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Excerpted from:
by Anuhea Reimann-Giegerl
Recent events and publicity regarding the past, the present and the future of Native Hawaiians continue to leave their poignant imprint upon the souls of many. Great numbers of Native Hawaiians have had to let flow the painful emotions and thoughts which have been suppressed for a lifetime. The anger and the sadness transferred in the womb from one generation of Native Hawaiians to the next has been validated and punctuated. Ancestral memories have forced their way to the surface and many Native Hawaiians know that those memories will haunt them until the spiritual forces which made life flow so easily for their kupuna are allowed to flow freely and abundantly once again. The profound grlef of Native Hawaiians is now exposed to the world and while the world figures out what, if anything, it will do about the Native Hawaiians, I and other kanaka maoli will continue to reach out for ways to deal with our grief which ultimately bring us serenity and wholeness.
In the spirit of encouraging honest and open discussions about Hawaiian sovereignty, I am offering my Native Hawaiian perspective about the importance of and urgent need for sovereignty. There are only about 200,000 Hawaiians walking this earth today who are inextricably rooted in this 'aina. My viewpoint is only one of those 200,000 voices. I do not presume to speak for the minds and the souls of any other Native Hawaiian, nor can I reveal ail that is in my na'au. Nonetheless, my views about this complex issue are valid and should be counted along with the mana'o of each and every Native Hawaiian man, woman and chlld. I hope that the mana'o Iam sharing here will foster a deeper understanding and greater acceptance of the Native Hawaiians' rlght to move beyond their pain and into thelr core.
Webster defines sovereignty as the state or quallty of being independent of all others: supreme and independent political authority. In the case of Native Hawaiians, it is the appllcation and consequences of sovereignty that deeply confuse and frighten so many. Sovereignty wlll allow us to exercise our ability to decide for ourselves how we should live free of the oppressive and prejudicial control by those who have raped our lands and our souls since 1778. The pain of that rape must be cured and sovereignty ls our only peaceful means of bringing about that cure, now that we know that other means controlled by non-Hawaiians, have grlevously failed and further violated our spirits.
After centurles of lies and secrecy, the truth of Hawai'i's history is now being exposed to show that since 1778, the aboriginal people of Hawai'i have been denied their ability to make decisions for memselves - individually and as a nation - free from control of others. From the catastrophic decline ln population because of imported disease, to the prohibition of speaking our native language and worshiping our gods because of imported prejudlce and ignorance, to the overthrow of our monarchy and the theft of our lands because of imported greed and power-mongering, our island people have been systematically, powerfully and almost totally stripped of their ability to make sound, responsible decisions for themselves and to learn from their mistakes.
Asserting sovereignty is our way of correcting at least one bad choice made more than two centuries ago. We trusted men from a different culture to be our friend. Paramount mistake! Ultimate wrong choice!
Our dreams and hopes of a sovereign Hawaiian nation are morally just and not unreasonable. Our desire to control and manage the public trust lands set aside for us in 1920 and 1959 is born out of our dream to have schools where our ancestral language is taught, and to have sacred places where our minds, bodies, and spirits are allowed to heal. One of these days our native language will be spoken daily and without shame in our homes, schools, places of worship and employment, at the beaches and grocery stores. The day will come when our deity will be restored to their divine places in our lives, and we will again be empowered by the soclal values that once moved the thoughts, words and actions of our ancestors. When our hula, our oli, and our mele are no longer staged for another's economic gain and uneducated pleasure, and when attitudes whlch foster the belief that Hawai'ians and thelr aloha were created solely for another's entertainment and pocketbook are extinguished, our souls will once again know joy. The day wlll come when balance and harmony between po'e Hawai'i, na aumakua ame na Akua, and 'aina will be restored for our own sake. From education to health, from religion to the arts, from politics to soclal issues, we will assert and exercise our sovereign right to live our lives in a way that balances our spiritual, intellectual and physical relationshlps.
What good reason is there for anyone to deny us these dreams?
Others may have no understanding or acceptance of the spiritual losses we have suffered since 1778, but that does not mean that our spiritual losses are non-existent or unimportant. Simply because others have absolutely no comprehension of our ancestral connections, does not mean that those connections are not real or central to our lives. Another's lack of intellectual, emotional or spiritual feeling for our value system, does not mean that we should make any compromises in our beliefs. Because others will not or cannot use our language correctly and respectfully, does not mean that we must foresake the spirit of our language for the convenience or desire of others. Those who want us to believe that we are not the first people of this 'aina and therefore have no special rights to this 'aina, will never destroy our special ancestral connection and obligation to this 'aina. Those who believe our struggle for sovereignty is foollsh will not smother our burning quest to determine our own destiny. Others will trivialize and ridicule our dreams, but we will not be ashamed of or discard our hopes and aspirations.
The turmoil in our na'au tells us forcefully that there is something very wrong about statements defending the actions of missionaries and annexationists between 1820 and 1898. We must now speak openly and peacefully with the believers of such statements and make clear to them that our lives have not been made better by the actions of their ancestors, nor will our lives be made rlght under the control of the same values of greed and oppression that stirred their forefathers. The very real and very deep scars left in our souls by the actions of yesterday's missionaries and annexationists and today's real estate developers, military leaders, and politicians, will not allow us to do anything less than reject the false and contemptuous statements and acts of others, work hard to achieve sovereignty and work hard to make sovereignty work for us.
To all po'e Hawai'i, remember that there is no greater gift that our ancestors left us but that of the "ha". We must alwayrs celebrate the precious and priceless gift of the breath of llfe that possesses the core of our being. We must aloha it. We must malama it. We must look to our core and draw upon the "ha" for clarity and calm. Our ancestors did the very best they could in difficult times to protect and sustain the "ha" for themselves and for us. Let us recognize, acknowledge and malama that legacy. We know what our responsibility is. Let's do it. 'Onipa'a.
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