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Jus make Shaka!

Posted by Kalikala on April 12, 2009 at 6:19am
Ok den, i understand get pleny kanakas in da mainland esp. in kaleponi, so when someone makes "Shaka", jus make "Shaka" back brah! When i see someone wit all da dakine stickers, makini, kukui hangn from da mirrors and i try fo make friend....wow laulalu i get da stink eye...wot up wit dat! I miss home and when i see someone from home you are my "OHANA". I was raised wit da Aloha Spirit, but i don't see it...it breaks my heart to see the Hawaiian culture become so commericalized, so please if you see da "Shaka", "Shaka" back wit "Aloha"..Hawaii Nei..!
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just so you know

Posted by Jasmine O. on April 12, 2009 at 3:54am
""I Keep It Real And Thats A Promise I MAy Be A Bitch But Atleast Im Honest When I Walk By You Stop And Stare Well Keep On Looking Cuz I Dont Care I Have My Own Life And Style Not Trying To Please You Or Make You Smile " "TrUsT""
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HERE IS $5.00 FOR LEGAL DEFENSE FUND

Posted by Namaka'eha on April 11, 2009 at 8:01pm
What can $5.00 do today? Here is a worthy cause to donate to. We need kokua to pay for legal services. Why not donate to a worthy cause to deal with "SEIZED LANDS" and so forth! Your kokua is greatly appreciated.http://kingdomhawaii.com/legal-defense-fund
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Mahalo to Richard Pomaikaiokalani Kinney

Posted by Namaka'eha on April 11, 2009 at 6:56am
This is a special mahalo to Richard Pomaikaiokalani Kinney who has shown endless support at the Capitol. He is one of many heros that has dedicated his life for our po'e. I've seen him in action and often words of gratitude is never enough to say MAHALO. Richard keeps all of us informed of what he testifies on and has spent endless hours empowering others to do the same.His script is simple "Return to the Kingdom." What is keeping you from making this choice?
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THE EFFECTS OF OVER A CENTURY OF U.S. OCCUPATION OF HAWAI`I

Posted by Free Hawai`i on April 11, 2009 at 6:35am
Hawaiians 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, Hawaiians had been reduced by nearly 90 percent. Today the numbers of people who claim some native Hawaiian ancestry have increased to over 400,000.But only 239,000 live in Hawai`i. They are the poorest segment in the state.They make up 37 percent of the state's homeless population, according to a 2003 survey.
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Empowering Kanaka Maoli to Stay in School

Posted by Namaka'eha on April 11, 2009 at 6:30am
I was a guest speaker in Waianae for adolescent and adult education. Despite the age difference that spans 40-50 years, the haumana were discussing issues of ceded lands and homelessness as their assignment. In the process of the discussion, a time line was drawn indicating different ages of milestones (degree, children, teaching, etc).BIRTH---EARLY CHILDHOOD----MIDDLE----ADOLESCENCE--YOUNG ADULT---ADULT--GERONTOLOGYThese are the general stages of human development.0------------------------18(graduate)---------------25---------------30------------35-----------40--------45---------50---------55---------60-----DeathGiven this time line, they were asked to plot their life (marriage, children, college, etc). The time line is broken into 5 year increments. Life is to short to be wasted if your choice is to drop out of school. The attrition rate is higher among kanaka maoli therefore indicating that teachings in the U.S. schools are insufficient to meet the diverse needs of our po'e.Therefore, a strong emphasis of why READING and WRITING skills are necessary tools to understand dominant culture. Values and beliefs differ from dominant culture, but it is our kuleana to keep our children in school.If you are a struggling learner, let us know how we can support you in school. For myself, it was becoming involved in the Hawaiian Club at Kaua'i Community College the empowered me to persist. What do you do to promote higher education? We all need positive role models and perhaps "grass roots" efforts are needed to address attrition. What do you think?
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Lili‘u's "Umia ka Hanu" - Under Their Noses, Over Their Heads

