Maunakea is part of the Ceded lands trust.- Photo: Arna Johnson

To auction off a native people

By Megan Au

Editor's note: In light of the U.S. Supreme Court review of the ceded lands case, KWO is publishing in lieu of Letters to the Editor two commentaries on the issue – one is written by Megan Au, a graduate student at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's School of Hawaiian Knowledge, the other by Buzzy Agard, a well-known figure in the Hawaiian community.

On Feb. 25, the Supreme Court of the United States considered the question of whether Hawaiian lands, the so-called ceded lands, held in public trust may be sold or transferred by the State of Hawai'i.

Let me begin by addressing the phrase "ceded lands" and properly designate them as being stolen. Yes, I said stolen, as the Hawaiian Kingdom never willingly gave these lands to the United States. These stolen acres are therefore still the rightful property of the people whose ancestors were members of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Hawaiians.

A person is Hawaiian with proof of lineage no matter the quantity possessed. To date, the government has thus far succeeded in giving Hawaiians as little land as possible. The land that actually reaches Hawaiians hands is often times hard to access, impossible to build upon and difficult to farm.

Over the years, outside forces have attacked "being Hawaiian" from both sides, searching for ways to "thin out the natives." In an attempt to eliminate and deny the very existence of Hawaiians, the slogan "Hawaiian at heart" was born. This phrase, once uttered, does not qualify a person as being Hawaiian and was developed for the dissolution of a native race through the inclusion of foreigners. This slogan sends out a false message that literally anyone is Hawaiian just by saying so and could seek entitlement to his or her own share of land. An absurd but nonetheless systematic tactic aimed at the division between the natives and their home.

Like other native cultures of antiquity, we Hawaiians drew our existence from the environment that surrounded us. Our stories tell that we are from the land and are provided for by the land and its resources. We belong to the land; it does not belong to us. Hawaiians therefore beheld their environment and its condition in the highest esteem and cared for it in this sacred manner.

And what of the land today? The plague of ownership has pit greedy person against even hastier individuals in the race to claim a stake in "paradise." What these people have done to the 'āina is sickening to the core, and the damage is irreparable. I see hotels and condominiums, litter and pollution, deception and ethnic elimination. These are clear signs of the colonialist lineage of disregard and disrespect for the future of this world, not to mention the people and the cultures that come with it.

Economic crisis or none, the selling of Hawaiian land will never be the answer to any sort of financial difficulties the U.S. experiences. Is it not these same types of irresponsible ideals that brought America to many occasions being trapped between a rock and a hard place? This quick fix will only further the cycle of blind greed mixed with an absence of foresight. The capital from these transactions will be swallowed by those in power and by those abroad and will neither be long-term nor beneficial in terms of the sustainability of a future Hawai'i.

Megan Au of Waimānalo, O'ahu, is a lomilomi practitioner
and a graduate student at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa's
Hawai'inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge.