FREEHAWAII.INFO PRESENTS
"HAWAIIANS UNIFYING FOR INDEPENDENCE"
A THREE PART SERIES -
From SPASIFIK Magazine, September/October 2005 by Gretchen Kelly
For some Kanaka Maoli [Native Hawaiian] independence activists, one key to the rebuilding of the Hawaiian nation lies in the recapture of a building.
Not just any building, of course, but the former seat of government of the Hawaiian kingdom: ‘Iolani Palace.
“We’re going back to the scene of the crime,” says Bumpy Kanahele, head of the sovereignty group Nation of Hawai`i, referring to the audacious and illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by a group of disgruntled U.S. businessmen in January of 1893.
The events surrounding the 1893 overthrow took place, as U.S. radio personality Paul Harvey expressed it in a 1993 centennial broadcast, “down in the shadowy realms where U.S. foreign policy shakes hands with the devil.”
In those appalling days of early 1893, ‘Iolani Palace, the residence of Queen Lili‘uokalani and the center of Hawai`i’s political activity, was seized by American troops, along with various other government buildings.
The palace was later to become Lili‘oukalani’s prison after an abortive attempt to restore the lawful Hawaiian government. A century of shameful silence on the part of the United States, and most of the rest of the world, went by.
Then, in 1993, the U.S. Congress passed what has come to be known as the “apology resolution,” which succinctly acknowledges that the U.S. conspirators had overthrown a well-organized, lawful, peaceful and friendly country and formally apologizes to Native Hawaiians for the overthrow.
Furthermore, it recognizes that “the indigenous Hawaiian people never directly relinquished their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people or over their national lands to the United States, either through their monarchy or through a plebiscite or referendum.”
As U.S. Senator Slade Gorton said at the time of the passing of the resolution, “the logical consequences of this resolution would be independence.”
Part Two Tomorrow...
