I'm going to show you some research I've gather over the past few months since the actions on the Hawaiian volcano of Mauna Kea by Hawaiian nationals. It would seem to the uninitiated that Hawaiians are protesting against a telescope because they follow an archaic religion want their sacred mountain untouched by science or progress. This is an entirely different story. The correct story. Read diligently, please.
Prior to Polynesian voyagers, the Hawaiian Islands seem to have been home to no previous native group. Only Hawaiian lore about Menehune (little people of the forests) were believed to predate the Hawaiians.
Hawaiians are conventionally called Polynesian meaning they are many genetic groups lumped under one umbrella term. The Tongan, Fijian, Hawaiian, Maori, Marshallese and Hawaiians, all of Malenesia and Micronesia are all related in a distant ancestral group.
In 1843 the Hawaiian Kingdom was recognized internationally as a sovereign nation and protected under such international law. The United States not only recognized Hawaii as an independent and sovereign state, but a Hawaiian consulate existed in Washington DC and an American consulate existed in Honolulu prior to the invasion and ensuing military occupation.
In 1887, Sanford B. Dole, lawyer and jurist in Hawaii, forced the removal of an entire cabinet under Walter M. Gibson and forced the Bayonet Constitution to be adopted for the Hawaiian Kingdom. This limited the power of the soveriegn, her Majesty the Queen Lili’uokalani, and favored wealthy land owners by restricting who could vote, according to Wikipedia and an article written by Andrew W. Cohen, Syracuse University history professor.
Sanford Dole organized the Committee of Safety in order to protect the merchant land owners under the constitution. This move was one of several chess moves which gave more authority to the coming US overthrow.
Hawaii’s biggest export was sugar to the United States which existed under several treaties of reciprocity. Professor Cohen’s article goes on to say “Every time these deals expired, the Hawaiian economy sunk into depression, leaving its officials desperate to appease American negotiators. To get the second of these treaties through Congress, Hawaii had to cede Pearl Harbor to the U.S.”
Mind you, the depression mentioned in the above quote is an economic term and it makes it seem like the Hawaiians were inept. Hawaiian was completely self sufficient and even thriving on it's own before the economic systems of the west took hold.
In 1893, the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom took official effect as Queen Lili’uokalani proclaimed on January 17th that she relinquishes command over Hawaii to the US under protest so as not to incur any injury or loss of life in a collision with US military forces.
President Grover Cleveland commissioned an investigation starting April 1, 1893 and by July Mr. President’s report stated that American Minister John Stevens and a military troop from Boston landed on Jan. 16, 1893 and set up a Hawaiian department of US government and threatened war if the sovereign Hawaiian nation attempted to regain power.
On February 1, American Minister John Stevens recognized Dole's new government on his own authority and proclaimed Hawaii a U.S. protectorate.
Since that day, the agenda was then to assimilate Hawaiian mentality into a western mindset, thereby overthrowing not only the nation but the people’s connection with their culture.
In 1898, The Newlands Resolution formally annexed Hawaii into the US Territory of Hawaii. However, international law specialist Keanu Sai informed me that a joint resolution can no more annex the Hawaiian Kingdom without Hawaii’s consent than it can annex Canada without their consent. Remember, Queen Lili’uokalani only relinquished her command under protest. This was not a peace time act by the queen, it was a calculated response to an act of war by a foreign military superpower. In order to annex Hawaii legally according to international law, the United States would have had to address the illegal military occupation and overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
This illegal overthrow was not formally addressed until 100 years later when President Bill Clinton signed an Apology letter to Hawaii. It addressed the overthrow and occupation yet did nothing to correct the injustice.
Shortly after the overthrow, schools were established and mandated that children speak English instead of their native tongue. The educational system was designed to “westernize” Hawaiians. Sanford B. Dole himself advocated for the westernization of Hawaiian government and culture. Marketing agencies promoted Hawaii as one of the United States top vacation spots. And so the story goes.
I lived in Hawaii in the late 80’s for a few years. I was harassed by kids and teachers alike. I remember their hatred towards me simply for being a Ha’ole. That’s a Hawaiian term that means, without breath. Hawaiians greet each other by putting foreheads together and breathing the same breath. The westerners who came in shook hands and sized the other up from more of a distance. I was one of those foreigners in the eyes of the Hawaiians nationals.
Exactly 30 years later, I was asked by several people on the big island to come see what’s happening on Mauna Kea as the protectors of the aina, the land, oppose the massive construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope funded by foreign corporations. So I came to the Big Island with a little story in my head but careful to remain open minded. It turns out that the story is far deeper, as I’ve just shared with you.
I interviewed Keanu Sai who truly helped me understand that everything that’s happening in Hawaii with US military occupation and western influence is not only unwelcome to the Hawaiian Kingdom and its citizens, but an act of war.
I met with Uncle Kaliko who was arrested at the access road to Mauna Kea, blocking construction crews from reaching the proposed TMT site.
I also met with a young man name iokepa. I introduced myself as a concerned human that has the intention to get the correct story out to the world through film. He nodded and proceeded to introduce himself. He started by telling me his name and tracing is ancestry back farther than I’ve heard anyone do before. I was struck by the power of his introduction, for he is Hawaiian royalty.
As he went on to tell me the story of how he correctly handled a $108,000 medical bill by proclaiming he is a Hawaiian national with free healthcare under the Trust of Queen Lili’uokalani, it was clear that he had done his homework. It goes deeper than that because Iokepa told me all his power comes from waking up to who he truly is. Not just royalty, but a capable human being that refuses to bow to unjust circumstances.
This is precisely why I care about Mauna Kea. This is why I flew to Hawaii in the most stressful period of my life. This is why I’m spending massive amounts of time into a project that could be put towards family or work. I can’t help but acknowledge that all humans are one family. Hawaii was one of the various places I grew up. What happened to me as a child experiencing the discontent of a people who have been severely wronged is small potatoes.
There are Hawaiians dying on a waiting list for Hawaiian Homelands that no one is currently living on. Bureaucracy in this form is violence. I’ll say that again. The Bureaucracy that steals land with impunity, holds said land without means of counsel or remedy, and punishes those whose land it used to be who try to reclaim their homeland… is… violence.
On Mauna Kea, we only see the faces of “protestors” because it’s easy to make a bunch of brown skinned people with signs and oppositional tactics to look like radicals and misfits. I’ll guarantee you the faces you’ll never see on the news are the principle funders from CalTech, The Blackrock Group, Vangaurd or the military and defense contractors involved in Pro-TMT efforts. Why exactly will you never see those faces? Because people might start asking questions about their motives. The tactics of the media are simple. Focus attention negatively or positively on the people in front of the camera while orchestrators invisibly control the narrative and get away with just about anything.
Mauna Kea is not a protest. The protest started in 1893 when the Hawaiian Kingdom was illegally overthrown. Mauna Kea is an empowered group of Hawaiian nationals under foreign military occupation protecting their most sacred spot of land for spiritual and functional reasons from sub-contractors on a defunct lease who mean to desecrate the Hawaiian’s temple.
Mauna Kea is a church. It may not seem it because western minds only see churches as manmade buildings, but nonetheless, Mauna Kea is the church of Hawaiian nationals. We are witnessing an act of war and the majority of us can only see a protest because that's all our TVs allow.
I don't know yet what you are supposed to do with this information. I'm past the point of feeling emotional about this situation. I'm simply seeing this time in history as the perfect opportunity to reverse a long standing tradition of illegal occupation across the globe. The actions on both sides of the Mauna Kea line are actually quite peaceful because the protectors are holding fast to "Kapu Aloha". Aloha means so much more than love and Kapu is a restriction. Kapu Aloha is a firm aloha. It's saying NO with love. There's a lot we can learn from this time in history of we care to look. Please look.
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” ― Edmund Burke
Let's start talking solutions.