Lunch in Waikiki

our friends from australia invited us for lunch at the 'cheeseburger in paradise' restaurant in waikiki. it was kinda tacky, with its plastic pineapple cups for softdrinks, and waiters wearing fake hula skirts over their long pants. i took photos, of course! but the talk was good and the food not too bad. i ate one of the 20 different kinds of cheeseburger (what else?). james ordered his usual cheeseburger with no cheese. on the way back to the hotel, i took a picture of a plastic hula girl doll dancing around on the floor in one of the hotel shops. i'm caught by the unreality of it all--this must be what it's like to acknowledge living in the matrix. rather jarring! and kinda spooky! the doll was dancing to 'aloha oe', a song the queen wrote. and just steps away, down the hall, there she was--the queen! twilight zone!

after lunch, we went with them to their hotel room. i had brought my camera and interviewed nyrelle patell, the director of the australian first nations academy for cultural family therapy and counseling (whew! long org name) about her work in north queensland and why she was here in the first place. she came for a conference at the waikiki convention center sponsored by the american counseling association. must have been a thousand people at this convention. anyhow, she was the international speaker brought in for this conference. nyrell happened to find me, as i mentioned in an earlier post, because of kuhio vogeler. she needed to have someone (hawaiian) provide protocol and give permission for her to speak. the conference organizers didn't know what she was talking about but, as i understand, offered her some dancers/chanters from polynesian cultural center. she declined. we ended up taking them all to kekuni's house on thursday. we all stayed until midnight. she explained what she needed and he agreed to provide it. saturday morning, kekuni showed up at the convention center and offered her and the session participants oli and lei. people were blown away by the protocol and their ability to be participants/witnesses to it. kekuni had made a lei out of the puakenikeni flowers in his yard. he had explained on thursday evening that his wife, irene, planted that tree a month before she died. and here it was, pretty huge and full of flowers. so he gathered the flowers and took irene (the lei) along with him to the convention center. he presented that lei to nyrell. and she told the audience the story. apparently people were so moved, they cried. all good!

nyrell invited kekuni to be the keynote speaker at a conference for first nations people re generational trauma in november 2009. he accepted her invite. with any luck, we'll all go along to carry his bag carriers, or set up his equipment, or something.

Willy K in concert

saturday night at the waikiki bandstand, willy k. and kaukahi, a local band, provided music for the prince kuhio moonlight concert. i have to say that was probably one of the highlights of the year (thus far) for me. he was fabulous! his friends, one from mexico, the other from israel, accompanied him, also on guitars. the music was outstanding. must have been a thousand people sitting there, in the dark, enjoying the music. the tourists seemed to like it. but the locals loved it--we could hear them screaming and cheering somewhere behind and to the sides of us. wish i had gotten a clear picture of them, but all i got was fuzzy blobs, which is what you get :-)

maria (who i was sitting next to) and i commiserated on the crazy lifestyle we live--obviously too much work and not enough sitting around listening to and enjoying music. i reflected on my youthful days of hanging out in bars and clubs and, basically, having a "no thinking" life. my sister worked in club pantheon, downtown, kind of a sleazy joint, as i recall. i think she could drink any guy under the table. but it was funny and fun, nonetheless. pre-kids, of course. notice i didn't write pre-marriage, just pre-kids. back then not many women i knew were out partying with their husbands or boyfriends. most of the males were home baby-sitting. my bad. my fun, too. i remember writing around with a bunch of drunk people, mostly women, not thinking at all about the possibility of being killed by someone who could black out behind the wheel. but as i mentioned it was not a time in my life when i was particularly conscious.

the concert started around 6 pm, immediately following the prince kuhio parade in waikiki. i was supposed to be watching the parking lot but ran off just when the parade cars and marchers started to arrive. and i forgot to return! my desire to 'capture' the parade via images overcame my sense of responsibility to the group. that's another way of saying that i ran away from working the lot and worked the road, instead. but i got some good shots. all of the photos are on the aohcc.org website, if folks wanna go look. it has occurred to me that next year at this time some of the folks i've digitally captured will no longer be here. some of those who were here last year are not here this year. ua pau, ua hala lakou--they have departed, and we are saddened because of it. but they were captured in my camera and they still live via images here and there and everywhere.

so yesterday was a long day, but the concert made up for all of it. afterwards, we went with maria to zippy's to eat ice cream and sandwiches. while we were there, i noticed a couple of guys sitting on a table across from us. two young local guys. one of them had a fabulous tattoo on his arm. i kept staring at his tattoo and i think he noticed, as he kept looking over at our table. eventually i just loudly commented to him how striking it was. when you ask about people's tattoos, something i notice about all of us with tattoos, they immediately want to share everything about their tattoo. then they want to show you all the rest. so this guy whipped off his shirt (in the restaurant) and showed us the other tattoo on his shoulder and talked about the significance of the different designs. then the other guy pulled up his pants leg and showed us his tattoo and talked about its significance. then (of course), i whipped off my olelo jacket and showed him the circles on my upper arms and described them as mo`o tails, one on each upper arm, with two mo`o on my back looking at each other. i had thought, of course, about whipping off my own shirt to showoff my mo`o, but thought better of it. didn't want james to have a heart attack, or maybe give me a couple of cracks :-) just kidding, of course. anyhow, we got into a long discussion about tattoos, and finally we went back to eating and to letting them eat. local people are crazy that way. the guy's tattoo on his right arm was from elbow to wrist. it was much like a glove, or maybe gauntlet, and looked somewhat like armor. it only took four hours or so to do. it goes around his whole arm, front and back. anyhow, i left the restaurant convinced i needed to have something like it. then i regretted not getting a photo, so i ran back in, like a crazy person, and asked to take photos. a couple of them are posted. i'm sure they thought i was crazy, but at my age, i don't really care.

Lunch with Australian First Nations Reps

james and i had lunch today with nyrell pattel and her husband and another friend (natives from australia) at wailana. it was interesting, and kinda like talking to ourselves. it took a little bit of time to share info that we thought might be relevant to starting a relationship. i hadn't met them before. rather, kuhio vogeler, a friend, had called from california to ask if i might meet with them and help them out with protocol issues (as if i could!). half hour into our discussion and lunch, we all realized that there was nothing any of us could share that the rest didn't already know about from firsthand experience: same statistics re health, education, economics, prisons, etc, etc. so we got that out of the way. then we talked about what she had in mind when she asked kuhio to help her connect with local people (hawaiians). nyrell wants to network with native people throughout the world to share strategies for healing generational trauma among native populations. she's a native healer as well as a western-trained psychologist. but she seemed to be in resistance to western understandings of illness. that was all good! but she also inferred she thought new age healing methodologies (including reiki) smacked of theft, like the white folks that now call themselves 'shamans' and 'healers' because they took training from somebody who had the 'gift'. nyrell believes that all healers heal because they have the gift of healing, not because they've been trained to heal. okay. i'll support that. then i'll have to rethink my own position on reiki. i know it works for me, or so my students and friends say when i work on their headaches that go away. i took training! yikes!

just as an aside, kuhio (my friend now in california) is on his way to estonia for 5 weeks or so to do research for his diss. he's comparing the struggle for independence of estonia, latvia and other baltic nations to hawaii's case. they were independent. then they were taken over by the soviet union. then they declared their independence again. what strategies did they use? what strategies could we use? i am reminded of a story that niklaus schweizer shared about national symbols, in particular the estonian flag. the people there would raise their own flag above the usurper's flag a little at a time, until one day it was flyin higher. just a small thing, and not many people noticed, but of course all the activists noticed, and they took heart by this action. small steps, indeed. reminded me of the time i was at the palace and someone came over to tell me that the hawaiian flag flying at the state capitol was upside down! i ran over (having my trusty camera on hand) and took photos. by that time, someone inside the building noticed and had come out to lower the flag and turn it right side up. i asked him what he thought happened, and he said it was probably an accident. but i don't think so. it wasn't the first time!

anyhow, back to the meeting today. the white woman in the photo with nyrell is a german woman who happened to be walking by outside the restaurant and offered to take our photo (which is why i'm in it!). so i took her photo with nyrell. she mentioned that it was a shame the terrible history of the u.s. in hawaii and how they stole the land. that made us all smile. james told her he felt germans were much more aware of such issues than most americans, and thanked her for her comments. he was remembering, of course, our friend and compatriot, sabine deiringer (now at cambridge finishing up her phd), who always struck us as being particularly cognizant and sympathetic to our efforts at resisting white american hegemony. not to mention that we miss her dearly.

we invited nyrell and her party of 4 to meet kekuni at his house tomorrow evening. hopefully he'll actually be there! last week he wasn't around, even though the meetings are standing meetings! oh well...

after we left the restaurant, i asked james to drop me off at waikiki beach near the police station so i could take surreptitious photos of tourists and others hanging out at the beach. something weird is happening to me. i've turned into a photo nut, trying to capture photos i think are interesting, colorful (i like red in particular), and catch some kind of action that tells a story all by itself. the photos above are two photos that i particularly liked. feel free to comment, if you're reading this.

Tuesday Stuff

i had an excellent interview today with palani vaughn on why he didn't support the filming of the life of princess kaiulani now taking place at iolani palace. he had been asked, originally, to play the part of kalakaua, and this was months ago. he asked then to see the script, but none was provided until earlier this month. what they did give him was a couple of lines to look at. when he finally got a copy of the script and read it through he thought it was pretty bad and suggested some revisions to the writer and director. he shared several emails with them over the months, but to no avail. they weren't interested in changing the script. apparently (and i say this because i haven't read it myself) the script calls for sanford dole to be the champion of the princess. he advocates on her behalf because she favors annexation to the u.s. she's greatful for the willingness on the part of the usurpers to grant hawaiians the right to vote (like hawaiians didn't have it already), and dole opposes lorin thurston who does not support, on this issue. he becomes her champion. never mind there were these two great petitions in opposition to annexation of hawaii to the u.s. that part gets left out of the story. never mind that the princess supported the queen against the annexation, against the takeover by u.s. military. supposedly the writer (who researched for 10 years, by golly!) knows his stuff. never mind everybody else in hawaii, including hawaiian academics, who have a difference (and documented) take on what really happened in hawaii's history. 'it's just a film' is the stock answer. 'it's just a story'. and, according to palani, they did consult with hawaiian experts--who?

palani made a good case about kuleana--whose responsibility is it to see that things are done properly? whose responsibility was it ever? ours, all ours. who stands behind the princess, in her line? kalakaua, lili`u, their kupuna back to the beginning of time? ua hala lakou--must be all our responsibility now. palani's argument was simply to be pono. that seems to have no place in our lives today. most people think such issues are irrelevant, that the purpose of life is to make money and to do it in every way possible at the least cost to oneself. but there's something to be said about speaking up. so he did. he maika`i loa kela.

it's not as if hawaiians don't have enough crap to deal with, enough loss. after a while, depression sets in and sometimes people don't even know why. i'm back to kawika liu's explanation about self-determnation (or lack, thereof), and what happens when a family, a group, a lahui gets hit time and again. they get tired. no one listens. no one believes. people turn them off. and after a while, they stop talking. hawaiians aren't quite there yet. they're still talking :-)

Monday at the Palace

i had heard there would be a protest at the palace this morning. henry noa and the reinstated government were there when we arrived, and handing out flyers about why they were protesting the filming of "the last native princess", or whatever the film would be called, because of a badly written script that portrayed a view of the princess as in support of the annexation of hawaii to the u.s. somehow, sanford dole becomes the hero in this film, in opposition to lorrin thurston. since i haven't read the script (yet), i can't say much more, but it was interesting to hear what folks had to say. i videotaped henry and, later on, soli niheu, about what each considered the primary issues. as soon as i edit, i'll post these short interviews online.

soli was there to talk with the film crew about whether or not they should take some responsibility for the filmmaker's portrayal of accurate hawaiian history. not sure what the response was. but from the few i spoke with, very few, if any, had even read the script! no one seemed to have much to say about anything substantive. the medic guy i met, sonny, was clear about his job as medic. he was there to take care of the cast and crew. the security guys were there to take care of equipment, etc. it was hard to have any kind of substantive discussion with folks whose primary reason for being there was 'the job'. understandable. so okay, i understood.

but as james continues to remind me, this is not really the issue. rather our concern has to do with not minimizing the princess by revising history so that the actress who plays her part makes her look stupid, or weak, or unintelligent. she was none of those things. and she dearly loved her country (our country). it was made clear that none of the folks involved in production had considered (or would consider) any of these points. oh well...

i watched people accessing the palace, the balconies, the whole area so freely, without consequence, i suppose. unlike hawaiians who must always face consequences when they think they can access the palace without 'permission'. money can provide permission. rumor has it that the film co. paid the friends of iolani palace %50,000. that's nothing we could ever do, thus we have less compelling reason for access. and our concern is always for our behavior while on the grounds or in the palace--protocol still rules us. but no one else is held to or holds themselves to those same standards. it wasn't that long ago that hawaiians trying to access the second floor to offer hookupu to the queen at her door (not even in her room) were denied the ability to do so by fip security, and by their watchdog lua group. sad days, indeed, for hawaiians who face consequences for wanting to pay tribute, as compared to businessmen whose tribute is in the form of dollars. reality check!

i heard from kehau watson that abigail kawananakoa had called for a press conference today at 11:30 am at the state capitol. unfortunately i wasn't able to make that one. but her reason for the press call was to inform them of her filing an injunction to stop the filming at the palace. i have no idea why that is. i did hear from security that she caused them to change the title of the film from "the last princess" to "barbarian princess" (or some other title), as she claimed to BE the last princess. too bad she hasn't seen fit to hook up with those of us stils advocating for the restoration of the hawaiian kingdom. more on this tomorrow!

Sunday Non-Easter Rant

james and i cut the grass at the burial mound today. we invited robert (more about him later) to meet us at the palace to offer his oli to the kupuna still in the mound. he helped us cut the grass--very helpful! certainly the place looked and felt much better when we were pau.

after that we went to ranch 99 for lunch and met ruth hsu there. good talking. we decided all three of us (james, robert, me) would be guests on ruth's 'tuff talk' show. her topic: what does it mean to be a hawaiian today? it was an hour show. the time flew by, literally, as we were so engaged in the discussion. one of the issues we touched on was what it means to take responsibility for the well being of the family, the group, the lahui. i was moved by some of the things that both james and robert shared. i think we actually out-talked ruth, effectively using up all the time!

just a bit about robert (see photo above)--he saw james and me talking on one of the half hour shows on hawaiian spirituality. my number is listed in the end credits, and he called me last tuesday and shared his story on the phone. robert's mother was a cousin of kawena pukui. robert shared an incident that happened to him when he was a student in kau. his teacher found out that he was related to mrs. pukui and suggested he write his genealogy. so he decided to meet her and went with his sister to her house on oahu. when he and his sister arrived, there was another person there, an 81 year old man named william meinecke. mr. meinecke shared that he had just flown in from kau because he had been having these recurring dreams about coming to oahu to visit with mrs. pukui. in his dream, he was given information and an oli to be given to "the boy". he had no idea who "the boy" was, but got on the plane and came over anyway. in the dream he was given one part of an oli. mrs. pukui was supposed to have the other part. and together they would provide to "the boy" the two parts of the oli.

so robert and his sister, armed with tape recorder, sat with the two kupuna and taped the discussion, including the two parts of the oli. they sat for several hours. robert taped the whole talk. a week or two later, robert mailed the tapes to pahala, to the school, and asked that a transcript of the tapes be made for him. then he forgot about it. some time later, he called again to check on the progress of the transcription and found out that pahala school had burned down. the woman who answered the phone said that the tapes had been lost. this was in 1974. so for the last 34 years, he hadn't thought about it at all. last week he called the school again and asked, this time, about his former teacher. he was told that she had retired, but was living in the area. so he called the operator and got her number and called her. he introduced himself. during the talk, he asked if she remembered about the tapes. she said yes, and that she had the tapes! she had been holding them for him all this time, even though others had inquired. she did not pass them on to anyone. they will soon be in his possession again.

robert went on to share that ever since he met the two kupuna and was given the oli, his life has changed. i guess you could say he has regular visitations. when he came to the burial mound today, he offered his oli to the kupuna there, in asking permission to enter. it was his hookupu.

i'm not really sure what any of this stuff means, but i'm certain it means something. it's too soon to tell. but our talk on ruth's show touched on some aspects related to this story. it has to do with cumulative impacts--actions/activities that have to occur before the next thing can occur. if you believe there are no accidents, then everything that happens happens for a reason. and the next thing can't happen until the first thing happens (if you get my reasoning). everything happens in order.

In my garden

when i came back from ukiah, i vowed to plant a little garden. not exactly a 'peace garden', as gabe had planted, but just a 'wish for a better world and respect the `aina' garden. it wasn't hard to do, as i got akoni to help me and we started with plant starters from home depot. i cheated. we've yet to put up a sign, and probably will never get around to it, but at least we (akoni and i) started. one day we may even bring ourselvesf to actually eat these things, but probably not. we've adopted them, like pets. they're beautiful to look at and don't demand too much attention. i, personally, just get a kick out of thinking that i could actually help something to grow and to be beautiful just for the sake of growing and being beautiful.

i imagine building a nation ought to be done with exactly those kinds of feelings--to help something bloom so that along the way we can see the beauty of it emerge from all the energy and commitment put into laying a healthy foundation. kawika liu spoke in my intro class yesterday on the topic of "self-determination as a determinant of health" (good thing i took notes or i wouldn't have remembered the title of his ppt.). what he discussed was the differences in health between whites and asians, on the one hand, and brown/native people, on the other--given the same socio-economic, education, and age status. white people and, in hawaii asians, do much better healthwise than pacific islanders, hawaiians, filipinos, etc. his research showed that 56% of differences were unaccounted for, after you factor in smoking, diet, genetics, etc. and i'm probably being too simplistic in my own summarising of his talk, but bottom line is that our ability or inability to govern ourselves, to have control over our own lives in every aspect, from work to social relations, to where and how we live, to what we eat (or what we can eat) determines our level of health. and the result of not being able to practice self-determination has resulted in high stress/low control lifestyles that make us susceptible to every kind of illness. he cited statistics for heart disease, diabetes, and asthma. hawaiians, pacific islanders, and to a lesser extent filipinos, fit the profile. it's the same profile for native americans in the u.s. and black people. higher ed generally means access to better jobs. better jobs mean more money, health insurance, ability to make choices. people are not always at the mercy of the 'system'. being poor has the opposite effect--no money, homelessness, a feeling of hopelessness, being at the mercy of the elements and of society in general, and feeling shitty about oneself. such experiences contribute to a feeling of wellbeing or not.

i would like to think my students got something out of this lecture. i think maybe a quarter of them did. the rest looked like class fell in the middle of their naptime and they were fighting to stay awake. that may have been due to the delivery, but i don't think so. it had more to do with the topic--who gives a rip about health disparities, anyway? i think there's only one person in class who's over 30, not counting myself, and very few of them see this issue as having any relatioship to them at all, so no wonder the nodding heads! all that makes me feel a little sad. these guys hold the future in their hands, whether we like it or not. that's the point, nowadays, of pushing higher ed. somebody's gotta do the work of the future. the present rockheads (most of them) who are supposed to be leading in government don't seem to be doing a good job, if statistics are to be believed.

i like to think of my students as being part of my garden. most of them thrive and are beautiful. and we won't eat them. we just watch them blossom and we send good energy and hope to hell they don't go out and damage an already fragile world. they'll have to contend with bugs and drought and others less kind who WILL eat them, but for the most part, as long as we keep watering and the sun keeps shining, they'll survive. some will thrive and go away and do good work. john kaimikaua, when he was teaching at HPU windward campus, actually wrote a chant talking about the students at HPU--the last two lines of his ole are "ola ka aina i ka wai ola mai ka lewa, ola ka lehulehu i ka hana pono maika`i": the land lives by the life giving water from the heavens; the people (students and the community) live and thrive by their good works. i think when john wrote this, he was watering the garden, a much bigger garden than HPU students, really it was the garden (aina) of the whole world. his message was for the whole world. maybe he was gardening the gardeners.

Anti-OHA settlement press conference

interesting day at the state capitol today. but actually, i didn't go to the capitol, just to the queen's statue for a press conference. i videotaped the event and interviewed a few people, meaning anyone who was standing around looking like they were willing to be interviewed! i was practicing, as usual, trying to get some good and interesting photos. good means that i should get them in focus. interesting means (to me, anyway) that the photos don't make me fall asleep.

i happen to like flags, especially the hawaiian flag, even when it's upsidedown. i have tons of pictures of richard kinney with the flag; sometimes with ten flags. he's the man! tomorrow i'll edit the video footage i took and put it up on youtube.

i've been focusing a lot on stones lately. today, as i was driving by punahou school, i took photos of the stone in front of the gate. in glen grant's book _obake files_ he tells the story of the pohaku-loa of punahou. when the school was founded over 150 years ago, that rock placed on the property. it had/has supernatural powers. one story is that when the punahou lands were first given to the protestant missionaries, they sought a stone to serve as a boundary marker. behind the campus they found a 9 foot tall rock, with 2 feet buried in the ground. men were hired to move it to the proper area. so they dug around the rock expecting to move it the next day. but when they returned, the rock seemed as firmly entrenched in the ground as the day before. so they dug again. they became concerned that a kupua actually lived in the stone. but after asking a kahuna, they were told it was not a stone, but a person. and this person would not be forced out, but could be coaxed to move. the kahuna instructed the men to prepare a fest of black pig, black awa, green coconut, black fowl, red fish, and pink poi. everyone was invited to the feast. when it was completed, the workmen began to dig up the stone. then it was asked 'who shall lift it up and set it in place?" paki, a large and powerful chief then took hold of the stone and lifted it upright. then, to the amazement of all the people there, the rock began to move itself to the place where it now stands, with men on either side supporting it from tipping over.

some years later, pohaku-loa was broken into two pieces. one piece was taken to the kapiolani maternity home, which was then located on beretania st. later on it went missing. what remains at punahou campus at the front gate is the other part of that stone. this is the first photo at the top.

Visiting Da Cuzins

it was nice to be out in nanakuli today, despite the heat. we sat around in the garage area talking with my niece, jesse, and nephew, kimo, and assorted kids. very pleasant. the family is fixing up the house, painting and doing minor repairs. we weren't very helpful, james and i, just sitting around shooting the breeze. but we brought lunch and dinner, so that might have been useful for all of them. i took photos of whoever was there. then we drove up to the cemetery to visit lono. jesse said the boys who dug the hole also created a little rock border. when they were digging, they had a hard time removing one of the stones. eventually they did, however, after they built the border, they put that stone upside-down on one of the border stones where it now serves as a kind of guardian. it didn't seem to want to move to begin with, so they put it back to stand guard over lono. that's a pretty huge stone. i'm surprised it's still standing, but (again) it probably doesn't want to be moved.

james and i drove by gerry jervis' old house in nanakuli. gerry said when the property across the street was being developed, a huge stone in the middle of the property had to be moved. so the backhoe moved it out toward the road. the next day it was back in the middle of the yard. this went on a few times until the contractor decided to move the stone and build a cement block around it. when we last saw it, a few years ago, there it was in the middle of the sidewalk. people had to walk around it. today we went to look for it, but it wasn't there. we did look in the neighbor's yard across the street. two stones are now in a cement slab close to the road, but a fence was built between the road and the stones. i asked a girl riding her bike in the yard if one of these was the stone that used to be outside on the sidewalk. she said she thought so, but from further down the street. neither of these looks like the same stone, but it may be. i was sorry the stone i saw before was no longer in the sidewalk.

Sunday musings

the other night i had a dream about my sister. she was much younger (20 something), wearing a long black dress or muumuu, couldn't tell which. she was looking very pretty and had long black hair. i remember her as having choke boyfriends and doing all kinds of crazy things that i would never consider doing (i think i was really conservative almost my whole life!). she took my father's 1955 chevy once and took her friends for a ride down the ala wai canal and got into an accident. i think he was really pissed, but i don't recall what happened when he found out. i think the cops called him because she had no license (just a key!). anyhow, my sister was looking good. i mentioned to james, who merely raised an eyebrow. dreams are significant to him. he sent me a telepathic message that said "put that on the shelf for the moment, but don't forget about it." that's what happens when you've been together for a while--you don't have to talk; silent messages will do. hard to tell lies when you're that connected :-(

the day after lono's funeral, my sister went home to the big island. she lives in pepeekeo. i've never been to visit her, despite the fact that i've traveled to the big island at least ten times since she moved there. tells you something about our relationship. the line between blood relatives and spirit relatives is fuzzy. and the definition of family has shifted in my lifetime, in my understanding. we always say "i love you", but the feeling that keeps family members connected for a lifetime, whether we see each other or not, seems sometimes less strong with real blood relatives than with others. why is that? i suspect there's something wrong with me.

the family finally secured a death certificate and had the house (homestead lease) changed over to roy, the next oldest child. and roy also inherited guardianship for some of his nephews. it's a big chunk of work and responsibility to pick up. but i imagine it will, as always, be taken in stride. roy is a deacon in his church in nanakuli. lucky he has "god on his side", instead of practicing heathen ways, like some of his relatives (namely his aunty, me). the church supports him, and has supported lono and the family in the past. that counts for something. i think i may have had that once before, when james and i first got married and he was pastor of a church in kalihi. but then he decided to step down (i gave him such a hard time about the church and missionaries and their impact on hawaiian practices and culture--that may have helped convince him). he became a 'recovering christian' (in his words) and acknowledged that his removing himself was because of his disenchantment with the church and with christians who could not, would not see that the christian perspective should always take into account social justice issues. he believed that jesus was, among other things, a social justice activist, hence he was hanging out with those at the lowest class level--workers. that's kinda like the ahupua`a philosophy that recognizes healthy streams as those with cold, clear, fast running water that benefits the basic life in the stream--shellfish, limu, etc. if you raise the quality of life at the bottom, everything/everyone else benefits. so a good christian, aside from sticking the work of raising the bottom on god, actually has a responsibility to help (kuleana, the action verb!) everyone in society to thrive, beginning at the bottom! i like that.

today i'm going to visit my nieces and nephews in nanakuli. it's sunday. i have a day off, for a change. i want to make sure they remember who i am! i shall take photos and post on the next post!

Playing for Change

it's 1 pm thursday. i showed students a video called "playing for change" in my anth tourism class, about street musicians and music, culture, a philosophy of life that reflects the need to engage with beauty and passion--can we live our lives in such a way that the driving force is to create and practice what is beautiful in the world and at the same time make enough money to live? the question of the day!

the director did a great job of tying in various perspectives, both in the video and in the piece of music created by different musicians in overlays throughout the show. the outcome of the music piece was wonderful. the outcome of the video was that it held our interest.

but back to the question: can we live our lives such that our main reason for being is that we create and practice what is beautiful in the world (food-sharing, art, music, poetry, "random acts of kindness", group singing, dramatic renderings, street plays, group art, gardening, massage, healing methodologies, long-drawn-out-and-thoughtful discussions, writing, etc.)? and can we then add something to that mix that allows us to somehow meet our daily physical needs: food, water, shelter? all the other stuff is covered under "beauty". what's the model we use now? does it work?

i traveled to ukiah in january to visit my friend, gabrielle. their living situation is interesting. they call it a 'ranch'. several houses are spread out here and there, with a community kitchen and bathroom/shower. everybody has their own private quarters in little (and not-so-little) separate units. on sundays they come together to share food. although i'm not sure how many people actually live on the ranch, i did meet several of them at the sunday evening potluck. they were a like-minded bunch (i think), mostly anti-war, well-educated, older folks, with as many men as women. some, like gabe and king, were partners, but had separate units. gabe lives in a little yurt with a window at the top of her round house and all around the sides, and a little metal fireplace that kept me warm while i was there. not much space, but enough for a little makeshift office, with desk and shelves. i liked it immensely. the community kitchen was jammed full of shelves and jars and cans of unidentifiable stuff. maybe edible. maybe not.

the whole time i was there it rained. i wisely wore layers of everything, but it didn't really help, since they were thin layers. what would i know, coming from a place where 60 degrees meant we were 'freezing'? neighbors brought food they had cooked--cabbage, squash. someone made soup. the local market made our contribution: roast chicken, same as in the markets here. and wine! we brought wine! but the food and the talk around the big old table with every kind of chair was fine. everyone was interested in hawaii and i was interested in what everyone else did in ukiah. we traded info. i noticed squash and pumpkins sitting on a shelf. they looked like perfect plastic, but (surprise!) they weren't. one of the farmers at the ranch grows them in the field down the road. i noticed all kinds of fruits and vegetables in bowls here and there, and out on the porch. it occurred to me that these were so common, no one really ate them. they just sat around for decoration, kinda like how we lay out mangoes and tangerines from the tree, hoping someone would stop by and eat them, or take them.

outside gabe's yurt is a little garden with a sign: wendell berry peace garden. i found it inspiring and vowed to plant a garden when i got home (and i did). across from the garden was a large old wooden house, where the owner lived (sometimes). it was full of holes made by woodpeckers. and each hole had an acorn in it. something new for me. and like a good researcher/anthropologist type, i went around taking photos of everything. now i know what woodpecker holes look like. i suppose i could develop a thesis around it :-)

i took a shower every night. and sometimes in the morning. i mention that because i noticed that i may have been the only one. they probably thought i was crazy, but if they had grown up on an island, they might have done the same thing. old habits are hard to break. if gabe lived in the desert, this probably wouldn't have gone over so well.

gabe's friend, tisha, lived way up the mountain. we drove to her house one day, up and down winding roads in beautiful country. oak trees everywhere. turkeys ran across the dirt road. there was mist rising up out of the ground in several places. tisha has no neighbors to speak of. she no bathroom (not exactly). she has a toilet outside with a partial enclosure, but basically it's a place to sit and contemplate nature while you're doing your natural thing. since i didn't have to 'go', i found it beautiful. otherwise there was a bucket sitting in the middle of the driveway under a tree. why worry about privacy when you have no neighbors? tisha had two large dogs whom she had rescued as puppies from a garbage dump somewhere. they really owned the house and kept it safe from intruders. tisha is a healer. when she found out i had a swollen knee, she immediately set to work healing it. i found out my knee was protesting the cold so did as i was told and covered it up with a sock with a hold where the toes would have been. it helped.

okay, i'm off to class.

Wednesday's Rant

i considered not posting and just going to bed, but changed my mind. today was interesting. i hosted a bunch of students from barrow, alaska and their teachers. last week barrow had chilly -20 degree weather. today they were sweating in the heat. they took a tour of the hpu windward campus at hawaii loa, then met us at the downtown campus. afterwards i accompanied them to kaniakapupu and gave them a quick history of kamehameha the great's desire to become 'great' by taking, one by one, the different islands. when kamehameha came to oahu, he battled the chiefs from waikiki to the nuuanu pali, and warriors on both sides fell all along the battle lines to the final battle near the place now called 'pali lookout'. i had brought with me 14 pu ohe, made from bamboo gathered at kaniakapupu, kamehameha III's summer palace. the place is certainly a sacred place, and we acknowledged that saredness by offering oli and blowing on our pu, everyone at once, at the outer wall surrounding the house site. it was awesome to hear the different tones all at once.

the students took a little walking tour, learned a little bit of history. i shared only one story with them, which i'm writing about here, about one part of the site that was discovered perhaps ten years ago. a friend had asked me to accompany him to the platform that was uncovered during the UH summer archaeological field school at kaniakapupu. we went there in the evening, around 5 pm. we had gathered plants and flowers to offer as hookupu (offering) out of respect for those spirits and persons resident on the property. when we got there (it's just a short hike into the forest and up the trail, but you can't see anything at all from the road), we went over to the platform, just to the right of the main structure, and looked for a place to put the offering. we walked over, climbed up on the lower level over some rocks. i waited while he went to find a suitable place. he walked away from me and within a minute it became dark. i couldn't see him. but i could hear him chanting. we spoke to each other in the dark and he found his way over to me. it was pitch black. then we turned around the way we had come and began to inch our way back. couldn't see a thing. i thought we might trip over something if we didn't go slowly. all of a sudden there was a flash of light--perfectly round and clear--that illuminated the rock we stepped on coming in. so i put my foot on the rock where the light shone and then it was dark again. we stepped off the platform safely and walked back to the main structure, which was illuminated. the sun hadn't yet gone down, even though it was black in the area where we left the flowers. my friend commented on how lucky it was that i had brought my flashlight. i stated i didn't have a flashlight. moreover, i had left my backpack on the wall, next to where he left his. we walked over to the backpacks and turned to look at where we had been. it was still pitch black there. then we took off down the trail, heading back to the car.

none of the students made any comment. they just looked at me. so i asked them what they thought the point of the story might be and why i thought it might be important to relate. one young man said 'maybe they're still here. maybe they were happy to have a gift and were saying thank you.' i liked that answer. it reminded me that even though these students came from far away, experientially they weren't that far away. they could relate. calvin hoe came over and gave me a hug and honi and thanked me for the story. the same young man asked me why we did that--what did it mean to touch noses. i said that it was commonly done in the old days, and only recently has the practice come back into use. then he turned and asked his teacher, 'how did we use to do it before'? i was intrigued. i knew then, and i guess i always knew, that as a matter of fact, young people are always watching what older people are doing. and they're always watching to see if we're acting like idiots or fools; or maybe like role models with something to teach by our behavior, rather than with our words. the words can come after the action, for edification. for making sense. but the words all by themselves mean little.

my nephew, lono, was a man of action. and he was a man with an 'eye' for fish--a fish spotter, or kilo kilo. he could see schools of fish other people couldn't see. and when he spotted the fish, he became the best fisherman. i kinda think he also could spot a friend, and then became the best friend. i thought about all the stuff lono could have shared with these students, and with their teachers. he wouldn't have told a story with words, but with his hands--doing things, mending things, saying little but teaching much. i realize how far away i am from that way of story-telling and teaching. i rely on words. i'm over-educated.

how did we use to learn before? by watching and doing. no talking! pay attention! what has been the cost of relying less on language and more on action? today we have difficulty getting people to understand what we mean. if the only way to get an idea across is by using spoken words, then those of us who grew up in an earlier time are doomed. we can see how words become separators. no one is quite sure if the words they use are defined by those who hear them in the same way. are we talking about the same thing? can i just show you what i mean? and if i can just show you, then are we required to be in the same place at the same time so that i can, literally, show you? and with the advent of virtual space and the creation of virtual worlds that rely more and more on words, have we learned to ignore nuances that are created by the paralanguage of body movement or simply what we feel on our skin?

these students were great to be around. it was a privilege to interact with them, even if just for a short time. and even as i say that, i reflect on my own relationship with my nephew, lono nihoa. it was great to be around him, and a privilege to call him my nephew, my family. we had a lot more opportunity to learn each other without words. i learned him as a baby, and a toddler, and a child, and young man, and young husband, father, grandfather. i learned him and kept him in a safe and distant place. and then he left, and now i don't have the words to deal with the loss. i never had the words to deal with the life, so it's no surprise.

i gave him the only words i knew how, and that was in poetry.

