[hawaii-nation] Activists mark history with sovereignty event

07-29-2003, 10:38 AM

>From: Hawaii Nation Info <info@...>
>To: hawaii-nation (AT) yahoogroups (DOT) com
>Subject: [hawaii-nation] Activists mark history with sovereignty event
>Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 14:40:47 -1000
>
>http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/ar...html/?print=on
>
>The Honolulu Advertiser
>Monday, July 28, 2003
>
>Activists mark history with sovereignty event
>
>By Vicki Viotti
>Advertiser Staff Writer
>
>History symbolically repeated itself at Thomas
>Square yesterday, in a replication of a
>160-year-old flag ceremony that a group of
>Hawaiian sovereignty activists wants to witness
>for real someday.
>
>And in a week when a bill has stalled in Congress
>that would recognize Hawaiians as a "nation
>within a nation," this group again took took the
>occasion of the annual Sovereignty Restoration
>Day observance to call for Hawaiian independence
>and the defeat of the Akaka bill for federal
>recognition.
>
>And, as there often are at sovereignty events,
>there were exhortations supporting Hawaiian unity
>and opposing various elements of U.S. government
>control here: military training in Makua Valley,
>for example, and missile testing at Barking Sands.
>
>"So it's 'a'ole (no), Akaka bill; 'a'ole,
>military occupation of Hawai'i," said Pua Rogers,
>one of the Kaua'i participants in the event. "And
>let's stop the divisiveness among Hawaiians."
>
>Coconut hulls containing the drink 'awa were
>offered to the 100 or so who had gathered around
>a temporary flagpole to watch the American flag
>descend and the Hawaiian flag raised in its place.
>
>The observance, also called Ka La Ho'iho'i Ea,
>was a national holiday before the Hawaiian
>kingdom was overthrown in 1893. It took place on
>the same spot where, on July 31, 1843, British
>Adm. Richard Thomas lowered the Union Jack and
>raised the Hawaiian flag in its place, marking
>the end of five months of forced British rule in
>Hawai'i.
>
>Later, after the U.S., French and British
>governments officially recognized the sovereign
>Hawaiian Kingdom, Kamehameha III declared Nov. 28
>the nation's Independence Day.
>
>Yesterday's event was small but drew some
>far-flung speakers, including J. Kehaulani
>Kauanui, an assistant professor of American
>studies and anthropology at Wesleyan University
>who has testified against the Akaka bill.
>
>Federal recognition, Kauanui said, would close
>off avenues leading toward Hawaiian independence
>without federal supervision.
>
>"We need to make sure (supporters of federal
>recognition) understand that when we talk about
>our rights of sovereignty, we're talking about
>deoccupation," she said.
>
>Another speaker was Maivan Clech Lam, who earned
>her law degree in Hawai'i and is an
>indigenous-rights scholar at the City University
>Graduate Center in New York.
>
>Lam said that, although the Akaka bill has been
>cited as a defense against lawsuits seeking to
>strip Hawaiians of entitlements, those lawsuits
>are unlikely to succeed. It's especially
>unlikely, she said, where Hawaiians'
>long-established use of homelands and revenues
>from former kingdom lands are concerned.
>
>"The Supreme Court doesn't lightly disturb laws
>of long duration," Lam said. "And if the Akaka
>bill passes, this would be the first time
>Hawaiians would be agreeing to subjugation by the
>United States."
>
>Most of the participants argue that the United
>States never legally took control of Hawai'i, an
>independent state recognized in the international
>arena. Those who lobbied in 1843 to win that
>recognition were the heroes of history, activist
>Keanu Sai said.
>
>"It's because of them that Hawai'i is able to
>make this claim that it's an independent state -
>not that it seeks independence," he said. "It is
>a nation."
>
>
>© COPYRIGHT 2003 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division of Gannett Co . Inc.
>
>
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