Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 4, 1 April 1990 — Our values as Hawaiians [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Our values as Hawaiians

By Moanikeala Akaka Trustee, Island of Hawai'i

Our purpose today in this eolumn is to suggest that we think about our personal roles, goals and beliefs as we act and react to the many crosscurrents of events, programs and offers coming from the state

and federal government that stole from us our home land. I suggest we remember that as a people, like it or not, we (at the moment) are on the bottom of the social status pile here in these islands. We have more of our people incarnated or on public assistance than in influential positions. Why are we marginal members of Hawai'i today despite having an elected Hawaiian governor for the first time? 'Ohana vs. lndividuality. Our Hawaiian 'ohana value system is based upon sharing, and helping one another. Today's dominant culture that has taken over is based upon individualism, personal gains and materialism whieh makes for a clash and conflict of values. There may not be a single solution but one such solution is based on one's relationship to the 'aina: Aloha 'aina. Ours is a natural affinity, inter-connection and dependancy to the 'aina and is a foundation and source of strength that our ancestors never forgot. A relationship western modern man is just now beginning to discover. The polluhon of the world will be our planet's demise if we don't watch out! Maka ala. This includes warming greenhouse effect and depletion of ozone-layer and ravaging of natural forests; in brief, the disruption of nature's eco-balance. Our native way, "ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono" shows a respect for the land and is the basis for Hawai'i. Or is it success in the current mainstream sense — are finances ($) god — that dictates personal and community values today? Is a successful taro farmer (Hawaiian or not) more Hawaiian than a blood-Hawaiian who cuts ancient, sacred, native forests for a profit in a wood-chip-ping industry as happened in Campbell Estates Kahauale'a? We are in a dilemma. Decimated by disease, attempts to conquer us socio-politically, and finally inundate culturally — values diluted and polluted — as in Ali'i Rubbish Service or Royal Hawaiian Shoe Shine — and overwhelmed numericaly we become victims of the democratic process. Although there has been a loss of language; there has been a renaissance with Hawaiian studies at University of Hawai'i and Punana Leo Pre-School and Hawaiian Language Immersion program in some public school lower grades. Language is the foundation of cultural integrity. Our native tongue was stripped from us, a systematic attempt at cultural genocide. Today in Hawai'i we are at a crossroad. The temptation to sell out our cultural integrity in respect to the land is immense. At Wao o Kele O Puna State Forest Reserve, ceded lands were traded with Campbell Estate for Kahauale'a, a raped 'ohi'a forest and thousands of acres overrun by Pele since Campbell received permission for geothermal development. As a result, over 5,000 acres of land was also given to Volcano National Park. There was no public hearing for this land exchange nor is there any legal processfor removing 'aina out of its state forest reserve zoning. The developers of this geothermal project — Camnbell and Wyoming True Mid-Pacific — say they will only be destroying a "few" hundred acres of this last immense low level tropical rainforrest of its kind

world wide (though there are other fragments of forests). It must be understood thatany roadsand entrances into that forest allow exotic (foreign) plants to threaten, overrun and destroy its unique eco-system and native forest integrity. Forest reserve must remain just that. It must not serve the industrialization planned for Wao Kele O Puna with geothermal. Oeean mining is also a great threat and danger to our sea life and ourselves as island people. The tourist industry whieh should be enraged and aghast at the schemes to industrialize and mine the oeean, for some unfathomable reason remains dreadfully-deadfully silent. In fact, I don't recall the tourist industry opposing any developmental projects — are you out there? Strip mining the oeean floor for strategic metals to aid the war maehine at a time of Perestroika and lessened world tension is idiotic and self-deluding. It is interesting how non-Hawaiians and foreigners manipulate and dictate alternatives for Hawaiians to consider. The test is this: ean we the Hawaiian race move into the 21st century, yet retain our own cultural integrity based on our Hawaiian eultural standards and value system of Aloha 'aina whieh is fundamentally our spiritual connection to the land whieh is mueh like other native peoples similarly overwhelmed. The "fighting" amongst us Hawaiians today is an attempt to identify ourselves as we regain our ethnic-political plaee in the sun. As an example,

what are we to think when we hear of Bishop Estate Trustee Henry Peters referring to the sale of unique Heeia wetlands as "money talks" intimating he didn't care what happened to the 'aina after they sold it to the Japanese investors. The destruction of unique areas such as Sandy Beach coastline or Heeia wetland is a sacrilege. It is to these realities that we must become fully aware and address ourselves. The future belongs to the Aloha 'Aina(ists) and environmentalists because otherwise there will be no future. Ideological differences have been shed, and with good reason, for they pale in the shadows of the monstrous global ecological challenges we must today address. We Hawaiians are part of the indigenous peoples of the world who retain the spiritual vitality of a people infused with Earth (Great Mother Spirit) religion. All peoples today are being made aware of our sane and harmonious relationship to nature. It has taken a glimpse of global extermination to do it — but the world now needs what Hawaiians and other Earth-Spirit people (indigenous) bring to the human drama — our sense of respect, pride, love and appreciation of the 'aina. In brief: Aloha 'aina. We Hawaiians may disagree on nuances and particulars, but on this we should agree, lest we be less than Hawaiian enough for the times. Malama pono. Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono