In a handful of hours, the US House will vote on the Akaka Bill, without a hearing in Hawaii on the current version of the bill. In spite of the recalcitrance of powerful politicians, the taroroots continue to speak out.
In that spirit, here’s testimony I wrote for last month’s Civil Rights Commission hearings.
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Aloha kakou, members of the committee, and comrades in the struggle for Hawaiian justice. Thank you for the opportunity to testify in person on this important legislation.
We are gathered here in the wake of great civil rights leaders such as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., to mourn the death of his dream. Under our watch, we have allowed his words to be contorted and disfigured, with meanings swapped for their antonyms, and the historical trajectory of an expanding of rights replaced by an attempt to foreclose on us.
I say this because we are confronted with a profound contradiction. The long-standing opponents of Kanaka Maoli human rights, including the fundamental right to self-determination, have ascended to a committee which has the ostensible mission to protect our basic civil rights. This is a tragedy for all peoples, particularly citizens of the United States who cherish social justice and who believe in the rights of man. The selection of these individuals should be met with the strongest denunciation and condemnation as an affront to the legacy and life on Rev. Martin Luther King Jr, and all those who fought for human and civil rights.
When men and women such as Dr. King and Rosa Parks walked with us, they enunciated a dream that always one step beyond, pushing us forward to ever-widening visions of justice and humanity. Those ideas, first proposed by a group of nobles confronting King John, were expanded by the prisoners freed from the Bastille. The vision of a just society has expanded with each generation, from Runnymeade to the March on Washington, from the abolitionists to the suffragettes, from the trade unionists to the the the freedom riders, to Queer pride, and from Wounded Knee in 1890 to Wounded Knee in 1973. Rights – both human and civil, is about opening up the conditions and possibilities of being human.
The Japanese American Citizens League is circulating the following email to garner support for the Akaka Bill, coming up for vote in the US House tomorrow.
The Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2007 (NHGRA) is scheduled for a vote before the House of Representatives tomorrow! (Wednesday, Octover 24) The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is calling on your support to contact your Congress Member before the vote tomorrow morning and urge passage of this bill.
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JACL, the nation’s oldest and largest Asian American civil rights and human rights organization, fully supports the right of the indigenous people of Hawai’i to seek federal recognition. Native Hawaiians should have a say in how to best address issues in their own community.
The gesture of support for Kanaka Maoli is correct and is appreciated. But the JACL should not be deciding for Kanaka Maoli – and for Hawaii as a whole – about the form or content of Hawaiian sovereignty. Doing so violates two important ethical principles: self-determination and solidarity.
Self-determination is the human right for a people to decide their relationship with another country, in particular a colonizing empire. All peoples have that right – it is the basis by which the peoples of Africa, Asia, and most of the Pacific achieved political independence in the last five decades.
That right should also be available to the peoples of Hawaii. It is a complex and sometimes uncomfortable topic, but it should be discussed (and should not be predetermined or occluded).
By solidarity I mean an unprejudiced and fraternal support for another person or peoples. Solidarity requires a subscription to a higher value than that heard in the halls of day-to-day politics. It is a trusting commitment to the other, and an affirmation of the need for peoples to come together across difference and diversity.
I urge the membership and leaders of the Japanese American Citizens League to engage in a selfless solidarity with the Hawaiian people, and to allow self-determination to run its course. Have the courage to stand with us, and to stand for the higher principle of self-determination.
Mahalo nui.
Honorable Representative Mazie Hirono
Member of the US House of Representatives
October 23, 2007
Dear Madame Representative:
It has come to my attention that the full House will be voting on the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act tomorrow, Wednesday the 24th. I must ask that you insist that the vote be delayed until hearings are held in Hawaii. This is a minimum expectation in a democratic society; and even without democracy, we still demand to be heard. The “Akaka Bill” is a serious measure, with drastic consequences for the Kanaka Maoli people and for all people of Hawaii.
You are of course aware that hearings were only held once in Hawaii, at the beginning of this decade, and on a completely different iteration of this bill. The current draft decimates any possibility of an honest reconciliation process between Hawaii and the United States by rendering it impossible to sue on historic breaches of domestic trust and international law. It contains specific exemptions for the US military, which is the single largest polluter in Hawaii (and the US), and controls more than 25% of the island of Oahu. It also weakens current federal Indian law, by forcing the Hawaiian Governing Entity to enter into a three-way negotiation process with the state and federal governments, instead of the customary federal-Indian negotiations that are common in Indian Country.
Honorable Representative, the people of our shared homeland should not be ignored on this measure. We have legitimate concerns which deserve a hearing.
Please uphold the spirit of democracy – convene hearings in Hawaii now.
Respectfully,
Ikaika Hussey
