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In order to set the ethnographic context of our work, we will give a succinct introduction to the Nation of Hawai`i and the village it helped to create and in which we lived during our research in Hawai`i. This account of the Nation of Hawai`i is pieced together through conversations, interviews, book and newspaper research, and general 'ethnographic osmosis.' It combines both the creation story of the Nation itself from its point of view, as well as our own investigations and synthesis from various sources. This brief overview is limited by many factors, but mostly in working with an area of such emotional intensity and ferment as Hawaiian sovereignty, with a group as recently emergent as the Nation of Hawai`i, there are bound to be many versions of history and accounts of its current state. Also, as we are outsiders we will inevitably have a limited perspective. Our purpose here is to give the reader a concise sense of the Nation of Hawai`i and its story; we do not have space or presumption to do much more than that. While some of what we write is also contained in our history section; 4.1.4 ; we repeat certain parts of it in this context to help the reader better understand this intricate subject.
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As an essential foundation in understanding the Nation of Hawai`i and Hawaiian sovereignty, we would like to briefly describe what we have learned of the traditional Hawaiian relation to the "Aina," or land. From our conversations, research, and overall impressions so far, we feel that the Hawaiian people's relationship with the land forms a center of both "the Hawaiian spirit," and the Nation of Hawai`i's continuing work. This point is important for Westerners, because the traditional Hawaiian relationship to the land is significantly different from the typical Western relationship to, and commodification of land. The traditional Hawaiian practice of Malama Aina (care of the land) resulted in enduring self-sufficiency for the islands' nearly one million inhabitants, (near to present population levels), before the arrival of the haoles in the 18th century.
In a chapter entitled "Kalai`aina, the Politics of Traditional Land Tenure," Lilikala Kame`eleihiwa (1992) emphasizes in Native Land and Foreign Desires the historical importance of Aina, or land, for Hawaiian society.
In Hawai`i, as in other parts of the world, control of the Aina has long been recognized as the basis for sovereignty. This was especially true in traditionally Hawaiian society before Kamehameha united the islands. At that time, the ultimate control of all Aina was vested in the mo`i of each island, as he or she was the paramount Chief. Control of Aina is not the same as ownership of Aina, in the Western capitalist sense. In traditional Hawaiian society, Aina was given from one person to another, but was never bought or sold. If in Hawaiian metaphor, all Aina and products of the Aina - in fact life itself - proceed from the Akua, then "ownership" of the Aina and all wealth emanating from the Aina rightfully belong to those Akua from whom they proceed. (Kame`eleihiwa, 1992: 2)
That Malama Aina was woven into the fabric of Hawaiian culture may explain some of the strong feelings about the land among today's Hawaiians; passions that come from a deep and long experience not too far in the cultural past. The transformations wreaked upon Hawai`i and Hawaiian culture following the arrival of Westerners and the overthrow of the Hawaiian Queen were substantial, and no change was more consequential than the forced change in relationship between Hawaiians and their lands.
"In 1893 when the Hawaiian government was overthrown, the inherent self-governing rights of Native Hawaiians was severely restricted. Native Hawaiians also lost control of their traditional lands" (MacKenzie, 1991: 77). It could be said that the loss of control of and connection with Hawai`i's lands by its original inhabitants has been a pivotal challenge in the history of the people of this archipelago.
The primary point that we wish to make in this introduction is that we have found that the movement for Hawaiian sovereignty and sustainability is based on a traditional Hawaiian relationship with and respect for the Aina. Even though we will not go into depth with it here, we feel it is important to mention that the traditional creation story and identity of the Hawaiians is bound up in a complex genealogy that connects the land, the people, the animals, chiefs and gods in a tightly woven fabric of meaning. Kame`eleihiwa hints at this when she writes,
...the world and everything in it would unfold in genealogical sequence, from creatures of the sea to those of the Land, from the Land itself to Gods and Chiefs, and so on until present time. The Chief's birth chant proclaimed him or her to be an inseparable part of an ancient procession of life. It also defined the chief's the relationship with the Land....Hawaiian identity is, in fact, derived from the Kumulipo, the great cosmogenic genealogy. Its essential lesson is that every aspect of the Hawaiian conception of the world is revealed by birth, and as such, all parts of the Hawaiian world are one indivisible lineage. Conceived in this way, the genealogy of the land, the Gods, Chiefs, and people intertwine with one another, and with all the myriad of aspects of the universe. (Kame`eleihiwa, 1992: 2)
The struggle for sovereignty is primarily a struggle for land, and in the sections that follow, we will first give a short background into the importance of the land in the activism of the Nation of Hawai`i; then we describe the appointed leader of the Nation of Hawai`i, Bumpy Kanahele; finally, we discuss the Nation's use of information technology to further its cause, including its initial explorations of GIS' potential to support sovereignty and sustainability.
Two hundred years of colonialism have marginalized the indigenous people of Hawai`i to the extent that many don't have any land to live on, and are forced to live in cars and on beaches in tents. A few large landowners, the State (excluding Hawaiian Home Lands), and the military own 51.2 % of the land in Hawai`i. (Department of Geography, University of Hawai`i, 1983: 152) In recent years, protests against this disenfranchisement have grown, both as isolated incidents and as a coordinated movement for sovereignty. On the beach at Makapu`u in 1993 and 1994, a struggle by homeless Hawaiians (called "houseless" by the Nation) took place which would have implications for the State and all Hawaiians. Beginning as a group of Hawaiians forced onto the beach by expensive living conditions, the settlement grew in 1993, and Makapu`u soon became the focus of the attention and organizing activism of the Ohana Council, at the time a significant player in the sovereignty movement. Members of the Council, including its leader Pu`uhonua Kanahele (also known as Bumpy), began educating and organizing the people at the beach to understand their rights as Hawaiians in an historical perspective, and how these rights were being pursued by a movement for Hawaiian sovereignty.
As this was going on at the end of 1993, U.S. Public Law 103-150 (U.S. 103rd Congress, 1993) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton. Shortly thereafter, international legal expert Professor Francis Boyle gave testimony as to the importance of this bill for the Hawaiian people, asserting that this law was a public admission of the lack of legal basis for U.S. jurisdiction in, and governance, of Hawai`i. Boyle gave the Ohana Council advice on how to create their own independent nation, based on his recent legal work with emerging nations in the Middle East and the Balkans. Thus out of the Ohana Council was born "The Nation of Hawai`i," which declared Independence on January 17, 1994, exactly 101 years after the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
The State, already in a standoff with the people at Makapu`u, grew firmer in its position as people planted taro fields, gardens, and seemed to be preparing to stay over the long term. Their intention was to build a Hawaiian fishing village modeled after the traditional village of Kaupo that existed in the area more than 100 years ago. "In May, 1994 occupants of the village were told to dismantle their growing village or face eviction. Water was shut off to the site in an effort to force the campers out" (Krauss, 1995: D1). Struggles over water broke out - first the State blocked access to the main well, then the people got into it, then it was cemented, then broken into, and eventually the State began to arrest people who tried to access it again.
Hawaiians have suggested to us that as this was a popular spot for tourists, and a highly visible eyesore and embarrassment for the state, it entered into negotiations for compromise. In late spring of 1994, the Ohana Council emerged from negotiations, having secured an agreement with the State Department of Land and Natural Resources to let the group relocate in Waimanalo. The pact resulted in access to use 69 acres of state land at the base of the Koolau mountains for educational and cultural purposes.
The state created a road up a long forested hill, clearcut a part of the forest, put in facilities for water access, and the people at Makapu`u moved onto their new land in June 1994. Houses, tents, and shacks sprung up, and the vision of a new village was born.
Coming off the somewhat harsh environment of the beach, the people began in earnest to create a new life in the forest clearing. Gardens and fruit trees were planted, work proceeded to restore an ancient lo`i for growing taro, and an office was created. The original vision was to create a network of sustainable villages supported by traditional agriculture, appropriate technologies, and cottage industries, which would support a renewed relationship with the land and traditional Hawaiian culture.
Named "Pu'uhonua o Waimanalo," (one interpretation is "Refuge of Good Water"), the village is about one half mile past the "Dead End" sign at the end of Waikupanaha road, one and a half miles outside of the town of Waimanalo. As we drove in for the first time in February, 1996, we were struck by the magnificence of the rugged Koolau mountains rising out of the forest just beyond the village, creating a spectacular backdrop of muscular, verdant, sculpted rock. A dirt road winds up a hill lined with small houses, banana, papaya, and palm trees for about a tenth of a mile, then makes a circle around a 1,000 square foot neatly cut grassy space with children's playground equipment on one side. The community kitchen, office, and a few more houses lie just beyond this area, and further still in the forest is a house and a several tents. A bit further lies the ancient lo`i, which the village is in the process of restoring to grow taro and vegetables and meet some of their food needs.
Dinners are served in the community kitchen five nights per week, and cooking and cleanup duties are done by villagers on a schedule. Weekly meetings occur Tuesday nights after dinner, preceded and concluded with prayer in the Hawaiian language, at which people discuss issues relevant to native Hawaiians, village life, sovereignty, and other subjects. There are about 40 people living in the village now, and many work at outside jobs, so that during the day the village is fairly quiet, but for the sounds of the trade winds, birds in the trees, children playing, chickens, and the occasional barking dog. In the evening as people return from work, often Hawaiian or other music plays for an hour or two, and people gather at the community kitchen to "grind" (local expression for "eat") and watch their children play on the swings and slides of the lawn. The ethnic background of the village is mostly of Hawaiian ancestry, though there are several people of other ethnic backgrounds. Governance is by an elected council of villagers.
Enduring images of village life for us will include children playing together on the lawn or roaming the village (and often into our house) looking for fun, dinners in the community kitchen, afternoon parties with the community on the beach, and working in the lo`i with Uncle George Kamakahi, who at 74 years of age, gets up at 4:30 a.m. most mornings to take the public bus 45 minutes from Waianae across the island to Waimanalo, walking 2 miles to the village, then working until noon or 1:00 restoring the taro patches of the lo`i, and finally making the return journey home to Waianae.
Citizenship in the Nation of Hawai`i is not a prerequisite for living in the village, though most people there today are Nation citizens and many drive cars with "Sovereign" license plates.
Pu`uhonua "Bumpy" Kanahele is one of the most controversial figures in the sovereignty movement. Bumpy was appointed to his position as Interim Head of State of the Nation of Hawai`i by an inter island council of kupuna (elders) in the fall of 1994. Prior to this, Bumpy worked in the music business on Oahu, and as already mentioned, was active in the Ohana Council.
On January 2, 1995 an article in the main newspaper of Hawai`i, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, recognized Bumpy as one of ten people who made the biggest difference in Hawai`i in the previous year. The subheading to his name and picture reads, "His actions turned sovereignty into more than just a concept" (Burlingame, 1995: A-7). The article goes on,
Some talk, others act. Dennis Pu`uhonua "Bumpy" Kanahele moved the Hawaiian sovereignty issue from an abstract debate into the real world in 1994, earning a host of admirers and detractors along the way.Kanahele is "a very unique character," said friend A`o Pohaku Rodenhurst. Other sovereignty groups "play the political arena, attend meetings, talk the rhetoric but don't test the laws, but Ohana Council is ... the boldest group. It's testing the (legal) waters." (Ibid: A-7)
The first things we noticed about Bumpy upon meeting him in February 1996 were that he is a substantial, dark, muscular Hawaiian man with a wide band of intricate Polynesian patterns tattooed on his bicep, and an easy, smiling demeanor which put us at ease very quickly.
The next thing we noticed was the black object strapped to his ankle. We learned that this device was the primary condition of release from prison following the mistrial declared in his fall 1995 trial for "harboring a tax evader." Every evening Bumpy gets a call, puts the phone close to the ankle device, and a tone emitted into the phone confirms to law enforcement officials that he is in fact at home. Thus Bumpy walks around with an electronic leash, put on by a state that he considers illegal, and is forbidden to go to most beaches, stores and restaurants, and the village he helped to create. But as he says, "it keeps me humble, brau!!!"
Yet surprisingly to us, another thing that became clear very quickly when speaking with Bumpy was the lack of hatred, bitterness, and resentment which one might expect to find in someone who has had the Hawaiian experience of oppression and pain at the hands of foreigners. Bumpy told us that for him, ultimately sovereignty is something that one experiences inside: national sovereignty begins with personal sovereignty, which, he asserted, starts in one's own heart with forgiveness, and communion with "Akua" (God). The inclusiveness that this lack of bitterness and resentment seemed to allow was remarkable, we thought, and was reflected in Bumpy's constantly positive and uplifting nature among people; even people who were antagonistic to him.
One thing that surprised us at first was that some of Bumpy's closest aides are white haoles, and Bumpy repeatedly emphasized that his group's movement for a new Hawaiian nation is committed to nonviolence, and is inclusive of all kinds of peoples, so long as they will follow the eventual new laws of the land: the Nation's policy is to grant full citizenship to people of all ethnic backgrounds who are presently residents of Hawai`i. "We allow for different opinions to co-exist" Bumpy told us. This affirmation of diversity seems central to the work of the Nation of Hawai`i, as it is for Bumpy's daily work. "People wouldn't have to give up their personal property or their homes," Kanahele told us, "nobody owns the land, not even the Hawaiian people."
Bumpy is a deeply spiritual leader who feels that his work and actions are guided by Akua . In a speech at Iolani Palace at the one hundred and first anniversary of the monarchy's overthrow "Ohana Council" leader Dennis "Bumpy" Kanahele told the crowd that "The proclamation [of independence] came from upstairs, it didn't come from (me) ... it didn't come from (Ohana Council) per se, it came from Akua, from the spirit" (Yoshishiege, 1994: A8). Another suggestion of this spiritual commitment in his leadership came in an interview in which he was asked,
"If an autonomous Hawaiian Nation is re-established, what will protect it from foreign invasion? What is to stop another powerful country from stepping in to do business in paradise just as the United States did all those years ago?" Kanahele's answers are more spiritual than geopolitical. "It is the unique spirit manifested in the 300,000 living Hawaiians that will hold the new nation harmless," Kanahele says. "To destroy that spirit," he says, "would be to annihilate the heart of the body and would lead to the demise of the human race." (Dixon-Stong)
The Nation of Hawai`i is widely regarded as one of the most radical sovereignty groups, and its goal is to create a completely independent, sovereign nation with international treaties and embassies, as existed before the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown in 1893. Most fundamentally, this would entail a shift from ownership of land and resources by a few, to control of the same by the many. The independent nation model is in contrast to other models of other sovereignty groups, such as Ka Lahui Hawai`i, which advocates a "nation within a nation" model, similar to that of Native Americans in the United States. Bumpy's view on sovereignty is summarized by Gillingham (1995),
"The problem today in Hawai`i is that everybody has their own definition of sovereignty," Kanahele said. "There is only one sovereignty" Kanahele said - "the control of our land and natural resources." Misunderstandings and a lack of knowledge are what Kanahele said keep native Hawaiians from achieving their goals of independence. "Basically, our people don't know their stuff," Kanahele told the gathering. "It's time you know what you are talking about." (Gillingham, 1995)
Bumpy has been an active educator on sovereignty issues, and told us that education about sovereignty is the greatest single need in Hawai`i right now. He said that he feels a great improvement in general understanding about sovereignty from five years ago to today, and that the people of Hawai`i are slowly readying to govern themselves. Aides to Bumpy have told us that his personal research and explorations into laws, titles, and obscure documents have moved the whole sovereignty movement along substantially, and that Bumpy is always reading, researching, and sharing his latest findings with people.
