurring in multiples of 5s and 10s are extra special. This year, 2023, is an unusual year of those specially numbered anniversaries — good and bad — in our beloved Hawaiian nation.
It is the
• 245th Anniversary of Captain Cookʻs arrival
• 215th Birthday of Timoteo Haʻalilio
• 210th Birthday of Kauikeaouli – Kamehameha III
• 185th Birthday of Queen Liliʻuokalani
• 180th Anniversary of Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea – Sovereignty Restoration Day
• 180th Anniversary of Lā Kuʻokoʻa – Hawaiʻi Independence Day
But especially, in a few days, January 17 is the
• 130th Anniversary of the ruthless hijacking of the Hawaiian Kingdom... by a gang of greedy white businessmen proclaiming themselves to be the "provisional government" of the Hawaiian Kingdom while hiding behind 162 fully armed U.S. troops, and the USS Boston, a fully armed U.S. warship in Honolulu Harbor.
It is also the
• 30th anniversary of the 1993 Onipa’a march, re-enactment and rally at Iolani Palace where 15,000 Hawaiians gathered in protest of the overthrow of their nation 100 years before; and where Haunani Kay Trask infamously declared, “We are not American!... We are not American!... Say it in your heart...say it when you sleep... We are Hawaiian!... We will die as Hawaiians! ... We will never be American!”
Go here for this yearʻs 2023 Onipaʻa Peace March.
http://kalahuihawaii.net/Onipaa
And itʻs the
• 30th anniversary of the United Church of Christ Apology for its complicity in the overthrow, which became the template for the
• 30th anniversary (November 23) of the Apology Law (USPL 103-150), the signed confession by the U.S. Congress and President William Clinton admitting the U.S. stole the Hawaiian Islands
And lets not forget, July 7 is the
• 125th Anniversary of Fake Annexation of our country by the U.S. — the international crime that provided the template for the United States’ rampage of aggression, greedy imperialism and abusive behavior that continues to plague the world to this day.
As we take the time to attend and reflect on these special dates that greatly impacted our Lāhui, let’s remind ourselves, our ʻohana and our friends, that we are the legacy — the evidence and heirs — of the living Hawaiian Kingdom... Ua Ola Ke Ea! Sovereignty Lives!
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
http://freehawaiinews.com/
SIGN THIS PETITION
Rename McKinley High School and remove the McKinley statue! He was the president who turned Hawaii from a peaceful, neutral country into a major hub of America’s war machine. Sign this online petition NOW! Tell everyone you know to sign it too!
TinyURL.com/AlohaOeMcKinley
PLEASE KŌKUA…
Your kōkua, large or small, is vital to this effort. To contribute, go to:
• GoFundMe – CAMPAIGN TO FREE HAWAII
• PayPal – use account email: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
• Other – To contribute in other ways (airline miles, travel vouchers, volunteer services, etc...) email us at: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
“FREE HAWAII” T-SHIRTS - etc.
Check out the great FREE HAWAII products you can purchase at
http://www.robkajiwara.com/store/c8/free_hawaii_products
All proceeds are used to help the cause. MAHALO!
Malama Pono, Leon Siu, Hawaiian National
--------------------
http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2023/01/ke-aupuni-update-january-2023-swaying.html
Free Hawaii blog Saturday January 28, 2023
Ke Aupuni Update
Swaying the State Legislature
Last year the State of Hawaii legislature took some actual steps toward correcting decades of neglect, malfeasance and abuse of the Hawaiian people. The biggest was the $600 million earmarked to boost the distribution of Hawaiian Home Lands. Another action was removing the University of Hawaii from management of Mauna Kea and appointing a new team that includes native Hawaiian protectors. Legislation was passed demanding the closure of the the U.S. Navyʻs fuel storage tanks at Kapūkakī (aka Red Hill) reflecting the state’s new-found awareness that the U.S. military is not the benevolent friend it professes to be.
Then there were actions such as recognizing Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea as a historic holiday celebrating the Hawaiian Kingdom as a sovereign country; and changing the place-name of Captain Cook back to the original name, Kaʻawaloa. [** Ken Conklin's note: the Captain Cook name-change failed in committee] Though less dramatic, in many ways they are more significant, as they point to Hawaii as a sovereign nation.
The day after the 30th ʻOnipaʻa Peace March from Maunaʻala to ʻIolani Palace, was the opening day of the 2023 legislative session of the State of Hawaii. Based on the momentum from last year, and some newly elected Hawaiian legislators and in speaking with a number of senior legislators, it looks like the prospects for passing a resolution “recognizing Hawaiian nationals are a lawful people residing in the Hawaiian Islands” are improving.
With the help of friendly legislators we will be holding informational briefings with key senate and house leaders, the Hawaiian caucus members, the Hawaiian Affairs committees and legislators in general about the ongoing discrimination and abuse of Hawaiian nationals. In early march we will be submitting a resolution that will put an end to that discrimination.
We are not asking the legislators to create a new protected group or to define what comprises a Hawaiian national, or who has legal power or jurisdiction in Hawaii. All we are asking them to do is acknowledge that Hawaiian nationals are ipso facto (by the fact itself, self-evident), that Hawaiian nationals exist and should not be treated as if we are illegal aliens.
This resolution confirming the fact that Hawaiian nationals are a lawful people, will put a stop to discriminatory treatment of Hawaiian nationals living in our homeland.
We will once again submit a resolution for the legislature to encourage the state Board of Education to change the name of McKinley High School back to Honolulu High School.
Support for changing the name is massive, including many Hawaiian organizations, the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) and the general public. Unfortunately, its being blocked by only a handful of politically well-connected alumni from the 60s and 70s, fiercely loyal to the McKinley name, no matter what kind of an evil person he was.
All around the US, edifices with the name McKinley have been removed. In 2014 Congress renamed “Mount McKinley” the highest mountain in North America to “Denali” the traditional Alaskan native name. In 2019 the town of Arcata, California removed the McKinley statue from the city center, because of his maltreatment of Native Americans, Chinese, Hawaiians and Filipinos.
The most critical stakeholder that we have not heard from in this controversy are current McKinley High School students... those whose diplomas, records and transcripts will forever show that they graduated from a school named after a despicable white supremacist, racist and father of American imperialism. If the students themselves were to speak up and demand the state Board of Education not condemn them to be stigmatized by the name McKinley, it would break the alumni block and the name would be changed immediately.
As we work with Kapu Aloha to change the understanding and attitudes of those who are in places of authority, let’s remind ourselves, our ʻohana and our friends, that we are the legacy — the evidence and heirs — of the living Hawaiian Kingdom... Ua Ola Ke Ea! Sovereignty Lives!
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
SIGN THIS PETITION
Rename McKinley High School and remove the McKinley statue! He was the president who turned Hawaii from a peaceful, neutral country into a major hub of America’s war machine. Sign this online petition NOW! Tell everyone you know to sign it too! TinyURL.com/AlohaOeMcKinley
PLEASE KŌKUA
Your kōkua, large or small, is vital to this effort
To contribute, go to:
• GoFundMe – CAMPAIGN TO FREE HAWAII
• PayPal – use account email: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
• Other – To contribute in other ways (airline miles, travel vouchers, volunteer services, etc...) email us at: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
“FREE HAWAII” T-SHIRTS - etc.
Check out the great FREE HAWAII products you can purchase at
http://www.robkajiwara.com/store/c8/free_hawaii_products
All proceeds are used to help the cause. MAHALO!
Malama Pono, Leon Siu, Hawaiian National
--------------------
https://kawaiola.news/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/KaWaiOla-Feb-2023.pdf
Ka Wai Ola [OHA monthly newspaper] Vol 40, No.2, February 2023, p.32
Monthly column by OHA Trustee at-large Keli'i Akina
Federal Recognition of Hawaiian Sovereignty: One People, Many Views
On October 19, 2022, the United States Department of the Interior (DOI) announced that it would host
its first-ever consultation policy with the Native Hawaiian community. DOI Secretary Deb Haaland stated that the consultations seek to serve as a way to work with the “Native Hawaiian Community...to address concerns related to self-governance, Native Hawaiian trust resources, and other Native Hawaiian rights.”
Since the announcement, the Native Hawaiian community has engaged in two virtual consultations with the DOI. These consultations have the goal of providing the Native Hawaiian people with an opportunity to urge the federal government to address long-standing issues.
Through consultation, for example, OHA and the Native Hawaiian community could directly request the federal government to publish an accurate inventory of the Public Land Trust (PLT). Another long-standing issue that may be addressed is federal recognition of Native Hawaiian sovereignty. The federal consultation policy “recognizes the right of the Native Hawaiian Community to self-government...supports Native Hawaiian sovereignty and self-determination.”
Yet, federal recognition of sovereignty is a lively debate within the Hawaiian community. Some Hawaiians support it, some oppose it, and others have alternative views.
