Subject: Hawaiian Independence and a sustainable future

From: Scott Crawford <[email-masked]>
Date: 17 May 1995 07:43:41 GMT

HAWAIIAN INDEPENDENCE AND A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

The truth of humanity's relationship to our natural environment and planet home
is at the root of the movement for Hawaiian independence.

One meaning of "sovereignty" is control over land and natural resources: the
land, the water in the land, the ocean (including a 200 mile Exclusive Economic
Zone) and the air we breathe.  We know well that the indigenous approach to
"managing" these "resources" is fundamentally different from the Western
colonial approach, emphasizing balance, reciprocity and sustainability versus
domination, exploitation and exhaustion.  

As stated in U.S. Public Law 103-150, the "Apology Resolution" to Native
Hawaiians, "prior to the arrival of the first Europeans in 1778, the Native
Hawaiian people lived in a highly organized, self-sufficient, subsistent social
system based on communal land tenure" which supported a population estimated by
some to have been as much as one million people, in the same range as the
number who inhabit Hawaii today.

While we cannot and do not seek to return to 1778 and pre-contact Hawai'i, the
traditional Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) values are still intact and as
relevant as ever, and can still be applied as the basis of national policy
today, and in the everyday lives of the people of the nation, including
fundamentally new and innovative approaches to land administration and land
tenure.

At the heart of Hawaiian values is the concept of Malama 'Aina, to care for the
land.  These words are very strong and present with Kanaka Maoli people who
practice their values every day.  Many non-Hawaiians who have lived close to
this precious land for a time have also come to deeply appreciate this way of
being.  

Independence is more than just a political status.  In the same way that one
might seek an independent home - off the grid, self-sufficient, and less
vulnerable to the economic, political, and environmental turbulence of the
surrounding world - Kanaka Maoli seek an independent homeland.  

Hawaii now imports more than three-quarters of its food, and over ninety
percent of its energy.  This is dependence.  Being one of the most isolated
land masses in the world with thousands of miles of ocean between us and the
nearest continent, it is only common sense to move toward real independence.  

Hawaii has a major role to play as an international trading port and financial
center, and will certainly participate actively in the global economy.  At the
same time, we also realize the essential need for local self-reliance, local
control of resources, and community based planning and economic development as
part of the overall vision of a sustainable and bountiful future.  Political
independence is one necessary step toward real economic and material
independence, toward real sustainability and security.

As we ponder the transition to an alternative vision for Hawaii's future, the
opportunities for a harmonic blend of the past and the future abound. 
Hawai`i's traditional agriculture and aquaculture were some of the most
advanced in the world, multiplying nature's productivity manifold in truly
sustainable reciprocal systems.  The knowledge and use of these systems
remains, and the movement to clear the fallow taro fields and restore the
unused fishponds is growing daily.  

At the same time, innovative future technologies that make appropriate use of
energy, resources and "waste" have a great potential in Hawaii.  The
availability of such technologies is increasing, and the independent Nation of
Hawai`i will seek to take full advantage of these, both for our own benefit
here at home, and also as a model for the rest of the world.  

Hawaii is imagined around the globe as paradise, and millions of people from
all nations visit here every year to share a bit of Aloha.  The closer Hawai`i
actually comes to being paradise - sustainable, bountiful, secure - the more
that possibility will be shared with its multitude of visitors to be carried
back into their visions of their own communities.

There is no place in the world like Hawai`i - no place that more needs to be
truly independent, and no place that would more benefit the world by becoming
so.  

Support Hawaiian independence now!

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