No ka hale pule a'u: A brief History:

"Coastlands, listen to Me in silence, And let the peoples gain new strength; Let them come forward, then let them speak; Let us come together for judgment.”  -Isaiah 41:1

There was never a time when the Kingdom of Hawaii has ever given up its rights as a sovereign state nation.  

During the reign of the Kamehameha family structures were set in place to assure the sovereignty of Hawaii.  

Hawaii had a government, declared independence, been recognized, and was under the league of Nations.

In 1893 the Republic of Hawaii (mostly wealthy sugar planters, and businessmen) overthrew the Kingdom of Hawaii by force of US military.  

The Republic of Hawaii provides Newlands Resolution 1898 “joint resolution” to U.S. but is not a treaty.  It was made a port for the Spanish American war.

No treaty

No consent

No annexation

It has been 200 years since the missionaries (1820) have arrived.  

Their contributions (the missionaries) of Christendom, the written word, and western ideas (land ownership, foreign technology, etc.) made quality advances to the people of Hawaii.  

But there was also negative consequences of the missionaries and western contact.  Such as oppression to Hawaiian culture, tradition, art, religion, and language.

In one sense the Hawaiian people were stripped of their identity, and made to forget the injustice and cruelty of certain American people who planted the seed of colonization in Hawaii.  

Colonization in Hawaii is evident.  It is a stronghold for the American military, a monopoly for wealthy entrepreneurs, and defiled with secular humanistic ideology.  

More and more Hawaiians and people of Hawaii are forgetting the true history of this place, and trading it for the comfort, security, and illusion of the American dream.  

Hawaii was a place of mass food production, high literacy, and sacred lands.

It has been a place of many cutting edge movements in technology, politics, race/ ethnicity, women's rights, etc.

Furthermore, Hawaii has been a neutral sovereign state and under international law no other country can occupy it for their own personal use.  Hawaii was to be a sanctuary for the world. Not just for one country.

Hawaiians and Hawaii people are not waking up to the truth of these facts.

Who has the rights to own land?

Who has the rights to water and water use?

Who will pay for the destruction of sacred sites and the natural land systems?

Its it right for someone to make a profit using what isn't theirs to begin with?

I know we all have to make a living here in Hawaii.  The next practical steps are harder to define, but what I am making a case for today about is the retelling of the truth.  Pulling down the curtain of deceit, deception, and lies.

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” -Micah 6:7-8

EA Field School 2018 Journal #4

EA Field School Journal #4

  What if instead of using all of our time, energy, and resources on developing our personal structures (homes, buildings, shopping centers, etc) and accumulating resources (material goods, entertainment, and excess) and we spent some attention and a little more energy on helping to restore and revive our natural systems on Maui,  strengthen community, and build up future leaders in helping to shape this island towards a more sustainable lifestyle.
  Ahupuaʻa around Maui start to produce highly nutritional food that we could distribute to our Schools, community neighbourhoods, food banks, and feeding the less fortunate.  Members of the community would be able to work alongside each other sharing, communining, and getting to know one another on deeper levels creating a tight mutual network built on authentic relationships.  And future generations would come to know and experience this kind of environment creating a solid foundation deep within, building character, and producing healthy individuals with a sense of kuleana for their ʻĀina.
  What if wholistic natural food systems were put back into place?  What kind of benefits or challenges would that bring?  What would it require?  Is it possible?
  For millions and millions of years the creation of Hawaiʻi was built with certain potentiality in mind.  It would have seen the most poetic songwriter, romantic artist, insightful and wise creator(s) orchestrated every mountain top, valley, kahawai, wai puna, makani, all pieces of this island to work and function together in interdependency.  Each land feature, territory was given a god to cultivate and teach the coming of kanaka to survive and mālama ʻāina.  It was as if each wahi was treated with purity, sacredness, and respect, first by the god guardians that protected it then passed unto the kupuna and aliʻi who held those secrets.
 Modern insights in todayʻs world has given another angle of perspective.  The geographical landscape and natural catastrophes create the foundation and resources for life.  From volcanic explosions to ice glaciers on top of Haleakalā falling and creating rides in the landscape, to massive mudslides and pounding winds building and blowing minerals originated as far as China.  The ahupuaʻa such as Kaupō area are filled with exciting geographical stories to be rediscovered.  With each geographical realization brings deeper validation of the kupuna who lived on these lands and cultivated them.
  With some problems we face today such as importing 80%+ of our food, materialism, excess entertainment, etc.  Reestablishing a sustainable ahupuaʻa system within the community, from the community, by the community I believe would alleviate many of the tensions and pressures that come from a european westernized culture.  To set up the success of that vision it is necessary for the proper research to be done ma mua.  Research experts such as Scott Fischer, Kiana Frank,  and Noah Lincon are provided important groundwork for the vision of restoration and malama ʻĀina.  As we continue into the vision of a sustainable Hawaiʻi once again models such as Aunty Dona provide a visual for us to experience this dream.
  As we continue to look into the past to gain wisdom on how to move forward it would seem the biggest barriers can be the comfortable chains that bind the mind to greed, apathy, and selfish ambition that come from generations after generations of institutionalized brainwashing.  It is not only till we are exposed and experience “Aloha ʻĀina” for ourselves that we can truly dive deep into being truly connected to the values of the Lā Hui Hawaiʻi.  This experience not only requires deep intellectual understanding but also hard work and dedication, and mostly passionate spirit to truly live out Aloha.

