Navigation in the
Information Age:
Potential Use of GIS for Sustainability and Self-Determination in Hawai`i
Cogswell and Schi鴗z, 1996
In this chapter, we examine several relevant
historical and contextual dimensions of this research. Through this exploration
of Western maps, Hawaiian history, and GIS on a general level, we hope to lay a
foundation for the reader to better understand and evaluate our ethnographic
findings on these subjects in the specific context of Hawai`i, which appear in
the chapter which follows.
This section discusses several important
developments in the origin and evolution of the Western written map, and then
looks at the tradition of Polynesian navigation over the same period. Through
this historical and cross-cultural exploration, we hope to shed light on the
dynamic relationship between culture, technology, and maps, and provide a
significant foundation for the exploration of computer assisted mapping.
We begin in antiquity with the emergence and
importance of geometry and the coordinate system. We then describe how the
advent of perspective painting of the Renaissance, in combination with the
rediscovery of the coordinate system, fostered the beginning of a new era of
the "objective map," spatial definition, "the grid," and
colonialization and exploitation on an unprecedented scale. From Italy we then
move to the other side of the planet where Polynesians had been navigating
across vast spaces without any printed map, yet with great accuracy and skill,
for centuries: we consider how ocean navigation has been an integral part of
Polynesian culture. With these two different knowledge systems in mind we
briefly describe the impact of the European map on Hawai`i's land and culture,
as Hawai`i became a point on global maps used by growing numbers of people. The
"discovery" and mapping of Hawai`i were a prelude to more than two
centuries of European colonization and influence whose effects have recently
culminated in a Hawaiian sovereignty movement, in which the Nation of Hawai`i
offers one model in a context of other sovereignty groups and models.
Basic to the understanding of the importance of
the discoveries that underlie the scientific, neutral Western map is the notion
of spatiality, which is described by Robinson:
As we experience space, and
construct representations of it, we know that it will be continuos. Everything
is somewhere, and no matter what other characteristics objects do not share,
they always share relative location, that is, spatiality; hence the
desirability of equating knowledge with space, an intellectual space. This
assures an organization and a basis for predictability, which are shared by
absolutely everyone. This proposition appears to be so fundamental that
apparently it is simply adopted a priori. (Robinson, 1976: 4)
It was the Greek civilization that systematized
the concept of space as we have come to perceive in the West. In Alexandria
around 300 BC., we can originate the birth of the Western map in the concept of
the coordinate system, which came to be a central element of most later mapping
efforts. At this time the Greek mathematician Euclid developed the first
science of space, which he called "geometry." Euclid organized space
as a coherent system of straight lines, supported by terms that he postulated
as immutable truths. One of these postulates, which most children in the
Western educational system still repeating in their homework today, is that
parallel lines will never cross. Leonard Schlain writes about Euclid, who
"...organized space as if its points could be connected by an imaginary
web of straight lines that in fact do not exist in nature. Geometry was an
entire system based on a mental abstraction" (Schlain, 1991: 30-31).
The creation of geometry made it possible for
thinkers to represent three dimensional concepts of motion, time or space on a
one dimensional plane intersected by a horizontal abscissa and a vertical
ordinate. This new ability to represent abstract thoughts and concepts visually
on a piece of paper was the beginning of the several centuries of scientific
discoveries (Schlain, 1991: 52).
Around 150 A.D., Ptolemy, who was schooled in
astronomy, physics, mathematics and optics as well as geography, created what
is thought to be the first map coordinate system. He showed the location of
8000 places in relation to longitude measured from a prime meridian through the
Fortune Islands, and latitude measured from the equator (Whitfield, 1994: 8).
But according to Turnbull, "the use of grids originated in China, probably
with the work of Chang Heng in the first century A.D." (Turnbull, 1994:
26). His work has only been noted by his biographer Tshai Yung; unfortunately
none of his map and grid work has survived to the present.
Over a thousand years later these discoveries
were reintroduced as artists of Europe began to experiment with
"perspective," which was based on fundamental principles of geometry.
In 1435 Leon Battista Alberti published his thoughts on perspective, which
influenced painters of the Renaissance in their attempts to represent the world
with more and more "accuracy." Schlain writes about the development
of this technique, which was perceived by most people of the time as
enthusiastically as computer technology is today.
The beginning development of
perspective by Giotto and its elaboration by Alberti and other artists was a
revolutionary milestone in the history of art. By painting a scene from one
stationary point of view, an artist could now arrange three axes of the
geometry of space in their proper relationships. Perspective, which literally
means "clear-seeing," made possible a new third dimension of depth.
Using perspective to project a scene upon a two dimensional surface made the flat
canvas become a window that opened upon an illusory world of stereo vision. Literally
and compositionally, art came down to earth as the horizon line became, for the
renaissance artist as for the seaman exploring the globe, the most crucial
orienting straight line. (Schlain, 1991: 53; emphasis added)
It was in this context that Ptolemy reemerged
and won wide recognition with the republication of his work, after more than a
thousand years of obscurity. Representing the culmination of six centuries of
geographical observation and theory from the Greek civilization, Ptolemy had
quite an impact on European cultures at the dawn of the Renaissance. Whitfield
writes about this formidable figure.
Ptolemy appeared to have cast
a transparent net over the earth's surface, every strand of which was precisely
measured and placed. He had defined his subject - one quarter of the earth's
surface - and within a geometric framework he had calculated each element of
his composition ... This sense of ordered space was precisely the ideal towards
which the artists of fifteenth century Italy were striving, and this identity
of interest explains Ptolemy's appeal. (Whitfield, 1994: 10)
Harley sums up the enormous impacts of the
coordinate system, which even the world's most remote regions would come to
experience in the years following the Renaissance.
The rediscovery of the
Ptolemaic system of co-ordinate geometry in the fifteenth century was a
critical cartographic event privileging a 'Euclidean syntax' which structured
European territorial control. Indeed, the graphic nature of the map gave its
imperial users an arbitrary power that was easily divorced from the social
responsibilities and consequences of its exercise. The world would be carved up
on paper. (Cosgrove, 1988: 282)
With these developments in art and physics, a
new kind of consciousness was forming out of which came the Western map, with
its claim to objectively describe nature, or, more generally, space itself.
Just as the development of the alphabet emerged out of a context in which there
was a need to keep track of, and record, excess production piled up in storage,
so did the map evolve out of a certain context and need. Maps were "... a
similar invention in the control of space and facilitated the geographical
expansion of social systems" (Ibid: 280). Harley adds to this point when
he writes, "just as the clock, as a graphic symbol of centralized
political authority, brought 'time discipline' into the rhythms of ... workers,
so too the lines on maps, ... introduced a dimension of 'space
discipline'" (Ibid: 285).
With this newly developed understanding of
spatial knowledge the European powers were equipped with a new tool for the
maritime exploration of the world that facilitated an aggressive expansion of
European territorial dominance. Harley writes about the development of
worldwide imperialism, and its relation to the map:
The "very lines on the map exhibited this
imperial power and process because they had been imposed on the continent with
little reference to indigenous peoples, and indeed many places with little
reference to the land itself. The invaders parceled the continent among
themselves in designs reflective of their own complex rivalries and relative
power. (Ibid: 282)
As the European maritime powers were moving
further and further away from their home territory, their navigational skills
were increasing. However, it was not until the second half of the eighteenth
century that navigational practices included all the necessary tools such as
the sextant, lunar position and distance, star charts etc., to locate a point
in relation to the two lines of latitude and longitude. These tools enabled
European explorers to navigate through uncharted oceans such as the Pacific,
and to map island systems encountered, adding them to the global atlases
enabled by the grid.
While the Greeks were developing
"geometry," Italians exploring perspective painting, and European
seafarers traveling along the coastal zones, afraid of losing sight of land as their
means of orientation, people of Polynesia navigated with accuracy and precision
from one remote island to another, without the use of any onboard written map,
or any tools or technologies Europeans associate with navigation. When the
Micronesians traveled from the Marshall Islands to Hawai`i around 100 AD.,
probably just before Ptolemy was born, they were already seasoned navigators on
the largest ocean on the planet.
While voyaging through vast distances, Pacific
navigators had no drawn maps, books or journals with the recorded knowledge of
a specific region: how was this possible? The navigators instead carried with
them a highly evolved navigational knowledge system that allowed them to visit
the more than 10,000 islands in the Pacific long before the European explorers
arrived in the region a few centuries ago (Witt-Miller, 1991: 64). Their method
of orienting themselves spatially was based on an intimate experiential
perception of their lived reality, stored in their memory and transmitted orally
from generation to generation. A long and arduous process had to be gone
through to acquire the vast knowledge necessary to cross vast distances on the
ocean out of sight from land. The training or apprenticeship would begin around
the age of 12 and often was not completed until the early thirties. Farrall
describes part of the training a navigator must go through.
In the course of his training
a navigator has to memorize large amounts of information about the positions
and movements of the stars; the relative positions of islands, reefs and other
geographical features; the patterns of winds, waves, and ocean currents; and
the kinds and habits of the sea birds. He has to learn the theories associated
with understanding all this information. He also has to learn the theory of hatag
(or etak) used to keep track of where a canoe is during a journey, and then
put the theory to practice. The navigator must also be familiar from personal
experience with the handling of sea-going canoes and how to keep on course at
all times of the day and night. (Farrall, 1979: 48, 52)
The knowledge of the navigator was not readily
available, but was rather something the student was initiated into by a master
navigator, when appropriate understanding and maturity had been gained. "There
was much magic and esoteric knowledge which could be known only by the
privileged few.... In addition the navigational skills were and still are
valuable property, willingly passed on to relatives but taught to non relatives
at a steep price" (Ibid: 34).
All knowledge was communicated orally or through
direct experience utilizing all senses, stick and pebble maps to illustrate
wave patterns, and the star compass to learn about the sky. Seen in this
perspective mapping becomes an art of reading the environment; the territory
becomes the map.
There are several reasons why the islanders were
interested in communicating with others in distant islands. Those who could
safely navigate and often also built the canoes made it possible for the rest
of the society to overcome the barrier to communication imposed by the open
sea. Farrall elaborates on other reasons in a Micronesian context.
"There are features of
the natural environmental setting of the Western Carolines which encourage the
development of a system of inter island social ties. Among such environmental
characteristics are (a) the restricted land areas of the Western Caroline
Islands, (b) the limited range of agricultural staples available, (c) the
hazards and uncertainties of marine exploitation, and most important, (d) the
destructive effects of tropical storms" (Ibid: 8).
Without oceangoing canoes and navigational
knowledge Micronesians could not have engaged in the exchange of goods,
marriage partners and ideas; ultimately the survival of the people was at
stake. This reality gave the master navigator a highly respected and
influential status among the people. With such concentration of knowledge among
a very limited group of people, complex issues of power arose which in
Polynesia were dealt with in many ways. Farrall describes the situation of the
Puluwatans.
