KE AUPUNI UPDATE - NOVEMBER 2025
Preserved In Righteousness
Yesterday, November 28th was the 182nd anniversary of Lā Kūʻokoʻa (Hawaiian Independence Day) commemorating the 1843 signing of a joint proclamation by Great Britain and France recognizing the Hawaiian Kingdom’s independence. We have reason to celebrate because it marked a turning point not only for Hawaii but in what became the world order that blossomed a hundred years later in the latter half of the 20th Century.
The 1843 recognition of the Hawaiian Kingdom as an equal sovereign was a miracle! It was the first time in the 400 year-long embedded practice of European colonial expansion, plunder and domination that a non-European (non-white) nation was regarded as an equal sovereign state by two of the most powerful, greedy and ruthless colonial powers in the world!
What was it that persuaded Britain and France to regard the Hawaiian Kingdom as an equal sovereign state? It was because the Hawaiian people did not fit the definition of a people to be colonized.
And what was that definition? Simply put, according to edicts issued by various Roman Catholic Popes in the 15th Century, savage heathens (by European Christian standards), were open game for colonization by European Christian nations. Now known as the Doctrine of Discovery, this church-sanctioned policy gave license to European explorers to conquer, subjugate and plunder the nations of Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania.
But by the 1840s Hawaiians had so thoroughly embraced Christianity that Hawaii could not be considered a savage, heathen nation. Not only that, Hawaii’s Kings, especially King Kamehameha III and his advisors, without sacrificing the integrity of Hawaiian cultural values, adopted the institutions of “enlightened” western civilization and transformed Hawaii into a civilized Christian nation. In 1839 Kamehameha III issued the Hawaii Declaration of Rights. That profound document was followed the next year by the first Hawaiian Kingdom Constitution changing the absolute monarchy into a Constitutional Monarchy, sharing the power to rule with the people.
The King realized that simply being a Christian nation was not enough to protect his kingdom and his people from foreign encroachment, so he dispatched Timoteo Haʻalilio, William Richardson and Sir George Simpson to the United States and Europe to obtain from those countries formal, written acknowledgements of the Hawaiian Kingdom as a sovereign, independent nation. (At that time “a sovereign nation” meant a “Christian nation”.) Formal recognition also came with assurances that the Hawaiian Kingdom’s sovereignty would always be respected.
Similarly, the United States formally recognized the Hawaiian Kingdom as a sovereign, independent state. In the years that followed, the US duly executed and ratified five bilateral treaties with the Hawaiian Kingdom. This made the United States Hawaii’s most duty-bound treaty partner and friend.
This is why the betrayal by the United States and its prolonged illegal occupation of our homelands is so egregious. As we draw closer to restoring our rightful place as a sovereign independent nation we will be called upon by our ancestors to have the grace and aloha exemplified by our beloved Queen Lili’uokalani, a devout Christian who forgave and prayed for those who wronged and persecuted her, and in doing so, preserved our land, our inheritance, our legacy in righteousness for such a time as this.
Aloha ʻĀina —
“Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station.” — Queen Liliʻuokalani
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 7 PM, the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
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Malama Pono,
Leon Siu
Hawaiian National
