The Hawaiian sovereignty movement (Hawaiian: ke ea Hawaiʻi), is a grassroots political and cultural campaign to re-establish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom of Hawaii due to desire for sovereignty, self-determination, and self-governance.
Some groups also advocate for some form of redress from the United States for the 1893 overthrow of Queen Lili’uokalani, and for what is described as a prolonged military occupation beginning with the 1898 annexation. The movement generally views both the overthrow and annexation as illegal.
Sovereignty advocates have attributed problems plaguing native communities including homelessness, poverty, economic marginalization, and the erosion of native traditions to the lack of native governance and political self-determination.
They have pursued their agenda through educational initiatives and legislative actions. Along with protests throughout the islands, at the capital (Honolulu) itself as well as the places and locations held as sacred to Hawaiian culture, sovereignty activists have challenged United States forces and law.
The ancestors of Native Hawaiians may have arrived in the Hawaiian Islands around 350 CE, from other areas of Polynesia. By the time Captain Cook arrived, Hawaii had a well-established culture with a population estimated to be between 400,000 and 900,000 people. In the first one hundred years of contact with Western civilization, due to disease and war, the Hawaiian population dropped by ninety percent, to only 53,900 people in 1876. American missionaries would arrive in 1820 and assume great power and influence.
Copying my message from another thread:
Recently I watched an incredible documentary about US imperialism of the Hawaiian islands made by a native Hawaiian director, it’s called Cane Fire. Very very highly recommend.
This movie looks specifically at the colonization of Kaua’i, but your missionaries in this movie are Hollywood movie directors. He explores how cultural depictions of native Hawaiians drove their social subjugation, and vice versa.
The driving narrative of the movie is a search for a banned 1930s silent film about native Hawaiian laborers burning a Dole sugar plantation to the ground and killing their overseers, called Cane Fire
At times it was heartbreaking but it was a really beautifully rendered and staunchly film
People are amazed when I tell them the story of how Hawaii became a state. In fact I think it’s the first actual neoliberal country when they dissolved the kingdom for Dole. Also the fact that the Hawaiian people were considered “aboriginal” not “native” so that they would not be classified as “American Indian” when they were fully absorbed. Living in Hawaii actually changed my life and made me into the Marxist that I am these days.
Also the fact that the Hawaiian people were considered “aboriginal” not “native” so that they would not be classified as “American Indian” when they were fully absorbed
What are the consequences of this?
Mainly that they don’t have any tribal autonomy like American Indians on the reservations. No treaties have to be abided by, the federal government owes them nothing, they can’t set laws on their own lands, etc.
And all of that was pretty much engineered too. After the Dawes Act passed, if they were considered “native” then every family would be owed 150 acres of land. So they decided to literally set up a banana republic. Just colonizers being colonizers.
I mean every wrong thing with Hawaii these days. Natives were excluded to protections, representation and rights given to Native Americans. So like there’s literally no “Native Hawaiian Reserve.” Meaning that every bad thing capitalism has to offer is being imposed on these people. So high rent, inflation and homelessness are huge in the state because there is literally no where to go if you loose your house besides living out in a beach parking lot. So like imagine what we did to Native Americans and multiplied it by four because there was no where to go.
Jesus Christ. “The rules we put in place on ourselves to stop ourselves from oppressing natives like we keep doing are too restrictive let’s not follow them”
:amerikkka:
Could we see it in our lifetimes?