...navigational knowledge
enabled Puluwatans to communicate with other Micronesians but it did not mean
that there was necessarily a relationship of power between the groups thus
brought into contact. Without the knowledge it would have been impossible for
the Puluwatans to have dominated over groups, but the possession of the
knowledge did not give the Puluwatans power over other peoples. In modern
industrial societies it is clear that certain kinds of scientific knowledge are
crucial in the provision of military power. (Ibid: 13)
The Micronesian navigators are an excellent
example of how navigational expertise can grow out of a specific context as
opposed to a European, non-local method of navigational knowledge. The
knowledge carrier is an integral part of the society's well-being through his
close connection to the place where he lives. "The wayfinder concentrates
100 percent of his attention on his place in the sea and sky. With his one-pointedness,
he processes all of his data on his course, speed and current, etc. His point
of concentration is his navel, called the piko in Hawaiian. This is
considered the center of the one's body and being, so that it - not the brain -
is the point from which to live" (Witt-Miller, 1991: 65). As a last note
in this brief section, we would like to quote Witt-Miller on how the
epistemology of Polynesian navigation differs from that of Western science.
The radical technology of wayfinding shocks us
with its independence of our technology. But what really threatens our view of
the universe is the complex array of totally unrelated inputs - just about
everything from stars to pig snouts to testicles - that the wayfinder weaves
into a picture of his position. Most of these inputs are from phenomena that
don't lend themselves to precise measurement and, because they're of different
orders, don't allow like-to-like comparison. Yet measurement of comparable
things is essential to classical science. (Ibid: 69)
Surrounded by a vast ocean in all directions,
Hawai`i was protected from colonization, exploitation and foreign control
longer than most places on Earth. Prior to 1778, Hawai`i was not yet
"discovered" - it was not on the map in the Western sense, and
therefore was still mapped according to the Hawaiians' own integral sense of
the land and the sea. Dudley tries to describe what this would have looked
like:
Since the islands are roughly
circular, the ahupua'a...traditional land divisions in Hawai`i...the
subdivisions of a district, can be pictured as thin slices of a pie. The narrow
end of the ahupua'a is at the thin slice of the pie...the narrow end of
the ahupua`a is at a central or inland mountain top, and it broadens out
as it progresses towards the shore and out into the sea. Each ahupua`a was
for the most part self-sufficient, producing everything needed by the people
living within the boundaries. People did not live in the villages: their homes
were scattered over the area of the ahupua`a. Hawaiians had no money and
did not barter. But those who fished in the sea needed to fill their diets with
the crops that others raised in the uplands, and the uplands needed fish.
Society was based on generosity and communal concern. Fishermen gave freely,
and farmers gave freely. And all flourished. A konohiki, or overseer,
assured that a constant flow of products moved through the ahupua`a ,
meeting everybody's needs. (Dudley, 1990: 65)
When the Hawaiians, having existed on the most
isolated land mass on the planet, saw giant white sails in their harbors for
the first time, it is hard to imagine what they might have thought.
When the British Commander, surveyor and
cartographer James Cook set out for his third voyage in the Pacific it was to
investigate the western coast of North America in the "hope that he would
discover the Northwest passage, the long sought-for connection between the
Atlantic and the Pacific ocean" (Fitzpatrick, 1990: 14).
Cook's travels were made feasible by instruments
and technologies which had only recently been invented: he was able to place
himself squarely on the world grid at any point in his journey. "Cook was
fortunate enough to be living in a time when science and technology combined to
produce not one but two reliable methods of determining longitude, a problem
which had plagued man since the days of the Greeks" (Ibid: 14).
For his third journey in the Pacific, Cook was
given the following instructions, as quoted by Healy:
At whatever places you may
touch in the sources of your voyage, where accurate observations of the nature
hereafter mentioned have not already been made, you are, as far as your time
will allow, very carefully to observe the true situation of such places, both
in the latitude and longitude; the variation of the needle; bearings on
headlands; height, direction, and of course of the tides and currents; depth
and soundings of the sea; shoals, rocks, etc.; and also to survey, make charts
of the coast, and to make notations thereon, as may be useful either to
navigation or commerce. (Healy 1959: 9)
While captaining two ships,
"Resolution" and "Discovery," bound from Tahiti to the
Northwest coast of America, Cook noted the following in his diary,
Friday, 2nd January, 1778
.... We continued to see birds every day of the sorts last mentioned, sometimes
in greater numbers than others: and between the latitude of 10 and a 11 we saw
several turtles. All these are looked upon as signs of the vicinity of land; we
however saw none till day break in the morning of the 18th when an island was
discovered bearing NEBE and soon after we saw more land bearing North and
entirety detached from the first; both had the appearance of being high
land.... (Price 1969: 215-6)
When we are looking at the first map by Cook's
crew (Figure 4.6) we see a map of the Hawaiian islands that has a high degree
of accuracy.
This is the first time the islands were placed in their
"correct" geographic, spatial relationship in the world view
originally proposed by Ptolemy. The archipelago of Hawai`i would no longer be
the same, now becoming part of a mapping grid that connected all observed
geography into one central framework. This was in many ways a huge breakthrough
for the charting of the world, initiated by the imperial powers of Europe.
The Hawaiian islands became part of a shared
knowledge system, which all navigators who could measure their position in
accordance with longitude and latitude could visit by choice. The knowledge of
the indigenous Pacific navigators was thereby challenged by people who had
absolutely no local knowledge or experience with the particular places they
visited.
The specific location of the Hawaiian islands
was noted by Captain Cook in his journal on Friday the 30th, 1778, a year which
forever changed the course of life on the Hawaiian islands. Cook wrote:
Friday, 30th January, 1778 .... These five
islands Atoui, Eneeheeou, Orrehoua, Otaoora and Wouahoo, names by which they
are known to the Natives. I named them Sandwich Islands, in honor of the Earl
of Sandwich. They are situated between the Latitude of 21o 30' and
22o15' N and between the Longitude of 199o 20' and 201o
30' East. Wouahoo, which is the Easternmost and lies in the Latitude of 21o
36' we knew no more of that than it is high land and inhabited.... (Ibid: 221)
Thus charted, the Hawaiian archipelago was
subject to the influence of the rest of the world.
