OCCUPATION OF PALACE RENEWS CALLS FOR A FREE HAWAI`I
New York Times - Saturday, May 3, 2008
HONOLULU — A Native Hawaiian independence group laid claim this week to the nation’s only royal palace and the land surrounding it, raising anew the issue of self-determination for the islands’ native people.
Several dozen people from the group, the little-known Hawaiian Kingdom Government, were at `Iolani Palace grounds in downtown Honolulu on Friday, two days after locking the public out for several hours.
“We are here - we’re not going to go,” said the group’s leader, Mahealani Kahau, who had a security detail of a half-dozen men surrounding her Friday on a corner of the lawn behind the palace where they had erected a tent.
Ms. Kahau said members of her group planned to return to the 11-acre palace complex, a public park abutting the Hawai`i Capitol, every day except Saturdays and Sundays.
