indigeneous rights - dedicated to red hawk

[mahak]

 

Indigenous Rights-(excerpt from Kipu'ka-Hole in di Fiyeh c. mahaksadasa 1994)

 

Martin and Anoina spent the Fall surfing and playing music together. Since the release of their record, they only played once a month with Holy Smoke in Lahaina. The rest of the band was busy with various projects, and they no longer played at the studio. Martin and Anoina still went there now and then, even working on songs for two, the acoustic variation of Kekela's many songs. Martin even wrote lyrics about the killing fields of Southeast Asia and Anoina wrote about education of contemporary youth. Often now, they were going to the highlands of the Southwest Rift Zone of Haleakala to visit their new, very intimate friends, the Kaanakuhios. Michael knew Kekela from Kula years ago, but was four years older and never hung with him. He, like Martin, was in and out of Vietnam before the 1968 acceleration.

 

Michael Kaanakuhio was with the U.S. Navy on a hospital ship 30 miles away from the coast, so he pretty much was out of harm's way. Neither he nor Martin ever talked about Vietnam, but Michael did mention a surfing beach he rode while on liberty in Saigon. He also mentioned a break on Kahoolawe, a remote island clearly visible from his homestead. This island, however, was off-limits due to it's use as a Navy practice bombing site. On certain nights, the flashes and booms were evident from the Kaanakuhio's residence. As a very powerful, world-class athlete and champion surfer, Michael sometimes paddled a large, Alii style surfboard to the island. His interest was not surfing, however, as he was investigating whether ancient heiaus and sacred burial grounds were being molested by the U. S. Navy bombers, despite assurancesd by the Navy to the contrary.

 

Michael was preparing to go to the Island of Kauai to give a lecture series on Hawaiian Rights issues. He invited Martin and Anoina to accompany him and his wife so they may be able to do some fall surfing at the Hanalei Plantation, camping, and business. He was involved in active civil disobediance to bring light to serious issues. Hawaiian Homelands were being sold out to Japanese Conglomerates for development there, and not only were the Hawaiian people being completely left out of decision making processes, they were also being lied to and stolen from.

 

Michael was not a racist, but he, like Anoina, was embarassed by the loss of a culture that he wanted to help preserve. So, in the middle of October of 1976, they boarded a plane for a trip to the Hanakapiae Coast. Kewela was also with child, her first, so, needless to say, her and Anoina became best of friends with similar interests. Anoina was to have her child the second week of January, and Kewela was just two weeks behind. Although Martin was not Hawaiian and had only been in the islands for a little more than a year, because he was the adopted brother of the Kahuna Kekela, Michael considered him Alii as well. According to legend, race did not determine whether one was eligible for refuge. Michaels first speaking engagement in Kauai, at the Lihue Community Center, was on the evening of their arrival. Martin and Anoina played a specially selected Kekela song to begin the lecture. The song was not recorded nor performed by Holy Smoke, yet the song had special meaning to both families as it dealt with procreation. Kekela's lyrics were in Hawaiian, but the translation was prayerful and serious.

 

 

"Shine, Oh Sun, on the vital force within Mother

The caretaker and educator of the culture.

You showed our ancestors to this Holy Land,

And Honor is due You by carrying Your dynasty."

 

Michael then spoke to the thirty attendees of the event on the subject of racism. "Perhaps you noticed my haole friend playing the music as his wife sung the Kahuna's Prayers to the Sun. This is not a contradiction of the philosophy nor is it a reason for concern to those fighting for indigenous peoples' rights. The ancient petroglyphs prophesize a time when the people of the entire world live as one. Our concerns are not for just those who have taken their birth in indigenous families, the Navajo, the Maori, the Alii or the Lakota. The reason we fight is for the glory of God, who created the European and the Japanese as well. We fight their actions, not their bodily status. As we speak, the pahala, the mystic reed that built our huts when we reached these uninhabited shores, is being destroyed in favor of concrete retirement condominiums. Those represented by the political appointee who heads the commission established to guarantee autonomy are, by design, addicted to the bribery of those who would betray us. While we smile and hula, their cameras clicking, we kill ourselves with Pepsi and Spam, rejecting the coconut and breadfruit our forefathers brought to this land on their outriggers."