I learned something new today

[some of you may notice that i am now reverting to writing everything in lower case--it's quicker for me and i'm naturally always in a rush, so don't care much about conventions and 'proper writing'...tis the truth]

tuesdays and thursdays i teach anth 2000, introduction to cultural anthropology. today's class was interesting and personally challenging for me. i hate when that happens. the class is divided up into four groups and each group is responsible for presenting one of the texts [there are four] to the rest of the students. it's partly to insure that at least one of the books is really read by them, but it's also to see how students can take a book and make it real for others. in a sense, it's practice for students who go on to get their MAs or PhDs--they'll be doing a lot of talking and presenting of ideas to others. today's group did a couple of interesting things.

they first gave the students (and me) a quiz on the book [barbara ehrenreich's _nickel and dimed_], assuming everyone had read it so could easily answer the questions. unfortunately for me, i couldn't see a thing on the ppt (small words, no glasses) so refrained from taking the test. as a result i ended up failing and had to hang out with the low scorers :-) the top 5 or 6 scorers were asked to remain in the class and the rest of us went outside to the hallway near the elevator. we could hear those inside having fun, laughing a lot. we weren't having so much fun. we had been divided into two groups: one group wrapped plastic knives, forks, and spoons in paper napkins and the other group cut up little pieces of paper and piled them into stacks. both groups had supervisors. ours was pretty laid back, so no problem, but what boring work! we did that until we ran out of stuff to wrap. the other group had a supervisor who seemed less patient and way more business-like. he stayed on their case until they got it exactly right. in the meantime, the group in the classroom continued having a good time. we couldn't see, but we could hear.

the second thing was the discussion. when we were done outside, we were invited back to the classroom and the presenters commenced the debrief. what exactly happened and what was the message with that exercise? people who go to college and do well get 'picked', have fun, probably attain some measure of success. people who don't go to college or who drop out end up taking dead end jobs for minimum wage. one of the facilitators asked the question: how many of you would take a minimum wage job? several said they were already working minimum wage jobs but no one, in the future, would even consider it. that's why they were going to college. so college was a way out of the rat race, the minimum wage/two jobs per person, poverty path. then we got into a discussion of poverty and minimum wage standards globally. as it turns out, while the u.s. is supposedly the richest country in the world, the possibility of earning a living wage, as opposed to minimum wage, is dismal in america. the two countries that actually try to approximate minimum wages as living wages are australia and new zealand.

part of the discussion focused on a definition of poverty. measurements of poverty rely on real income: money as wealth--how much you make determines where you fall on either side of the poverty line. but if you move away from money as sole criteria, then the situation changes. social relationships provide alternative economic scenarios. an informal economy exists side by side with a capitalist one. just because you don't have money doesn't mean that you are impoverished. cash poor people still live in homes/houses, still eat, still live quality lives, etc. their idea of wealth is not vested in how much money they have but in how many relationships they have built over time. so the measurement of poverty, and maybe even the creation of such a category, seems not to be based in reality. it is totally irrelevant when applied to real people's lives. the indicators of wealth and poverty were created by economic advisors and bankers to measure wealth, something other than real life--to keep track of how money and goods flow. informal economies don't fit in.

i always give the example of the baby luau as the best way to illustrate this principle. and why i titled today's post as "i learned something new today" allows me to connect back to lono, whose story i'm trying to tell, even as i weave in my own story, my own revelations.

lono was the best person to do the baby luau. he spent his time building relationships, helping other people, sharing resources, teaching skills, practicing aloha. so when lono wanted to do a luau, and he had no money to do it (of course), he called all his friends and relatives and asked them to help. lono and his brothers always knew there would be fish--even if there was no poi, there would be fish. so fish became the staple, and the rest of the meal was built around it. everybody committed to something, right down to the paper goods. if there was no room at the house, the luau was at the beach--plenty of space for spreading out, plenty of parking, restroom nearby, no cost for any of it (except maybe toilet paper!). each gathering was successful, meaning that every party was a good party. and really, no one had any money to host a party, so lono's party was actually a group party, a community celebrating itself. cost effective. friendly. warm. seductive, even. go to one and you want to go to more. i've said in my classes that the purpose of life is to get high. and here was a perfect example of how to get a low-cost high hanging out with good folks and sharing food, friendship, and spirit. once you experience it, you get hooked. you want more. and its effect is to transform the (sometimes lonely) individual self into the warmth of family. in addition, money and goods don't flow in this model. they come together and transform in the celebration, like matter transforming into energy--the wealth and reality of relationships take on life in a different form.

as i think back on how profoundly lono lived his life, and how he affected those around him, i realize how lucky i was to have witnessed different phases of his life. i think it's tough when a parent outlives his/her child, and i know my sister is really having a hard time. death, especially untimely death, jars us into realizing that life is a crapshoot. we need to love a lot, as often as we can, because it may all fall apart tomorrow, or next week. nobody wants to think about it, as if holding the thought at bay keeps it there. silly us.

at the end of class today i shared with the few students who stayed afterward that the bible states something like "the poor are always with us". and from an anthropologist's point of view ( mine, anyway), this statement is indicative of structure within different cultures. religion and governance models resemble each other. that's another way of saying that religions with a pyramidal structure that posits a god at the top will mirror a political structure that has a president or king at the top. tribal cultures, on the other hand, that worship many or multiple gods tend to have governing councils, a flattened pyramid with perhaps one or two layers. in such tribal communities, people tend to take care of each other. class or status divisions still exist, but to a much lesser degree, and the communities are more egalitarian and more concerned with relationships and responsibilities. so if the bible states that "the poor are always with us", what that indicates is that in biblical times the hierarchy was so pronounced, and the power so embedded at the top, that the poor would, indeed, always be there. the stratification of both religion and governance ensured that the place of the poor was permanent. one of the students mentioned that an instructor had asked in another class 'who would do the dirty work if there were no poor people?' indeed, the structure demands that a place be set aside for the poor.

lono was part of the cash poor, but i don't think he was in poverty. he didn't have much money, but he certainly had resources and people who cared about him. his death caused other things to happen. it certainly caused me to reflect on everthing.

tomorrow is another day with more lessons to learn...

Wish I had a clearer photo of Lono, but this will have to do until I get one. This is graduation picture from Castle High School in...I forget when (auwe!)

Da kids: Isaiah, Kehau, Jacob

Da Cuzins! They love to take photos! This is in Nanakuli, just outside of the hall where the funeral services took place. [3/10/08]

Fishhooks on Lono's coat were made as a gift from Roy, his brother. Lono taught Roy and the other brothers how to make them.

