Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 11, 1 November 2015 — Why I never enrolled in Kanaʻiolowalu or any other roll [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Why I never enrolled in Kanaʻiolowalu or any other roll

Trustee's note: This eohmm is guest written by Dr. Ku Kahakalau, Director, KuA Kanaka Greetings. My name is Dr. Kū Kahakalau and I am Hawaiian. So was my father Robert Kahakalau and my grandfather William Keahonui Kahakalau who was a fluent, eloquent and kolohe native speaker of our melodious Hawaiian language, whieh I have studied and taught for the past 30 years. My

great grandfather Daniela Kekino Kahakalau was President of Hui Aloha o Kalihi-uka and a strong supporter of King Kalākaua and Queen Lili'uokalani. Neither I, nor any of my family members have ever relinquished our right to be Hawaiians, to speak our language, to mālama the 'āina and to live according to the values of our kūpuna. Consequently, my husband and I raised our daughters as Hawaiians. In fact, my oldest daughter's first English sentence was: Mama Hawaiian, Papa Hawaiian, 'I'ini Hawaiian. When I first started to educate myself about the U.S. occupation of Hawai'i in the late 1970s, the independence movement was led by Poka Laenui, or Hayden Burgess, as he was known then, and a small group of supporters. Pretty mueh all others, including myself, who were supporting Hawaiian sovereignty then, whieh were really not that many, were for a nation-within-a-na-tion model. Mueh has changed since, as was clearly evident at the 2014 DOI meeting in Keaukaha, where our 'ohana, along with 100% of everyone else who testified, demanded independence. I believe this major shift is a direct result of the following: • Almost 50 years of research, whieh not only clearly exposed the numerous illegal actions of the U.S., but also demonstrated the overwhelming resistance of our kūpuna to be colonized and reaffirmed that the inalienahle right of Hawai'i, as a distinct geographic archipelago and Hawaiians as a distinct cultural and ethnic group, to be an independent nation with its own

independent Hawaiian government, as chosen by its people, has never been relinquished, or legally extinguished. • New laws like the 2007 UN Declaration of Indigenous Rights, whieh clarifies our rights as Indigenous peoples not just to independence, but also to control our own education and welfare. • The failure of U.S.-controlled "sovereignty" to bring about positive change in education, heahh,

socio-economic development etc. for Native Americans. • Movements in other parts of the world, like the reunification of Germany and the Arab Spring, whieh proved to our generation that rulers and governments acting against the will of the people ean and should fall. It is for these reasons, that I did not kau inoa, or sign up with Kana'iolowalu to enroll in a process of sovereignty, controlled and/ or funded by OHA, i.e. the Hawai'i State government, and why I do not and will not support Na'i Aupuni. In fact, as an educated Hawaiian, I am 100% convinced, that we, the Hawaiian people, do not need any involvement by either the Hawai'i State government, nor the U.S. federal government, to design, implement and evaluate our process of re-establishing an independent Hawaiian nation. Because to expect the fox (federal and state government) to take care of the hens (Hawaiians and Hawai'i) makes no sense whatsoever. Indeed, the kuleana, or responsibility to reestablish our Hawaiian government is clearly a Native Hawaiian kuleana. I humbly ask all who put their name on some list in the past for various reasons, including fear of being left out, to educate yourself by going to protestnaiaupuni.wordpress.com for facts, information, forms and calls to action. Then do what our kūpuna taught us to do: pule and listen to your na'au. Know, that whatever your decision is, I will continue to aloha you as a kanaka. ■

Carmen "Hulu" Lindsey

TrustEE, Maui