KE AUPUNI UPDATE - OCTOBER 2024
Our Land, Our Inheritance
One of the most profound expressions of who we are as a people is found in Queen Liliʻuokalani’s open letter that begins with, “Oh, honest Americans… ” It was her direct appeal to the American people to do what’s morally right and speak out for the return of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Although her letter makes many profound points, I will concentrate on one particular passage… “…do not covet the little vineyard of Naboth's, so far from your shores, lest the punishment of Ahab fall upon you, if not in your day, in that of your children, for "be not deceived, God is not mocked."
As she often did, Queen Liliʻuokalani cited a passage from the Bible. In this instance, 1 Kings 21:1-24 that told of the deceitful way King Ahab and his evil wife Jezebel framed and executed a man, Naboth, so they could take his land which he had refused to sell to them… The reason Naboth wouldn’t sell the land was, he regarded it as his inheritance and a blessing, not a piece of commercial real estate. He had inherited the land from his forefathers and his kuleana was to make it productive (which is why Ahab wanted it) and then pass it on to his (Nabobʻs) children and descendants.
By citing this story, Queen Liliʻuokalani goes to the heart of the difference in how Hawaiians, as opposed to Americans and other colonizers, regard land. Hawaiians and other native peoples see land as an inheritance that comes from Akua with the kuleana (responsibility) to mālama (care for) so that it can bless them and their future generations. To our kūpuna, just like Naboth, land is not a commodity that can be bought and sold for instant gratification or to build empires, it was to bring and sustain abundant life and future generations.
When King Kamehameha III issued the Hawaiian Bill of Rights in 1839 and promulgated the Hawaiian Kingdom Constitution in 1840, instruments that are Western in form, he was careful to infuse them with Hawaiian values of kuleana, malama ʻāina, ola i ka wai, aloha ʻāina. When he redistributed the lands from traditional rights — where he as King had absolute rule over all the lands — he put the lands of Hawaiʻi (except for a little needed for the government) into the western system of private ownership, but with a caveat: that those lands would be held in perpetuity. Whether the King, chiefs or commoners held the title, these privately owned lands could not be sold outside of the family, their heirs and descendants.
Furthermore, customary international law holds that in the event of a regime change, internal or conquest or annexation by a foreign power, only the government lands would forfeit to the new government. Privately owned lands would remain in the hands of the title owner. Thus, by placing the lands of the Hawaiian Archipelago into the western legal system of private land ownership, King Kamehameha III safeguarded Hawaii’s lands from being sold outside the family or being seized in the event of an invasion, an annexation (lawful or fake) or certainly, an illegal occupation.
So why have we been dispossessed of our lands? Because every step of taking and pillaging of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States was done with total disregard of all laws except those the US imposed for its own benefit and purposes. Even today, Hawaiians’ lands are being stolen and Hawaiian are being evicted by corrupt judges weilding corrupt State of Hawaii laws.
The hope we have is that soon the tables will turn and a day of reckoning will come, the lands restored… and the punishment of Ahab fall upon the wrong doers.
“Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station.” — Queen Liliʻuokalani
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Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono. The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
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For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at
6 PM the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
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"And remember, for the latest updates and information about the Hawaiian Kingdom check out the twice-a-month Ke Aupuni Updates published online on Facebook and other social media."
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Malama Pono,
Leon Siu
Hawaiian National