In this section, we have taken a journey through
time and space, from the Greeks' invention of geometry to placing Hawai`i
reliably on the longitude/latitude grid, though this merely marks the beginning
of a larger journey we are taking toward understanding the long-term
implications of this grid, written and computerized maps, and local and
"universal" knowledge. In the next section, we give a very brief
history of Hawaiian exploitation by the West, which again, is made possible by
the newly acquired ability to find this remote land mass by map.
While the actual history of the last 200 years
in Hawai`i is very complex and cannot be reduced to "good Hawaiians, bad
Europeans," following European contact, the highly productive, complex and
sustainable cultural systems of the indigenous people of Hawai`i, the Kanaka
Maoli, were seriously disrupted. In a series of major changes, missionaries,
business people, imported laborers, new technologies, exotic species, and new
ideas would transform this remote archipelago which had remained hidden to
non-Pacific islanders for millennia.
Aided by Europeans, King Kamehameha I was able
to unify the previously politically separated islands under one rule, ending
the continuous wars among the islands by 1820. An absolute monarchy was created
which put total control of the land under the King. In time, King Kamehameha
III put the control of the land and the power of the Kingdom under a
constitution, creating a constitutional monarchy.
The first major ecological and economic impact
after the arrival of the Europeans was the exploitation and annihilation of the
sandalwood forests, in the early 1800's. Sandalwood was exchanged for the first
western weapons, clothes, and tableware the Hawaiians had ever seen.
After the exhaustion of the sandalwood forests
the extensive whaling industry followed, which brought many more ships to
Hawai`i than had ever been there before. Between 1840 and 1870 when whaling was
at its peak, this industry became the basis for the money economy of Hawai`i
and established town life on the islands, with intensive commercial exchange:
"For the first time the Hawaiian masses were drawn into the cash economy
as workers and producers on a regular basis" (Kent, 1983: 22). These
developments would provide the foundations for what later would become the
metropolitan center of Honolulu. By the 1840's six hundred whalers were
appearing every year. After 1860 the whaling industry began to decline first because
whales became more scarce and voyages thus more costly and secondly because the
petroleum was displacing the whale oil market.
Due to the increasing demands of visiting ships,
the next wave of mapmaking, after the maps of the islands and surrounding
waters created first by Cook and followed by La Perouse and Vancouver, was
focused on harbors. The Russian navigator Kotzebue made the earliest known map
of Honolulu in 1817, as shown in Figure 4.7.
Following Cook, subsequent mapping efforts for
navigational purposes, harbor locations, natural resources, property surveys
for privatization of land were all done by Europeans, since they introduced and
practiced the skills involved. The "Europeans made maps for their own use,
not for the Hawaiians" (Fitzpatrick, 1990: 13).
Sugar came in with whaling after sandalwood as
the economic engine of the islands. In 1835 the first Western style sugar
plantation was established, which was very labor intensive, a factor which led
to the subsequent importation of Chinese and Japanese workers. This industry
was extremely influential in the social, economic, and political life of
Hawai`i through much of the last two centuries.
Perhaps the most dramatic impact on the people
and land of Hawai`i came about through the land reform called the "Great
Mahele," in 1848. Before the reform no one owned land in the Western sense
nor was the land bought or sold; instead the land was regarded as a sacred
entity governed by the chiefs and the king, and was divided up between the
king, the chiefs and the government. Two years after this law was passed
another law made it possible for foreigners to buy and sell land; the
importance of this law for the changes that followed cannot be overstated. The
Great Mahele fundamentally disrupted the native Hawaiians' ability to sustain
themselves on the land and thereby their ability to lead sustainable lives.
Lilikala Kame`eleihiwa (1994) comments that the privatization of land was
perhaps the biggest mistake the Hawaiians had ever made because it allowed
foreigners to buy Hawai`i (Kame`eleihiwa, 1994: 114). Writing about the Mahele,
Marion Kelly (1994) maintains that the Mahele "turned out not to be an act
of generosity, but an act of genocide" (Kelly, 1994: 105). Dudley writes
about this pivotal point in Hawaiian history:
While Native Hawaiians may
have been unaware of the great value of a clear land title, the white people in
the islands, familiar with the capitalist system, were very aware of its value.
The used their store of wealth to buy up every piece of land they could. By the
end of 1850, the same year the law was passed allowing purchasing of lands by
anyone, thousands of acres of land had been sold to whites. Within two more
years, the acres sold would be in the hundred of thousands. Before the monarchy
came to an end forty years later, most of the chiefs' lands and vast parts of
the crown lands had been sold to whites. (Dudley, 1990: 20)
That the Mahele was a mistake or an act of
genocide without any benefits for Hawaiians has been challenged recently,
though it is true that the Mahele dramatically changed the relationship between
people and land in Hawai`i. This no doubt led to new and very different maps of
island territory than anything the native Hawaiians would have imagined. The islands
were no longer arranged for integration and sustainability, but rather for
exploitation by foreign interests.
Another important event relating to maps in
Hawai`i's history is the arrival of the Christian missionaries. In their work
over the last 200 years toward 'enlightening the natives,'
"education" played a central role. Their activities were aimed at
making the Hawaiians proficient at reading the Bible: toward this end they
built schools, trained teachers, and established printing presses. Fitzpatrick
(1990) writes, "With the development of the educational program of the
missionaries there arose a need for maps. Acquainting the Hawaiians with the
geography of the Bible requires maps, as did pointing out the relationship of
Hawai`i to the various components of the Christian and 'heathen' worlds"
(Fitzpatrick, 1990: 105). The missionaries then were also catalysts in the
making and distribution of maps and the obliteration of indigenous knowledge
through Westernization.
