Aloha kakou,
As many of you know, this month there will be three pivotal cases
challenging Native Hawaiian rights. Here is an outline of the protest
events planned for November 16, 17, and 18 of 2003!
Sunday, November 16, 2003
3 p.m. Ho`okupu at Mauna `Ala
4 p.m. March from Mauna `Ala to `Iolani Palace
Speeches, music and hula to follow through out the evening
Monday, November 17, 2003
Dawn Torch light march from `Iolani Palace to Federal Courthouse
Tuesday, November 18, 2003
9 a.m. Sign holding at the Federal Building
Bring conch shells, Hawaiian flags, your voices, your ‘ohana and
friends!
Contact information: 845-4652 ‘Īlio‘ulaokalani Coalition
www.ilio.org
Please feel free to pass the word along to people via e-mail, phone or
in person. We will need to make our presence know and our concerns
regarding the court cases:
1. Arakaki vs. State of Hawai‘i
2. Doe vs. Kamehameha Schools
3. Mohica-Cummings vs. Kamehameha Schools
If you are unable to attend the events, please make the time to contact
your representative (house, senate, and city and county) to voice your
position on these court cases.
If you would like to kokua further in this effort please contact
Ilio'ulaokalani at 845-4652 or visit their website: www.ilio.org
Ku I ka Pono
lahela perry
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The following article was published Sunday November 9 in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. It is interesting for several reasons. First, it is written in Hawaiian language. The Star-Bulletin has established a permanent Hawaiian-language column that published one or two articles every Sunday. Second, the article is about the protests planned for November 16-18, and strongly encourages supporters of race-based programs to come out in large numbers. Thus, the article is a thinly disguised advertisement for a political rally in support of entrenched government-supported racism. Third, the author, Mehana Ka'iama, is a recent graduate of Kamehameha School, whose mother is Manu Ka'iama, who is a professor of Business at the University of Hawai'i and is the coordinator of the Native Hawaiian Leadership Project which provides millions of dollars per year in federal funds exclusively for ethnic Hawaiians desiring scholarships to attend college ot for ethnic Hawaiian professors to do research, travel, and publication. Both the author and her mother are direct beneficiaries of money for racially exclusionary programs, and depend upon the continuance of such programs for their future livelihoods. Fourth, the article illustrates a frequent pattern in which money and resources given by government and major social institutions to assist Hawaiian cultural preservation are then turned into political activism -- in this case, the newspaper provides space and facilities for a Hawaiian language column to help the language thrive; but the column is then used for political purposes to "bite the hand that feeds it." Among many controversial and outright racist remarks in the following article is this sentence: "'O nä känaka maoli ka po'e nona këia 'äina." (The kanaka maoli [racially-defined Hawaiians] are the people to whom this land belongs)
http://starbulletin.com/2003/11/09/news/kauakukalahale.html
Mehana Ka'iama
Sunday, November 9, 2003
Ke Holo nei nä ‘Äweoweo
Synopsis: This article speaks of the past "Kü i ka Pono" march and its success as well as the upcoming march and the events surrounding it. The new march will be held from Nov. 16 - 18 and pertains to the lawsuits filed against the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and the Kamehameha Schools. Hawaiians and Hawaiian supporters are being encouraged to show their displeasure with these lawsuits.
Ma ka lä 7 o Kepakemapa o këia makahiki, ua 'äkoakoa nä pua o Hawai'i ma Waikïkï no "Kü i ka Pono." He mau känaka Hawai'i a me nä känaka käko'o, he 10 kaukani a keu, kai "Kü i ka Pono." Ua komo 'ia nä pälule 'ula'ula e ka po'e ma ka huaka'i, ua like ke alanui me ke kai 'ula'ula. "Ke holo nei nä 'Äweoweo" i 'ölelo mai ai kekahi kanaka ia'u. Ma o ko käkou olowalu 'ana e lohe 'ia aku ai käkou. I këia manawa pono nö käkou a pau e ho'omäkaukau no ke kü hou 'ana i ka pono.
Aia ke kü'ë hou ma ka lä 16 - 18 o Nowemapa. 'A'ole e li'uli'u hiki mai ana këia mau lä 3. A he mea hoihoi a pono ka hele 'ana o nä känaka Hawai'i a me nä känaka käko'o. Aia wale nö a hana pü käkou, a laila hiki i ka lähui Hawai'i ke holomua.