Posted by Kihei de Silva on April 10, 2009 at 5:00pm
Under Their Noses, Over Their Headsna Kīhei de SilvaHiki mai e ka lono i o‘u nei,Aia o‘u pōki‘i lā i Kawa[1],I ke kākela nui o ke Aupuni,Kahi i noho ai me ka maluhia[2],Word has come to meThat my pōki‘i is at KawaIn the big castle of the RepublicWhere he resides in apparent ease.‘Umia ke aloha i pa‘a i loko,No ke one ‘ōiwi ou e Hawai‘i,‘Eha ai ka ili[3] ou kūpuna,‘O Keawe, ‘o Kalani-‘Ī-a-Mamao[4],Persist in your deeply held loveFor your native sands, O Hawai‘iWhere the legacy of your kūpuna has been violatedThat of Keawe and Kalaninui‘īamamao.Ka hua i ka umauma mailani ia,Pāpahi ‘ia ke Aloha ‘Āina,Hi‘ipoi ‘ia ko lei hanohano,I kāhiko mau nou e ka lehua[5],The watchword of the chiefly heart is this:Wreathe yourself in Aloha ‘ĀinaCherish your lei of noble characterIt honors you always, my warrior child.A ‘oi ‘alina[6] i ka ‘ike ‘ana,Ia paia kaulana ho‘iho’i ‘ole,Ho‘okahi ‘ike pū ‘ana ka ‘īnea,Me ou pōki‘i maka‘āinana,Especially disgraceful to the eyesAre these infamous prison wallsWhere you are one in sufferingWith your beloved peopleHo‘okahi puana kou pu‘uwai,No ka po‘e i aloha i ka lāhui.Your heart has but one concernIt is for the people who love their nation.This is a mele pio kālai‘āina[7], a political-prisoner song composed by a deposed and captive queen (Lili‘uokalani) for a deposed and captive prince (Kalaniana‘ole). Lili‘u was locked up in a second floor room at the former palace. Kalaniana‘ole was serving out a sentence of hard labor at O‘ahu Prison. Both Queen and Prince, aunt and nephew, had been convicted of misprision of treason for their “silent” roles in the failed countercoup of January 1895.Because Lili‘u was held incommunicado for the duration of what would be a year-long prison term, she could not converse with Kalaniana‘ole or the 200-plus loyalists with whom he was incarcerated[8]. Nor, for that matter could she exchange opinions and assurances with the unimprisoned loyalists who prayed for her release. Their newspapers had been shut down and their newspapermen arrested and jailed. Where once the mana‘o of the Queen and loyalist leaders had been published on a weekly basis, the only reports now available to the lāhui were those that appeared in pro-government newspapers like the Pacific Commercial Advertiser and Kuokoa[9].As might be expected, these papers waged a lopsided war of misinformation designed to undermine the lāhui’s faith in its Queen and deflate its hopes of restoration. Lili‘u, they reported, had given up on the aloha ‘āina cause, “releasing, abandoning completely, and completely quitting all her claims, and [those of] her heirs and other claimants, to the throne of Hawai‘i forever”[10]. Her people, they advised, should follow suit.But the Republic’s stranglehold on the opposition press began to unravel in late March 1895, when it released the loyalist newspaper editor F.J. Testa in an arrogant miscalculation of native intelligence and defiance. “Hoke,” as Testa was known to his Makaainana readership, kick-started his paper in the last week of that month, and featured, in its second edition, the first in a series of four anonymous[11] mele composed by Lili‘u and smuggled to him from her upstairs room. Noenoe Silva explains that the message of these mele: "was that her heart was still with her people and her nation, and that contrary to the representations being made in the prorepublic papers she had not abandoned the po‘e aloha ‘āina or the struggle for their nation….she was with them; she had not abandoned them, and she was fighting the provisional government in every way she could, including through spiritual appeals. The people were po‘e aloha ‘āina, and so was she"[12].The Queen’s message, moreover, was couched in poetic Hawaiian language whose kaona went undetected by the ‘enemi. The watchdogs of the Republic failed to recognize her voice, and failed, as well, to take stock of the hidden meanings, veiled references, and political double entendre of her words. Printed in the upper left hand corner of the front page of the Makaainana, for four weeks in a row, were the aloha ‘āina thoughts of an unrepentant Lili‘u: her mele ran right under the noses of her captors but flew way over their heads. Nor did the Republic catch on to the equally deceptive mele that were written and published in support of her nationalist sentiments – mele smuggled from Kawa and Halekoa, mele composed by Hawaiian women, mele of loyalty from what was supposed to have been a beaten and inferior race. These mele, Silva concludes: "acted like conversations between people who were physically unable to talk to each other because they were imprisoned in different locations and separated on different islands…These mele served as a way for [Lili‘u] to communicate to her people that she shared their anger, sorrows, and desire to regain their nationhood, and for them to communicate to her that they were still loyal, no matter what the haole newspapers said"[13].Lili‘u’s “Umia ke Aloha i Paa Iloko” is the third in her series of covert mele pio kālai‘āina. It opens in apparent reverie over a beloved “younger sibling” who has taken up peaceful residence in some kind of castle. It moves without transition to a typically clichéd expression of Hawaiian attachment to birth sands and ancestors. It then speaks in typically inane fashion of “fruits on the chest” and other garlands of adornment and love. It then makes typically sketchy references to a “famous, uninteresting-unreturning wall” and to some kind of singular, shared view of sibling difficulty. And it ends, in typically unimaginative “puana” fashion, with roundabout, overused expressions of love for the land.The mele must have registered in the Republican ear as nothing more than the harmless clatter of disjointed native sentiments; no nerves were struck, no whistles blown, no red flags raised. Not so with Lili‘u’s native audience. Her people would have known right away that the sibling of the castle was, in fact, the nephew in the prison, and that the mele had been penned by the aunt herself. They would have recognized that Lili‘u’s apparently generic words of affection for sands and ancestors served, in fact, to disguise a battle cry of ongoing resistance ("‘umia ka hanu, ‘umia ke aloha!” – hold the breath, hold the love, be patient, persist!)[14] and a pointed expression of approval for Kalaniana‘ole’s part in the countercoup (I can barely contain my love for you; your actions have honored the legacy of our warrior-chief ancestors).Her people would have seen, too, that “hua i ka umauma” was far less a reference to a fruit lei worn on the chest than it was a poetic expression for the watchwords (hua) of encouragement and pride that were burning in her heart. These words (imperative ‘ias camouflaged as wimpy passives) implore her nephew and lāhui to persist in the aloha ‘āina cause: wear your resistance as a lei, cherish its dignified character for it will ennoble and honor you always. The lāhui would have caught on, as well, to her duplicitous use of “lehua”; it looks like one of the lei flowers in her rambling catalogue of adornments; it is, in fact, an epithet – “warrior, expert, royal descendent” – for Kalaniana‘ole, the direct object of her praise and exhortation.Lili‘u’s poetic sleight-of-hand continues in the fourth verse of her mele with the highly elided “a oi alina i ka ike ana,” the cryptic “ia paia hoihoi ole,” and the vague, shared “ike” of “inea.” Who, her detractors might have asked, is doing what to whom? Indeed, there are no obvious actors or actions in the entire verse, and there are very few clues to help the foreign reader arrange this apparent jumble of fragments into a coherent, subject-verb-object string of thought. The native audience, however, would have picked up on the contrast between hanohano (honor, majesty, dignity) and ‘ālina (blemish, dishonor, disgrace) in verses three and four, and they would have seen the new verse as a logical counterpoint to its predecessor: that is what Lili‘u sees as honorable, now this is what Lili‘u sees as disgraceful. They would have recognized Kawa Prison as the source of this acute disgrace to the eyes of Lili‘u – that infamous place of walls from which there was no return (o ka mea oi, oia ka alina i ka ikena o Liliu i ia mau paia kaulana hoihoi ole o Kawa)[15]. And they would have understood and been inspired by the lesson of unity that Lili‘u draws from these shameful circumstances: the lāhui shares as one the ‘īnea suffered by Kalaniana‘ole and his beloved citizen inmates.