KE AUPUNI UPDATE - APRIL 2022
Recovering Our Mo`olelo
Earlier this week I was at a movie industry screening in Hollywood for a soon-to-be-released Hawaii film, The Wind and The Reckoning. I was asked to represent Hawaii in the pre-screening protocol (possibly a first for the Hollywood film industry). An association of native Americans in film were among the key sponsors for the screening. We were welcomed by the Tongva (the tribe that inhabited that whole area before the coming of the Spanish colonizers) and by a dozen other nations of Turtle Island. Our ʻoli of mahalo and aloha were chanted by na kumu hula Kealiʻi Ceballos and Lilinoe Kaio.
The Wind and the Reckoning tells the powerful, heart-wrenching story of Kaluaikoolau (Koʻolau), who in 1893, refused to be sent to the leper colony at Kalaupapa and, with his wife and son, escaped into the kuahiwi (mountains) of Kauai, resisting capture until the provisional government stopped pursuing him. He died a few years later in the mountais, in peace and dignity as a free kanaka. During those tumultuous years between the “overthrow” and the “annexation”, Koʻolau became a huge national hero and symbol of kūʻē and freedom for Hawaiians. Well into the 20th Century the bravery of Koʻolau and his ʻohana was celebrated in Hawaii and by people around the world.
But at the Q&A after the screening, those who participated in the making of the film, and audience members who grew up in Hawaii said they never knew the story of Koʻolau until this film. I was called upon to explain.
I shared with the audience that this ignorance of our heroes is not a mystery. It is evidence of the success of a protracted program to deliberately erase from Hawaiiʻs children, the memory of their nationality, culture, language and moʻolelo (stories). And the equal success in replacing them with an American identity, heroes, stories and culture. I said, not only had we lost our government and our lands, but the greatest tragedy is we were indoctrinated to forget our moʻolelo... our stories, and the heroic deeds of our kūpuna. I said that learning our history, reviving our language and culture, and regaining our stories like the Koʻolau rebellion, are serving to restore our national identity and feeding the momentum to free Hawaii.
Fifty years ago, we started to ask questions and protest the injustices; we began to dig into what happened; we began to revive our language and culture and celebrate the legacy of our great voyaging traditions and the genius of the loko iʻa (fishponds) and the loʻi (taro farms). We revived the knowledge of our chiefs, kings and queens, and national heroes like Opukahaʻia, Haʻalilio, Kamakau, Malo, Nawahī, Kaulia, and many, many more. Not to mention the 39,000 of our kūpuna who signed the Kūʻē Petition, contemporaries of Koʻolau standing with true aloha ʻāina.
Fortunately, we are steadily recovering our moʻolelo and finding this great legacy to stand on and move forward!
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SIGN THIS PETITION…
Rename
McKinley High School and remove the McKinley statue! He was the
president who turned Hawaii from a peaceful, neutral country into a
major hub of America’s war machine. Sign this online petition NOW! Tell
everyone you know to sign it too! TinyURL.com/AlohaOeMcKinley
PLEASE KŌKUA…
Your kōkua, large or small, is vital to this effort...
To contribute, go to:
• GoFundMe – CAMPAIGN TO FREE HAWAII
• PayPal – use account email: info@HawaiianKingdom.net
•
Other – To contribute in other ways (airline miles, travel vouchers,
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“FREE HAWAII” T-SHIRTS - etc.
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http://www.robkajiwara.com/store/c8/free_hawaii_products
All proceeds are used to help the cause. MAHALO!
Malama Pono,
Leon Siu
Hawaiian National