Although the issue is complex, those who favor and those who oppose federal recognition offer distinct perspectives. Supporters of federal recognition put forth the following arguments: 1) Native Hawaiians are the only Indigenous people in the U.S. that have not received federal recognition of their sovereignty. Federal recognition would end the inequitable treatment of Native Hawaiians compared to other Indigenous groups; 2) Native Hawaiians would have the potential to establish their own government which many believe would be better equipped to address self-determination and the critical needs of the Native Hawaiian community; 3) A Native Hawaiian self-governing entity may have the leverage to negotiate with state and federal entities to pursue policies that prioritize the general wellbeing of the Native Hawaiian community.
Conversely, those who do not support federal recognition make the following arguments: 1) Serious uncertainties will arise regarding which Native Hawaiian entity should lead the sovereignty efforts; 2) Federal recognition may inappropriately characterize Native Hawaiians as “Indians” or “wards”
of the U.S. government, which would then subjugate Native Hawaiians to federal legal control; 3) Federal recognition will further divide the Native Hawaiian community based on blood quantum; 4) Many Hawaiians are proud to be both Hawaiian and American and affirm opportunities for advancement as U.S. citizens.
There is much diversity of thought among the Hawaiian people. Not all who support or oppose federal recognition necessarily hold the views mentioned. And many Hawaiians have alternative perspectives on the topic. Some Native Hawaiians believe in a deoccupation policy rather than federal recognition. These proponents argue that Hawai‘i was and continues to be illegally occupied by the U.S. Yet other Hawaiians believe that they can preserve Hawaiian cultural identity and flourish under the rights accorded by the U.S. Constitution.
At the very least, the DOI’s first-ever consultation with the Native Hawaiian community is an opportunity to clarify concerns over the relationship between the U.S. and the Native Hawaiian people. The consultations specifically seek to address issues that have been ongoing for decades.
Although we Hawaiians may have differing views about federal recognition, it is essential that we respectfully engage each other in this important debate and be sensitive to the diversity of perspectives among us. We must communicate with each other candidly and in the spirit of aloha. The journey toward clarity and a solution can only start with a coming together of the Hawaiian community. Let us pūpūkahi i holo mua - unite to move forward.
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** Ken Conklin's note: Here's a statement in this column which is absolutely false, although it has been repeated hundreds of times in propaganda by OHA and others for the Akaka bill, and in hundreds of published "news" reports: "Native Hawaiians are the only Indigenous people in the U.S. that have not received federal recognition of their sovereignty. Federal recognition would end the inequitable treatment of Native Hawaiians compared to other Indigenous groups."
That statement is included in a paragraph describing the views of those who favor fed rec, so in that context it is a correct representation of that viewpoint. But I'm very sorry to see it coming once again to public attention. It gave me whiplash! I waged a big battle against Associated Press and also a reporter for the Kaua'i newspaper who kept saying it locally and echoed nationwide as though it was a fact, and I won that battle. The way I won was: on the same day when the statement was made in Hawaii AP news reports, I stumbled across an article in a newspaper in Houma Louisiana, also under the AP byline, describing a decades-long struggle of a local Indian group to get fed rec., whose applications kept getting rejected by DOI. There are actually hundreds of "tribes" in that same situation, and actual lists of many of them. Google tribes lacking federal recognition -- many of them have recognition by their states but not the feds. So I contacted the editor in Houma, including a copy of the Kaua'i article, and a few others, and asked him as a subscriber to AP to please contact AP and tell them to stop saying that nonsense about Native Hawaiians. He promised he would do it. Here's why that statement is such powerful propaganda for the Akaka bill. OHA loves the term "Native Hawaiians" because it sounds like that ethnic group is exactly the same as "Native Americans" and "Native Alaskans" -- it creates the impression that there are only those 3 "indigenous" people in the U.S.; that Hawaiians are exactly like the continental and Alaska natives, and should be treated the same. And it also skirts past the nonsense that Hawaiians are "indigenous" in the same way and same level of tenure as the truly indigenous people of mainland, Alaska, Asia, Africa, etc.
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https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/02/lee-cataluna-native-hawaiian-soccer-team-has-international-aspirations/
Honolulu Civil Beat Friday February 3, 2023
Native Hawaiian Soccer Team Has International Aspirations
Training camps are scheduled to be held on Maui next month.
By Lee Cataluna
Vernon Kapuaʻala, a high school and collegiate soccer player who grew up to be a devoted soccer dad, was struck with inspiration.
He heard a lecture about the 1893 illegal overthrow and occupation of the Hawaiian kingdom and started thinking about Hawaii as a nation that extended from the monarchy through to modern times. He started asking himself how he could contribute to that concept of rebuilding the nation.
“I’ve always struggled with my Hawaiianness, my Hawaiian identity,” Kapuaʻala said. “I don’t hula. I don’t work the loʻi. I never felt connected to my roots except that I have the koko, the blood. My kids all go to Kamehameha Schools. They are more connected than I am.”
The main focus in his life was running soccer leagues and tournaments on Maui, doing everything from the little errands to the big picture stuff, setting up the field early in the morning to getting scouts to look at local players for U.S. National Teams.
While watching professional soccer games on the international level, he was moved by the pre-game ritual of players singing their national anthem and saluting their nation’s flag. He started thinking about Hawaii teams singing Hawaii Ponoʻi as their national anthem instead of the state song and flying the Hawaiian flag as their nation’s flag rather than a state flag.
The idea hit him that he could establish a federation of Hawaiian soccer teams to represent Hawaii on the international level.
“In surfing and canoe paddling, there are athletes that represent Hawaii, why not soccer?” Kapuaʻala said. “What makes it a Hawaiian sport is who we are and how we play it.”
Kapuaʻala and his wife Trisha founded Hui Kanaka Pōwāwae, the Hawaiian Football Federation (choosing the term football, the preferred term for soccer in many countries outside America.) They established a board of directors for the nonprofit, scouted players and made plans to travel this summer to compete internationally with Maori Football Aotearoa.
They put up a website, www.hawaiianfootball.com, and stated their mission:
“Through Hawaiian Football, Native Hawaiians now have the opportunity to exercise their basic patriotic and humanitarian right to represent one’s country on the international sporting stage. International competition ignites our mission. It creates a fixture by which health and education can once again become cornerstones of Native Hawaiian Identity and well-being.”
The Federation has four teams (male and female, under-16 and under-18) with 20 players per team. The hope is to form adult men’s and women’s teams in the near future. The players either identify as being of Native Hawaiian descent or have an ancestor who was born in Hawaii prior to the 1893 overthrow.
Hui Kanaka Pōwāwae maintains a database of Native Hawaiian players from within the Hawaiian islands and also from the diaspora, that is, Hawaiians who live outside of Hawaii. Participation is free
Trisha Kapuaʻala is writing grants seeking further financial support for the program, and the players are helping in fundraising online with websites that include testimonials like:
“Being a part of this team is of great importance to me. Hui Kanaka Pōwāwae developed a program that will help to reubild my country’s collective sense of national identity, playing the sport that I love while representing the values, character, and history that is uniquely Hawaiian … My goals are simple: represent the Hawaiian islands, and reach my full potential, on and off the field.”
Hui Kanaka Pōwāwae is run by volunteers with one paid staff member, Ian Mork, who is technical director for the program. Mork came with experience from the U.S. Soccer Federation and the Belize Football Federation and is responsible for scouting talent, forming teams, coaching, and helping top talent get into college, professional clubs or national programs.
Mork said the program is guided by the Catalan Football Federation in building a national identity through the game of football.
“Starting to build the framework for the Federation has been a huge challenge, but I believe we are on the correct path,” Mork said. “Vern is the visionary for this entire program.”
The Federation is holding training camps early next month on Maui which will include classroom time studying Hawaiian culture and history. Among the lesson plans, Kapuaʻala likes to point out that the players will learn all three verses of Hawaiʻi Ponoʻi, not just the one verse commonly sung at events.
When he talks about nation-building and a national team, Kapuaʻala is careful in choosing his words.
“I want to tread lightly. I don’t want to cause further division or rift in the community,” he said. “I hate what was done to Hawaii, but I love Americans.”
He also loves soccer and how it can open doors for young athletes. His daughter just got a full scholarship to play collegiate soccer. He sees the game as the means for all manner of positive growth.
“We’re not political,” Kapuaʻala said. “This is a patriotic exercise.”
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http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2023/02/ke-aupuni-update-february-2023-setting.html
Free Hawaii blog Saturday February 11, 2023
Ke Aupuni update
The prolonged occupation of our country seriously damaged the underpinnings of our society, leaving our nation impoverished, unhealthy, dependent and confused in spirit. The prospect of restoring Hawai`i as a sovereign, independent nation has certainly fired up hope for the future.
Because we have spent decades uncovering the wrongs that were committed by the US against the Hawaiian nation, too often we think of restoring Hawai`i as a sovereign nation only in legal and political terms — like ending the occupation; what kind of government; who will govern; making the rules; managing operations; monetary system; international relations; etc.
But letʻs not forget that while waiting for the legal and political issues to be resolved, there are more fundamental and more important components that are essential for Hawai`i to be a sovereign, independent nation.
The things that need to be worked on right now are
• The welfare of the people: having water, food, shelter, work, peace and safety, etc.