Suddenly the indigenous people of the land were
shunned, their knowledge of living with and caring for the land was dismissed,
and children were taught the English language, English and European Literature,
US Politics, World History, and (Christian) Religion.
While the impact may be difficult to quantify
precisely, one might expect that such education and foreign influence and
knowledge maps had significant effects on indigenous people.
One hundred and fifteen years after the arrival
of Cook, the Hawaiian islands were governed by a Queen, in a monarchy
recognized through Treaties of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation with the
major sovereign powers existing at that time (Laenui, 1993: 81). Although the
United States was one of the countries with treaties to Hawai`i, the US
military supported the overthrow of the Hawaiian government in 1893 by a small
group of Western businessmen.
In understanding Hawaiian history and the
current Hawaiian sovereignty movement we have found it helpful to be especially
aware of several historical issues and developments. First, in 1887 the
"Bayonet Constitution" was drafted at the initiative and under the
influence of Westerners, and extended the vote to American and European males,
reduced the King to a ceremonial position, and raised property qualifications
to a level where many native Hawaiians were prevented from voting, among other
constitutional changes. While it was a very significant step in enabling more
than a century of foreign influence in Hawai`i, the Bayonet Constitution was
never ratified by the legislature of the time.
Second, the role of the sugar industry in the
overthrow of the Hawaiian government was significant. In 1891 a sugar tariff
was levied by the United States on Hawaiian imports, and it took a major toll
on the local sugar industry. "While sympathetic to annexation, the
Harrison administration was not sympathetic to lifting the tariff. It appeared
to some that the only way Hawaiian sugar could be guaranteed a portion of the
American market was for Hawai`i to become part of the United States"
(MacKenzie, 1991: 12).
Third, Queen Lili`uokalani took the throne upon
Kalakaua's death in 1892, and was in the process of drafting another
constitution to limit the influence of Westerners when she was deposed. However,
it is important to note that though removed from office she did not abdicate
her throne, instead yielding her authority at gunpoint while making the
following statement:
I, Lili'uokalani by the grace
of God and under the constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Queen, do hereby
solemnly protest against any and all acts done against myself and the
constitutional Government of the Hawaiian Kingdom by certain persons claiming
to have established a Provisional Government of and for this Kingdom. Now, to
avoid any collision of armed forces and perhaps the loss of life, I do, under
this protest, and impelled by said force, yield my authority until such time as
the Government of the United States shall, upon the facts being presented to
it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate me and the authority
which I claim as the constitutional sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.
(Lili'uokalani, 1893)
It is significant to consider that the Queen did
not know whether such reinstating would happen in a day, a year, or a century.
Next, Grover Cleveland, the American president
at the time, was quite opposed to the U.S. military-sanctioned overthrow in
Hawai`i. In an extensive and passionate speech to the U.S. congress on December
18, 1893, Cleveland identified that in the overthrow of the Queen, a
"substantial wrong" had been done to U.S. national character and to
native Hawaiians, and demanded that it be repaired by the restoration of the
monarchy. The following key excerpts of his speech are illuminating:
By an act of war, committed
with the participation of a diplomatic representative of the United States, and
without authority of Congress, the Government of a feeble but friendly and
confiding people has been overthrown.... A substantial wrong has thus been done
which a due regard for our national character as well as the rights of the
injured people requires that we should endeavor to repair.... I instructed
Minister Willis to advise the Queen and her supporters of my desire to aid in
the restoration of the status existing before the lawless landing of the United
States forces at Honolulu on the 16th of January last.... (Cleveland,1893)
Unfortunately for native Hawaiians, the less
sympathetic William McKinley was elected president before Cleveland could move
to reverse the overthrow. Even after Cleveland had clearly recognized this
situation to be an illegal occupation, the next president, William McKinley
ignored his position and made the decision to allow the occupational force to
remain in control of Hawai`i. This force and its associates claimed all the
"Government Lands" at the time of the overthrow. It is poignant to
note that Sanford P. Dole, a businessman (and grandfather of 1996 US
presidential candidate Robert Dole), was installed as the first president of
what became known as the "republic of Hawai`i."
After a lengthy debate in the US between
anti-expansionists and annexationists, Hawai`i was annexed by the federal
government of the United States, in 1898. Following annexation the
"Organic Act" of 1900 was passed, which established a territorial
government with a structure like most states in the U.S., except that the
primary officials were appointed by the federal government, which had ultimate
authority, rather than the people of Hawai`i. In addition, 1.75 million acres
of Hawaiian public lands were ceded to the United States from the republic,
which had "acquired" the lands from the monarchy. It is important to
note that while the U.S. had "legal title" to the land, "the
beneficial title rested with the inhabitants of Hawai`i... Section 73 of the
Organic Act stated that the proceeds from the territory's sale, lease, or other
disposition of these ceded lands should be deposited in the territory's
treasury for "such uses and purposes for the benefit of the inhabitants of
the Territory of Hawai`i as are consistent with the joint resolution of
annexation... Nevertheless, the federal government also reserved the right to
withdraw lands for its own use" (MacKenzie, 1991: 15, 16).