In July of 1995, Bumpy was arraigned to be tried in September over unpaid parking tickets, a strategy he had deliberately chosen in order to challenge the legitimacy of the state by invoking U.S. Public Law 103-150 and other laws. The village had existed for over one year, Bumpy had been named one of the ten most influential people of 1994 by the Honolulu Advertiser, and by all accounts, the Nation of Hawai`i was gaining momentum. Then, on August 3rd, Bumpy was arrested by 15 FBI agents at an airport as he got off an inter island flight: he was charged with harboring a tax fugitive in an incident involving a Hawaiian tax protester that had happened nearly two years earlier.
Held for weeks without bail, Bumpy was eventually tried in a Honolulu court. The village and its office mobilized for a full scale battle that included many core people at its height. By the accounts we have received, what followed was an exhausting ordeal, which while well-covered by the local media, was virtually ignored by media outside Hawai`i. Bumpy and the Nation repeatedly tried to raise sovereignty as an issue but were rebuffed by the judge. The case eventually ended in a mistrial, (the Nation feels this happened because it was becoming clear that there was going to be no conviction from the jury).
We arrived just two days after Bumpy was released from state custody with the "beeper" on his ankle, and as we later found out, we missed altogether the intensity of the village in its period as center for activism and support of Bumpy during his trial. We first stayed in one room of the office building, which just a few months earlier had been active with computers, fax machines, a copy machine, banks of phones, desks, books, maps, file cabinets, and many busy people attending to the work at hand. Now the office was mostly deserted, as Bumpy was now out of prison and possibly free of future litigation, and many of the aides and active members of the Nation staff were busy rebuilding their lives after the trial which had taken so much energy, money, and time.
Even as we write this, tonight on the local news came a lead story about evictions of "squatters" at Makua beach, on the west coast of Oahu. We had heard about the whole thing earlier from village folk who went there to protest, (and several were voluntarily arrested). The state finished bulldozing the last "debris" from the beach, and sixteen people arrested two days ago were released with a trial date of July 12. The television report also pointed out that it had been two years after the creation of Pu`uhonua o Waimanalo, and the settlement of the Makapu`u beach situation.
Some of the differences between then and now it seems to us, are first, that Cayetano, the current governor, has said that he would absolutely not have settled the Makapu`u situation as his predecessor did and would not and did not grant further extensions to the eviction at Makua, and second, that there was no organized community resistance to the eviction of the level that the Ohana Council managed. The struggle for life, culture and land continues in Hawai`i.
Between his wife and three children and his extended ohana or family and all the demands of his office, we found Bumpy to be a very busy man. The Star-Bulletin quoted him as saying, "I don't have a moment to myself, but it is well worth it. We are talking about developing a country here" (date and author unknown).
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As we ponder the transition to an alternative vision for Hawai`i's future, the opportunities for a harmonic blend of the past and the future abound. Hawai`i's traditional agriculture and aquaculture were some of the most advanced in the world, multiplying nature's productivity manifold in truly sustainable reciprocal systems. The knowledge and use of these systems remains, and the movement to clear the fallow taro patches and restore the unused fishponds is growing.At the same time, innovative future technologies that make appropriate use of energy and resources have a great potential in Hawai`i. The availability of such technologies in increasing, and Independent Hawai`i will seek to take full advantage of these, both for their own sake here at home, and also as a model for the rest of the world. (Crawford 1995: 1)
Kanahele said he hopes to continue the pattern of global networking. "Before, all we had was this," he said, holding up a fist. "Now we've got computers, now we've got better ways." (Pai, 1994: 1)
In this section we share our experiences of, and reflections on, the Nation of Hawai`i's GIS initiative and use of information technology in light of the theoretical and contextual foundation built into previous chapters.
Our first experience of the Nation of Hawai`i in Hawai`i was by fax. One hot morning in early August, the black machine by our Santa Monica apartment window quietly issued an hours-old headline fed by digits sent from an island 2000 miles away, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. If Bumpy's arrest and detention by fifteen FBI agents made for an unsettling message, perhaps it was an appropriate method of introduction to the technology-savvy sovereignty group. We soon learned that the Nation of Hawai`i has made extensive use of information technology almost from its inception, and as we would soon find out, it was not difficult to stay informed about the latest news from the Nation, if we read our email and checked the Nation's Web page consistently.