Rethinking my comments

Today is Monday, March 10. This morning was Lono's funeral services in Nanakuli. I've posted photos. It was an interesting place for a funeral--the church rents space in a little business area near the Nanakuli courthouse. Maybe 150 people attended, mostly young people and mostly relatives. But there were also high school friends of Lono, friends of his siblings, family of siblings. The place was abuzz with children running around and friendly chatter. Everyone seemed like one big family--connected in different ways, but primarily connected through their respect and love for Lono.

In my first rant I made the comment that Lono was a man whose life and death seemed to have gone unnoticed by the community that he loved. I was in error. Everyone at the funeral was devastated and I saw, to my surprise, people I had not seen in at least 20 years--high school friends of his, fishing buddies, folks who at one time lived on the beach and remembered the Nihoa family and the times they shared. Darlene H. was there with her two daughters and grandchildren and noted that the times they spent camping at Sand Island Beach were good times, despite the fact that they had no regular home to go to. They felt close to the other families and the beach became a home while they were all together. My conversation with Darlene reminded me of a television show hosted by Channel 2 news back in 1991 or so when the news host, Bob Jones, facilitated an in-studio program to discuss issues of homelessness in Hawaii. Lono was there, in-studio. Jade Moon had earlier interviewed him on the beach, asking him how it felt to be homeless. This was, of course, before the term "homeless" came into popular use. In answer to her question, Lono replied "I'm not homeless. I live right over there," and he pointed to the tarp and blue tent where the family lived. He wasn't trying to be sarcastic. His honesty came through loud and clear. But at that time, just after federal funds had been appropriated for each state to deal with the issue of homelessness, there needed to be a way to determine who was homeless and who was not. So the folks who used to be 'beach people' (they lived on the beach, after all) became 'homeless' in order to be counted and to take advantage of services offered by homeless shelters and programs that were popping up all over the place. So Lono became homeless. And the family became homeless. And the system that had pretty much ignored them became a system that now took the 'problem' seriously because attached to the problem was a significant amount of money (as I recall, $6 million). Everybody on the beach, on all the beaches, became homeless overnight because they lived in "non-conventional dwellings". A whole slew of programs developed shortly afterward to deal with the 'problem'.

For years before that, everybody camped. Everybody got permits to camp. Our family camped at Waimanalo, at Kaiona Beach Park, for two weeks every summer from the time I was a kid. My parents applied for a two-week permit and all the aunties, uncles, and cousins camped together. As kids we felt those were the best times of our lives. It was safe and no one paid attention to us so we could stay up all night and look for crabs on the beach or play hide and seek. The parents played cards or sang or drank (poker and alcohol, as I recall, were standard!). After the Waimanalo evictions and the growing population at Sand Island, cops used to come around to check on the permits. It was no longer possible to get a permit for two weeks. It was shortened to one week. Then the same person couldn't get a permit for the same place twice in a row. So the families had to send someone else with a different name to get a permit. The city started to crack down on families by making it difficult to be homeless. Then new rules were made--campers had to break camp on Thursdays so the city could cut the grass and clean up. If anybody left their gear on the grounds, it would be taken by park keepers and trashed. Then the city began to put up gates so those who left their cars in the parking lot would be locked in, which discouraged families from visiting, especially if they had work the next day.

Homeless families started to move out to the Waianae coast and set up tents in the tall grass and bushes that were off the regular beach-goer's path. But both the city and state started to harass them and to cut back brush and trash tents, and confiscate property of the campers. The city and the state both refused to look at the larger issues involved, or to ask why this was happening. Seriously, would families with children opt to live in tents if they could afford to live in homes? But no one ever asked why there were so many families forced to live on beaches and in dangerous circumstances. They just kept booting them out, knowing there was no where else for them to go.

Around 1992, after federal funding came down, Lono and his family, as well as a number of other families at Sand Island, were adopted by Calvary-by-the-Sea Lutheran Church, by a program run by the pastor's wife, Ivy Olson. Ivy founded Angel Network Charities in 1989, and began outreach to people living on the beach, offering them food, clothing, support and, eventually, housing, in a kind of "homes without walls" program that helped move people into homes all over the island, picking up the tab for both first month's rent and deposit, and then assisting them to find jobs or income to continue to pay the rent. It was a tough job, but she persevered, and eventually a number of families found places to live. Lono's family was one of those. She helped him hook up with another church and that church helped Lono to find the means to move on to Hawaiian Homestead lot in Nanakuli a couple years later. All the brothers and sisters got together with Habitat for Humanity and put a house where once was an empty lot. They finally had a place of their own to live.

Lono never forgot that church, or Ivy. Ivy later became ill with cancer and at the funeral services at Calvary-by-the-Sea, all the families that she had helped showed up to mourn her.

And today, all the families and friends that Lono had helped showed up to mourn him. He was a such a good man. In a sense he carried forth her legacy-- she was such a good and caring person. I miss them both. She came into his life at the right time. I'm sure someone later on will tell about how Lono helped them by coming into their life at the right time. The circle goes round and round.

Today's gathering in Nanakuli reminded me that I should write about what I see. Here's what I saw today. After the pastor welcomed everyone, he asked that people come forward to greet the family and view the body. All the brothers and sisters, their wives/husbands, their children, on both sides of the family, stood up. There were so many of them they formed almost a circle at the front. Then everyone else stood up and came forward. I'd never seen so many people in the front near the casket to greet the line. It was both fascinating and beautiful to watch, even though it was solemn and people were crying. It was, obviously, the family--the caring community, a throwback to a time when we were all family, all related, all caring, with lots of hugging and kissing and down-home, bruddah-bruddah handshakes and happy-sad smiles. I tried not to cry, but at some point saw no sense in pretending that all was a-ok. Seemed dumb.

Brothers Kimo and Roy (Roy is now oldest son) gave the eulogy--beautiful, moving, simple. Kimo shared that when he was asked to do it, he said sure, but what's a eulogy? So he did a google on it. And everybody laughed at his joke and his honesty. Roy talked about Lono the fisherman, his 17 years as a deckhand, then as first mate, then engineer on the Corsair, and eventually his post as 'citizen captain' on both the Corsair and the Kula Kai aku boats. The boat owners were from Okinawa and couldn't legally be registered as captain, so Lono, as a citizen, became captain. Roy shared his respect for is older brother, as both of them after graduation from Castle High School went right out of school to fishing. Lono was strong and could catch the huge tuna for extended periods of time--no rest while the tuna are biting! Brian later shared that Lono gave them a sample of what catching a tuna was like--fill up a 5-gallon plastic container with water, hook it and lift it up over the shoulder. Roy said Lono could do this over and over again, that his strength and ability to work left him (Roy) in awe. The other thing that captured my attention was the fly fishhooks pinned to Lono's lapel--Roy made those (see photo). Roy said Lono taught all the brothers to make those fishhooks. They would have little contests to see who could make the best ones. Three of the brothers actually became fishermen, following in Lono's footsteps: Roy, Junior, and Aliiloa. After years and years of doing this, they realized they needed to have steadier means of income, and each of them sought land jobs.