“‘Umia ke aloha” ends with an ordinary-looking “puana” verse: a two-line coda that reiterates the song’s apparently sketchy message of affection for a pōki‘i whose heart went out to the people who loved their lāhui. Defiance is there, just beneath the surface, but it is framed in such a conventional manner and in such round-about language that it raised no republican hackles and sounded no anti-Makaainana alarms. It was scanned and dismissed by a people predisposed to minimize the significance of Hawaiian poetry: if it wasn’t about sex, it had to be harmless. The same old stuff about chiefs and land and love.Hawaiian loyalists, on the other hand, would have noted with delight the non-conventional twist that Lili‘u gave to her seemingly conventional ending. Hers, in fact, is not a “ha‘ina ‘ia mai ana ka puana” coda. Instead of a distant, passive/imperative voice announcing that “the puana is told,” or asking that “the puana (story, refrain, summary) be told” Lili‘u personalizes her puana. She makes it a direct, intimate expression of the heart. “Ho‘okahi puana kou pu‘uwai / No ka po‘e i aloha i ka lāhui.” – Your heart, Kalaniana‘ole, has but one refrain, love for the people who love the land.” Lili‘u’s puana becomes the heart’s voice – hers, her nephew’s, and their lāhui’s, all speaking to each other, heart-to-heart, about that which they would not surrender. Public forum, intimate thoughts; under the noses, over the heads.All four of Lili‘u’s Makaainana compositions end in this distinctive manner, three with “puana ko‘u/ku‘u pu‘uwai,” this one with “puana kou pu‘uwai.” None of the other mele lāhui poets employ the phrase. They recognize and honor it as belonging to their queen – as her subtle way of signing her work without using her name. Noenoe Silva observes, in her own quietly brilliant fashion, that these mele occupy a special place in the literature of Hawaiian resistance. Where Lili‘u’s formal protests, articles, books, oratory, and presence in Washington were directed at America and its politicians, “her mele were primarily for her people. Kānaka were the only ones who could understand the language and the form…Communicating through mele was a way of keeping the lāhui together when they were most isolated from each other”[16]. These mele continue to be important to us today because they dispel the myth of a dull and acquiescent people and their beaten queen. And because they inspire us to resist, today, the same forces that threatened, back then, the ili of our kūpuna. ‘O Keawe, ‘o Kalaninui‘īamamao, ‘o Lili‘u.Haku mele:Haimoeipo (Lili‘uokalani).Date of Composition:March or April, 1895.Sources:1) “Umia ke Aloha i Paa Iloko,” Makaainana, April 15, 1895.2) “He Inoa Wehi no ka Oiwi Pokii,” J.F. Testa (ed), Buke Mele Lahui, 10-11.3) “He Inoa Wehi no Kalanianaole,” Lili‘uokalani, He Buke Mele Hawaii, 127.Our text above:Makaainana, April 15, 1895; translated by Kīhei de Silva.Notes:1- Kawa was a pond in the old Honolulu waterfront district of Iwilei. Oahu Prison was built there, out of coral block, in the 1850s. Its three-story central edifice (photograph in Edward Scott, The Saga of the Sandwich Islands, 855) may have been castle-like in appearance, but by 1895 it had become a noisome “pesthole” (The Independent, September 24, 1896).2- The description of a “peaceful, castle-like place of residence” is used with extreme sarcasm by Lili‘u and other prisoner-poets. Henry Enoka, for example, describes the political prisoners there as “e walea ana … i ka home kākela” – relaxing in the mansion (“Kalanianaole Kou Inoa,” Buke Mele Lahui, 40).3- The word ili appears without ‘okina in the three minimally marked versions of this song, and I have chosen to translate the word as transcribed: inheritance, legacy. But ‘ili (skin) also makes sense here and I suspect that Lili‘u meant us to hear and appreciate both possibilities.4- The two are father and son: Keawe[‘īkekahiali‘iokamoku] and Kalani[nui]‘īamamao. Lili‘u identifies them (in the introduction to her translation of the Kumulipo, ix-x) as her own distant kūpuna and as kūpuna, as well, of Kūhiō, the grandfather of Jonah Kūhiō Kalaniana‘ole. Genealogical references of this sort, though meaningless to the foreigner’s ear, tied Hawaiians stubbornly, eternally to their ali‘i and ‘āina, and provided models for noble behavior (Lilikalā Kame‘eleihiwa, Native Land and Foreign Desires…, 19; cited by Noenoe Silva, Aloha Betrayed, 93).5- This word is given as lahui in the Queen’s songbook (He Buke Mele Hawaii, 127). We might argue that the change in diction is a reflection of the increasingly strained relationship between Lili‘u and her nephew; as they grew apart with the turn of the century, she elected to address this section of the mele to her lāhui, not to her lehua (“warrior, expert, younger relative) nephew. The same might be said of Lili‘u’s songbook shift from ou to o‘u in the sixteenth line of the mele: “your beloved people” becomes “my beloved people.”6- The fourth letter of this word is indecipherable in the original newspaper text; it is an obvious n (alina), however, in Testa’s Buke Mele Lahui and the Queen’s He Buke Mele Hawaii.7- This is my own term for a subset of the larger category of compositions known as mele lāhui. Pio kālai‘āina, “political prisoner,” is the phrase used by the countercoup loyalists of 1895 to define the po‘e aloha ‘āina who were imprisoned by the Republic of Hawai‘i for their treasonous activities and sentiments. Mele pio kālai‘āina are, therefore, songs composed by those treasonous captives, among them: Lili‘u, Henry Enoka, S. Kaili, S.K. Kaloa, J.W. Kamali, H.J. Kapu, J.K. Kaulia, and D.K. Koa.8- The number of prisoners is usually given as 200 or so, but Thomas Spencer lists 313 names in his “Ka Papa Inoa O na Poe i Hopu ia...” (Kaua Kuloko, 1895, 133-136). Hawaiian loyalists were also imprisoned at ‘Iolani Barracks (Halekoa) and – according to some Makaainana reports – in Hilo, as well, but I don’t yet have a clear idea of exactly who, where, and for how long.9- The only reports that the lāhui was “now getting about the Queen and the situation of the people who were imprisoned was from the government newspapers, that is, from their enemies” (Noenoe Silva, Aloha Betrayed, 151).10- Nupepa Kuokoa, February 2, 1895. Cited and translated by Silva,181.11- They were published without signature, but it would have been obvious – to her people – that Lili‘u had composed them. The title and first line of the initial mele, for example – “Mai Wakinekona a Iolani Hale” (From Washington to ‘Iolani Palace) and “Ia‘u e nanea ana ma Wakinekona” (While I was relaxing at Washington) – could only have been written by the Queen: the words describe her arrest at her Washington Place home and her removal, by carriage, to her ‘Iolani prison.12- Silva, 187, 191.13- Ibid., 190-191.14- Pukui identifies “‘Umia ka hanu” as a “war cry” (Dictionary, 371), and she explains similar ‘umia and ‘umi utterances as calls for unity, extraordinary mutual effort, and utmost patience (‘Ōlelo No‘eau, 2875, 2876, 2877). The battle-cry connotations of this phase lend a similar resonance to Lili‘u’s use of pōki‘i in the second and sixteenth lines of the mele: her people might well have heard, in this seemingly innocent relationship term, an echo of Kamehameha’s call to arms: “I mua e nā pōki‘i a inu i ka wai ‘awa‘awa; ‘a‘ohe hope e ho‘i mai ai” (Go forward my younger brothers and drink of the bitter waters of battle; there can be no retreat, no place to which we can return).15- Lili‘u’s poetic finesse is often evident in the tiniest details; in this verse, she effortlessly stands two readily understood words on their connotative ears. ‘Oi usually means “best,” but its subtext here is “worst.” Kaulana usually means “famous,” but its subtext here is “infamous.”16- Silva, 186.© Kīhei de Silva, 2008. All rights reserved.
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please kokua ia'u - writing an essay for an Asian/Pacific/American Studies anthology

Posted by Ku'ulani Miyashiro on April 10, 2009 at 3:50am
I am writing an essay for an anthology on APA studies for Arizona State University - my first submission to an academic journal. With the rise of young people in the independence movement today (e.g. many of you on Ke A'o Maoli!), I felt it was important to document it and spread the word across the continent that this is happening.I would like to interview college students, grads, educators, activists, organizers, who are active and want to contribute to this essay. Here's the abstract - please feel free to add your mana'o!For years, activist groups and concerned individuals have rallied the Hawaiian community around the push for self-determination. Sovereignty remains a prevailing issue on the minds of many Hawaiians, including many young people who are upset and dissatisfied with Western ideology. In the age of new thinkers and contributors to the cause, however, the radical and fractured nature of the movement has left many young Hawaiians disconnected. I explore how this generation, utilizing their education to create systemic change, will build on the sovereignty movement to influence the future of the next.This essay examines the particular role of young college-educated Native Hawaiians in reshaping and redefining the Hawaiian sovereignty movement. New data from financial aid and college support programs for Native Hawaiians, as well as enrollment figures from Hawai’i and mainland universities will allow exploration of the growth of the number of Hawaiians obtaining higher-education degrees and entering the public and non-profit sectors. Interviews with young working professionals, college professors, language teachers, and educators will reflect this data, and also serve to highlight the extent to which young educated Hawaiians are contributing to the theories and arguments that support the sovereignty movement, building on the lessons learned from previous generations of activists.Examining the writing and organizing efforts by long-standing Native Hawaiian activists such as Haunani-Kay Trask, Kekuni Blaisdell, and others, the paper will attempt to shed light on their contributions and successes as well as take a look at the gaps in organizing and mobilizing young people in the movement. Tying in current legal issues such as the Akaka Bill and anti-affirmative action cases will bring us into modern-day issues surrounding self-determination and the ripple-impact these decisions will have on the ways that the movement can and will proceed in the hands of new leaders and thinkers.The paper will reflect on useful theories and literature for indigenous activism and essentially lay the framework for thinking about how higher education and young people's power to create systemic change in government are at the center of the movement for Native Hawaiian sovereignty.SHARE -- ANY KOKUA IS APPRECIATED.... LET'S EDUCATE! WE ARE HERE, LOUD AND PROUD! Ku'e, kanaka, ku'e!!! Eo.............
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Taking Care of Yourself

