In a lecture Monday night, Noenoe Silva, Author and associate professor of Political Science at the University of Hawaii, said the United States’ colonization of Hawaii has resulted in depressed farmland and water, homelessness, military and commercial pollution, skyrocketing imprisonment rates and desecration of ancestral remains and sacred sites.
“Pono in the Hawaiian language means well-being, justice, balance, what is right, rights, and restoration of resources,” Silva said. “Pono needs to be restored.”
In her lecture, the author of “Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism” outlined the two main ideas that have been discussed in conjunction with Hawaiian sovereignty: nation-within-a-nation and independence. Nation-within-a-nation would be integration with the U.S. government that would resemble the model that many Native American and Alaskan nations use today. Independence would mean that Hawaii would declare itself an independent nation.
And there is a legal basis for both of these claims, Silva said; In 1993 President Clinton signed Public Law 103-150, which states that the United States illegally overthrew Hawaii in 1893.
“I would like to see a government and laws that prohibit the appropriation and desecration of our land,” Silva said.
As a halfway point between East Asia and the United States, Hawaii has always been an ideal spot for the U.S. military, Silva said. And this military presence has created environmental problems. The USS Arizona, for example, has been leaking oil in Pearl Harbor since it sank in 1941.
“No one can eat one thing from Pearl Harbor, which used to be the equivalent of our breadbasket,” Silva said.
The tourism-based economy has also come with a grave price, she said.
Tourism has created an economy where the rich can come to vacation but natives can barely afford to live. Silva said Native Hawaiians need to control their own resources so that they can farm and try to create an economy that can support its people – not just rich vacationers.
She said Hawaii has a large homeless population and the average price of a single-family house on Oahu is $660,000.
“If you are parking cars (at your local hotel) you are probably living in your car,” Silva said.
The major issue with the Hawaiian sovereignty movement is fragmentation, Silva said. Everyone has a different opinion about what should take place. Silva said she wants a place where natives can afford to live, where the environment is restored, and her ancestry respected.
In terms of a new political status for the islands, “I haven’t heard a great option so far,” Cultural Advocate of the Hawaii Club Jacquelyn Low said. “The biggest thing I can do for my people is go to college. Education is what we need.”
At a glance:
Hosted by: The Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics.
Fact: Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state in 1959
Her Book: “Aloha Betrayed” argues that Native Hawaiians did not passively accept their late-19th, early 20th Century colonization. Through research of the Hawaiian language, Silva found signatures that show 95 percent of the population opposed annexation.