Ma ka Läpule, e 'äkoakoa ana käkou ma Mauna'ala ma ka hola 3:00 o ka 'auinalä a ka'i käkou mai këlä wahi a hiki i ka Hale Ali'i 'o 'Iolani. Ma laila nö e hö'aumoe ai i ia pö inä 'o ia ka makemake. Lawe mai i ka hale pe'a, ka ukana a me ka mea 'ai. Nä mea pono no kekahi pö. Hiki ke ho'okü i ke ka'a ma ka Hale Ali'i 'o 'Iolani a kau ma luna o ke ka'a 'öhua e hele ana i Mauna'ala. Ma hope o këia huaka'i mua, e 'äkoakoa ana käkou ma ka Hale Ali'i 'o 'Iolani. Aia nä ha'i 'ölelo, ka hula a me nä hui hïmeni ma këlä pö.
I ka puka 'ana o ka lä e ka'i ana käkou mai ka Hale Ali'i 'o 'Iolani a hiki i ka Hale ho'okolokolo pekelala. E puni ana ka Hale ho'okolokolo iä käkou a häpai käkou i nä lama. Pëia ana käkou e hana ai, no ka mea, aia ke Ke'ena Kuleana Hawai'i, ke Ke'ena 'Äina Ho'opulapula a me kekahi pono o ke kula ki'eki'e 'o Kamehameha ma ka Hale ho'okolokolo. E 'ole ua mau 'ahahui nei, loa'a ai i ka po'e Hawai'i nä pömaika'i he nui. 'A'ole hemolele këia mau 'ahahui, akä aia nä mea maika'i i loko o këlä mau mea a pau. A hiki ke ho'ohana 'ia nä mea maika'i o këia mau 'ahahui e ka po'e Hawai'i. E kü'ë ana käkou ma ka Hale ho'okolokolo pekelala. Inä hiki iä 'oe ke noho ma ka Hale ho'okolokolo no ka lä holo'oko'a, he mea maika'i nui loa këlä. Hiki ke komo i loko a ho'olohe. Mai poina, lawe mai i käu mau hö'ailona a me kou pälule 'ula'ula.
Ke pau ka hana ma ka Pö'akahi, e ho'i i ka hale a e hui hou ma ke kakahiaka o ka Pö'alua ma kahi o ka hola 9:00 ma ka hale ho'okolokolo. Ma këia lä, aia 'o Kamehameha ma ka Hale ho'okolokolo no Brayden Mohica Cummings. E like me ka Pö'akahi, lawe mai 'oe i ka hö'ailona a komo mai i ka pälule 'ula'ula.
Aia ka pono o këia mau kü'ë 'o ka hui 'ana o nä po'e he nui me ka mana'o pa'a a me ka mana'o ho'okahi. 'A'ole like a like ko käkou mau mana'o a pau, akä na'e, maopopo iä käkou a pau hewa loa nä känaka e makemake e ho'opau i nä 'ahahui e hana ana no ka pono o ka po'e Hawai'i. 'O nä känaka maoli ka po'e nona këia 'äina. A pono nö käkou a pau e kü'ë no ka mea pono. 'O wai ke kü'ë? 'O wai nä 'Äweoweo e holo ana?
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The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Tuesday, November 11, 2003 (Veterans Day)
http://starbulletin.com/2003/11/11/news/story9.html
Hawaiian groups to demonstrate
Organizers intend to protest against three cases that concern native issues
By Mary Vorsino
Organizers say a three-day series of marches and rallies later this month, coinciding with three court cases dealing with native Hawaiian issues, could draw up to 20,000 demonstrators.
The events, which will run Sunday through next Tuesday, are aimed at protesting two cases that challenge admission policies at Kamehameha Schools and one that questions the constitutionality of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
Arguments in the Arakaki vs. State of Hawaii lawsuit are set to continue on Monday. In the suit, 16 Hawaii residents challenge OHA and the Hawaiian Home Lands Department, alleging their programs are race-based and discriminate against non-Hawaiians.
Proceedings in the two Kamehameha suits, Doe vs. Kamehameha Schools and Mohica-Cummings vs. Kamehameha Schools, are scheduled for Monday and next Tuesday, respectively. Both challenge the school's Hawaiians-only admission policy.
A number of native Hawaiian groups are scheduling events to surround the cases in hopes that "the judge will know how Hawaiians feel," said Lahela Perry, an organizer and doctoral student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
"It's better to be seen and heard than not at all," she said.
The events begin 3 p.m. Sunday with a ceremony to honor alii at the Royal Mausoleum. From there, protesters will march to Iolani Palace, where there will be speeches, music, hula and oli, or Hawaiian chants, through the night.
The next day, there will be a candlelight procession beginning at 5 a.m. from the palace grounds to the U.S. District Courthouse, where the Arakaki and Doe cases will be heard.
At 8 a.m. next Tuesday, demonstrators will gather at the federal courthouse again for the Mohica-Cummings case.
Lilikala Kameeleihiwa, director of the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at UH-Manoa, said the events are aimed at gathering opposition to the cases.
"This is going to go on as long as these court cases go on, if it's a year or two years or 10 years or 100 years," she said. "We're gearing up for the long haul."
In September more than 8,000 demonstrators marched from Kalakaua Avenue to Kapiolani Park as a prelude to a hearing on the Arakaki lawsuit. Kameeleihiwa said that she expects more than 20,000 to attend this month's marches and rallies, organized by the same groups that put together the earlier demonstration.
"We've peacefully asked for our rights," she said. With these events, "we're looking for a peaceful way to resolve our political differences."
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http://starbulletin.com/2003/11/16/news/story1.html
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Sunday November 16, 2003 Front page headline story; excerpts
Court cases rile Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians and their supporters plan to march on Iolani Palace this afternoon and then to U.S. District Court tomorrow, where the future of hundreds of millions of dollars in educational programs, loans, leases and other benefits for native Hawaiians is being put on trial in three separate courtrooms.
In the most significant challenge to native Hawaiian entitlements since the landmark Rice v. Cayetano case, attorneys for the state and 16 local plaintiffs will give arguments before U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway on the Arakaki v. Lingle suit, which seeks to abolish the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
In a nearby courtroom, U.S. District Judge Alan Kay will hear a complaint by an unidentified student challenging the Kamehameha Schools' century-old policy of giving preference to children of native Hawaiian ancestry for admissions.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge David Ezra will conduct a hearing on similar lawsuit by a Kauai seventh-grader who also seeks to overturn Kamehameha's admissions policy.
"It's all coming to a head all at once," said Oswald Stender, OHA trustee and a former Kamehameha Schools trustee. "There's no end to the benefits that could be lost."
For native Hawaiians, the potential fallout from adverse rulings is "extremely far-reaching and unthinkable," said Micah Kane, DHHL's chairman.
DHHL, with assets of about $480 million, administers about 7,300 leases to native Hawaiians covering 200,000 acres. OHA, with about $300 million in assets, has an annual budget of more than $20 million and provides more than $15 million in loans to native Hawaiian businesses and individuals.
The Kamehameha Schools, a $6 billion private, tax-exempt charity established by the 1884 will of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, spends more than $220 million each year to educate nearly 5,000 children of native Hawaiian ancestry at its Kapalama Heights campus and its two neighbor-island campuses.
"Losing is not an option because the alternative is incomprehensible for Hawaii," said DHHL's Kane.
Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, professor and director of the University of Hawaii's Center for Hawaiian Studies, added: "Hawaiian people everywhere are feeling bitter about this."
Attorney William Burgess, who represents the 16 local residents seeking to have OHA and DHHL declared unconstitutional, estimated that the state has spent more than $90 million on the two departments since 1993. He said the money spent on the departments belongs to everybody in the state, not just one group of people. Eliminating public funding to those organizations will also free native Hawaiians from "the shackles of government handouts," Burgess added.
Crystal Rose, a Kamehameha Schools attorney, argued in court papers that federal civil rights law allows race-conscious policies to exist as long as they seek to remedy past injustices or social imbalances. The policy also helps produce racially diverse leadership in Hawaiian society while preserving Hawaiian culture, she said.
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http://starbulletin.com/2003/11/17/news/story1.html
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Monday November 17 2003, page one headline story, excerpts
Hawaiians mobilize with Honolulu march
Wearing red shirts and carrying Hawaiian flags, hundreds marched from the Royal Mausoleum to Iolani Palace yesterday afternoon to begin a three-day series of events protesting three court cases dealing with native Hawaiian issues.
"We're not going to be quiet and silent and weep in the corner," said organizer Lilikala Kameeleihiwa, director of the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies at UH-Manoa. "We will seek justice for native Hawaiians no matter what happens in the courts. We will march and we will march and we will march."
The protesters -- who wore red shirts to symbolize Hawaiian blood and aweoweo, a school of small, red fish that is seen as predicting a big change -- aim to bring attention to two cases that challenge admission policies at Kamehameha Schools and one that questions the constitutionality of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.
The 2-mile march from the mausoleum in Nuuanu to Iolani Palace on South King Street was followed by speeches, music, hula and oli, or Hawaiian chants, on the palace lawn through the night.
The ceremony marked the beginning of a number of scheduled protests that coincide with arguments in the Arakaki vs. Lingle lawsuit, which were set to continue today, as well as proceedings in the two Kamehameha suits.
In the Arakaki lawsuit, 16 Hawaii residents seek to abolish OHA and the Hawaiian Home Lands Department, alleging their programs are race-based and discriminate against non-Hawaiians.
Proceedings in the Doe vs. Kamehameha Schools case were also scheduled for today, while the Mohica-Cummings vs. Kamehameha Schools case is scheduled for tomorrow.
Both challenge the school's admission policy, which gives preference to native Hawaiians.
"All Hawaiian issues are being attacked at this point," said Geanine McIntosh, an employee at Pihana Na Mamo, a federally funded education project for native Hawaiians.
Kaimuki resident Pam Kapana, who marched with her daughters yesterday, said native Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians alike should stand up against the court cases, which threaten millions of dollars in educational programs, loans, leases and other benefits for native Hawaiians.
"People try so hard to honor indigenous land and indigenous plants," she said, "but why don't they honor the indigenous people?"
The march was organized by several organizations, including the Ilioulaokalani Coalition, which organized a march in September that more than 8,000 demonstrators attended as a prelude to a hearing on the Arakaki lawsuit.
Organizers for yesterday's march had originally said they expected as many as 20,000 to walk from the mausoleum to Iolani Palace.
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http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Nov/17/ln/ln19a.html
The Honolulu Advertiser, Monday November 17 2003, excerpts
Protesters demand justice for Hawaiians
More than 500 people, most dressed in red T-shirts demanding justice for Hawaiian people, marched about three miles through the rain yesterday to protest court cases that challenge Native Hawaiian entitlements, including admission policies at Kamehameha Schools.
Hundreds marched yesterday from the Royal Mausoleum to 'Iolani Palace to protest court cases that challenge Native Hawaiian entitlements. "These are ordinary people like myself who are saying, 'Enough is enough,' " said one marcher.
"America destroyed our queen, our princess, our nation, our people and our destiny," read a sign carried by George Kahumoku Kalua Flores.
"Stop stealing Hawaiian lands," was the message printed on the back of Lopaka Asam's T-shirt.
At the palace, many of the protesters planned to stay for an overnight vigil punctuated with prayer sessions and ending with a 5 a.m. candlelight march to the U.S. District Courthouse. Arguments will be heard in court this week in a case challenging the constitutionality of using state and federal tax dollars to pay for Hawaiian-only programs including the Department of Hawaiian Homelands and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and challenges to the Kamehameha Schools admission policy of giving preference to Hawaiian children.
"These aren't just the radicals," Kaleo-o-kalani Paik, a financial administrator for a construction company, said of her fellow marchers. "These are ordinary people like myself who are saying, 'Enough is enough.' We are being denied our rights by courts that aren't even our own and they are taking everything, bit by bit."
This morning, U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway will hear arguments concerning the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. That case could jeopardize the use of hundreds of thousands of acres of land leases and millions of dollars in loans to Native Hawaiians.
U.S. District Judge Alan Kay will hear a case today and Judge David Ezra will hear another tomorrow that challenge admission policies by Kamehameha Schools, an academic institution established 116 years ago through the estate of Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, who directed it be used to educate Hawaiian children.
"Those court cases are unconscionable. ... I'm tired of seeing my people go to prison," said Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, director of the Center for Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa. "I want the forces of evil — those people who would steal our lands, our language and our culture — to know that Hawaiians are here to stand up for justice. We're not going to go away, and we're not going to stand quietly in the corner."
