Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 12, 1 Kekemapa 1992 — Nani Hawaiʻi: The betrayal and unanswered prayer [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Nani Hawaiʻi: The betrayal and unanswered prayer

Editor's noie: OHA Public Information Office is producing two videos, one on sovereignty and one on the ineeplion of OHA. Rev. Leon Kapuahelani Sterling, Jr. was interviewed in Augusl on the grounds of Hulihe'e Palaee, Kailua-Kona and prepared the following remarks on the overthrow, sovereignty and OHA. We share his article as the viewpoint of one with a long-standing involvement to better conditions for native Hawaiians. by Rev. Leon Kapuahelani Sterling, Jr. Come with me, my brothers and sisters, and let us walk softly through the halls of the Palaee. These same halls, now stilled, onee echoed with laughter and

song, lilting in soft Hawaiian phrases. It is quiet now except for a saddened, bereaved, and plaintive voice. Let us listen carefully to the deep sounds of grief. "Your love is in heaven and your truth so perfect. I live in sorrow imprisoned, You are my light, Your

glory my support. Behold not with malevolence the sins of man, but forgive and cleanse. And so, O Lord, beneath your wings be our peaee forevermore." These words are those of Queen Lili 'uokalani, translated from the Hawaiian by Samuel H. Elbert and Noelani Mahoe. Note that the verse, "I live in sorrow imprisoned..." is deliberately omitted in the so-called official version of the Nā Hlmeni, Haipule Hawai'i-lhe Hawai'i Hymn Book (page 247). The betrayal continues. The words are a prayer of intervention, rising from the ashes of an overthrown, betrayed nation. They eeho the voice of an ali'i, chosen by her people to lead. lTiey eeho the voice of a queen, stripped of her dignity and trust, filled with compassion and aloha, praying to God for forgiveness and cleansing for those that did this to her and her people. It is an unanswered prayer because Lili'uokalani's God has not yet heard the words seeking his forgiveness and the acknowledgment of a crime against a queen and her neonle.

Fifty years before, February, 1843, Kauikeaouli, Kamehameha III, voiced the same kind of prayer when a British subject, Alexander Simpson, and Britain's minister to Hawai'i, Lord George Paulet, forced cession of the Hawaiian islands to Britain. This action was rescinded by the British govemment on July 26, 1843, when Admiral Richard Thomas arrived in Honolulu, authorized to repair the damage caused by British agents and to restore the independence of Hawai'i. In both instances, the ali'i yielded to the visible presence of armed forces. The betrayal of 1893 carried deeper implications, however. King Kalākaua, Lili'uokalani's brother and immediate predecessor, had executed treaties with America, Great Britain, France, Japan and other powers, recognizing and guaranteeing the nation of Hawai'i. Those treaties were in effect in January 1893. The betrayal was complete but it is not yet resolved. The prayer remains unanswered. Sovereientv

The betrayal of our queen immediately established distrust. Those who were originally welcomed with aloha were not to be trusted - although many not of Hawaiian blood stood fast with our queen. The denial and destruction of established belief systems was devastating to the indigenous people, the kānaka maoli. A minority of outsiders, by force and intimidation, exerted its political will upon a majority. The Hawaiian was not allowed to vote unless he swore allegiance to the illegal govemment. Throughout the years, the invidious concept of racial superiority has been cited as justification for the actions taken. For instance, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has been vigorously pursuing the retum of nā 'iwi, the bones of our ancestors, from museums on the

mainland. Why were they taken there? The answer is to measure the skulls in an attempt to prove that like other Native Americans, Hawaiian skulls were smaller than Caucasian skulls. This would be "evidence" of a lesser intellectual capacity. So many ways, so many events, so many attitudes were used to justify the betrayal and seizure of resources. Distrust, dismay, deprivation, devastation-these are the seeds planted in the betrayal and seizure of Hawai'i. The quick change from a socio-ecological base to a mercantile - for export and profit - base was equally disturbing. The importation of plantation workers forced other changes in Hawaiian belief systems. Natural resources could not support this rapid influx of peoples with diverse diets and backgrounds; balanee and harmony of man and nature were lost. The commitment to a mercantile system persists today. A ravished Hawai'i cannot compete with a new emerging country that promises lower wages for its people, so the investors move, abandoning the land that onee yielded great profits.

Hawai'i has been ravaged, yet Hawai'i will survive through the righteousness of the land. Sovereignty begins with you: your self-esteem, your value, your dignity, your self-reliance and your commitment. The Office of Hawaiian Affairs A Nation Within A Nation Before OHA eame into being, Sen. Bella Abouresk, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, suggested to Herb Kane, myself and a few others the idea of regaining what was lost. The eoncept of OHA did not begin there, but I like to believe it was one of the seeds planted by our queen's prayer 84 years before. OHA was not intended to fix blame, but to find and fix solutions. The betrayal of our queen and»our people was accomplished by the eolonial attitudes and the bending of the laws and Constitution of the United States by a zealous group including American agents. The

illegality of that action made it equally important that OHA be legally created through an amendment to the Constitution of the state of Hawai'i. I also believed it was necessary to further amend the state Constitution so it would be a better framework for Hawaiian accomplishments and this was what I worked on at the 1978 convention. We added the following to the preamble of the Constitution: "We reserve the right to control our destiny, to nurture the integrity of our people and culture, and to preserve the quality of life that we desire." In addition to OHA, we succeeded in passing the following amendments: Article VII, Section 12-8: a special purpose bond amendment to provide additional low-cost financing for hospitals, housing, heahh care, etc. Article XV, Section 1: extending the boundaries back to those covered by treaties of the nation to "together with their appurtenant reefs and archipelagic waters."

Article XVI, Section 12: amending quiet title actions to protect and retrieve lands taken from the indigenous people. This amendment was difficult to promote and passed only after heated floor debate. Other significant amendments pertaining to native rights, access rights, environment, the Hawaiian flag, clarification of Hawaiian Homes mandates and relationships, proper lease rents and education were also passed to benefit the "nation within a nation" and its people, hanau or hānai. OHA must succeed. The legal framework is there. It is our queen's wish. It is the deep desire of the kūpuna, the 'opio, the kamali'i. The '78 Con Con was a major step toward your personal sovereignty. Use it. We cannot go back. That system is broken into a thousand pieces like a calabash that cannot be restored. But we ean take the pieces of that calabash. and polish them to a mirror-like finish, refiecting values that must be preserved. Mālama pono.