Piko means Life in Hawaiian and this page is dedicated to Life Hawaiian Style. Feel free to submit photos and stories of your trip to Hawaii. Have recommendations for hotel, restaurant send us note.
pineapples_c@yahoo.com
~~
Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity
By J. Kehaulani Kauanui
~~
Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity is a detailed scholarly account of how blood quantum politics has emerged as a colonial policy of the US government, a history of the contemporary legal definition of what it means to be “native Hawaiian” and how Kanaka Maoli (the Hawaiian people) contest that term, which is incommensurable with indigenous genealogical modes of reckoning identity and degrades Hawaiian sovereignty claims to land and nationhood. Hawaiian blood undertakes the study of race and indigeneity and in the creation of an early 20th century colonial land policy, the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act of 1920 in which the US Congress allotted approximately 200,000 acres of land in small areas across the main islands to be leased for residential, pastoral, and agricultural purposes by eligible “native Hawaiians” defined as a “descendant with at least one-half blood quantum of individuals inhabiting the Hawaiian Islands prior to 1778.” Since there are many Kanaka Maoli who do not meet this criterion, this historical division is significant, not just to the histories of race, colonization and the suppression of Hawaiian nationalism, but to the political dilemmas of the contemporary Hawaiian sovereignty movement. Hawaiian Blood is particularly timely because of federal legislation currently before the US Congress that threatens Hawaiian independence claims in favor of the status of a domestic dependent nation under laws similar to US federal policy on Native Americans. Furthermore, on October 1, 2008, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case on Hawaiian land issues, which will go before the court in early 2009. The Court granted the State of Hawaii's petition for a writ of certiorari to review the Hawaii Supreme Court's decision in the case of Hawaii v. Office of Hawaiian Affairs, where the state of Hawai`i has asked the Court to rule on the whether or not the state has the authority to sell, exchange, or transfer 1.2 million acres of land formerly held by the Hawaiian monarchy as Crown and Government Lands.
J. Kehaulani Kauanui is an Associate Professor of American Studies and Anthropology. She is also is the producer and host of a public affairs radio program, “Indigenous Politics: From Native New England and Beyond,” which airs each Tuesday from 4-5pm on WESU, Middletown, CT.