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The red-shirt marches of Sunday through Tuesday were somewhat of a fizzle. March organizers had predicted a turnout of 20,000, and used extensive e-mail and newspaper hype to try to produce the 20,000. But only an estimated 500 people marched from Mauna Ala (Royal Mausoleum) to 'Iolani Palace on Sunday. And perhaps 300-400 marched Monday morning from the Palace to the Courthouse, where the "torches" for the "torchlight parade" turned out to be mostly candles. Then on Tuesday morning a crowd of perhaps 200 turned out at the Courthouse for the second Kamehameha hearing.
Despite the relatively low turnout, the activists aggressively dominated the space at the Courthouse entrance, surrounding and jeering at the plaintiff's mother and attorneys. Red-shirt demonstrators made loud remarks interrupting the attorneys during TV interviews. In particular, Lily Dorton, alias Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, Chair of the University of Hawai'i Center for Hawaiian Studies, was clearly heard on the Tuesday night KITV broadcast of a Courthouse-steps interview with attorney Eric Grant, shouting from close behind him. Mr. Grant said: "People are being treated on the basis of race, which I think is illegal and immoral." Lily Dorton shouted: "Like America. It's illegal in our country." [nevertheless she eagerly accepts money from the U.S., and she is a major supporter of asking the U.S. Congress to pass the Akaka bill which would place ethnic Hawaiians very firmly under the plenary power of Congress]
The caption for the above photograph from the Tuesday Advertiser said:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Nov/18/ln/ln03a.html
Surrounded by Hawaiian-rights supporters, attorneys Eric Grant, left, and John Goemans left federal court yesterday after losing their challenge to Kamehameha Schools' Hawaiians-preferred policy.
The caption for the above photograph in the Wednesday Advertiser said:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/dailypix/2003/Nov/19/ln01a3_b.jpg
"Attorney Eric Grant and Kalena Santos, followed by attorney John Goemans, passed Vicky Holt-Takamine and other Hawaiian activists outside the federal courthouse yesterday. Santos is the mother of Brayden Mohica-Cummings, a non-Hawaiian student who has been temporarily admitted to Kamehameha."
But the article from Advertiser breaking news on Tuesday afternoon describes the scene this way:
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Nov/18/br/br02p.html
"Grant and Santos, who also appeared before cameras, were targets of some derogatory remarks from the crowd, shouts that he should "go back to California."" [note from Ken Conklin: it is interesting that the attorney for Kamehameha Schools, Kathleen Sullivan, is also from California, where she is Dean of the Stanford law school; but nobody shouted at her to go back to California.]
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Both Honolulu newspapers have been strong supporters of apartheid. They constantly push for passage of the Akaka bill. They support the racially exclusionary admissions policy at Kamehameha School. They support the racially exclusionary benefit programs of OHA and DHHL.
On Wednesday November 19, 2003 the Honolulu Star-Bulletin published an editorial saying that the Akaka bill is still needed, because appellate courts might reverse the decisions of the federal district court in Honolulu.
The editorial acknowledges that the red-shirt marches were successful in intimidating the judges in the Kamehameha lawsuits, approvingly quoting Lily Dorton (alias Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa) who gloated over the intimidation. The editorial warns that such intimidation is not likely to work in higher courts; therefore, it's important to pass the Akaka bill to protect apartheid.
http://starbulletin.com/2003/11/19/editorial/editorials.html
Excerpt
"This week's ruling by Judge Alan Kay did not end the threat to Hawaiians ... Those decisions will be subject to the same appellate scrutiny that resulted in the U.S. Supreme Court's reversal three years ago of Ezra's ruling in the case of Rice vs. Cayetano, setting the stage for the current cases. Appellate judges will not be subject to pressure from local sentiment and demonstrations, which Lilikala Kameeleihiwa, director of the University of Hawaii's Center for Hawaiian Studies, said "certainly did influence his (Kay's) understanding of our pain that these court cases have come this far."
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On September 6, 2004 (Labor Day) a large red-shirt protest march traveled through the heart of Waikiki, ending with a rally including speeches and music at the Waikiki Shell. For newspaper articles, photos, and analysis see:
https://www.angelfire.com/hi2/hawaiiansovereignty/redshirtsept2004.html
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