Posted by Namaka'eha on April 9, 2009 at 10:00pm
At some point in time, you may become stressed out! Take the time to self-reflect and take care of yourself. You may be overwhelmed from work-related stress and just family life. Take time out to rest your body and mind. Neglect of self often occurs when "moving on fast mode" just to take care of the "kuleana" in front of us.Go to see a movie, spend time at the beach, read a book or just take time to relax by taking a drive. Hawai'i has many beautiful sites to visit, historic in time and place. If you live on the mainland, I'm sure there are many sites to visit too.It my remind you of taking care of your car thus remains a constant "foot petal" to care for our body too!HAPPY EASTER TO ALL
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AKAKA BILL - IF IT'S SO GOOD, WHY ARE THEY AFRAID TO TELL YOU MORE?

Posted by Free Hawai`i on April 9, 2009 at 4:14am
I still don’t support the Akaka Bill because of the shadiness that is surrounding it. Why aren’t there meetings and Q&A sessions hosted on every Island where the people can come to ask questions and get answers regarding this bill? And if there were, why aren’t there any more? It’s about education- it would be irresponsible of OHA to support this bill without educating the prime group that this bill would affect the most. And if it happened already, it should be happening more....RJ MendozaHilo, Hawai`i
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HEWA: Settlement Proposed In Battle Over Hawaii Ceded Lands

