Yesterday, about 20 people gathered at Wal-Mart on Keʻeaumoku Street to demonstrate against the continued incarceration of iwi kupuna under the parking ramp. The iwi are held hostage there because of a legal argument. We were demanding their immediate re-burial.Tony Castanha, who is the leader of the annual burning of the papal bulls that sanctioned genocide by Columbus and the other conquistadors, brought the papal bull burning to Wal-Mart. We spoke out about that genocide in the Caribbean and the Americas, and the related genocides, displacements, and dispossessions, and the ongoing attempt to commit genocide by such acts as treating our iwi kupuna as if they are not human remains.The Wal-Mart security guards were both African-Americans who don't know the history--either ours or their own--or they would have joined our protest. Instead, they kept demanding that we leave and they struck one of the camera people from ʻŌlelo. They called the police, who basically told them to calm down. The police did not allow the person struck to file an assault charge.Mahalo to Hilary Mei-En Chen for the photo.Noenoe Silva
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