Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 19, Number 2, 1 February 2002 — Butch Kekahu dedicated his life to Hawaiian causes [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Butch Kekahu dedicated his life to Hawaiian causes

By 'Ehu Kekahu Cardwell Editor's note: 'Ehu Cardwell, a resident of California, was a close friend of Butch Kekahu, and coordinated publicity for the Aloha Marches in Washington, D.C., providing valuable information to Ka Wai Ola, as well as the loeal and naiional media. John Butch Kekahu īīī, respected Native Hawaiian Rights advocate and founder of the Aloha March events in Washington, D.C. in 1998 and 2000, died Dec. 27 in Līhu'e after a prolonged illness. He was 57. Born in Hanapēpē, Kaua'i, he spent part of his life in the 1960s in the Los ,Angeles area working as a musician and entertainer. Returning to Hawai'i in 1971, Kekahu spent more than two decades as a Native Hawaiian patriot, fighting for land rights, homestead issues, heahh care, sovereignty and self determination. As the founder of the Koani Foundation, an Anahola-based Native Hawaiian rights organization, he was jailed in 1993 for his six-year occupation of Hawaiian Homes land. īn 1998, Kekahu organized the first Aloha March demonstration in Washington, D.C., to publicize

Native Hawaiian issues, including the returning of control of the islands to Native Hawaiians. īn 2000 the second Aloha March was held in Washington D.C. Both events attracted participants from Hawai'i and the continental United States, as well as nationwide support from a variety of government, church and private agencies. Kekahu's condition of advanced diabetes did not deter him from his tireless work on behalf of Native Hawaiians. "Like a lot of my Native Hawaiian brothers and sisters, I am the poster boy for how we have fared under the American way of life," he remarked recently. "īt is with great sadness that I have seen too many of my people die while waiting for our lands to be returned. We will resist to our last breath any attempt to perpetuate the wrongs that have been done to us. As a people, we will not vanish into the sunset," he said, "I have not seen anyone suffer so mueh and struggle just to get through eaeh day," remarked his mother, Rebecca Mikala Kekahu, "My son touched so many lives, He was indeed a patriot for our people," Besides his mother, John Butch Kekahu is survived by brother Kawika, sisters Rowena and Rhoda, daughters Ruby and Merlene, and sons John, Aaron, Charles and Danny, as well as an extended family, ■

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