• The welfare of the lands — farming, housing and community spaces, natural spaces and mālama the eco-system
• The welfare of the seas — improving fisheries, management of ocean resources over the entire archipelago, restoring balance
• The welfare of the economy — restructure into being kama`āina friendly, limiting tourism, eliminating US military and repurposing their facilities for peaceful use, international trade
• Building families and community — teaching and learning the attitudes and values of Aloha, Kūleana, Kōkua, Lōkahi, Aloha `Āina, Mālama, Pono, Kapu Aloha and so forth
Thankfully, these are areas in which many visionary kanaka and others in the community have taken kuleana and are diligently working to implement. So come “the huli” (the flip, the revolution), Hawai`i will be well on its way to being transformed into a strong, pono, independent nation.
As we work with Kapu Aloha to change the understanding and attitudes of those who are in places of authority, let’s remind ourselves, our ʻohana and our friends, that we are the legacy — the evidence and heirs — of the living Hawaiian Kingdom
Ua Ola Ke Ea! Sovereignty Lives!
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
SIGN THIS PETITION
Rename McKinley High School and remove the McKinley statue! He was the president who turned Hawaii from a peaceful, neutral country into a major hub of America’s war machine. Sign this online petition NOW! Tell everyone you know to sign it too!
TinyURL.com/AlohaOeMcKinley
PLEASE KŌKUA
Your kōkua, large or small, is vital to this effort
To contribute, go to:
• GoFundMe – CAMPAIGN TO FREE HAWAII
• PayPal – use account email: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
• Other – To contribute in other ways (airline miles, travel vouchers, volunteer services, etc...) email us at: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
“FREE HAWAII” T-SHIRTS - etc.
Check out the great FREE HAWAII products you can purchase at
http://www.robkajiwara.com/store/c8/free_hawaii_products
All proceeds are used to help the cause. MAHALO!
Malama Pono, Leon Siu, Hawaiian National
---------------
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https://hawaiiankingdom.org/blog/symposium-on-war-crimes-committed-in-the-hawaiian-islands/
Hawaiian Kingdom Blog
Weblog of the acting government of the Hawaiian Kingdom presently operating within the occupied State of the Hawaiian Islands.
Posted on February 18, 2023
Symposium on War Crimes Committed in the Hawaiian Islands by the United States
Watch the Hawaiian Society of Law & Politics‘ Symposium showcasing the “Royal Commission of Inquiry – Investigating War Crimes and Human Rights Violations Committed in the Hawaiian Kingdom” held at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa on February 11, 2023. This half-day symposium, in collaboration with the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, the National Lawyers Guild, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Native Hawaiian Student Services, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Education, featured experts in the fields of international law, international relations, international criminal law and war crimes, and Hawaiian Kingdom law on the topic of the American occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom since January 17, 1893. Part 2 of the presentation ends with a celebration of Aloha ʻĀina (Hawaiian patriotism) through mele (song) by well known Hawaiian entertainers and musicians.
The presentations stem from the three presenters’ articles published in the Hawaiian Journal of Law and Politics: Professor William Schabas, “Legal Opinion on War Crimes Related to the United States Occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom since 17 January 1893;” Professor Federico Lenzerini, “Legal Opinion on the Authority of the Council of Regency of the Hawaiian Kingdom;” and Dr. David Keanu Sai, “The Royal Commission of Inquiry.”
** Ken Conklin's note: Many phrases in the two paragraphs above are clickable links as displayed in the actual blog entry.
** Two videos are provided inline and also available directly from YouTube at
Part 1 = 2 hours and 9 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWSerORvkH0&list=PLEaEKU3gR_GXW6_PF1H-
Part 2 = 3 hours and 22 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdKaA4eduaU&list=PLEaEKU3gR_GXW6_PF1H-UdnyIOCL7d1f_
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http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2023/02/ke-aupuni-update-february-2023.html
Free Hawaii blog Saturday February 25, 2023
Ke Aupuni Update by Leon Siu
Rejoining Our Pacific Family
Beginning in the early 19th Century, the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands was formally recognized by the colonial powers of Europe as a sovereign, independent state, a subject of international law and under bi-lateral and multi-lateral equal treaties with other sovereign States.
This recognition of Hawaii’s sovereignty and independence occurred at a time when most of the Pacific Island nations were being forcibly subjected to colonial rule by those same European powers.
However, today in 2023, the picture is flipped. Most of the Pacific nations are free, but Hawaii is captive and occupied under the guise of a domestic “state” of the United States.
The supreme irony is that the same United Nations decolonization process that assisted Pacific nations to become self-governing (autonomous or independent) was deliberately manipulated and used to hijack and falsely merge Hawaii into the United States.
One of the saddest results of the 130-year U.S. occupation of our nation has been the separation from the rest of our amazing Pacific Island family. This is particularly lamentable since Pasifika, not America is our real family. Prior to being kidnapped by the Americans, our Kings, from Kamehameha II, to Kalākaua sought to maintain relations with our Pacific family.
The separation from our Pacific community has excluded Hawaii as representatives of our own interests in international matters. Instead, Hawaii is being “represented” by the U.S., the kidnapper, with its own spin, interests and agenda emanating from Washington, DC, 5,000 miles away from our shores.
As we draw closer to restoring our sovereign, independent nation, it is imperative to rejoin the rest of the Pacific ʻohana to work and share together the challenges of the future of the Pacific.
For the past 10 years I have attended various meetings of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), the Polynesian Leaders Group (PLG), the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF) to connect and maintain contact with Presidents, Prime Ministers and government officials of those regional groups. It is amazing to see, think and do things through the islander world view.
I have been in Fiji for the past week to attend a Special Leaders Retreat of the Pacific Islands Forum and to meet with various civil society and non-governing organizations that are actively working in applying what is called “the Pacific Way” to address regional and global issues. A few years ago I began inquiring about joining the PIF and the PLG. At the meeting this week I spoke of our intent to seek membership in the PIF and the PLG. The response has been very positive... so weʻll be moving forward.
We believe as we recall and become grounded and anchored in the Pacific Way — the ways of our ancestors... mālama ʻāina, kapu aloha, kūleana — and with the significant practical experience we have as a modern economic, geo-political and cultural hub, we Hawaiians have much to contribute to advance aloha ʻāina to better the lives the people of Pacific and the Planet.
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
** Ken Conklin's note: Free Hawaii News has a YouTube channel with videos of all its monthly TV shows, at
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSMOZMQUMjxiX8WgBlqZV7g
SIGN THIS PETITION
Rename McKinley High School and remove the McKinley statue! He was the president who turned Hawaii from a peaceful, neutral country into a major hub of America’s war machine. Sign this online petition NOW! Tell everyone you know to sign it too! TinyURL.com/AlohaOeMcKinley
PLEASE KŌKUA
Your kōkua, large or small, is vital to this effort
To contribute, go to:
• GoFundMe – CAMPAIGN TO FREE HAWAII
• PayPal – use account email: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
• Other – To contribute in other ways (airline miles, travel vouchers, volunteer services, etc...) email us at: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
“FREE HAWAII” T-SHIRTS - etc.
Check out the great FREE HAWAII products you can purchase at
http://www.robkajiwara.com/store/c8/free_hawaii_products
All proceeds are used to help the cause. MAHALO!
Malama Pono, Leon Siu, Hawaiian National
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http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2023/03/ke-aupuni-update-february-2023-pacific.html
Free Hawaii blog Saturday March 11, 2023
The Pacific Way
In the previous issue of Ke Aupuni Update (February 25) I spoke of the tragic 130-year long disconnection from the rest of the Pacific Island nations. This is particularly lamentable since Pasifika, not America, is our real, natural family. We have begun the process to be reunited with our Pacific family.
Living in Hawaii, we donʻt realize how deeply colonized and enslaved we are by the American system, until we visit other Pacific Island nations.
In the rest of our Pacific family, governments and the peoples are shedding the adverse aspects of colonial ways and actively engage in applying what is called the “Pacific Way” to address local, regional and even global issues.
What is this Pacific Way? Itʻs doing things in ways that are mutually respectful, inclusive, consultative, consensual, flexible and allow for compromise. The Pacific Way is a set of ideas, visions and processes that are dynamic, renewing itself under new contexts while simultaneously grounded to the core values of the native culture.
Simply put, its doing things island style.
One of the most insidious and damaging aspects of the American occupation of Hawaii has been the ingrained belief that everything America does or has told us, is for our own good. The basic message to Hawaiians has been “Your way is OK, but our way is so much better...”
This “our way is better” pertains to everything from government to land use and housing to the economic system to imported processed food to the health crisis to the contamination of our water and even to the current effort to outlaw mid-wives!
This is the classic colonial method used to subjugate peoples and nations — to dismiss or denigrate or destroy the native way, and replace it with the colonizerʻs way. The nations of the Pacific were once subjugated under colonial rule. Now most of them are independent nations and have rebuilt themselves by reactivating and applying the Pacific Way.
The good news is that we are now aware of the fact that Hawaiiʻs situation is not just the legal/political question, our real challenge is to renew the character, vision and life of the Lāhui... an independent nation, operating in not only the “Pacific Way”, but more importanly, “The Hawaiian Way”.
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
SIGN THIS PETITION
Rename McKinley High School and remove the McKinley statue! He was the president who turned Hawaii from a peaceful, neutral country into a major hub of America’s war machine. Sign this online petition NOW! Tell everyone you know to sign it too! TinyURL.com/AlohaOeMcKinley
PLEASE KŌKUA
Your kōkua, large or small, is vital to this effort To contribute, go to:
• GoFundMe – CAMPAIGN TO FREE HAWAII
• PayPal – use account email: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
• Other – To contribute in other ways (airline miles, travel vouchers, volunteer services, etc...) email us at: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
“FREE HAWAII” T-SHIRTS - etc.
Check out the great FREE HAWAII products you can purchase at
http://www.robkajiwara.com/store/c8/free_hawaii_products
All proceeds are used to help the cause. MAHALO!
Malama Pono, Leon Siu, Hawaiian National
------------------
https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/03/denby-fawcett-queen-liliuokalanis-royal-standard-will-be-returned-to-hawaii-thanks-to-60000-deal/
Honolulu Civil Beat Sunday March 19, 2023
Queen Liliuokalani's Royal Standard Will Be Returned To Hawaii Thanks To A $60,000 Deal
Hawaii's state archivist will bring the flag home and documents of the man who led the military forces to dethrone the queen.
By Denby Fawcett
State Archivist Adam Jansen is flying to New York later this month to bring home to Hawaii items from Bonhams auction house related to the overthrow of Queen Liliuokalani.
They include Liliuokalani’s Royal Standard, the queen’s personal flag that flew over her Washington Place home in Honolulu on Jan. 17, 1893, the day she was overthrown.
According to the queen’s diary, the day after she was deposed, she visited the royal mausoleum and later traveled by carriage to her cottage at Waikiki to take a swim, trying to calm herself from the enormity of what had happened.
When she returned to Washington Place, she received a note from the provisional government ordering her to permanently take down her personal flag, which greatly distressed her because she had understood the new government would allow Hawaii’s royal flags to continue to fly.
Jansen, who will travel to New York on March 27, said he feels an enormous responsibility as the courier of Liliuokalani’s Royal Standard, which will remain beside him as carry-on luggage on the plane home from New York to Honolulu.
“I will be treating the queen’s personal flag as representing the queen herself. It has mana. The flag is an important piece of the story of Hawaii coming back to the people after more than a century,” said Jansen.
** Photo caption
Washington Place 175th anniversary ceremonies.
The Royal Standard once flew over Washington Place until Queen Liliuokalani was forced to take it down after she was overthrown. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2022)
He will also be bringing back the personal letters and documents of Col. John Soper [Provisional Government], who was in charge of the military troops that amassed, banding together to threaten violence if the queen did not step down peacefully.
The estate of Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kawananakoa and Damon Estate heiress Brendan Damon Ethington have each donated $30,000 for a total of $60,000 to prevent the historically valuable materials from ending up in the hands of private collectors.
Bonhams had initially intended to sell the property in an online auction, but the London-based company stopped that plan after the Hawaii Attorney General’s Office sent a letter saying the items rightfully belonged to the state.
However, Honolulu sword and antiques dealer Robert Benson — the owner of the property that had commissioned Bonhams auction house to sell the items — refused to relinquish the documents and the flag.
He had purchased them from Soper’s descendants eight years ago in San Francisco.
Robbie Alm, special administrator for Kawananakoa’s estate, then persuaded Benson to sell the Royal Standard to him.
Ethington also dealt directly with Benson to purchase Soper’s letters and documents.
Both parties agreed to subsequently donate the items to the state.
Alm said Kawananakoa’s estate became involved because “the princess hated seeing treasures of Hawaiian history put up for sale online.”
Kawananakoa, who died in December, held no formal title, but her lineage included the royal family that long ruled the islands.
Alm said it drove her crazy to see artifacts and documents important to understanding Hawaii’s history locked up in private collections with no public access.
“She wanted people to have the opportunity to live and breathe history,” he said.
Benson, the collector who owned the flag and Soper’s papers for eight years, said he was well aware of their historic value.
“I will be treating the queen’s personal flag as representing the queen herself.
State Archivist Adam Jansen
He told me in a phone conversation in October that he had tried many times to get the state archives interested in buying them and had brought them to the attention of Kamehameha Schools, but there were no takers.
“Robert Benson is the person who preserved and protected the flag and documents. We have them today because of him,” said attorney Jim Wright.
Wright — trustee for Kawananakoa’s revocable living trust — helped the Kawananakoa estate negotiate with Benson to buy the Royal Standard.
The state archivist has said the queen’s Royal Standard shouldn’t be used as a “war trophy.”
That was what happened after the overthrow when Soper took the queen’s flag as his personal property.
Queen LiliuokalaniHawaiian Queen Liliuokalani. (Wikimedia Commons)
Soper was the Honolulu businessman Sanford Dole selected to lead the armed troops in the overthrow. After the Hawaiian queen stepped down, Dole made Soper the commander-in-chief of the military forces of the provisional government of Hawaii.
Soper later served as the top military leader in the Republic of Hawaii and through the first decade of the Territory of Hawaii. Hawaii became a state in 1959.
Jansen said Soper’s writings are enormously valuable and will provide scholars and others new insights from the top military leader of the overthrow and the opportunity to read in his own handwriting his attempts to justify the dethronement of a sovereign monarch.
“I am just glad I was able to help the archives get the documents,” said Ethington, whose great-grandfather Samuel Mills Damon was finance minister in King David Kalakaua’s Cabinet. He did not participate in the overthrow but was made vice president and later finance minister of the provisional government that followed.
Ethington said as a history major at Yale she became aware of the importance of primary documents to students and scholarly researchers.
“There is nothing better than the firsthand documents of the times. They should be protected and available to the public, not in private collections. How will we know what happened if we don’t have access to the actual writing of the people who were there?” she said in an interview.
Jansen said once the documents are returned the public will have multiple ways to see them both at the archives and in digitized form on the internet, with hard copies of the documents to be placed in Iolani Palace.
Alm said he hopes Liliuokalani’s flag can be returned to Washington Place since it was originally taken from there.
** Photo caption
Col. John Harris Soper disarming Queen Liluokalani’s household guard after the overthrow. (Wikimedia Commons)
But Jansen said that will have to be part of an ongoing discussion because the queen’s former residence lacks the preservation capability of a museum.
Jansen said he hopes the return of the queen’s personal flag will make history resonate for the people of Hawaii in a way it might not have before.
“It is not just the piece of cloth but who owned it, what it signified. It can never be duplicated,” he said.
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** Ken Conklin's online comment
It's good that Col. Soper's personal papers will be available in Hawaii for research.
Lili'uokalani said in her surrender letter of January 17, 1893 that she was surrendering to the U.S. But we know that was a diplomatic ruse -- she hoped her friend the newly elected President Grover Cleveland would undo the overthrow.
She knew her surrender was actually not to the U.S. but to the Provisional Government -- we know that because she had her letter delivered to PG headquarters (so PG would not attack her), not to U.S. headquarters (where nobody was planning to attack her). And we know it was a ruse because we see the photo of her troops actually handing over their guns to Col. Soper of the PG., not to U.S. Minister Stevens nor to Captain Wiltse of the U.S.S. Boston.
Col. Soper's affidavit of Dec. 4, 1893 to U.S. Congress on pp. 810-811 of the Morgan Report says PG had more weapons than royalists and had strong determination to use them if necessary for the revolution to succeed. The local men in the armed militia of PG were the guys who did the overthrow, not U.S. troops.
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http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2023/03/ke-aupuni-update-march-2023-legacy-of.html
Free Hawaii blog Monday March 27, 2023
Ke Aupuni Update
Legacy of Colonialism
A couple of years ago, Alaska and Hawaii held a virtual press conference at the Geneva Press Club to point out the UNʻs double standard regarding colonialism and the right to self-determination. It stirred up some spirited discussion and resulted a few months later with the Human Rights Council (HRC) passing Resolution HRC 48/7, titled: Negative impact of the legacies of colonialism on the enjoyment of human rights. The resolution calls on all UN bodies and UN member states to bring an end to the remaining vestiges of colonialism. The questions are: Is there the political will to do so? And if so, How to go about ending these vestiges of colonialism?
In the open debate about implementation of Resolution 48/7 this past September, about 80% of the Council members made strong statements decrying colonialism. But not a single suggestion was made on how to end colonialism. They all said it will be a difficult, monumental task, thus rationalizing inaction, when actually, decolonization does not have to be complicated at all.
From 2014–2016 the Decolonization Alliance a group that I chaired in New York, held a series of dialogs to jumpstart the United Nationsʻ decolonization process. Some of those talks were sponsored by the United Methodist Church asking what they could do to initiate acts of repentance to make amends for the damage they caused by their involvement in colonialism.
The Methodist Church is a prominent denomination in Palau so a few days after one of those dialogs, I had a conversation with Ambassador Caleb Otto from Palau and asked him what he would recommend the church could do as an act of repentance for its role in colonialism. Without hesitation, he said, “breastfeeding”. I was taken aback and asked, “what do you mean, breastfeeding”?
Ambassador Otto said that as an act of repentance, the Methodist Churches in Palau could start by encouraging young mothers and mothers-to-be, to breastfeed their babies. He said that the incessant decades-long campaign by milk-producing corporations (from colonizing countries) convinced Palauan mothers that baby formula was much better than breast-feeding. This has ruined the health of generations of formula-fed babies, and consequently ruined the health of his nation.
If the church as an act of repentance was to promote breastfeeding it would immediately improve the health of children of Palau, and eliminate many later-in-life diseases, thus strengthening the nation.
More importantly, it would serve to repudiate other insipid, manipulative colonial lies that were used to intimidate and subjugate people by denigrating their indigenous ways and introducing foreign ways that assert, “our way is much better than your way” and “we have come to free you ignorant savages from your miserable lives”...
What are those lies that we swallowed? We are lazy. We are stupid. We are inferior. We are incompetent. Our language, culture and traditional ways are antiquated and irrelevant. Over time, this denigration developed into a deep and pervasive lack of confidence in oneʻs very existence, which in turn developed into the “Stockholm Syndrome” where people lose their own identity, values, lifestyle, culture and take on the identity and attributes of their tormentors.
Itʻs not complicated. As we approach the restoration of the Hawaiian Islands as a sovereign state, we need to huli (flip) the American colonial mindset and habits and restore our peopleʻs identity, dignity and confidence as Hawaiians in a Hawaiian nation...
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
SIGN THIS PETITION
Rename McKinley High School and remove the McKinley statue! He was the president who turned Hawaii from a peaceful, neutral country into a major hub of America’s war machine. Sign this online petition NOW! Tell everyone you know to sign it too! TinyURL.com/AlohaOeMcKinley
PLEASE KŌKUA
Your kōkua, large or small, is vital to this effort
To contribute, go to:
• GoFundMe – CAMPAIGN TO FREE HAWAII
• PayPal – use account email: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
• Other – To contribute in other ways (airline miles, travel vouchers, volunteer services, etc...) email us at: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
“FREE HAWAII” T-SHIRTS - etc.
Check out the great FREE HAWAII products you can purchase at
http://www.robkajiwara.com/store/c8/free_hawaii_products
All proceeds are used to help the cause. MAHALO!
Malama Pono, Leon Siu, Hawaiian National
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http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2023/04/ke-aupuni-update-april-2023-pope.html
Free Hawaii blog Saturday April 15 2023
Ke Aupuni Update
Pope Francis Repudiates Colonialism
On March 30, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church issued a stunning statement repudiating the “Doctrine of Discovery”. This is the doctrine that emerged from the “Papal Bulls”, edicts issued over 500 years ago by various Popes, that gave license (blessings) to European countries to colonize and plunder the lands of peoples who were not Christians. The Doctrine of Discovery is the very basis for the vestiges of colonialism which are still embedded in today’s dominant global culture and economic system.
In the 1800s while the rest of the Pacific nations (and much of the rest of the world) became colonies of European powers, because the Hawaiian Kingdom was a profoundly Christian nation, the major colonial countries of the day recognized the Hawaiian Kingdom as a sovereign state. Which is what 50 years later, made the U.S. hand in overthrowing and annexing the Hawaiian Kingdom even more egregious.
The US could not apply the ʻDoctrine of Discoveryʻ to take Hawaii. So what they resorted to was... out-and-out piracy.
In order to “annex” Hawaii, the US pretended Hawaii was not a sovereign state. They used fake news to depict Hawaiians as a bunch of ignorant, incompetent heathens, whose leaders begged the US to rescue Hawaii from its heathen ways.
At the time, Americans (and Europeans) were steeped in racial prejudices (white supremacy), and the campaign of Manifest Destiny, a ‘mission from God’ to spread Americanism overseas). So they justified taking the Hawaiian Islands as a gracious and noble thing to do.
But what about those countries with Hawaiian Kingdom treaties? They looked the other way! For they too were engaged in grabbing Pacific Islands and huge tracts of lands throughout the world. They couldn’t tell the US to back down from Hawaii when they themselves were doing not only the same thing, but worse! Besides, they saw us Hawaiians as dark-skinned like the other people they were colonizing. The colonial system believed whites should rule over non-whites.
So, when the US “annexed” Hawaii, no one blinked. Although Hawaii was not a colony, the US proceeded to treat Hawaii as a colony, just like all the other colonizers treated their colonies.
As Dr. Alfred deZayas states in his memorandum, “Hawaii is under a strange form of occupation.” He could have just as easily said “Hawaii is under a strange form of colonization”.
The Pope’s statement repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery is good, but it does not change policy. In discussing the issue with a Vatican theologian a while back (like 10 years ago) he said, “What is there to rescind? There hasn’t been colonization for years.” To some degree he is right.
In 1946, the 51 founding members of the United Nations agreed that one of the primary goals of the UN would be to decolonize the rest (75%) of the world. It was a huge success. The UN has added 142 countries to its original membership; about 80 came through the UN’s decolonization process and the rest through wars of liberation and the breakup of larger countries like the Soviet Union.
There are still 17 territories left on the UNʻs decolonization list. But there are many more, perhaps 50-100 that should be considered.
Hawaii and Alaska fall into the category of territories that have already been decolonized. That happened through devious manipulation of the decolonization process by the fake plebiscites in Alaska (1958) and Hawaii (1959) that were used to manufacture consent to statehood. This is why our path to Free Hawaii is to initiate a call for the General Assembly to conduct a review of its role in validating the statehood of Alaska and Hawaii.
The review will cause the General Assembly to uncover the US fraud that caused the GA to erroneously adopt Resolution 1469. In finding the error, the GA would be obligated to rescind Resolution 1469, nullifying the US claim to Hawaii and, by default, releasing the Hawaiian Kingdom to resume governance over the Hawaiian Islands.
Getting the UN to rescind 1469 is a much more direct and immediate way to Free Hawaii than rescinding the Papal Bulls and the Doctrine of Discovery.
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
SIGN THIS PETITION
Rename McKinley High School and remove the McKinley statue! He was the president who turned Hawaii from a peaceful, neutral country into a major hub of America’s war machine. Sign this online petition NOW! Tell everyone you know to sign it too! TinyURL.com/AlohaOeMcKinley
PLEASE KŌKUA
Your kōkua, large or small, is vital to this effort
To contribute, go to:
• GoFundMe – CAMPAIGN TO FREE HAWAII
• PayPal – use account email: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
• Other – To contribute in other ways (airline miles, travel vouchers, volunteer services, etc...) email us at: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
“FREE HAWAII” T-SHIRTS - etc.
Check out the great FREE HAWAII products you can purchase at
http://www.robkajiwara.com/store/c8/free_hawaii_products
All proceeds are used to help the cause. MAHALO!
Malama Pono, Leon Siu, Hawaiian National
---------------------
https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/04/oha-abandons-commitment-to-self-governance/
Honolulu Civil Beat online newspaper Tuesday April 18, 2023
OHA Abandons Commitment To Self-Governance
Under its new strategic plan, the agency has defaulted on one of the primary reasons it was created in the first place.
By Peter Apo
The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has been a dominant subject of Hawaii’s mainstream media, capturing headlines these past weeks over several hot-button political face-offs.
I tracked the news with the intention to write a column on the OHA issues already under media scrutiny when an April 7 Honolulu Star-Advertiser interview of OHA CEO Sylvia Hussey caught my attention.
The interview included the question; “OHA’s 2021 strategic plan no longer emphasizes creating a governing entity. Is that off the table?”
Her answer seemed to skirt the question, so I curiously referenced OHA’s website section framing OHA’s current strategic priorities. What I found had me in disbelief.
Following the 2018 election the board of trustees proceeded to develop a new strategic plan titled Mana I Mauli Ola and subtitled OHA’s 15 Year Strategic Plan For 2020-2035. The previous plan included self-governance as one of six strategic objectives.
The new plan narrowed the objectives from six to three. Self-governance fell to the wayside as no longer pertinent to its mission. I was shocked because by removing self-governance from its umbrella of strategic priorities OHA has defaulted on one of the primary reasons it was created in the first place.
OHA was fundamentally created to provide a home for a Hawaiian national consciousness that survived that epic day in 1893 when the Hawaiian Nation was brought to its knees. So in 1978 when OHA was constitutionally created the expectation was that they would lead the way to restoring some self-governance model of nationhood.
It would require generating a statewide dialogue with the Hawaiian people to democratically define what that model would look like. OHA would then pursue building a framework to re-establish some form of a Hawaiian government at which point the baton of authority and assets would be passed to the new governance structure.
OHA was never meant to be forever self-perpetuating. The constitutional lynchpin for OHA pursuing self-governance was a linked provision legalizing a Hawaiians only election applied to both trustee candidates and voters.
That provision was challenged and then struck down by the Hawai’i Supreme Court. This closed the door on what was intended to be a historic opportunity for Hawaiians to exercise self-determination in shaping a preferred future springing from a sense of Hawaiian nationhood.
The loss of the only Native Hawaiians can vote provision created a much steeper climb for OHA to clear a path leading to self-determination, requiring a higher level of planning, commitment of resources, and extraordinary leadership.
The ’78 Con Con
OHA’s existing quasi-independence from many state policies governing state agencies was a gift of the 1978 constitutional convention that created OHA. That provision was intended to give OHA some breathing room from restrictive state policies to exercise a limited level of independence in pursuing some model of self-governance.
But, the existing quasi-independence is not supposed to be OHA’s final resting place. The confusing question keeps popping up whether OHA is a state agency or not.
The answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no. The final answer is left to an OHA-led initiative by which Hawaiians self-determine a preferred model of self-governance.
To be fair, in 2016, OHA provided financial support for a Native Hawaiian community-based constitutional convention which resulted in a constitution to establish a Native Hawaiian government entity.
Referred to as the Native Hawaiian Aha (meeting) the intention was to establish a framework for a process on how to achieve self-governance. Emerging from the dialogue of the 125 delegates was a wide spectrum of ideology on what Native Hawaiians should do.
The options went in every direction, which included federal recognition by the United States government, the re-establishment of the overthrown Hawaiian Kingdom, or the creation of an independent nation to name a few. These and other options were left open subject to ratification of the document by the Native Hawaiian community. The document is titled Constitution of the Native Hawaiian Nation.
The Aha adjourned with a call for ratification of the document by Native Hawaiians. It sits in limbo. Next steps are yet to materialize. This might be a great opportunity perhaps for OHA to pick up the baton of self-determination.
I would hope that trustees of the existing board will do the right thing and reconsider the previous board’s abandonment of self-governance. Imua.
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** Online comment by Samuel Wilder King II, 2022 candidate for OHA board
Peter, reading this article made my day. You and I strongly disagree here as we both know. Native Hawaiian race-based self-governance through OHA was an historic aberration. Prior to Cook’s arrival, these islands had no single name and the inhabitants had no single ‘racial’ or ‘national’ identity. We fought constantly. It was only after the imperial conquests of the Hawaiians from Hawaii island, which wiped out the Mauians and Oahuans, that the islands eventually became know as “Hawaii” and that the race of “Hawaiians” was created. Prior to that it was “Sandwich Islanders”. And in fact, “Hawaiians” should never have meant “prior to 1778 folks” because Hawaii the nation-state was created by a multi-ethnic coalition of Hawaii-island-Hawaiians and Europeans. After that, every person born in Hawaii was a Hawaiian. We were one of the first post-racial societies! There were no race-restrictive citizenship laws. In later constitutions the monarchy itself was reserved to “alii maoli” or “alii hanau o ka aina”, but those are class-based restrictions more than race. Thus, creating a race-based governing structure for Hawaiians is a violation of our history. Im glad OHA has stopped trying.
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** Ken Conklin's note:
Peter Apo made a big error when he said "The constitutional lynchpin for OHA pursuing self-governance was a linked provision legalizing a Hawaiians only election applied to both trustee candidates and voters.
THAT PROVISION WAS CHALLENGED AND THEN STRUCK DOWN BY THE HAWAI’I SUPREME COURT."
As we all know, and Apo SHOULD know, it was the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down the racial restriction in voting in Rice v. Cayetano; and it was the federal lawsuit Arakaki v. State which struck down the racial restriction on candidacy.
Apo provided several clickable links in his essay; but somehow he never gave a link to the proposed Constitution he discussed, which was published by a racially exclusive Constitutional Convention paid for by OHA in 2016. Both the 4-page declaration and 14-page constitution are available on the Civil Beat archives at
https://www.civilbeat.org/2016/02/native-hawaiian-constitution-adopted/
In 2016 I saved the Constitution on my website as a pdf file which can be copy/pasted, at
https://big09.angelfire.com/NatHwnConstitAdopt022616.pdf
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Ken Conklin' note: Honolulu Civil Beat refused to publish a response by OHA board member Mililani Trask, which was then published several weeks later on the Free Hawaii blog at
http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-article-honolulu-civil-beat.html
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https://www.hawaiipublicradio.org/local-news/2023-04-20/gov-green-designates-nov-28-as-la-kuokoa-hawaiian-independence-day
Hawaii Public Radio Thursday April 20, 2023
Gov. Green designates Nov. 28 as Lā Kūʻokoʻa, Hawaiian Independence Day
By Kuʻuwehi Hiraishi
Gov. Josh Green signed into law Senate Bill 731 on Wednesday, which recognizes and commemorates Hawaiian Independence Day.
The measure designates Nov. 28 as Lā Kūʻokoʻa to celebrate the historical recognition of the independence of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Native Hawaiian leaders from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Association for Hawaiian Civic Clubs joined Green for the signing of the bill at the Hawaiʻi State Capitol.
It was on that day in 1843 that Hawaiʻi was formally recognized as an independent nation by other world powers including England, France and the United States of America.
State Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, chair of the Senate Native Hawaiian Caucus, introduced the bill.
"The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was the first non-European country whose independence was recognized by the major European powers. And this has a long tradition here in Hawaiʻi, this is a part of our Hawaiian history, our community history," Keohokalole said.
Nov. 28 will not be a paid state holiday under the bill, but the recognition will help bolster renewed efforts in recent years to celebrate what was once a national holiday in the islands.
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** Detailed explanation and rebuttal by Ken Conklin
On November 28, 1843 one low-level diplomat from France and one low-level diplomat from England met together in a small room in Europe and signed two copies of a document written in side-by-side French and English languages acknowledging that Hawaii was an independent nation, and agreeing with each other that they would not invade Hawaii or seek to take it over. It was a mutual non-aggression pact between England and France, was not addressed to any Hawaiian, and was not a treaty with Hawaii. But the King of Hawaii, Kauikeaouli Kamehameha III, considered it so important that in 1847 he proclaimed November 28 to be a permanent holiday "La Ku'oko'a" [Independence Day], which continued to be celebrated for many years although with diminishing fervor. After the Hawaiian revolution of 1893 which overthrew the monarchy, the revolutionary provisional government morphed into the permanent Republic of Hawaii, which was still the same independent nation under new leadership and therefore kept the same flag and the same holidays, although Hawaii's Independence Day had already faded into more of an observance rather than a huge national celebration, somewhat like Washington's Birthday now called Presidents Day in the U.S.
In 2022 and 2023 the legislature of the State of Hawaii, and all four of Hawaii's county councils, worked to pass resolutions celebrating the event of 180 years ago and urging its revival by the governor and the county mayors under the name "Hawaiian Independence Day." The resolutions seem to be merely benign affirmations of ethnic pride celebrating a now-obscure event from nearly two centuries ago. But in fact the "whereas" clauses of the resolutions make clear they are a thinly-veiled call for Hawaii to secede from the United States -- an assertion that Hawaii remains an independent nation because the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy was the illegal result of an armed invasion by USA [false]; and that the 1898 annexation of Hawaii by USA was an illegal grabbing of Hawaii in the absence of a treaty of annexation [false]. The resolutions' whereas clauses, in the obscurity of the "fine print", interpret historical events about Hawaii's independence from more than a century ago, but the headline screams "Hawaiian Independence Day" as though it's a current fact and a demand for the future. The peculiar local usage of the word "Hawaiian" is the name of a race, not a place; so calling it "Hawaiian Independence Day" is a call for a future of racial separatism and ethnic nationalism; rather than a reminder about the multiracial Kingdom of Hawaii and Republic of Hawaii -- they truly were a historically independent nation which included native-born or naturalized Asians and Whites who were fully equal with voting rights, property rights, and many holding high positions as government officials. Historic grievances mentioned in the whereas clauses set the stage for renewed demands for reparations in the form of land, money and political power, similar to the way the 1993 Congressional "apology resolution" has been used for 30 years. Indeed Esther Kia'aina, one of those Honolulu councilmembers pushing the current resolution, was a major writer of the apology resolution in 1993, while another current councilmember, Andria Tupola, was Hawaii Republican candidate for Governor in 2018 on a platform calling for Hawaii independence. The fact that the council members pushing the La Ku'oko'a resolution are ethnic Hawaiians is yet another illustration that voters should be very cautious about electing ethnic Hawaiians to government leadership positions where they seem likely to abuse their power to cajole or intimidate other leaders to go along with race-nationalism or racial entitlement programs because of a desire to foster diversity, equity, inclusiveness, and harmony.
A webpage provides links to details about some general topics mentioned here, followed by full text of the original and slightly amended versions of the Honolulu version of the La Ku'oko'a resolution and full text of Ken Conklin's written testimonies.
https://www.angelfire.com/big11a/CCHonResoLaKuokoa.html
The State of Hawaii bill leading to Governor Green's bill-signing ceremony was SB731. Text of the bill, along with all written testimony in three committee hearings, and committee reports, are at
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=731&year=2023
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http://freehawaii.blogspot.com/2023/04/ke-aupuni-update-april-2023-issue-of.html
Free Hawaii blog Saturday April 29, 2023
Ke Aupuni Update
The Issue of Nationality
As soon as the fake annexation was executed in 1898, the traitors who sold out the Hawaiian Kingdom to the U.S., launched a rigorous denationalization campaign to erase any vestige of Hawaiian nationality and identity with the Hawaiian Kingdom. After three generations of relentless indoctrination, virtually all Hawaiians believed Hawaii was a “state” of America and that they (we) were all Americans.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that some began to see the United States’ claim to the Hawaiian Islands was fraudulent and began to challenge U.S. citizenship.
Why is this important?
When Hawaii is restored as a sovereign independent nation, Who will be its people? Who gets to make decisions and operate the nation? And for what purposes and for whose benefit? As an independent country, Hawaii needs its own people—its nationals—to be in charge.
What is a “Hawaiian National”?
A Hawaiian National (a.k.a. Hawaiian subject) is a person who considers the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands to be his or her home country. It is based not on ethnicity, but on one’s aloha ʻāina, love and loyalty to Hawaiʻi.
What’s the down side?
• The United States and the “Fake State” refuse to accept the Hawaiian Kingdom still exists, so treat Hawaiian Nationals in the Hawaiian Islands as illegal aliens... and often worse.
• This makes it difficult and even risky for Hawaiian Nationals to carry on many everyday activities such as driving automobiles, using banking services, obtaining employment, obtaining housing, traveling by air, paying taxes, etc.
• Until “the huli” (the flip) comes, Hawaiian nationals run the risk of discrimination, harassment, intimidation, coercion, prosecution, and jail by the U.S. and the “Fake State”.
What’s the up side?
• The U.S. occupation will end soon. Although the U.S. suppression of Hawaiian Nationals has been going on for over a hundred years, the injustices and abuses are being exposed and vigorously challenged.
• The more people claim and transition to their identity as Hawaiian Nationals, the more visible and tangible our nation becomes to our people and the world, the quicker the occupation will end.
Why should one become a Hawaiian National?
• To ‘come home’ and place your allegiance with the country to which you belong;
• To make the Hawaiian Kingdom visible as a nation with actual people;
• To participate in the reactivation and restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom;
• To participate in re-building our nation.
Start asking yourself these questions: What is your nationality? Is it Hawaiian or American? To which country do you wish to belong? Start setting your sights and ordering your lives accordingly, so when the opportunity arrives, youʻll be ready to make the move to come home.
“Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station.” — Queen Liliʻuokalani
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
"And remember, for the latest updates and information about the Hawaiian Kingdom check out the twice-a-month Ke Aupuni Updates published online on Facebook and other social media."
PLEASE KŌKUA
Your kōkua, large or small, is vital to this effort
To contribute, go to:
• GoFundMe – CAMPAIGN TO FREE HAWAII
• PayPal – use account email: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
• Other – To contribute in other ways (airline miles, travel vouchers, volunteer services, etc...) email us at: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
“FREE HAWAII” T-SHIRTS - etc.
Check out the great FREE HAWAII products you can purchase at
http://www.robkajiwara.com/store/c8/free_hawaii_products
All proceeds are used to help the cause. MAHALO!
Malama Pono, Leon Siu, Hawaiian National
** Ken Conklin's note: There's something significant missing from Leon Siu's message. For the last couple of years, every one of Leon Siu's two monthly "Ke Aupuni Update"s included the following item in his laundry list of requests to readers: "SIGN THIS PETITION: Rename McKinley High School and remove the McKinley statue! He was the president who turned Hawaii from a peaceful, neutral country into a major hub of America’s war machine. Sign this online petition NOW! Tell everyone you know to sign it too! TinyURL.com/AlohaOeMcKinley" But the legislature has finished introducing all the bills and resolutions it wants to pass for this year, and there is no resolution this year to remove McKinley's name and statue. Last year there was such a resolution which received a hearing in the Committee on Education; and there were such a huge number of testimonies in opposition from McKinley alumni that the committee trashed it, even though the committee leadership pushed hard to pass it. Leon Siu said earlier this year that the same resolution would be offered again; but apparently the leadership decided not to hold a hearing on it. Leon Siu waited as long as possible in hope to pass it, but apparently has now given up on it and no longer mentions it. The people of Hawaii have spoken loud and clear, and even those legislators who are sympathetic to Hawaiian secessionists know they must heed public opinion. Poor Leon. It's sad to see such a nice fellow being so delusional as to say in this newest Aupuni Update: "The U.S. occupation [of Hawaii] will end soon." Sheesh!
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https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/04/30/editorial/insight/column-u-s-imperialism-and-hawaiis-place-in-history/
Honolulu Star-Advertiser Sunday April 30, 2023, Commentary
U.S. imperialism and Hawaii’s place in history
By Tom Coffman
** 3 Photo captions
Tom Coffman
COURTESY NATIONAL ARCHIVES
The Ku‘e (Protest) Petition of 1897 showed the mass opposition of Native Hawaiians to United States annexation.
COURTESY HAWAI‘I STATE ARCHIVES
“Portrait of Queen Lili‘uokalani,” oil on canvas by William F. Cogswell, c. 1891-92.
A yearlong exhibit provocatively titled “1898, Imperial Visions and Revisions,” opened Friday at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., with Hawai‘i as a major subject. Given the National Gallery’s prominence, the exhibit may further illuminate for Americans how and why the United States took over the Hawaiian islands.
The invitation features William Cogswell’s portrait of Lili‘uokalani as queen of the nation-state of Hawai‘i. This monumental painting is on loan from ‘Iolani Palace in a transaction that, in the telling of a curator, “took a village” to effect.
The exhibit’s long and wide reach is laid out in 93 panels that hinge on the 1898 Spanish-American War and ranges from Cuba and Puerto Rico to Hawai‘i, Guam and the Philippines — widely disparate elements that cry out for integration.
Underlying the imperial scenario was a three-fold plan, elaborated most explicitly by Theodore Roosevelt, Naval Capt. Alfred Mahan, and U.S. Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, all portrait subjects: #1 — build a first-rate navy; #2 — secure the sea lanes to Latin America and Asia; and #3 — dig a canal across the isthmus of Central America to facilitate trade and provide a rapid passage from Atlantic to Pacific in the event of a two-ocean war.
Much of the exhibit’s front one-third reinforces the extant notion that the Spanish-American war was about Cuba when its more enduring legacy is Hawai‘i and the Pacific. Only on the 39th panel does the visitor come to an 11-panel section on Hawai‘i.
Lorrin Thurston, who promoted the overthrow of the monarchy, is here, along with his committee of 13 annexationists. Crucially, the mass opposition of Native Hawaiians to annexation is documented by a page blow-up from the Ku‘e (Protest) Petition. This is the mass petition displayed in its entirety with great impact throughout Hawai‘i in the 1998 centennial observance, overturning the colonizing myth that Hawaiians welcomed becoming part of the United States. The Queen Lili‘uokalani’s autobiography, “Hawai‘i’s Story,” is also on display, along with a Hawaiian flag quilt.
The rest of the Hawai‘i section is a lost educational opportunity. In a visually feeble cartoon, Uncle Sam looks down at Pearl Harbor and announces, “This Property Not For Sale.” It is a trivialization that fails to capture a central truth, namely that acquiring a sheltered, deep-draft harbor in the central Pacific drove U.S. policy for decades.
Maj. John Schofield (as in Schofield Barracks) scouted what the Hawaiians called Pu‘uloa in 1873. Pursuit of exclusive access was the real goal of U.S. participation in the Treaty of Reciprocity during the 1870s and 1880s. The network of American expansionists eagerly supported the 1893 overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom, which led to the 1898 annexation.
Today Cuba is a hazy memory, Puerto Rico is an unresolved territorial question mark, and the Philippines is long gone as a U.S. colony. One hundred and twenty-five years later, Pearl Harbor remains the headquarters for projecting American force throughout the Indo-Pacific command, what the White House calls “the world’s center of gravity,” with more than half of the world population and two-thirds of the world economy.
Despite my misgivings, I applaud the National Gallery and the curators — Kate LeMay and Taina Carogol by name — who have taken a certain risk to address the question of imperialism. In today’s polarized environment, when the history of Jim Crow and systemic racism are attacked as “woke,” a national exploration of imperialism may be a similar flashpoint. Accordingly, the Gallery deserves credit for taking on a difficult subject.
How this leap of history occurred, even the fact that it did occur, has been obscured by disbelief and misleading iconography. My hope is that “1898, Imperial Visions and Revisions” will help us to speak more honestly about Hawai‘i and these other places as well. The exhibit is to run through February 2024. An amplifying website is in the works for midsummer, as is a multiauthor catalog co-published by Princeton University Press. If this is the first you have heard of “1898,” it is possibly not the last.
—
“1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions”
Now through Feb. 25, 2024
National Portrait Gallery: 8th and G streets, NW
Washington, D.C
Here is the Smithsonian Institution’s description of the exhibit:
On the 125th anniversary of the Spanish-American-Cuban-Philippine War, “1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions” is the first exhibition to examine this pivotal period through the lens of portraiture and visual culture. The year 1898 witnessed the United States become an empire with overseas territories, and by placing portraits of U.S. expansionists in dialogue with portraits of those who dissented.
This exhibition revisits this important period of history through multifaceted viewpoints. With more than 90 artworks from collections in Puerto Rico, the Philippines, Guam, Spain, and the United States, “1898: U.S. Imperial Visions and Revisions” illuminates the complications and consequences of the Spanish-American War (1898), the Congressional Joint Resolution to annex Hawai‘i (July 1898), and the Philippine-American War (1899–1913).
Tom Coffman is the author of “Nation Within, The American Occupation of Hawai‘i,”; his most recent works are “Inclusion” and “How Social Work Changed Hawai‘i.”
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** Dialog of several online comments:\ by Ken Conklin and several other readers:
Conklin:
The isolationists vs. expansionists rivalry has been a feature of U.S. history for about 150 years. That rivalry was the main focus of politics in the see-saw Presidential elections of Grover Cleveland (Dem elected 1884), Benjamin Harrison (Repub elected 1888), Grover Cleveland (Dem elected 1892), William McKinley (Repub elected 1896 & 1900).
Tom Coffman has spent decades pushing isolationism, adopting the hate-America Marxist views now dominant among Dems alleging Hawaii was/is victim of U.S. imperialism, colonialism, oppression. Smithsonian Magazine has run several major articles focusing on Hawaii in this way; so no surprise about the Dem-controlled National Portrait Gallery hosting this Smithsonian exhibition (and editors of this newspaper touting it).
For an in-depth analysis from an opposite viewpoint, google this webpage title including quote marks:
"Book Review of William M. Morgan Ph.D., PACIFIC GIBRALTAR: U.S.-JAPANESE RIVALRY OVER THE ANNEXATION OF HAWAII, 1885-1898"
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** Hanalei395 wrote:
With the encouragement of Lorrrin Thurston to annex the Hawaiian Islands, Benjamin Harrison sent the U.S. Marines, Jan.,1893. After being sworn in U.S. President, March, 1893, Grover Cleveland ordered a[[ U.S. flags taken down, and all U.S. troops out of Hawai'i.
** Conklin replied:
Sworn testimony under cross-examination by the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, along with modern research, shows that President Harrison did not order, and was not aware, of the landing of 162 U.S. troops in 1893 to protect American lives & property. Remember, there was no telegraph, telephone, or internet back then. The decision was made by the local U.S. "Minister" (ambassador) Stevens and ship Captain Wiltse (USS Boston) in response to the emergency of conflicting meetings of revolutionaries at the Armory vs. angry royalists on Palace grounds threatening riots and arson against downtown businesses and nearby homes when the Queen announced that her cabinet refused to endorse her attempt to proclaim a new Constitution. Situation somewhat similar to today's actions by U.S. in Sudan, and a few years ago in Haiti and Africa. Also note that all the few remaining U.S. troops were sent back to ship a few weeks later; therefore no "occupation" of Hawaii from Spring 1893 to 1898 annex.
Hanalei 395 wrote:
"protect American lives & property".
The property the Marine invaders took over were Ali'iolani Hale and 'Iolani Palace, ... NOT "American property".
And the "American lives" were American immigrants and settlers who became citizens of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, ... then turned traitors, .. and welcomed the U.S. Marine invaders, an Act of War by the United States.
Queen Lili'uokalani did not want a war with the United States, ... and surrendered ONLY to the U.S., and not to the White supremacist militia, the Honolulu Rifles
Conklin replied:
You are absurdly, ridiculously wrong in saying "The property the Marine invaders took over were Ali'iolani Hale and 'Iolani Palace." They did NOT invade or take over ANY buildings, not a single one. Every historian agrees on this. Even the "Hawaiian Studies" teachers never say such nonsense. You should be ashamed for telling such lies.
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Hanalei395 wrote:
After President Cleveland telling Sanford Dole to restore the Hawaiian Monarchy, Dole replied with this: .... "Another country cannot tell a sovereign nation what to do".
Conklin replied:
Yes. Correct. That proves the Provisional Government and Republic were NOT a U.S. puppet regime. In December 1893 Pres. Cleveland ordered 2 U.S. Navy ships to fire cannons and do mock landings simulating invasion to try to intimidate President Dole with gunboat diplomacy; but Dole stood strong and sent blistering 17-page protest letter to Cleveland's Minister in Honolulu; it's on my website. That situation was even more aggressive than what China did with bombers and battleships a couple weeks ago with Taiwan; but Dole stood strong. "Hawaiian Studies" courses never mention it. Google "Black Week Hawaii 1893" (it actually lasted 2 weeks).
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IslandAmes wrote:
It's time for you to take your anti-Hawaiian garbage somewhere else, Ken.
Conklin replied:
Not anti-Hawaiian -- only anti- race-based political sovereignty and anti-secession and anti- hate-America rhetoric. Not garbage -- thoroughly researched history with numerous heavily-footnoted webpages.
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** Marci wrote:
The 1997 petition against annexation included 21,269 signatures. That's very impressive given that the census for 1900 listed 37,656 native Hawaiians. It seems obvious that Hawaiians wanted a return to a Hawaiian monarchy some years after it had been dissolved in high-handed fashion.
But, the same 1900 census listed a total of 154,001 people on the islands. Native Hawaiians were less than a quarter of the population. Caucasians, at 28,819 were certainly overly influential in the provisional government and had bent the franchise to their will. That left the majority of people, non-native and non-caucasian without a voice in this power struggle. Who was peaking for the 61,111 ethnic Japanese? They were the plurality group at the time.
So, the US annexed Hawaii and granted citizenship to all born on the islands. It was actually a very democratic solution. Let's applaud that step while we regret the modified Jim Crow that followed territorial status in the next few decades.
Conklin gave 3 replies to Marci:
Thank you Marci. A databook on the OHA webpage, containing population figures provided by State of Hawai'i statistician Robert Schmitt, showed that in 1890 the Kingdom Census counted 40,622 pure or part Hawaiians representing 45% of the population; in 1896 the Republic Census counted 39,504 for 36% of the population; and in 1900 the U.S. Census counted 39,656 representing 26% of the population (there was substantial immigration from Japan (Kalakaua had personally visited Japan's emperor and asked him to send Japanese to Hawaii), China, and the U.S., causing the percentage of Hawaiians to drop dramatically because the number of them remained about the same).
In addition to the anti-annexation petition with 21,269 signatures, there was allegedly another petition containing over 17,000 signatures collected by a different organization. The trouble is, that second petition had a different purpose -- it called for Lili'uokalani to be restored to the throne! Hawaiian sovereignty activists like to add the numbers on the two petitions, for a total of around 38,000 to 39,000 signatures, which would represent virtually every native and part-native man, woman, and baby. But of course that's silly. The two petitions are on different topics. And probably everyone who signed the smaller petition (restore the queen) would have also signed the larger petition (stop annexation). Indeed, the gap of 4,000 signatures could be interpreted to mean that there were 4,000 natives who opposed annexation but also opposed restoring the monarchy and wanted the Republic of Hawai'i to continue as an independent nation under the coalition of white and Hawaiian oligarchs!
In addition, remember that the anti-annexation petition was available for everyone, regardless of race, to sign it. So far as I know, nobody has tried to count how many of the signatures were by people with no native blood; so it could be true that fewer than half of all ethnic Hawaiians signed the petition. Also remember that the petition organizers were traveling to every large and small town and hamlet throughout the islands asking (demanding!) that the natives sign it; so it took considerable courage for any native to say NO, I REFUSE TO SIGN IT. Group-think. Intimidation by neighbors you see every day. Also, an elected legislator wrote a rebuttal to the petition -- he said it was "normal procedure" for legislators to circulate blank petitions to get signatures and keep those in their homes or desks until they needed them, and then write the headline and topic at the top AFTER the signatures had already been gathered. He also noted numerous signatures in identical handwriting.
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whatevuh wrote:
Having just visited the National Portrait Gallery, I can say that the painting of Queen Lili‘uokalani looks spectacular in the room they selected. You can keep debating the history. The exhibit is well worth the price of admission !
Conklin replied:
I have seen that portrait as displayed in the Palace. It is very well-done; impressive. I have seen equally impressive portraits of numerous historical figures who were leaders in U.S., Germany, Russia, China, etc. Sone of those portraits were used for political propaganda, as in the current exhibit in D.C. Some of those propaganda exhibits in other countries in recent decades/centuries have glorified horrible dictators. Not saying that Lili'uokalani was such a horrible villain like some of them; only saying that it's a good idea to be careful about imagining that a leader's charismatic look or wealth or crowds of adoring followers is a reliable way to judge their character or actions. I guess the D.C. exhibit would be worth the price of admission, both for its aesthetic excellence and for the opportunity to learn how to keep objective historical judgment separate from emotional adulation.
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