From its Web page, we got our first substantial impression of the Nation of Hawai`i; its history, its political positions, and its visions of the future. Having followed or been involved with social protest movements in the past we were both impressed by the following paragraph from a Web-posted paper written by husband and wife Scott Crawford and Kekula Bray-Crawford, Director of Communications and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Nation of Hawai`i, respectively:
Hawai`i is one example today of a peaceful self-determination process, in which the de facto occupying governments - the United States and the State of Hawai`i - have conceded their illegitimacy and are willfully engaging the re-emerging Nation of Hawai`i in a peaceful process of transition. No guns have been fired, no bombs have exploded, yet the people's assertions of their rights to freely determine their political status are being heard and taken seriously, and are being put into effect as an operational model of self-governance. Our ''weapons'' are Macintoshes with fax/modems, firing off international law and self-determination information, and with that the movement has successfully and peacefully advanced. (Crawford and Bray-Crawford 1995*)
This global activism made possible by information technology captivated our imagination, and we were challenged to open up our focus on GIS to include the wider context of tools and technologies being used in this "information age." How would these technologies work to create possibilities for freer expression, self-determination, and empowerment? The Crawfords emphasized to us that in the case of the Internet, the medium is not the message; rather, (amidst a growing colonization of the Internet by corporations) the proliferation of indigenous or other marginalized groups using it makes the message once again the message.
From our base in Los Angeles, we assisted the Nation when we could - we would type in newly published press articles faxed to us from Hawai`i, and then email them to the Nation for posting to their Web page. Despite the constant presence of Bumpy's trial in Hawaiian media, we rarely found any mainland coverage. It quickly became clear that what we witnessed in the Fall of 1995 was the successful creation, using the World Wide Web, of a new space, a new terrain, for representation, for occupation, for communication. Scott and Kekula again,
One criterion for independence, for being a sovereign country, is having a territory. In cyberspace, the parallel could be drawn of a virtual territory, the presence on the WWW, the Home Page being the capital and all the related documents being the territory. A number of recognized countries have such a territory in cyberspace, and increasingly unrecognized nations are mapping out their own cyber-territories. (Ibid:*)
What was so remarkable for us was the realization that when we finally did arrive at the headquarters of the Nation, in Waimanalo, Oahu, we found that while the Nation had successfully occupied and settled on the land under the village of perhaps 45 people, we also had a sense of the virtual space created by the Web page, which included pictures of the lo'i and information about the village in a context of political and historical information, which has touched the lives of thousands of people all over the world in its first year of existence! The irony is that the server, itself no doubt innocuous and inert looking, projects a virtual identity that can convey the Nation's history, vision, and other information (including images and sounds), perhaps more quickly and efficiently than could be obtained by actually visiting the village, and finding someone to ask about these issues. Of course, there is more reality to reality - than on a Web page, but we mused on these issues often while living in the village.
Scott Crawford told us that the Web site is a direct outgrowth of Bumpy's philosophy about the importance of education for building a solid foundation for sovereignty. Scott said that in the days before the Web, Bumpy would photocopy the latest law or insight he had researched (he is always researching, said Scott) and he would go to meetings and distribute the information to all people who would listen. Now Bumpy has a world audience which can access this material at any time and from nearly any place.
The Nation's Web Page has a "guest book" for people to sign in and leave their impressions and comments. This provides an excellent way of getting a feeling for how people react to the page. The following are samples of "guest comments" from Hawai`i and the US mainland. Full names are left in the "guest book", though they are abbreviated here.
It feels like being estranged from family. I miss Ohana, but I am too ashamed to speak up. If there is anyone out there who reads and understands this, please let me know. My email address is ... Aloha
Best of Luck!! I'm so homesick right now I can't stand it!
Before going to Hawai`i, we corresponded with the Nation constantly through email, and the Nation utilized this medium extensively in communicating with its primary international legal counsel, Professor Francis Boyle of University of Illinois - Champaign-Urbana. Through their use of email to distribute trial updates and other information, the Nation communicated with supporters around the world, and made it clear to us that "territoriality is not necessary to create community." (Crawford and Bray-Crawford, 1995*) We certainly felt like we deepened our sense of empathy with the Nation through this communication; we also felt like we slowly began to know the `people behind the usernames' of the Nation.
At one point Professor Boyle created a list of legal documents to provide a foundation for Bumpy's trial. The Nation needed a couple of available students to research this list, and since we had some time right then, we were asked by email to do the legal research. We spent a day at the UCLA law library photocopying and assembling the materials, and creating a binder which we then sent off to the Nation in Hawai`i.
As a result of this visit to UCLA, we discovered the free Web access offered to students, which was significant to us since the phone time at the LA office was often scarce. We began to do Internet research into GIS and indigenous people, and were consistently amazed at how much information and cultural sharing the Web could lend itself to. On the Web, a page contains "links" that allow a user to easily "surf" (browse) to other related sites: a single page can provide links to scores of indigenous sites. One important site for indigenous people is the Fourth World Documentation Project, which is amassing a wealth of legal, historical, and cultural materials relevant to indigenous peoples, that can be viewed and downloaded over the Internet. There are sites for Lakota, Navajo, Inuit, and many more indigenous groups, as well as for GIS related companies, agencies, university departments, magazines, conferences, etc. Mailing lists, bulletin board services, and newsgroups can also be important sources of information and research.
