The Mystery of Hawaiian History

Correcting historical revisionism and misconceptions promoted by the Akaka Bill

Abusing Hawaiian History: Hawaiians Knew Their History in 1959

Jun 4

Posted by jere in Commentary, News | Comments off

Abusing Hawaiian History: Hawaiians Knew Their History in 1959

by Erica Little and Todd Gaziano

Read at heritage.org

Testimony regarding S.310 (The Akaka Bill)

May 8

Posted by jere in Letters | Comments off

This testimony was submitted to the United States Committee on Indian Affairs regarding S.310.

S. 310 Hearing May 3, 2007

Aloha, and thank you for keeping the record open for further testimony on the Akaka Bill (S.310).

Much of the difficulty with this bill and its supporters is that they are starting from false premises. In his opening statement, Senator Dorgan wrote:

“It allows for the Native Hawaiian people to once again have an opportunity at self-governance and self-determination.”

Contrary to Senator Dorgan’s implication, the Native Hawaiian people have both self-governance and self-determination this very moment, only not as a separate racial group. Also contrary to Senator Dorgan’s implication, there has never been any race-based government in the entire history of the Hawaiian islands, including before western contact in 1778, and in fact, the Hawaiian Kingdom’s first constitution explicitly declared all people “of one blood”, and maintained itself without reference to race.

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HCR 82 – The Joke Proclamation

Apr 6

Posted by Ken Conklin in News, Reference | Comments off

(A more detailed version of this article may be found here.)

A hoaxed 1894 Presidential Proclamation by Grover Cleveland was used as the basis for a 2006 propaganda circus spanning 5,000 miles, in April 2006, by Reverend Kaleo Patterson. It was covered by the Associated Press in an April 21, 2006 article apparently taking the hoax at face value. A year later, after being presented with concrete evidence regarding the nature of the hoax, Reverend Patterson nevertheless pushed a resolution through the State of Hawaii Legislature declaring the same date of April 30 for a day of prayer for Hawaiian restoration, and specifically citing Grover Cleveland’s (fake) proclamation in the whereas clauses justifying the resolution.

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New book provides strong medicine against Akaka bill

Mar 5

Posted by Ken Conklin in Reference | Comments off

“HAWAIIAN APARTHEID — Racial Separatism and Ethnic Nationalism in the Aloha State”

THIS BOOK describes how 160 Hawaiians-only federal programs, state government agencies (OHA, DHHL), Kamehameha admissions policy, Hawaiian-focus charter schools, etc. are tearing apart our rainbow society and empowering a secessionist movement to rip the 50th star off the flag.

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Hawaiian Misrecognition

Feb 15

Posted by jere in Commentary, News | Comments off

OHA Advertisement

(Also covered in The Hawaii Reporter, 2/27/2007)

In the Valentine’s day edition of The Honolulu Advertiser this year, OHA took it upon itself to inform us with a slick advertisement on page A4 that we must define ourselves by race. Not content to use traditional ethnic terms like “oiwi” or “kanaka maoli”, they’ve decided that the only proper use of the word “Hawaiian” is to refer to a pre-1778 immigrants to the Hawaiian island chain.

Such a bald statement of abject racism cannot go unchallenged – Hawaii is a place, not a race, and all the immigrants to Hawaii, whether before 1778, during the Kingdom period, or as a part of the United States of America, have just claim to the distinction of being Hawaiian.

Their question was stated as “Who is Hawaiian?” Here are their answers, with corrections:

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Correcting Van Dyke

Jan 25

Posted by jere in Corrections, Reference | Comments off

Jon M. Van Dyke, a Professor of Law at the University of Hawaii, recently wrote an article for the Hawaii Reporter titled, “Further Thoughts on ‘Testamentary Incorrectness: A Review Essay'”. It is a response to a post on this blog reviewing a recent essay by Paul Carrington in the December 2006 (Vol. 54, No. 3) Buffalo Law Review. Several corrections are in order regarding Van Dyke’s statements.

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Testamentary Incorrectness: A Review Essay (Paul D. Carrington – Duke University School of Law)

Jan 18

Posted by jere in Reference, Reviews | Comments off

Given the state of common misunderstanding of Hawaiian history, it is refreshing to read the review essay authored by Paul Carrington in the December 2006 (Vol. 54, No. 3) Buffalo Law Review. An in depth analysis of the book Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement, & Political Manipulation at America’s Largest Charitable Trust (2006), Carrington shows not only insight into the racial politics in play, but gives us an accurate and honest account of the surrounding history.

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Heroes of the Hawaiian Revolution

Jan 17

Posted by jere in Commentary, Reference | Comments off

In recognition of the historic occasion of January 17th, 1893 and the Hawaiian Revolution which ended the monarchy of the Hawaiian Kingdom, I’d like to offer thanks to the heroes of that day. Although tensions during that time were high enough to entice the landing of peacekeepers from the U.S.S. Boston, no violence occurred the entire time, save the shooting of one police officer trying to stop a wagon of weapons for the Honolulu Rifles.

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Native Hawaiian “birthright” suspect

Jan 16

Posted by jere in Commentary, Letters | Comments off

In a January 12th response to a January 9th article I wrote for the Honolulu Advertiser, the leaders of OHA claimed, “Native Hawaiians are the indigenous people of Hawai’i, and have the right to thrive in their ancient homeland.” I find this sentiment frightening in its consequences, contrary to the ideas of freedom, and based on false premises.

What we today call “Native Hawaiians” did not spring from the mountains of Oahu, or the beaches of Maui. As exemplified by the quintessential example of Native Hawaiian culture, the Hokule’a (now voyaging to Micronesia), Hawaiians were voyagers, explorers, and colonists from other islands in the Pacific and beyond. Their “ancient homeland” can be arbitrarily placed anywhere between Hawaii and the path they took from Africa, depending on which date one chooses. As with every people who have ever travelled to Hawaii, “Native Hawaiians” came from somewhere else – we are all immigrants here, separated only by the amount of time since our ancestor’s original arrival. To assert some special, distinct status, based on a single drop of blood before an arbitrary point in time, over all of ones’ peers who have lived together side by side for over 200 years is simply abject racism.

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Fiji provides an example?

Dec 5

Posted by Malia Hill in News | Comments off

What would a Native Hawaiian government be like? Just look at Fiji which was freed from British rule a few decades ago.

The military seized control of Fiji on Tuesday after weeks of threats, locking down the capital with armed troops and isolating at home the elected leader whose last-minute pleas for help from foreign forces were rejected.

The coup was the fourth armed takeover in the South Pacific country in 19 years, and had its roots in the same ethnic divide that produced the previous three.

Full Story Here.