I need to reflect more on what was important about today. That's another post. But let me leave you with this poem I wrote when I got home this afternoon:

For Lono
3.10.08

in early evening is when you know
the birds have come home for fellowship at dusk
cousins in different branches and trees
remark to one another their challenges at work
tell stories about close encounters
and chirp about what’s for dinner
as they settle down with family for the night
and the raucus noise of dinner conversation slowly fades

I’m reminded that here, in my small world
I have chosen not to look, but from afar
To step out of the nest so the young have space to grow
to find their own branches, or fly away
And my heart aches but too late
For, when I turn to look, they have departed
Wafted away by the wind, without so much as a quick goodbye
Leaving feathers like tiny raindrops that
Evaporate too quickly and remind me
that settling down with family for the night
is, in the end, all we have left

our sons and daughters grow up too quickly
too anxious to take the reins, to fly point
to branch out and build the nest of the world
and they go, sometimes, unprepared
but never afraid, never looking back
flying with the wind, carried by their own dreams
we love them all the while and shut down
those parts of ourselves that yearn to call them back
knowing, of course, there is no return once
they leave, as we have, the guarded sentinel of home

More later...

Part II -- Continuing the rant on the brain-eating amoeba and where Hawaiian sovereignty fits in

Lono and siblings saw their mother, calabash aunties and uncles, and supporters get dragged off Waimanalo Beach for protesting the state's inability (and/or unwillingness) to recognize Hawaiian land claims stemming from the overthrow in 1893, and the history of United States (thus the eventual State of Hawaii) with regard to these claims. so whenever Hawaiians pushed the issue, especially through (re)occupation of lands, the state pushed back, complete with men in blue and weapons, and Hawaiians were always on the losing end. As I recall, one woman shouted as she was driven away by HPD, "this our land, Hawaiian land."

Fast forward to 2008, and we see that the Hawaii State Supreme Court has tossed an interesting tidbit into the fray re Public Law 103-150, also known as the Apology Bill [Jerry Burris writes about this in his 2/6/08 Honolulu Advertiser editorial: "In 1993, when Congress (or rather, about five members of an otherwise fairly uninterested U.S. Senate) debated the so-called "Apology bill" for Native Hawaiians, Sen. Daniel Inouye argued it was merely a "simple apology" designed to set the nation's historical facts in order. What Inouye was focused on were arguments that the Apology bill was the first step toward independence for Hawai'i. Nothing, he said, could be further from the truth. That may be so. But it is now abundantly clear the Apology bill is far more than a mere token of remorse. It is, according to the state Supreme Court in its Jan. 31 opinion on a lawsuit involving ceded lands, the very law of the land. Put it this way: The Apology resolution is the controlling law when it comes to ongoing questions about whether the overthrow of the monarchy was illegal, whether Hawaiians are due restitution for that overthrow and whether ceded lands (property that went from the Hawaiian government and crown to the U.S. and then to the state of Hawai'i) should be held in impregnable trust until that restitution debate is settled. To each point, the legal answer, as declared by our highest court, is "yes."

Backtrack to 1986 and (re)occupation of lands, Waimanalo Beach Park for example, that are 'ceded'. Hawaiians protested the taking of those lands, citing basically the same reasons for doing so as the State Supreme Court did this past January. Since the land was taken [read 'stolen'], asking about its legality at this time seems a big strange. If there's a question about whose land it is now, then there's obviously a question about whose land it was when it was taken. We know whose land it wasn't. At the time of (re)occupation, meaning in 1986, that Hawaiians decided to challenge the legality of the State of Hawaii in designating so-called ceded lands as state lands and turning them into parks, schools, government buildings, etc. for the use of the 'general public', they seemed to have overlooked the ugly history of the U.S. in Hawaii.

I imagine few people know that anyone who purchases property in Hawaii is required to do a title search--a title insurance company is contracted to research the title of the property to its title of origin. Most people contract with firms like Title Guaranty and trust that their title searches guarantee that the property they are seeking to purchase actually are clear of any kind of encumbrances and can be purchased. But never has Title Guaranty or any other title company (except Perfect Title Co.) ever researched title to its origin. And therein lie two problems: 1) no one has clear title to any property in Hawaii by either American or Hawaiian law, and 2) the state of Hawaii cannot legally claim to own title to any lands, thus every time the state tries to sell land, it is challenged by various individuals and organizations [see, for example, HCDCH vs. OHA et al]. Yes, the state will continue to do whatever it wants with so-called ceded lands, but it cannot ever prove clear title to any of it, and it's exempt from doing so, because it cannot trace its title to the origin of all lands in Hawaii, which happened in 1848 during the dividing of all lands at the Great Mahele. What a pickle!

Okay, back to 1986 and the eviction of Hawaiians from Waimanalo Beach Park...

My nephew, Lono Nihoa, and his ohana were evicted from Waimanalo Beach Park. They had nowhere to go. The family ended up at Sand Island Park, along with 18 other families, mostly Hawaiian.

Stay tuned for Part III

What does a brain-eating amoeba have to do with Hawaiian sovereignty?
Part I

A week ago today my nephew, Lono Nihoa, died because an amoeba, known as naegleria fowleri, ate his brain. Sounds like a sci-fi movie. But this rant is not about the amoeba, but about my nephew, and how it was that his life, so dear and vital to his family and his community in Nanakuli, could pass with hardly any notice.

Lono Nihoa, 44 at his passing, was the genuine nice guy, almost the stereotypical Hawaiian man, gentle and kind to family, friends, and neighbors. He took care of the needs of the people around him with few complaints and sometimes minimal funds. He seldom asked for anything, preferring to share his limited resources with those who had no resources of their own, or nowhere to go. It was like that on holidays--Christmas, New Year's, birthdays, weddings, funerals. He was the man who fed, in numerous ways, those around him. He was a good guy and I miss him dearly.

Lono was born on April 3, 1965 in Honolulu. He was the eldest of ten children and, at a very young age, took on major responsibility for his younger siblings. His father passed away, himself, at around the same age, and his mother (my sister) was charged with raising ten young children as a single parent. Times were rough. The family lived at Waimanalo Beach park at the time of the Waimanalo evictions in 1986, when Hawaiian issues were being raised in the minds of the general public. Sovereignty was not a commonly-heard word. The most pressing issue of the times was the displacement of Hawaiians from ancestral lands. The rallying cry at the time of the Waimanalo evictions was "Keep Hawaiian lands in Hawaiian hands," and the evictions pointed out to the government and the public that Hawaiians were willing to occupy lands and push the issue about landless Hawaiians into the spotlight. Land occupations were one of the earliest steps in calling attention to the dispossession of Hawaiians in their own homeland. Na Maka o ka Aina, Puhipau and Joan Lander, videotaped many of the early struggles, including the Waimanalo evictions, and for any who have seen this particular video, it was an emotion-packed scene where one young girl says "Where we goin' live? We no mo house!". There were several other children standing around this young girl (now an adult), including my nieces and nephews. By virtue of being Hawaiian and living on the beach, they became part of the struggle.

Stay tuned for Part II