An example of this information abundance came one afternoon when I had reluctantly left the warm LA sun and gone into the far recesses of the map library, in the basement of the main research library. Doing research on the Web, I discovered a site that advertised current weather reports and images, so I requested the weather report and image for southern California. Lo and behold, an image showed high clouds and the forecast predicted a good chance of rain. I muttered to myself that the image must of course be showing the clouds from yesterday, and then turned to look out of the one small, tinted, dusty window and blinked hard. I saw that there were high clouds - the day had changed significantly in the two hours I had been inside, and it was the Web that alerted me to this! I think that was one moment among many that for me, the "information revolution" sunk in. (Christopher)
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One of the things that attracted us to this project was the Nation of Hawai`i's commitment to the creation of a fully sustainable government. It has been emphasized to us often that the Nation of Hawai`i doesn't merely have an articulated vision for sustainably managing the land and resources of Hawai`i, but that it emphasizes and strives for the original, Hawai`i as indigenous peoples' way of relating to the land. Crawford writes about the high priority that sustainability has for sovereignty,
The future relationship of humanity to our natural environment is at the root of the movement for Hawaiian independence.
The true meaning of sovereignty is control over land and natural resources: the land, the water in the land, the ocean (including a 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone) and the air we breathe. We know well that the indigenous approach to "managing" these "resources" is fundamentally different from the Western colonial approach, emphasizing balance and reciprocity versus domination and exploitation.At the heart of Hawaiian values is the concept of "Malama `Aina," loosely, "to care for the land." (Crawford, 1994: 1)
For Nation of Hawai`i members we have spoken with, the main issue with regard to sustainability has come again and again down to values. What is really important, and sacred; money, material "comforts," and getting what we can from the land while we can get it?; or preserving the health of the land and the health of the human communities it supports? Thus the Nation of Hawai`i's commitment to a fully sustainable society may come as a surprise to outsiders, but from what we could tell, to them such a commitment is merely an obvious way to live in integrity, which emerges out of their deep cultural tradition.
One of the cornerstones of the Nation's vision of gradual, non-violent reassertion of sovereignty is the creation of sustainable communities around the Hawaiian Islands, where traditional native practices could be reestablished in the context of appropriate technologies of the present. The first village near Waimanalo, Pu'uhonua o Waimanalo, celebrated its second anniversary in June of 1996. The name of the village was interpreted to us as "Refuge of Good Water" and belies the cultural significance of water to the Nation. The water flowing down from mountain rains and mountain springs is indeed good water - we got our drinking water by walking up through forest to the source of the stream that runs down the hills near the village.
It is difficult to relate in words the insights and deep feelings that have been conveyed to each of us by people of Pu`uhonua o Waimanalo on the subject of land and water, and the importance of caring for them as the basis of human health. Working in the Nation's ancient lo`i beside kupuna (elders) were experiences we will never forget.
Nor will we forget the experience of swimming several times down at the Waimanalo beach. In reading Ponting's (1991) A Green History of the World this spring we learned that "One of the most basic problems for every society has been to dispose of human excrement and urine whilst at the same time securing a supply of drinking water that is not contaminated with these wastes" (Ponting, 1991: 347). To our regret, we must report that in the middle of the largest ocean in the world, on the most remote island system in the world, the issue is all too relevant. We often swam at a beautiful beach about five miles from the Nation's village, and were disturbed to learn that the occasional orange-yellow film on the surface of the water was in fact what we feared: the combination of primary treated sewage and clear ocean water. Poor planning resulted in an overflow from the local sewage plant every time it rained. In addition to sewage soaked surf, underground storage tanks leak into groundwater tables all over Hawai`i (Rohter, 1992: 78), and a report on last night's local public radio news (5/9/96) said that as many as a quarter of Hawai`i's drinking systems don't meet federal standards.
Clean water is precious all over the world, but perhaps especially so in Hawai`i, an island system surrounded by at least 2000 miles of salty Pacific ocean water in all directions. One indication of this is that the word in Hawaiian for abundance is wai wai, which translates as "water water." Another is the topological fact that even in a fairly humid region just twenty degrees north of the equator, each island has very wet areas and very dry areas. Keeping kukae ("feces," as well as pesticides, fertilizers, and other toxins) from drinking and ocean water has not always been the critical problem that it is today in Hawai`i, as indicated by the name of the town nearest this beach: "Waimanalo" (which again, has been interpreted as good, potable water).
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The Nation's GIS initiative was born out of the meeting of the architect, computer system designer, entrepreneur Adam Carson with businessman, carpenter, Nation of Hawai`i supporter David Po in Maui in 1992, when Adam was there designing a house for a client. Adam and David had a strong connection, and each introduced the other to many interests and friends. Soon Adam was deeply involved with Hawaiian sovereignty, and was dedicating time, energy, and visionary, entrepreneurial projects toward supporting the activities of the Nation.
One of Adam's deep passions is conceiving and considering fundamental technological, social, and linguistic structures toward facilitating sustainability and cultural regeneration. A long-time interest of his has been exploring the use of GIS for sustainability, citizen empowerment, and the facilitation of local economies. Adam began exploring the possibility for a next-generation GIS in the early 1990's with the collaboration of associates and friends, and very shortly realized that this could represent a tool which could make a big difference in the prospects of an independent Hawaiian nation for continued self-determination and sustainability. In 1994 he was named Minister of Technology to the Nation of Hawai`i, and began to focus more and more attention toward making the next-generation GIS not only useful to the Nation, but also economically profitable. At this point we refer the reader to our methodology section, where the rest of this story is told, from when we met Adam in early 1995.
From our work with Adam Carson in Los Angeles, we feel that the essence of this GIS initiative is to make comprehensive information about Hawai`i accessible to its citizens by creating an immersive model of the region, for the purpose of addressing economic and environmental problems on a more local level through distribution of information to citizens, and to lawmakers. Through this initiative it is hoped that the long-term quality of life in the region will be enhanced by the creation of a more sustainable culture, and a "micro-regional economic envelope."
Mapping the Islands of Hawai`i in a special manner which will give a focused access to groups who typically would never come near the information capable of being presented by a GIS and its inherent levels of sophistication. This will illustrate how or why not a GIS system can become utilized as a critical pillar in the building of new and better realities. If successful as a study that then goes on to support the development of real tools, a regional model GIS will not only generate a new and perhaps more true framework of the reality behind and beneath the Hawaiian situation, which is freed of foreign agendas and manipulation of the appearances of things through the media, but will also generate a whole new level of potential for conceptualizing the possibility of living again in harmony with that land. (Adam, personal communication)
When we first embarked on the mapping project with Adam, we had been fascinated by a vision. This vision was to create an immersive, networked GIS database-model of Hawai`i. Our excitement was based on the potential of social empowerment and increased sustainability we felt was inherent in such a GIS. We had only just begun to explore the power of maps and their ability to communicate clearly large amounts of data in a visual way, and were excited by what we were learning. Adam explains:
This form of multilayer display (of a GIS system) is capable of making obtuse statistical and progression based information clear to nearly everyone, because it engages as the principal ingredient of conveyance, something with which all human beings are familiar: maps and how they represent a physical place. As such, this technology provides a potential resource for mass empowerment by virtue of its ability to make information reaccessible. (Adam, personal communication)
Adam's vision was to create nothing less than a three dimensional model of the Hawaiian islands that one can "fly" through. To give a description of this model, first imagine perceiving the Hawaiian archipelago from an altitude of 25,000 feet, and then descending down upon Maui where vegetation, towns, landforms, and roads could be seen just as a satellite or airplane would view it, depending on your altitude. With the touch of a button, you can invoke a wide variety of data layers, from the location of power lines, voting districts, landfills, native species, pollution sources and much more.
(The capability of GIS to let us "visit" places without physically going there...) This characteristic of GIS to be particularly interesting and meaningful to people because they can recognize features, their neighborhood, surrounding communities, etc. relates the principal character of the GIS experience, that of having access to large amounts of interesting and useful information that educates and can entertain people about who they are and what they are experiencing, and how this is the same or as different as everyone else. It is this general and heightened local interest among other features that possibly can make GIS related technologies one of the first advanced high technologies to become accessible to the mainstream public. Along with it will come a demand for information and a reconsideration of the rights of the general public to obtain information about the regional envelopes in which they live. (Adam, personal communication)
Imagine "flying" along in a three dimensional computer model over Maui, and coming upon the pristine northwestern beaches of Maui, where a new series of condominiums were planned. A little "hyper-bird" might alert you that at this "place" there is hypertext information to peruse. Clicking on the bird, up would come ethnographic information on the struggles of the native people of that area as they resisted this development. Click This is why the Malo birds died. Click. Or on Molokai'i, there might be information on the native people and how they are dealing with the feral pig population supported by environmentalists. Click. This is why endangered species can no longer find a mate. Click. Up comes graphical information on typical weather patterns. Click. Up comes information on recent elections on Maui. Click. What did Kapuna Auntie Helen say about what used to happen at this sacred place? Click.....