Devaluation of Hawaiian culture, overthrow of
the Hawaiian government, loss of land and control over personal, cultural, and
economic self-determination all had significant impacts on the indigenous
people of Hawai`i, which were evident early in this century. Some of these
impacts are described in a 1964 report which is quoted by MacKenzie,
Available social statistics
indicate that as of 1920 the position of the Hawaiian community had
deteriorated seriously. The general crime rate for people of Hawaiian ancestry
was significantly higher than that of other groups. The rate of juvenile
delinquency was also higher, an ominous omen for the future. Economically
depressed, internally disorganized and politically threatened, it was evident
that the remnant of Hawaiians required assistance to stem their precipitous
decline. (Ibid: 17)
As a response to this decline, the Hawaiian
Homes Commission Act was passed in 1921. "Under the act, about 188,000
acres of public lands were designated as "available lands" and put
under the jurisdiction of the Hawaiian Homes Commission to be leased out to
Native Hawaiians, those with 50 percent or more native blood, at a nominal fee
for 99 years" (Ibid: 17). Conceived as a way to benefit native Hawaiians
and as an agricultural initiative and experiment, the Act was quickly coopted
by sugar interests so that little agriculturally productive land would be
leased out, and arranged to limit those who could apply by setting a
"blood quantum" (prerequisite) of Hawaiian ancestry at 50 percent.
Bureaucracy and other factors led to the slow dispersal of leases, and tens of
thousands of Hawaiians have waited decades on lists to receive land, or are
still waiting today. In 1989, just under 6,000 native Hawaiians leased 32,713
acres of Hawaiian Homestead land (Ibid: 18).
The development of the tourist industry after
World War II pushed many of the remaining native Hawaiians and their culture
further toward the edge of annihilation. Land speculation drove up prices so
that native Hawaiians were driven away to marginal property, and then often to
their cars and the beaches. With the influx of new people, ideas, and
"modernizing" plans for the Islands, Hawaiian culture was considered
truly "backward" and devalued: "progress" had come to
Hawai`i.
Waikiki, the primary tourist center in Hawai`i,
provides perhaps the most extreme example of the transformation exacted upon
the people and land of Hawai`i by foreigners, and by tourism. Barry Nakamura
(1979) writes in great detail about the radical changes in land use that
occurred at Waikiki in the early 20th century, in his Master's Thesis The
Story of Waikiki and the "Reclamation" Project. "As early as
in the 15th century, the Native Hawaiian people engineered and developed at
Waikiki, extensive taro pond fields and an irrigation system which
decentralized the water resources of the mountain streams which flowed into the
Waikiki hinterland" (Nakamura, 1979: vi). When Europeans arrived, what is
now called Waikiki was the bottom of a highly productive ahupua`a ,
which fed many people with taro, fish and other foodstuffs through an
intricate, highly developed system of streams, terraces, and ponds. A complex
series of interrelated developments and deliberate planning by government
business alliances led to the transformation of Waikiki from its role in
supporting indigenous people in sophisticated subsistence lifestyles, to
increasingly being populated to non-Hawaiians, and filled with hotels and
streets (John Kelly, personal communication). In the following excerpt,
Nakamura describes the official motive for destroying this once "most
extensive area of wet-taro cultivation on Oahu" (Handy, 1972: 480).
The Sanitary Commission of
1912 estimated that, of the total amount of land in the district of Honolulu
located below the foothills, one third was wet land. This wet land, which was
used for agriculture and aquaculture, represented, then, a considerable amount
of urban real estate if filled in.
Such
laws as Chapter 83, R.L. 1905 already existed to deal with filling in wet land.
The justification for such actions would be sanitation, that is, if wet lands
were allowed to exist within the district of Honolulu, the public health would
be endangered, for mosquitoes, carriers of dangerous diseases, would continue
to breed... Thus sanitation was presented as the primary motive in the
destruction of wet agriculture and aquaculture while the profitability of
reclaimed was hardly mentioned at all. (Nakamura, 1979: 67)
In 1959, following a plebiscite process which
was at the time, and has been subsequently deplored by many native Hawaiians,
Hawai`i became the fiftieth state of the United States of America through the
unprecedented "Admission Act." This Act not only gave control of most
of the ceded lands held by the federal government to the state, but provided a
requirement for the state to hold these lands "as a public trust for the
support of the public schools and other public educational institutions, for
the betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians..." (MacKenzie, 1991:
19). However, almost twenty years passed before actions were taken per the
Act's trust language toward the "betterment of the conditions of native
Hawaiians."
In 1964, Holt published On Being Hawaiian,
a book that contributed to the advent of a cultural renaissance which has increased
in intensity in the face of a dominant culture which has held that Hawaiian
culture is antiquated and without worth, and that the American hegemony over
the islands is a part of "Manifest Destiny" of inevitable control.
Against many odds, native people of Hawai`i are again learning their original
language, their history, their traditional spirituality, their ancient
livelihood practices, and are challenging the legitimacy of the Anglo-Japanese
socio-political hegemony in the region. A systematic exploration of the effects
of Euro-American trade and exploitation, the illegal coup de 'etat, annexation,
land appropriation, statehood, militarization, standard western education,
tourism, and ecological devastation has only begun. Essential literature relating
to this native culture renewal include Kame`eleihiwa's (1992) Native Land
and Foreign Desires, Dudley's (1990) A Hawaiian Nation series,
Hasager's (1994) Return to Nationhood, Trask's (1993) From a Native
Daughter, and Handy's (1972) Native Planters. These works attempt to
give the history of Hawai`i from a native perspective, and offer significant
additions and revisions to the previously written version.