KUMULIPO

Sam Peralta

Kumulipo

Did The Universe Have a Beginning?

 The question “Why is there something rather than nothing?” has been one of the deepest philosophical questions of mankind which all worldviews must answer.  In the Hawaiian world view the creation of time, space, and matter is infused with the culture, traditions, and history of the Hawaiian people.  The Kumulipo is interested in allowing the listener to be connected and somewhat involved in the process and ongoing of the creation of the universe in contrast to most 16th century philosophy where the individual remains detached and “objective” in his own sense from the universe.  Here from the start we see the Hawaiian worldview interested in calling mankind into history, inviting him to take part in the development of the unknown to the known.  Rather than the question “why is there something rather than nothing?” The question seems more like “what part does humanity have in the history of the universe?”

From the Unknown to Known

 The Kumulipo starts off the first section with the idea of “Po”.  Po can mean a variety of things in the Hawaiian language, and in context of the Kumulipo and various interpretations the definition can include darkness, obscurity, mystery, realm of the gods, and or chaos.  It is interesting to note that the idea of the formation of order of the universe has always come from disorder, this idea has been throughout all creation stories and legends of the major ancient world religions (Mesopotamians, Babylonians, Persians, Egyptian, Judeo Christian, etc).  With the evolution of consciousness creation chants, stories, and legend were effective ways to make sense of the dangers and unknown mysteries of the world.  And as man could articulate more and more of the mysteries and sacred it seemed he could now organize beauty out of the chaos.  And even start to make sense of his surroundings by the world around him.  

Biological Evolution

 Charles Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection gave science and philosophy new ways of seeing the human body development within the context of creation.  In the Kumulipo the stages of the development and process of creation appearances give me the sense of the same kind of idea.  It seems that the evolution of the human body came from stages of animal development, selection, and adaptation.  Each stage of creature development allowed and paved a way for more complex creatures to appear until the first functional human appears. 

Consciousness of the Sacred Realm

 For the first seven or so Wa (epoch/ time span), the Kumulipo finishes with the saying “O ke Akua ke Komo, ‘a’oe komo kanaka”.  Here we are given insight to the awareness of not only the deep understanding of the biological evolution of the human body, but also of the awareness to the realm of the unknown “the spiritual”.  Hawaiians were intune with creation and the force(s) in which sparked life.  They were not naive or ignorant of the fabric layer of the immaterial.  In the Kumulipo we see that this immaterial world is actually the foundation on which the first humans, even gods, could live in.

Consciousness of Creation

 The land and all of creation were in perfect harmony long before humanity became consciousness.  Here in the Kumulipo it is expressed at the end of the first 7 Wa as “Po No”.  “Po No” in the context of the Kumulipo has two possible meanings.  One meaning “darkness indeed”, implying the great mystery that none can fathom in the creation process.  And the other meaning “Pono” the Hawaiian word that cannot be fully expressed in a single English articulation, but is seen or known to mean balanced or in perfect harmony.  Here in the consciousness of creation the Kumulipo is expressing the idea of complete self sustainability as a functional interdependent organism system. 

 One of the hints Hawaiians had the idea of creation being a self sustaining organism is their idea that before the first humans were conscious everything was “Pono”.  

 Other Thoughts:

 Some other thoughts while pondering the Kumulipo is the understanding of the Consciousness of Self, understanding of Social Consciousness, and the Ethical and Moral Implications implied.  Those discoveries are made in the second section of the Kumulipo called “Ao”. 

 The Kumulipo is a very advanced complex narrative of the creation of the universe while weaving in social, moral, and sacred codes to help guide a society of pioneers, adventurers, and warriors.  What made the Kumulipo even more impressive was the writer’s ability to use the Hawaiian language in its most raw original form through melody and rhythm. 

Sources:

Kalekoa Ka’eo HWN Culture 231

Kiope Raymond HWN 107

“Reading Kumulipo” by Peter 5/07/97

Kumulipo “Wikipedia”

Kumulipo Translated by Martha Warren Beckwith