 

"We do not declare war on them, as the last queen, Liliuokalani, knew the meaning of the petroglyphs, and welcomed the idea of all races living united. But when they bomb the ancestrial heiau of the Queen, as they continue to do on Kahoolawe, we must not tolerate. I promise, in front of the Hololulu Advertiser reporters in this room, that I will soon visit the Queen's heiau."

 

Giving three lectures during their two week camping vacation on Kauai, Michael spoke of how the Hawaiian Kahunas, when approached by so-called European "holy men", the missionairies, would give them, for free, a valley for their purposes "from ridge to ridge, from mauka (mountaintop) to makai (ocean shore)", not expecting the immediate fence to be erected for the exclusion of the Hawaiian. He spoke of Captain Cook's crew, who were welcomed as golden gods, who destroyed one half the nation's population in seven months from discovery to his death at the battle of Kealakukua Bay. The embrace of Mother Hawaii was treated like the embrace of a whore, abused and molested by the one-two punch of the missionary land barons and the whalers. His last lecture was a round table discussion, with Anoina's description of her lyrics about education. The point she made was to resist the formal system's attempt to drive pidgin English out of the youth early, denying yet another cultural asset of indigeneous people the world over. She read her poem to the delight of all, as the humor and satire underscored a main problem, denial of human rights.

 

 

"I no go yer skool

You may li dat I fool

You no know di rule

You Hate me race, you break me face

So I no go yer skool"

 

Michael ended the discussion lashing out against those who profess superiority due to their race, reminding them that their ancestors, too, sought refuge on the islands they settled. He stated that all battles should be waged in peace and directed to all who did not know the meaning of "Aloha". He then translated aloha as a spiritual recognition between all peoples, respecting dignity, humanity, and connection with Divinity.

 

The two couples camped on the isolated coast of Hanakapiae, truely the tropical paradise of Eden. But commitment to music and politics broke the wonderful communion that took place the last weeks of October. The couples took separate flights back to Maui, Anoina and Martin staying to visit Anuhola. Anoina became "Martha" for the visit, having not seen her parents since her seventeenth birthday. The Anoina's were wealthy locals officially connected to Princeville Resort, always capitalizing on their Alii heritage. They dressed the part, they played the part, and could not comprehend their only daughter's reluctance to get on board. They were convinced that everything they ever did was for her benefit. Martha wrote once in a while, as a respect for their human rights, but did not at all agree with their ways. After introducing them to Martin, and being definitely pregnant, her mother was excited for her grandchild, yet made an unfortunate comment about the child not being "pure Hawaiian". Anoina had heard that junk philosophy since she was a little girl and compared it to a disease. She was not ashamed of her culture, but was again embarassed by how the tourist industry emphasized the fact that so few exist. Racially, she thought of how her child would partly fulfill the prophecy of the ancient petroglyphs of a golden race with roots in all corners of the Creator's Kingdom. She humbly tolerated her mother's insensitivity and further understood why she only wrote once a year. Bidding them a sincere "aloha" and promising notification of the birth of the child, Martin and Anoina headed back to the Refuge of Huelo Point.

 

.......

 

I present this here to perhaps inspire the readers to speak on the subject of protection of the lands Krsna has given us all to live in. It seems that modern man has forgotton, or chooses to ignore, the wisdom and culture of the indigeneous peoples of the world. Modern man has been taught ot take the natural wealth of the world, like Hiranyaksa is days of yore, and slaughtering all who stand in the way. We humbly bow to the Glorious Lord Varaha, the protector of the world, who saves the world from being so depleated of its wealth that is sinks into the murky depths of the causal ocean. Lord Varaha destroys those who exploit the resources of this rich tirtha, and restores the nature, and protects those who always depend on Him. Jaya Lord Varaha, Jaya Jagadisha Hare.

 

Hare Krsna, ys, mahaksadasa