Posted by Pomaikaiokalani on April 9, 2009 at 3:02am
Thursday, April 9, 2009Settlement proposed in battle over Hawaii ceded landsSettlement would require legislative OK to sell landsRead comments (2)Recommend Print this page E-mail this article Share Del.icio.usBy Gordon Y.K. PangAdvertiser Staff WriterUnder a settlement proposal, the lawsuit over the sale of ceded lands would be dropped in exchange for an agreement by the Lingle administration to obtain a two-thirds vote of approval in both houses of the Legislature before it could move forward with any sale of the lands.The proposal, being crafted by attorneys for the state, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and four individual Native Hawaiians, would allow the dispute over the sale of ceded lands to go away — at least for now.But the parties, as well as state lawmakers, must still agree to the plan.Under the settlement, detailed by Attorney General Mark Bennett and attorney William Meheula at a House Hawaiian Affairs briefing yesterday:• All parties would agree to have the current lawsuit, which was remanded to the state courts by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 31, dismissed with prejudice, meaning other parties could choose to raise the issue in the future.• Gov. Linda Lingle would sign a bill requiring that any sale of ceded lands first obtain a two-thirds approval from each house of the Legislature. The bill would allow for continuance of the existing law on the exchange of ceded lands, which allows for a transfer to be disapproved if 50 percent of both houses, or two-thirds of one house, votes to reject it.The proposal appears to be a way for the two sides to come to a compromise each can live with while taking away the uncertainty of an impending Hawai'i Supreme Court ruling.The U.S. Supreme Court two weeks ago said the Hawai'i Supreme Court erred in relying on the Apology Resolution of 1993 as the legal basis for a moratorium on the sale of ceded lands, and sent the matter back to the state courts.Bennett has disagreed with Meheula and OHA attorney Sherry Broder on what that means.no agreement yetBennett believes the Hawai'i Supreme Court now needs to lift the moratorium. But Meheula and Broder feel the Hawai'i court could choose to once again allow a moratorium, except this time using other state laws and actions as proof there is a need for a moratorium.Bennett and Meheula made it clear that the clients — OHA and the four individuals in particular — had not yet agreed to the settlement.Bennett, however, said, "It's my belief the governor would sign the bill I described for you."The two attorneys also acknowledged the plan would need to be approved by the Legislature, which appears to be split on the subject of ceded lands.Rep. Mele Carroll, D-13th (E. Maui, Moloka'i, Lana'i), chairwoman of the House Hawaiian Affairs Committee and the Legislature's Hawaiian Caucus, said she and others would still prefer a full moratorium against any sale of lands.senate supportMeheula said he'd prefer a moratorium, too, but "I can't base a settlement on something that's pie in the sky."Bennett has stated the Lingle administration would be more amenable to a two-thirds approval rule than a blanket moratorium. The administration has also stressed there are no plans to sell ceded lands.Senate President Colleen Hanabusa said she expects the Senate likely would support the proposal, noting that the Senate moved out a two-thirds approval bill.A House version calls for a two-thirds vote to reject a ceded lands sale, and is pending before the full House.At issue are 1.2 million acres that were under the jurisdiction of the Hawaiian government at the time of the 1893 overthrow.In 1994, OHA and four individuals sued the state, seeking to temporarily halt the sale of affordable housing put up on ceded lands on Kaua'i, arguing that claims to those lands by Native Hawaiians should be resolved first. The Hawai'i Supreme Court in January 2008 overturned a lower court's opinion and imposed a moratorium on the sale or transfer of ceded lands until those claims are resolved.OHA Administrator Clyde Namu'o would not comment, stating he wants to first discuss the issue with the agency's board of trustees. The board is expected to take up the issue at a meeting today.Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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BamBam and Pebbles

Posted by Ululani on April 8, 2009 at 4:00pm

For my family and friends:
Since some of my family and friends REFUSE to get a Facebook I am reposting this here lol From my PERSONAL Facebook... not my work one because it never fails when my family and friends who DO like Facebook LOL look up my name then they add my work one. Worse... I purposefully flipped the pic for my work 180 degrees as a ka ona to show that the Haole World is diametrically and radially opposed to the Hawaiian World in some ways so more I laugh because while it is me... it is not REALLY me LOL It's all technical talk there (i.e. which I call BORING TALK) as well. As some of y'all know BORING talk bores me LOL What I LOVE to discuss is housing for ALL Hawaiians in the form of shared ownership (i.e. condos and/or co-ops.) Now that topic never ever bores me.Well earlier today I adopted two Pomeranians from the SPCA: BamBam and Pebbles. Normally they would be $100 each to adopt (for purebreds) but since they wanted them to stay together... we adopted them for $100 for both of them so that they would be together. (They are 10 years old while Princess Hina is about five years old.)In the midst of this the purpose of our trip to the SPCA was to actually get one of my friend's dogs back for her. I had my husband drive as fast as we could in order to try to rescue him. Long story short... I wasted time, money, and energy AND I took the day off from work just to be able to help her. My husband ended up taking him back about 30 minutes later after she told me that she does not think that she can handle it anymore due to her finances and her work schedule. Note that not once did she tell me NOT to go but I knew there was a chance she would change her mind and I erred on trying to save him for her. We ended up paying the $150 adoption fee but we were subsequently refunded. In the end while my mission was to rescue her dog... I ended up rescuing two OTHER dogs.Now we have three Pomeranians: Princess Hina Sweetie Pie Snowball aka Princess Hina aka Princess aka Ms. Super Doggie who Survived Some Deadly Toxins Despite Being Only Ten Pounds LOL (She defied the odds based on her body mass.)

BamBam (male) and Pebbles (his sister)

Of course some people just HAVE to be negative LOL... but I love dogs and now we have three doggies and one cat (Fluffy) who we adopted from our local SPCA. (One of my nieces, Mahinaokalani, who is the top scoring kindergardener throughout the HISTORY of Virginia is like me in that way. That and how annoying people are annoying to us LOL) I find it ironic that their names are "BamBam" and "Pebbles" because when I was a little girl I used to watch the Flintstones A LOT.This is one of my goals though... to adopt as many Hawaiian children as I possibly can and adopt doggies... so this should not surprise you folks LOLI also got a message from someone at Facebook. He asked me, "Are you the Lana on Star Bulletin or the Advertiser? I like your stuff." which made me laugh because I PURPOSEFULLY love to make other people laugh.. especially other Hawaiians because ever since I was a little girl I knew that it was very stressful to BE Hawaiian. Or rather... for Hawaiians to just BE in Hawai'i LOL I have always been this way. Always joking around so that some people are not so miserable. Of course some people notice that I laugh a lot... while they are grouchy LOL Like one of my friends who happens to be a cop. I always joke around and like I tell him... like it is SO wrong to be HAPPY LOL But people believe what THEY want to believe. It makes me laugh when some people try to dictate to others what to do, think, and/or say so it amuses me. For me it's "I have my mana'o, you have your mana'o, and neither is "right" or "wrong." However actions are or can be."Anyway I currently have two pending deals which is amazing considering. This means that I get to donate to MY causes before I make. Morbid... I know :P Lately I have been working a lot though and have yet to do some things. I won't be taking a vacation until the middle of June when my eldest niece Makanamaikalani graduates from high school. I've written about this before... but while I did not graduate from UH I graduated from the University of Washington partly due to my repulsion to the abuse (in emotional, verbal, and written forms) directed to Hawaiians. I hope that she attends UH-Manoa though... because I KNOW that other Hawaiians will watch over her in some way. Back in the '80s I did not feel that way. I still think it can be very dangerous for Hawaiian children due to the verbal and written daggers targeting Hawaiians. I do not want my nieces to be exposed to the racism against Hawaiians and internalize it because some of the words... wow so pilau. Fortunately she has been accepted to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical in Daytona Beach, Florida and to UH-Manoa. I'm not worried as I used to be and KNOW that some Hawaiians will watch over her at UH. It may help too because her first name is Makanamaikalanimai so I highly doubt that some people will question if she has the iwi LOL So far she has decided to attend UH-Manoa and hopefully enter the School of Engineering. Her father is an engineer.


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Request for moʻo stories - personal and second-hand accounts

Posted by Alohalani on April 8, 2009 at 11:32am
Any one got some they'd like to share? I am collecting oral accounts of moʻo, first hand or second hand for my thesis. We can talk about the details if you are interested. Some friends have already told me some stories, but I can use more for the closing section of my thesis where I talk about what people today are saying about moʻo, whether it is about how you have an ʻaumakua moʻo or seen, or hear stories about them being seen. Currently looking for a small grant to visit other islands to collect oral histories. Any help would be appreciated. In return I can give you a copy of my thesis where many not-well-known stories and facts concerning moʻo are gathered together, including a table of moʻo on various islands and in what accounts they appear. Not much I know, but for those of you who have an interest in such things, it might be fun to have.The reason why I think this is important is to highlight the importance of ʻaumākua for today's Hawaiians. Many of us can honor our ʻaumakua in various ways. This is yet another indication that the ways of old continue to be important in these modern times. It is a way to raise awareness. Mahalo!I will be posting sections of my thesis as they are edited. I did my research to raise awareness and bring to the attention of the general public the more obscure ʻike about moʻo. I hope you enjoy the stories as well.
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Kalihi Waena Streambank Restoration

Posted by Barbara Natale on April 8, 2009 at 8:29am
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO HELP CLEAN KALIHI STREAMGet ready to share your aloha for the 'aina at KAUPA's STREAM CLEAN-UP! This month it occurs on Saturday, April 11th, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.KAUPA (Kalihi Ahupua'a Ulu Pono Ahahui) is dedicated to restoring the natural and cultural resources within the Kalihi ahupua'a through education, outreach and action. We are currently working on a Kalihi stream restoration project behind Kalihi Waena Elementary School. This includes cleaning up the stream, educating the youth, and starting and an edible/medicinal Polynesian garden where community members can come to plant, grow, and harvest native plants like Ulu, Kalo, Mai'a, Uala...whatevahs!We are looking for *twenty* or more volunteers to pick up and bag rubbish within and along the banks of Kalihi Stream, eradicate invasive species, transplant native plants, and do some graffiti removal. Gloves, trash bags, snacks and water will be provided. Please wear covered shoes, clothes you don’t mind getting dirty in, and a hat (suggested). You are welcome to bring extra fruit from your or your neighbor’s yard to share with the community, if you’d like!*Note:* Mature kids at least eight years of age and accompanied by a responsible adult are welcome.*Sign Up Via Email:* To sign up for this event or if you have any questions, please reply to kaupa4kalihi@hawaii.rr.com.*When:* Saturday, April 11*Time:* 8:30 to 11:30 a.m.*Directions:* KAUPA restoration site is located behind Kalihi Waena Elementary School (1240 Guilick Ave.) From H1, take the Likelike exit. Turn LEFT on School Street, and LEFT on Gulick Ave. Kalihi Waena Elem. School is on the right hand side.*Timeframe:*8:30 a.m. Check in & Brief orientation of KAUPA8:45 a.m. Stream Clean-up11:30 a.m. Pau/Finish
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FREE HAWAI`I TV - "DON'T MISS THIS!"

Posted by Free Hawai`i on April 8, 2009 at 3:30am
FREEHAWAII.INFO PRESENTSFREE HAWAI`I TVTHE FREE HAWAI`I BROADCASTING NETWORK "DON'T MISS THIS!"What Did The Recent US Supreme Court Decision Really Mean About Hawai`i's Stolen Lands?What Are Two Key Things That Happened?Find Out Here What Not To Miss.
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Kamehameha I an American?

Posted by Kaapuikinaea on April 7, 2009 at 5:48am
Here we go again. I know I've seen this before. I receive fliers from the John Ford Amphitheatre and noticed that they had photos of hula and what was advertised was "The compelling saga of America's only monarchy, from King Kamehameha to Queen Liliuokalani." *shakes head* I can understand the confusion of mistaking the Queen as an American but not the others. And worse if it's coming from Hawaiians.
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