Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 6, Number 11, 1 Nowemapa 1989 — Conference examines tourism impact on Hawaiians [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Conference examines tourism impact on Hawaiians

By Deborah Lee Ward "If tourism is a primary industry of Hawai'i, now and in the future, then it must also bear the responsibility for the environment, our social wellbeing, (and) the economy." With this challenge in mind, delegates to a week-long conference began to scrutinize "Tourism in Hawai'i: its impact on Native Hawaiians and its challenge to the churches." More than 75 Native Hawaiian, non-Hawaiian, and international delegates gathered Aug. 21-27 in Kailua. One third represented Native Hawaian churches and Hawaiian activist groups. Another third were ministers and lay church leaders of different denominations in Hawai'i. The rest eame from the U.S. mainland, Europe, Asia and the Pacific as representatives bf indigenous peoples and eeumenieal organizations concerned about tourism in the third world. The event was sponsored by the newly-formed Hawai'i Eeumenieal Coalition on Tourism, a locally-based, multi-ethnic movement whose goal is to develop education and action around tourism and related eeonomie and poliheal issues eonfronting Native Hawaiians. During the week, visiting participants were taken to see the scope of the tourism's presence in Hawai'i; they visted rural development projects and heard presentations on the eeonomie, social and cultural history of the island group that is geographically the most isolated in the world. Initiating sponsors include the Eeumenieal Coalition on Third World Tourism, the World Council of Churches Pacific Conference, the Nahonal Council of Churches, the Hawai'i Couneil of Churches, the Centerfor Responsible Tourism, and the American Friends Service Committee. The organizing committee was headed by chairperson Rev. Kaleo Patterson, kahu of Kapa'a First Hawaiian Church, vice-chairperson Dr. HaunaniKay Trask, University of Hawai'i director of Hawaiian studies; treasurer Patricia Mumford, of the Hawai'i Conference of Churches; and coordinator Rose Schilt, of the American Friends Service Committee. In opening the formal weekend sessions, eon-

ference chairpersons Rev. Kaleo Patterson noted that Native Hawaiians have been "participants in, and victims of, the tourism industry." He said, "It is time for us here today, for all Hawai'i, to rethink our basic attitudes about tourism, to ask the question "Who are we, the people of Hawai'i? Where are we as people, children of this land? How has tourism benefitted the whole of our Hawaiian community? " 'More jobs' is the answer that we receive. But more jobs are not the solution to the identity question. More jobs are not a solution to the cultural question, to the dignity question, or the legal question regarding reparations, and just and eompassionate sovereignty for our Hawaiian people. More jobs has had little to do with the housing crisis in Hawai'i on every island. More jobs has had

little to say about shortage of facilities for our education system, the destruction of our coastal environment and the high cost of living. "If tourism is a primary industry of Hawai'i now and into the future then it must also bear the responsibility for the environment, our social wellbeing, (and) the economy. " 'Aloha' is the most used and abused word of our tourism industry. 'Aloha' ean mean fond greetings, goodbye, love. It also involves . . . the presence of peaee and justice. If Hawai'i is truly the land of love and aloha, then we must work for peaee and justice. Aloha is for everyone. But when a host indigenous people, the beautiful and gentle Hawaiian people, onee prosperous and healthy are now the poorest and sickest and the least educated, dispossessed of land and nationhood, where is the presence of peaee and justice? Where is the land of aloha?" Co-conference organizer Haunani-Kay Trask called tourism a newform of multinationalcolonialism. "The hotel is the new plantation; the wages are low, the work demeaning, the crop is 6.5 million tourists a year . . . This is still not enough for the tourist industry." She said the impacts of mass-based corporate tourism "drive into your community." She criticized the luxury resorts whieh contrive an exotic "fantasy" substitute for an authentic Hawaiian setting. "Our culture is exploited. Hawaiians should be first on the agenda." That agenda includes bringing about what Trask calls alternatives to tourism, whieh are not the same as "alternative tourism." These consist, she said, of self-sufficiency, sanctuaries and political sovereignty. Self-sufficiency is having land, water and resources to carry out traditional eeonomie activities, such as farming, fishing, hunting and gathering. Sanctuaries could be places of refuge, she said, a spiritual base where Hawaiians could gather and relearn their culture. These alternatives promise dignity, ehoiee for Hawaiians, generational continuity as Hawaiians, and the opportunity to be independent and indigenous persons, she believes.

Conference coordinator Rev. Kaleo Patterson was one of several church leaders who discussed how churches in Hawai'i and the U.S. ean re-examine their role and responsibility to native Hawaiians.