This reemergence of Hawaiian cultural values and
pride led in 1978 to the convening of a Constitutional Convention at which the
language of the Admission Act was clarified and expanded to establish native
Hawaiians and the general public as the two beneficiaries of the lands ceded to
the state by the Act. In addition, the Office of
Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) was created to administer twenty percent of the
ceded land revenues to benefit native Hawaiians. Why OHA only administrates the
revenues derived from ceded land leases and sales and not from the revenue
generated from businesses on ceded land is
... [one of] many unresolved
issues relative to the public land trust and its proceeds and income [which]
remained. Disputes over the classification of specific parcels of land as ceded
or non-ceded, questions as to whether section 5 (f) contemplates gross or net
income, and problems in defining "proceeds," have plagued the state
and hampered OHA in effectively carrying out its responsibilities to native
Hawaiians. (MacKenzie, 1991: 20)
The story of OHA is an intricate and complex one
that we will not tackle here in any detail. It is enough to point out that OHA
is set up as a separate state agency outside of the control of the executive
branch with a stated intention to provide a vehicle for native Hawaiian
self-government and self-determination, and to point to the many unresolved
problematics and tensions with the state, within OHA, and among its trustees in
fulfilling OHA's mission.
As this thesis goes to press, an article in the
Honolulu paper suggests that for many native Hawaiians, life is not easy in
1996.
Native Hawaiians face some of
the worst housing conditions in the United States, says U.S. Sen. Daniel
Inouye. Their plight has been hidden because data on native Hawaiian housing
needs were incomplete, Inouye said. New studies bear "astonishing findings
and statistics - findings which are shocking even to those who may consider
themselves well-informed on these matters," he said.
Among
the findings: Nearly half of Hawaiian households - and 67 percent of those on
the waiting list for Hawaiian Home lands - experience housing problems related
to affordability, overcrowding or structural inadequacy. That compares with 44
percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives living on tribal lands and 27
percent of all U.S. households. The rate of homelessness among Hawaiians, at
12.2 "households" per 1,000, is double that of non-Hawaiians.
"It's
at a point where I don't think it could get any worse," said Jim
Dannemiller of SMS Research, which helped compile data. (Christensen, July 4,
1996, Honolulu Star-Bulletin)
To summarize the main points of this section,
Hawai`i provides a dramatic example of the effects on a specific bioregion of
colonialism and mass-market capitalism; of being introduced to "the
grid" of global maps and economy. It cannot be restated too often that
from being a "highly organized, self sufficient, subsistent social system
based on communal land tenure with a sophisticated language, culture, and
religion" (U.S. 103rd Congress, 1993) before the arrival of missionaries
and trades people in 1778 led by Captain Cook, Native Hawaiians have almost
been annihilated from the face of the earth. In a little more than a century
after Cook's arrival, the indigenous population decreased from an estimated one
million inhabitants to approximately 40,000. Today as the Hawaiian people are
finally gaining recognition for the many years of genocide against their
people, less than 8,000 full-blood Hawaiians are left. The remaining Kanaka
Maoli, the native people of the islands, are widely regarded as some of the
most disadvantaged, oppressed, and unhealthy people in what is called the
United States.
Hawai`i is the most geographically isolated
archipelago in the world, and originally had a tremendous diversity of
microclimates, life forms, and natural renewable energy sources. Despite its
natural wealth, Hawai`i now imports 50-75% of its own foodstuffs, and over 75%
of its energy (Department of Geography, U. Hawai`i, 1983: 159). Ecological
degradation over the last century, caused by development and ignorance, has
caused many species of life to become extinct, and still threatens many more.
The transformation of the Islands from a series of rich, dynamic and
interconnected ecosystems and cultural systems to its present state is one of
many factors that has intensified a movement toward reclaiming Hawaiian
sovereignty.
It is among the remaining full-blooded
Hawaiians, the 220,000 mixed-blooded Hawaiians, and empathetic haoles that
different scenarios of Hawaiian sovereignty are being formed. Hawaiian history
has given birth to several attempts at the creation of a sovereign state. In
1996, sovereignty in some form has moral support at the highest levels of state
government, as Senator Inouye and former Governor Waihee suggest.
It is my sincere hope that
the sovereignty of the Hawaiian people will be restored in my lifetime,' says
US Senator Daniel Inouye (D) of Hawai`i. 'I stand ready and willing to act on
... legislation at the request of and on behalf of the American people.'
`There are few today who
doubt that sovereignty will happen,' Governor Waihee adds. 'It's a matter of
how, when, and in what form.'
Close observers say most
vocal proponents of sovereignty fall into three categories: 1) Those demanding
complete separation from the US and a return to independent, internationally
recognized status; 2) Those desiring nation-within-a-nation status with federal
recognition as a new, native-American nation; 3) Those wanting to maintain the
political status quo while forging ahead for both reparations and full control
of Hawaiian trust assets by Hawaiians. (Wood, 1994: 10)
On November 23, 1993, the United States Congress
and President Clinton formally apologized to the native people of Hawai`i for
the overthrow of the Hawaiian Queen Lili`uokalani in 1893, by passing US Public
Law 103-150. In Public Law 103-150, the United States government states its
official recognition of its own complicity, its apology, and its commitment to
reconciliation, without any ambiguity:
Whereas, in pursuance of the
conspiracy to overthrow the Government of Hawaii, the United States Minister
and the naval representatives of the United States caused armed naval forces of
the United States to invade the sovereign Hawaiian nation on January 16, 1893,
and to position themselves near the Hawaiian Government buildings and the
Iolani Palace to intimidate Queen Lili`uokalani and her Government...
Whereas,
it is proper and timely for the Congress on the occasion of the impending one
hundredth anniversary of the event, to acknowledge the historic significance of
the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, to express its deep regret to
the Native Hawaiian people, and to support the reconciliation efforts of the
State of Hawaii and the United Church of Christ with Native Hawaiians.... (U.S.
