DID YOU KNOW THE EFFECTS OF OVER A CENTURY OF U.S. OCCUPATION ON NATIVE HAWAIIANS ?

The Hawaiian people have suffered since the first Western contact in 1778.Western diseases, to which Hawaiians had no immunity, decimated their numbers.At the time of western contact, some 800,000 people inhabited the Hawaiian Islands.By 1805 that number had been halved.By 1853 there were only 71,000 Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian people in the islands.Within 100 years of western contact, the Hawaiian population had been reduced by nearly 90 percent.According to the 2000 census, the numbers of people who claim some native Hawaiian ancestry have increased to over 400,000.But only 239,000 live in Hawai`i and they are the poorest, most locked-up population in the state.Although they only make up about 20 percent of the state's population, in June 2001 they made up 39 percent of the state's prison population, according to the state Department of Public Safety.And they make up 37 percent of the state's homeless population, according to a 2003 survey.Independence Is The Only Right To Correct The Wrong!

I think more than anything lost is the almost complete lack of identity that today's native Hawaiians have. What it means to be a Hawaiian is not just an ethno-socio-cultural thing, it is a national thing. Wrapped up in the government that was overthrown was the culture and the kupuna knew this, in fact this sentiment is echoed in the Blount Report that the kanaka were acutely aware that should their governing system be changed/overthrown, their ways and culture would degrade to almost nothing.
Today, most native Hawaiians actually hearken back to an earlier period for their sense of "Hawaiian-ness" versus the Kingdom, in fact many decry the Kingdom as being the beginning of being "haole-fied." Big mistake!
The Kingdom was the continuation of the native Hawaiian governing system from 'aikapu with obvious changes in religion and political operations. However, still a Hawaiian governing system inter-married with foreign ways of governance. To this day we really don't know anything about what it is to be "Hawaiian", for none of us has experienced being in a Hawaiian country that stands alone with the rest of the world as did our kupuna of the 1800's. I can only imagine what it feels like to sing Hawai'i Pono'i and understand that you are singing your national anthem and that your country stands side by side with the rest of the countries of the world and that your representatives are in every major country of the world. And that for you to leave the pae 'aina means you have to get a passport especially to the United States. This sense of being has been almost completely obliterated and with it so have gone our ways of being, our stories, our heroes, our language and more importantly ourselves.

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Keiki Watson March 11, 2008 at 9:00pm

I think more than anything lost is the almost complete lack of identity that today's native Hawaiians have. What it means to be a Hawaiian is not just an ethno-socio-cultural thing, it is a national thing. Wrapped up in the government that was overthrown was the culture and the kupuna knew this, in fact this sentiment is echoed in the Blount Report that the kanaka were acutely aware that should their governing system be changed/overthrown, their ways and culture would degrade to almost nothing.
Today, most native Hawaiians actually hearken back to an earlier period for their sense of "Hawaiian-ness" versus the Kingdom, in fact many decry the Kingdom as being the beginning of being "haole-fied." Big mistake!
The Kingdom was the continuation of the native Hawaiian governing system from 'aikapu with obvious changes in religion and political operations. However, still a Hawaiian governing system inter-married with foreign ways of governance. To this day we really don't know anything about what it is to be "Hawaiian", for none of us has experienced being in a Hawaiian country that stands alone with the rest of the world as did our kupuna of the 1800's. I can only imagine what it feels like to sing Hawai'i Pono'i and understand that you are singing your national anthem and that your country stands side by side with the rest of the countries of the world and that your representatives are in every major country of the world. And that for you to leave the pae 'aina means you have to get a passport especially to the United States. This sense of being has been almost completely obliterated and with it so have gone our ways of being, our stories, our heroes, our language and more importantly ourselves.

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