Rally at palace is prelude to momentous week

Poignant lessons from Hawaiian people

By Christopher Neil
Advertiser Staff Writer
As printed in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Sunday, January 17, 1993

Several hundred people gathered at Iolani Palace last night to begin what native Hawaiians say is a new chapter in their struggle for justice and to pass the word to their Island neighbors via television.

“Hawaii: A Nation Reborn,” was billed as a free rally and concert by the Ohana Council, a loose-knit network of Hawaiians. It was that for those who attended in person.

But the show was also broadcast live and commercial-free last night on KITV-4, and it did double duty as a telethon for the council and a series of history lessons on the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom and latter-day efforts to seek redress.

“There will not be another moment like this in Hawaii for another hundred years,” said Kimo Kahoano, the show’s host.

Musicians included Henry Kapono, the Makaha Sons of Niihau, Ho’okena, Owana Salazar, the Pandanus Club and Olomana.

Interspersed with the music were taped statements and interviews with latter-day activists such as Kekuni Blaisdell, Office of Hawaiian Affairs Chairman Clayton Hee, OHA trustee Kina’u Kamali’i, and Ohana Council leader Dennis “Bumpy” Kanahele.

Kanahele, one of the event’s prime organizers, said the show was designed to start off a week of ceremonies marking the Jan. 17, 1893, overthrow.
Much of the talk was aimed at offering a variety of Hawaiian views about the Islands and their people from the days before the 1778 arrival of Capt. James Cook to current efforts by the kanaka maoli – native Hawaiians – to obtain redress for the loss of their lands and kingdom.

The major theme was one of mourning the events of a century ago, when the last reigning Hawaiian monarch, Queen Lili’uokalani, was thrown out of office by a consortium of haole sugar planters and businessmen.

The show raised the hackles of at least one television watcher who called The Advertiser last night to complain anonymously that it vilified whites.

But Michael and Kelly DuBois, former Mainland residents who are now graduate students at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, said they came to the concert to show their support for Hawaiians. Michael DuBois said he thought that sovereignty was a “pretty complex issue,” but that “Hawaii needs to address it.”

“I probably know less about it than Michael,” said his wife. “But I really respect what they are trying to do and think it’s a legitimate political issue for the Hawaiian people.”

The mood of the crowd last night was solemn. A few raised voices could be heard, and those sitting on the lawn and driveway craned their necks to watch the televised interviews on two monitors on either side of the stage. At one point there was scattered applause as a taped segment of the 1988 occupation of Makapuu Point was aired.

But while careful attention was paid to the interviews, the crowd clearly loved the music. Audience member Kenona Mutch, when asked why he came, said it was “to pay allegiance to my music.”

Mutch and a companion, Harry Kinoshiki, said they believed that the sovereignty movement has come a long way since the early ‘70s.

“They’re just opening it up to the people,” said Kinoshiki.

Maysana Aldeguer, who stood in front of the stage with her son Gavin, said: “I think they should do this more often. This is a real step forward for Hawaiians. In the old days they used to gather like this all the time.”

Kanahele said last night’s show was intended to dispel misconceptions and fears about the Hawaiian sovereignty movement and serve as a lead-in for a planned march of Hawaiian activists and their supporters next Sunday.

“We thought if the Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians could get the information that has been withheld and never taught, then it might tune the mood and emotions for Sunday,” he said. “We did this in 12 days and we got everybody involved, from the state to the unions.”

Kanahele was one of 30 Hawaiian sovereignty activists arrested last June 11 in a Kamehameha Day scuffle with police at Iolani Palace, former seat of the Hawaiian monarchy. In 1988 Kanahele was one of 28 Hawaiians arrested in a takeover of Makapuu Point by Hawaiians who claim the land.

Security last night was a concern: Council-designated security men with blue tags on their sleeves were on duty. What appeared to be more than a dozen Honolulu plain-clothes police officers were scattered in the crowd early on.

Kanahele said he wanted to make one thing clear:

“This ain’t Bumpy’s show – this is a family thing. Like the Ohana Council, Hawaiians are made up of families – all different families, but still one big family.”

State Land and Natural Resources Director Bill Paty participated, sitting for an interview in which he described June’s arrests as unfortunate. Paty who said his forebears were citizens of the Hawaiian kingdom, said the overthrow was a wrong that needs to be righted.

Billy Kurch, executive producer of last night’s show, said: “I think what the Hawaiians want to get out there is important to everyone who calls Hawaii home, both Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians, because sovereignty is an issue that affects everyone."

Kurch, raised in Waikiki, said he was approached at the end of December by Kanahele and officials of other Hawaiian groups and asked to put together a special that would both educate and ease fears of violence.

Kurch had been trying to put together a documentary on Hawaiians but could not finance it, he said, because “our thing is not a feel-good story; it’s a story of pain and suffering.”

Among the activists scattered about the palace lawn before the show started yesterday afternoon were Palikapu Dedman, president of the Pele Defense Fund, and his friend Davianna McGregor, Oahu coordinator for the Protect Kaho’olawe Ohana.

They were hoping to attract support for building a traditional stone ahu, or religious site, on the palace lawn fronting King Street. The ahu, they said, would serve as a lasting symbol of unity for the revitalization and rebuilding of the Hawaiian nation.

“To come here and watch a re-enactment of the overthrow is not enough for us,” Dedman said. “We want to leave something symbolic of the future.”

McGregor and Dedman said they had been told that they could build the ahu but that it would have to be torn down afterward. They have appealed that decision to Gov. John Waihee, they said, and are waiting for a response.

Dedman and McGregor, Like Kanahele, came with a list of demands. They want Waihee to adopt their proposals as part of his 1993 legislative package.

The Ohana Council’s proposed legislative agenda and that of Dedman and McGregor were remarkably similar. Among their proposals were calls for free water, medical care, and pardon of all arrested or imprisoned Hawaiian sovereignty-rights activists.

Asked to sum up his feelings on yesterday’s event and the activities to come, Kanahele said: “First, I want to thank the spirit of aloha for getting us all this. Second, if all our people put aloha in their hearts to its fullest extent they will find their culture is as pure and strong as has always been.”