103rd Congress, 1993)
Professor Francis Boyle, an international law
expert and Professor at the University of Illinois at Champaign, has
represented the Palestinians in their successful struggle for sovereignty, is
currently giving legal advice in the Serbian-Croat conflict in the Balkans and
is also giving advice to the Nation of Hawai'i. Professor Boyle has made public
statements regarding the legitimacy of the Nation of Hawai'i which have
illuminated the issue of sovereignty in light of U.S. Public Law 103-150. In
Honolulu, on December 28, 1993, Professor Boyle stated the following:
Through 103-150 they (The
United States of America) are admitting that the invasion, overthrow,
occupation, annexation, starting in 1893, on up, violated all the treaties,
violated basic norms of international law, and the United States
Constitution... (it was) the overthrow of a lawful government... Under
international law when you have a violation of treaties of this magnitude, the
World Court has ruled that the only appropriate remedy is restitution.
Whose
land is it? Well, from what the Congress seems to be saying, it's the land of
the Native Hawaiians. The Native Hawaiian people still have sovereignty...
You can't trespass on your own land. The trespassers then become the State of
Hawai'i, and the land developers, and the golf courses, and the resorts. You
are simply the Native Hawaiians asserting your rights under international
law... This reversal of positions, between who is the criminal and who is the
victim, who is asserting their rights and who is violating their rights, has
been effectively conceded by Congress. (Boyle, 1993)
Today, the sovereignty movements of Hawai`i are
gaining greater prominence as conferences, media attention, and international
sympathy build toward some form of reconciliation. There have been several
socio-political manifestations of the native sovereignty movements; we will
allude here to two of them, and the establishment of their own constitution.
First, the movement for nation-within-a-nation status:
Although the initial efforts
of the Ho 'ala Kanawai movement were curtailed by the state, native advocates
continued to meet and develop a strategy for self-determination. From 1983 to
1987, a coalition of native leaders called the Native Hawaiian Land Trust Task
Force began workshops in all native communities throughout the Islands which
focused on the right of self-determination of the Hawaiian people. This
movement grew through several successive political and educational undertakings
which reviewed native history prior and subsequent to the overthrow, native
efforts to regain sovereignty and the inherent cultural and political rights of
native people. These efforts culminated in a native Constitutional Convention
which was held in January 1987. What emerged was a new nation - Ka Lahui
Hawai`i (The Gathering of Hawai`i). (Hasager, 1994: 82)
Another group is pressing for full Hawaiian
sovereignty as an independent nation and has only recently declared its
independence and created a constitution following the passage of U.S. Public
Law 103-150, and after legal advice and encouragement from Professor Boyle. On
January 16, 1994, 101 years after the US-backed overthrow, 400 people gathered
at the Iolani Palace, the former residence of the deposed Queen Lili`uokalani.
At this meeting a representative from the Kanaka Maoli declared in accordance
with Article 1 of the United Nations charter, "We hereby reestablish our
independent and sovereign nation of Hawai`i that was illegally taken from the
Kanaka Maoli." This proclamation empowered a council of elders to
establish a provisional government of Hawai`i, called "The Nation of
Hawai`i."
A few months later, 200 kupuna (elders)
gathered on Maui for the first plenary session of the provisional government.
At this meeting Mr. Pu`uhonua Kanahele was selected as the Head of State for
the provisional government, and the work to establish a new constitution was
begun. In October of 1994 the revised constitution was completed by an
all-island gathering of Hawaiian elders: it was written in the Hawaiian
language and served as the only official document of the Nation of Hawai`i.
Francis Boyle's advice to the Nation of Hawai`i
has been essential in helping to chart its course; however recent developments
may lead the Nation to rest on older foundations, and navigate in new
directions.
One of these recent developments is a movement
to challenge land titles that cannot be traced back to the constitution of
Kamehameha III. Today some native Hawaiians are maintaining that the original
Hawaiian law based on the constitution of 1840 is in fact still the law of the
land, given that the "Bayonet Constitution" of 1887 was never
ratified. Certain individuals have had title searches done through
"Perfect Title Company," and have now stopped paying their mortgages
to their bank, instead paying mortgage into an escrow account (based on
guidelines from the 1840 constitution) set up as a vehicle to support an
independent Hawaiian government. How this development will affect the
sovereignty movement is unclear, but it will likely be an important issue to
watch in the future.
Another important development is the publication
of, and distribution of ballots by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), for an
upcoming "Hawaiian vote" to determine whether people of Hawaiian
ancestry desire to formally explore the creation of a Hawaiian nation of some
kind. Some groups, like Ka Lahui Hawai`i, urge active opposition and even
sabotage of the vote, calling it "controlled by the State," and
suggesting that it is a lose-lose situation for Hawaiians. Others, including
the Nation of Hawai`i, are encouraging participation as a way to bring
Hawaiians together and discuss (among other things) the importance and
continuing relevance of the original constitution of 1840. Bumpy Kanahele of
the Nation of Hawai`i has stated that since sovereignty groups have been unable
to reach really broad audiences thus far, he sees this event as a rare
opportunity to gather mainstream Hawaiians to talk and learn about sovereignty.
In general, we have found that there is much
going on in Hawai`i with regard to sovereignty which is not written about or
covered by the media: it is often difficult to learn about what is actually
happening in the present, and even more so what has actually happened in the
past. Our historical and contemporary overview should be seen in this light -
as a broad, surface sweep of main issues and events we are offering to help the
reader to begin to better understand this place and this people in light of
research topics we are exploring. A deeper understanding and treatment of these
issues would require much more extensive research, and a much more ambitious
paper.
Before discussing in some detail our work with
GIS with Hawai`i and the Nation of Hawai`i, it is important to first turn to
some further considerations of the history of GIS and the context in which it
has developed.
�
