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Tag Archives: Hawai’i
Colonized/Occupied Hawai’i: Hawaiian Sovereignty on the move! For land, for food….
#IdleNoMore Hawaiʻi
#IdleNoMore Hawaiʻi, Label GMO & Pounding Kalo
Lovely Hula Hands
by Haunani Kay-Trask
September 12, 2008
Lovely Hula Hands: Corporate Tourism and the Prostitution of Hawaiian Culture
This paper was first delivered at a Law and Society conference in Berkeley. The response was astounding since most Americans are simply shocked to learn that even one Native thinks of tourism as a colonial imposition on Hawaiians. Of course, it could be that part of the shock was that this message was delivered by a Hawaiian intellectual, something most American racists consider a contradiction in terms.
I am certain that most, if not all, Americans have heard of Hawai’i and have wished, at some time in their lives, to visit my Native land. But I doubt that the history of how Hawai’i came to be territorially incorporated, and economically, politically, and culturally subordinated to the United States is known to most Americans. Nor is it common knowledge that Hawaiians have been struggling for over twenty years to achieve a land base and some form of political sovereignty on the same level as American Indians.
Finally, I would imagine that most Americans could not place Hawai’i or any other Pacific island on a map of the Pacific. But despite all this appalling ignorance, five million Americans will vacation in my homeland this year and the next, and so on into the foreseeable capitalist future. Such are the intended privileges of the so-called American standard of living: ignorance of, and yet power over, one’s relations to Native peoples.
Thanks to post-war American imperialism, the ideology that the United States has no overseas colonies and is, in fact, the champion of self-determination the world over holds no greater sway than in the United States itself. To most Americans, then, Hawai’i is theirs: to use, to take, and, above all, to fantasize about long after the experience. Continue reading
Makana, Hawaiian singer/activist, took Occupy song “We Are the Many” to Obama
We Are The Many
Lyrics and Music by Makana
Makana Music LLC © 2011
We Are The Many
Ye come here, gather ’round the stage
The time has come for us to voice our rage
Against the ones who’ve trapped us in a cage
To steal from us the value of our wage
From underneath the vestiture of law
The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw
At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw
And until they are purged, we won’t withdraw
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
Our nation was built upon the right
Of every person to improve their plight
But laws of this Republic they rewrite
And now a few own everything in sight
They own it free of liability
They own, but they are not like you and me
Their influence dictates legality
And until they are stopped we are not free
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You enforce your monopolies with guns
While sacrificing our daughters and sons
But certain things belong to everyone
Your thievery has left the people none
So take heed of our notice to redress
We have little to lose, we must confess
Your empty words do leave us unimpressed
A growing number join us in protest
We occupy the streets
We occupy the courts
We occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
You can’t divide us into sides
And from our gaze, you cannot hide
Denial serves to amplify
And our allegiance you can’t buy
Our government is not for sale
The banks do not deserve a bail
We will not reward those who fail
We will not move till we prevail
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We’ll occupy the streets
We’ll occupy the courts
We’ll occupy the offices of you
Till you do
The bidding of the many, not the few
We are the many
You are the few
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Makana sings Occupy protests songs to President Obama and APEC leaders
By Melissa Bell, Washington Post Lifestyle ArtsPost, 11/14/2011
President Barack Obama is busy in his home state of Hawaii meeting with Pacific Rim leaders on matters of global security and world economy. Even though Obama decided to skip the practice of goofy costumes at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the leaders are still getting a healthy sampling of the Hawaiian culture. One such display, though, may not be exactly what the White House had in mind.
Makana, a popular Hawaiian troubador, was enlisted to sing and play his guitar in the background at a dinner Obama and other leaders attended Saturday night. His song of choice: a 45-minute montage of protest songs, all while wearing a shirt that read “Occupy with Aloha.” Continue reading
While Obama and world politicians meet (APEC), Hawaiian activists hold alternative meeting in Hawai’i
AlJazeeraEnglish on Nov 11, 2011
Leaders from the Asia-Pacific region meet in the US state of Hawaii.
The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group [APEC] will discuss trade ties, against a backdrop of global economic gloom.
However, indigenous activists are staging an alternative conference, focusing on food, rather than finances.
Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane reports from Honolulu.
Hawai’i Island Appeal for Solidarity
February 3, 2011
Activists from Hawai’i island issued an appeal for solidarity in the face of a massive military expansion planned for Pohakuloa. Please send solidarity statements to ja@interpac.net. Mahalo!
For Public Release concerning U.S. military training at Pohakuloa
See list of individual signers below
Further contact: Jim Albertini 966-7622
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622. Email ja@interpac.net http://www.malu-aina.org
Appeal for Solidarity!
We (the undersigned) appeal to all Hawaii peace, justice, environment, and independence activists, to the general public, and to local and state government officials. We ask that you stand in solidarity with us on Moku O Keawe in resistance to major U.S. military expansion at the 133,000-acre Pohakuloa Training Area, and now even helicopter assault training for Afghanistan on our sacred mountains –Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.
We congratulate the Malama Makua community organization for its victory in stopping all military live fire in Makua Valley on Oahu. But Makua is still held hostage by the military and used to train for ongoing U.S. wars of aggression.
We are opposed to pushing U.S. desecration and contamination from one site to another. We want an end to U.S. occupation in Hawaii and the restoration of the Hawaii nation. We want the U.S. to stop bombing Hawaii and clean up its opala. We want to put an end to U.S. desecration and contamination of all sacred cultural sites. We do not want the U.S. training anywhere to do to others what the U.S. has already done to Hawaii: overthrow and occupy its government and nation, desecrate its sacred sites, and contaminate its air, land, water, people, plants, and animals with military toxins.
Restore the Hawaii Nation!
End U.S. Terrorism!
Military Clean-Up NOT Build Up!
Stop all the Wars! End all Occupations!
Isaac Harp, Kelii “Skippy” Ioane, Hanalei Fergerstrom,
Kihei Soli Niheu, Ali`i Sir Kaliko Kanaele, Calvin Kaleiwahea,
Lloyd Buell, Danny Li, Stephen Paulmier, Ronald Fujiyoshi,
Moanikeala Akaka, Tomas Belsky,
Samuel Kaleleiki, Jim Albertini
Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle 