[hawaii-nation] Activists mark history with sovereignty event

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>[hawaii-nation] Activists mark history with sovereignty event

>Mon, 28 Jul 2003 14:40:47 -1000

>

>http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2003/Jul/28/ln/ln17a.html/?print=on

>

>The Honolulu Advertiser

>Monday, July 28, 2003

>

>Activists mark history with sovereignty event

>

>By Vicki Viotti

>Advertiser Staff Writer

>

>History symbolically repeated itself at Thomas

>Square yesterday, in a replication of a

>160-year-old flag ceremony that a group of

>Hawaiian sovereignty activists wants to witness

>for real someday.

>

>And in a week when a bill has stalled in Congress

>that would recognize Hawaiians as a "nation

>within a nation," this group again took took the

>occasion of the annual Sovereignty Restoration

>Day observance to call for Hawaiian independence

>and the defeat of the Akaka bill for federal

>recognition.

>

>And, as there often are at sovereignty events,

>there were exhortations supporting Hawaiian unity

>and opposing various elements of U.S. government

>control here: military training in Makua Valley,

>for example, and missile testing at Barking Sands.

>

>"So it's 'a'ole (no), Akaka bill; 'a'ole,

>military occupation of Hawai'i," said Pua Rogers,

>one of the Kaua'i participants in the event. "And

>let's stop the divisiveness among Hawaiians."

>

>Coconut hulls containing the drink 'awa were

>offered to the 100 or so who had gathered around

>a temporary flagpole to watch the American flag

>descend and the Hawaiian flag raised in its place.

>

>The observance, also called Ka La Ho'iho'i Ea,

>was a national holiday before the Hawaiian

>kingdom was overthrown in 1893. It took place on

>the same spot where, on July 31, 1843, British

>Adm. Richard Thomas lowered the Union Jack and

>raised the Hawaiian flag in its place, marking

>the end of five months of forced British rule in

>Hawai'i.

>

>Later, after the U.S., French and British

>governments officially recognized the sovereign

>Hawaiian Kingdom, Kamehameha III declared Nov. 28

>the nation's Independence Day.

>

>Yesterday's event was small but drew some

>far-flung speakers, including J. Kehaulani

>Kauanui, an assistant professor of American

>studies and anthropology at Wesleyan University

>who has testified against the Akaka bill.

>

>Federal recognition, Kauanui said, would close

>off avenues leading toward Hawaiian independence

>without federal supervision.

>

>"We need to make sure (supporters of federal

>recognition) understand that when we talk about

>our rights of sovereignty, we're talking about

>deoccupation," she said.

>

>Another speaker was Maivan Clech Lam, who earned

>her law degree in Hawai'i and is an

>indigenous-rights scholar at the City University

>Graduate Center in New York.

>

>Lam said that, although the Akaka bill has been

>cited as a defense against lawsuits seeking to

>strip Hawaiians of entitlements, those lawsuits

>are unlikely to succeed. It's especially

>unlikely, she said, where Hawaiians'

>long-established use of homelands and revenues

>from former kingdom lands are concerned.

>

>"The Supreme Court doesn't lightly disturb laws

>of long duration," Lam said. "And if the Akaka

>bill passes, this would be the first time

>Hawaiians would be agreeing to subjugation by the

>United States."

>

>Most of the participants argue that the United

>States never legally took control of Hawai'i, an

>independent state recognized in the international

>arena. Those who lobbied in 1843 to win that

>recognition were the heroes of history, activist

>Keanu Sai said.

>

>"It's because of them that Hawai'i is able to

>make this claim that it's an independent state -

>not that it seeks independence," he said. "It is

>a nation."

>

>

>© COPYRIGHT 2003 The Honolulu Advertiser, a division of Gannett Co . Inc.

>

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