This endeavor was not primarily about building a model for commercial purposes. It began as the building of a tool for information management that could serve as the backbone for the emerging independent Hawaiian nation to manage the Hawaiian archipelago in a comprehensive and sustainable way. Adam describes the context of this comprehensive modeling tool in the following way:
In its initial stages, this tool is taking the form of an intelligent map-based data communications network that combines advanced forms of visualization, communication, large variable economic simulations and immersive media world building tools, in order to create a new form of economic process model of an "immersive Hawai`i" (we do not believe in the term virtual because it implies the non-real). This system rests on top of layer-based families of robust economic and environmental process simulation architectures, which in turn tie to actual diverse data sets distributed all across the islands, and to select data resources abroad. (Adam, personal communication)
The GIS system that we are talking about here is not a regular workstation as we know it from standard systems used by business and government today. The vision behind this GIS system is founded in the possibility of connecting it to a set of communications tools that will enable the dataflow to be "alive" and dynamic in a degree that has not yet emerged in real-time management situations. Adam describes this characteristic:
As a principal stimulus for modes of government, commerce and life management typified by dramatic increases in direct participation of a regional community as a whole and a deemphasis of "data and resource mongering factionalism," network capable GIS systems can play a pivotal role in the engineering of positive progressive changes in areas in need of change, in order to respond to critical regional problems. In order for this powerful next generation tool to become utilized for anything along these lines however, it will have to be reordered, remade and rerendered into some form which is optimized for its use by a regional community and economy as a more general communications resource, rather than it merely serving some isolated planning office as a means of illustrating their figures. If done well, this tool along with its network, can become a decisive influential agent in the ongoing stimulus and channeling of change. If information is power, then network accessible GIS is perhaps simply the most viable means of its distribution. (Adam, personal communication)
One foundation of this system is a communications shell that will link the GIS to public users through visual and auditory interfaces through the use of advanced voicemail systems and interactive TV interfaces, linked to high powered networked supercomputers. Technology exists today which makes it possible to connect users to the GIS through their TV for a minimal fee of a few hundred dollars if the appropriate network is in place; the Internet is another possible access route. This feature will take the traditionally centralized, highly skilled, and expensive use of GIS to a new level of accessibility and thereby create a new potential as a tool for empowerment of the citizens rather than of social control by a central government. In other words the communication shell will have the possibility of distributing information that citizens may need in order to take initiatives themselves, on a local basis. The goal is to support transformation at a grassroots level toward a more sustainable life region.
A primary reason that this type of system is so necessary, Adam feels, is that currently there are often serious restrictions against free citizen access to information around the world. 'Data mongering factionalism' is a tendency of many businesses and governments. This GIS initiative places a very high value on distributing information toward the creation of an educated, informed populace which could assist in the process of managing and designing their own lives and regional affairs, rather than being at the effect of someone else's plans or schemes.
In many places in the world, if not most places, much of the information which can be placed into a networked GIS system is generally not made available to the public. Part of the reason for this is expense and the lack of a commercial interface between map suppliers and information users, but the major reason worldwide is governmental restrictions against the release of certain particularly useful (translated powerful) forms of information. (Adam, personal communication)
We will explore the important issue of information access below, but now we will give an example from some of our discussions with Adam and other research of how GIS is proposed to aid in sustainable management. One of the ways Adam helped us to understand the essence and relevance of GIS was by the example of tracking the flow of sewage from toilet to treatment and back to the environment and all the elements of influence, from sewage pipe quality to peoples' eating habits. We have learned that a central challenge in Hawai`i, as in most other densely populated areas of the world, is not only keeping clean water clean but doing it in a growing scale of society with increased complexity: Hawai`i no longer has only its own sewage to take care of, but additionally a population of about 8 million tourists a year. According to Adam, this may be where GIS can come in as a tool and process to conduct the necessary planning to, among other things, keep feces out of the waters of the land and ocean, and manage a complex island society.
The application of GIS to help society successfully deal with sewage became more clear for us in our meanderings through the World Wide Web, as we came across a self-described environmental watchdog group called Friends of the Earth (FOE), based in the UK. In a 1994 paper by FOE activist Rob Atkinson of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth, entitled "GIS: A Catalyst for Positive Change," a relevant example is given of the critical usefulness of GIS with relation to sewage and water.
...(discharging) industrial effluent into the sewage system. In is estimated that around 90% of Britain's industrial waste is disposed of in this fashion. As a result sewage sludge is often so badly contaminated it cannot be used as fertilizer or even incinerated, and much of it is dumped at sea, where the contaminants reappear in the food chain. One day society will be sophisticated enough to correlate such activities with fisheries, diet and epidemiological studies as a matter of course. The scale of the consented contamination is extremely worrying (1.2) billion litres per day, including, for example, 2.6 tons of cadmium per day. Data about the actual discharges themselves are kept secret, so there may well be companies exceeding those consents. The sewage treatment industry might argue that these are private commercial matters, but ultimately the public has to suffer the consequences: cost of sludge disposal, contamination of seas, fisheries and rivers. The cost to the economy of fertilizer use is also ultimately born by the tax-payer and consumer. It will take a GIS, and better data than currently available, to analyze the real environmental, economic and social costs of such systems. Systematic analysis identifying the local context is probably the only way to create sufficient awareness to force positive change. (Atkinson, 1994: 3; emphasis added)
Atkinson's statement raises the question of how GIS is currently being used by the City of Honolulu and the State of Hawai`i for managing the fragile ecosystems of the archipelago. Since the Nation of Hawai`i does not exist in a vacuum, in addressing the question "How can GIS be used for sustainability and self-determination by an independent Hawaiian nation" it is essential to also explore the context current of GIS use by the "official" government in Hawai`i. Having discussed the historical background of the Nation, its use of information technology, its commitment to sustainability and its GIS initiative, we now look at several GIS offices at the State and City levels, and ascertain what lessons and insights into GIS' potentials and pitfalls can be gained.
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