Start with a picture

Hang gliders at Torrey Pines, San Diego

It’s been a long time since anything really happened in this space. I am trying to see if I can get back into it, working out what new functions this space could serve and what new stories could be told here. I am starting small, with a picture I took today. Sometimes I think I would like to photo blog; especially when a year of writing a thesis has wrung a lot of words out of me.

It is the beginning of my summer break. Across the street from my school is the Pacific Ocean, and a glider port where people (tourists, probably) take off and learn how to fly. I think it would be terrifying to jump off the cliffs attached to one of these, but they seem unbearably calm, looking up at them below. Maybe more terrifying would be trying to come back down- what if you just couldn’t force your way down? What if the landing hurt you?

Maybe I will post more photos here, and maybe they will force me to come back down into writing, writings of all sorts. I am going to be part of a poetry reading next month (in the Bay!, it’s in the works, more info soon). Is writing again, and finding poetry again, like riding a bike? Like being afraid of falling, or of landing? It is the beginning of my summer and I am finding out.

Second Statement on Naue

Kānaka Maoli Scholars Against Desecration

Second Statement on Naue, March 24, 2009

As Kānaka Maoli scholars we write to follow-up on our statement from September 13, 2008 publicly condemning the state-sponsored desecration of a Native Hawaiian burial site at Wainiha, Kaua`i resulting from the construction of a new home at Naue Point by California real estate developer Joseph Brescia.  Both the state abuse of power and the desecration continue unabated and must come to a halt.

In the late 1980s, in response to a massive burial site disturbance at Honokahua, Maui, Kanaka Maoli came together to challenge the laws that allowed this type of sacrilege. As a result of this history, five Island Burial Councils were created and are administratively attached to the State Historic Preservation Division (SHPD) of the Department of Land and Natural Resources to address concerns relating to Native Hawaiian burial sites.  By Hawai`i state statute, the composition of each island Burial Council must consist of a majority of Kānaka Maoli.  The preservation criteria established by state law favor the “preservation in place” of burial sites that contain a “concentration of skeletal remains,” or are “pre-contact” or “historic period” burial sites associated with important individuals and events.

At Naue, there are 30 known burial remains within less than half of an acre, with a high likelihood that more remains are present. Naue is a significant historical site that is frequently acknowledged in hula, oli, mele, and other Hawaiian knowledge sources.  Accordingly, the Kaua`i-Ni`ihau Island Burial Council appropriately voted to preserve in place the burial site on the property claimed by Brescia.

In complete contradiction to both their own state law, and the April 3, 2008 determination adopted by the island Burial Council to preserve the burials in place, the SHPD improperly approved a “Burial Treatment Plan” for Brescia without the required consultation with the island Burial Council.  The Burial Treatment Plan was submitted by Mike Dega, the archaeologist hired by Joseph Brescia as a consultant in support of his building a private home atop of the burial site.

The SHPD’s own rules empower the island Burial Council to determine the disposition of previously known burials.  The island Burial Council’s decision on this issue is supposed to be binding. Yet, SHPD deputy administrator Nancy McMahon sanctioned the use of vertical buffers and concrete caps on the burials to make way for installing the footings of Brescia’s house.  Her authorization for such an intrusive “preservation” measure is a fundamental repudiation of the power allocated to all of the island Burial Councils.

By ignoring the decision of the island Burial Council, her actions undermine both the very concept of historic preservation and the reason for the founding of the island Burial Councils.  Tragically, before a court could intervene, and based on McMahon’s unauthorized agreements, Brescia’s team managed to install massive house foundations on a portion of the cemetery.

The Kaua`i Planning Commission’s approval of Brescia’s house plans included a specific condition issued in a letter dated December 12, 2007 that “No building permit shall be issued until requirements of the State Historic Preservation Division and the Burial Council have been met.” The requirements of the island Burial Council have not been met; the Council recommended that there be no building upon the cemetery.  SHPD covered up the island Burial Council’s decision by trying to pretend that vertical buffers and concrete jackets constitute “preservation”; they do not.

During the consultation required by the preliminary October 2008 court ruling, on November 6, 2008, the island Burial Council recommended that the SHPD reject the revised Burial Treatment Proposal submitted by Dega. Therefore, Brescia still has not met the requirements of the island Burial Council and thus, the building permit should be revoked.  Because the Kaua`i Planning Commission’s December 2007 approval was specifically conditioned on Brescia’s meeting the island Burial Council’s requirements, there is no real approval of Brescia’s house plans.  The island Burial Council made clear the proposal to build on the burial site was culturally unacceptable to its members, which is why the Council rejected the revised Burial Treatment Plan.  The Kaua`i Planning Commission should be held accountable to rescind the conditional approval it gave, since its requirements were not met.

In the midst of this ongoing desecration, last month, on February 4, 2009, the SHPD wrote a letter to Dega acknowledging his sixth proposed Burial Treatment Plan.  This is the same Burial Treatment Plan that McMahon circulated to Native Hawaiian Organizations for consultation as part of a court order by Judge Watanabe on October 2, 2008.  The outcome of this consultation with Native Hawaiian Organizations was their sweeping rejection of the proposal.  Without any regard for this rejection, the SHPD letter to Dega states, “at this time we cannot accept the Burial Treatment Plan without some revisions which are to be addressed below” and then outlines seven concerns for him to deal with such as detailing a landscape plan for burials outside of the house footprint. In other words, the letter basically instructs Dega to revise the Burial Treatment Plan in order for SHPD to approve it.  This is unacceptable; if McMahon’s decision is reaffirmed despite the outcome of the consultation with Native Hawaiian Organizations that clearly rejected the proposal, it would set a dangerous precedent and strip the island Burial Councils of any meaningful authority.

To date, 5th Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe has denied requests for a temporary restraining order and has even refused to grant a temporary injunction to stop further construction until the full civil suit is adjudicated by the state court.   The civil suit — Joseph Brescia v. Ka`iulani Huff, et al. — currently in progress is a travesty.  Brescia is suing at least 17 individuals–almost all of whom are Kānaka Maoli–implicated in protecting the burial site from his construction work. Beside trespass, Brescia has accused them of five other counts: private nuisance and harassment, tortious interference with contract, civil conspiracy described as “terroristic threatening”, intentional interference, ejectment, and slander of title.  We stand in solidarity with the defendants.  Brescia has no one else to blame but himself; he knowingly took the chance of building his house over a grave site when the essence of the island Burial Council’s action was to preserve all burials remains in place.

We must remind the state agencies that their own law, Hawai`i revised statute 711-1107 on Desecration, specifically states that no one may commit the offense of desecrating “a place of worship or burial,” and the statute defines “desecrate” as “defacing, damaging, polluting, or otherwise physically mistreating in a way that the defendant knows will outrage the sensibilities of persons likely to observe or discover the defendant’s action.”

We call on all people of conscience to join in our condemnation of the desecration of the ancestral remains by:

* holding the Kaua`i Planning Commission accountable for upholding their own condition by finding Brescia in violation of it by starting to build;

* demanding that the SHPD honor the Kaua`i-Ni`ihau Island Burial Council’s original decision to preserve the burial site without any construction;

* insisting that the SHPD respect the outcome of the court-ordered consultation process and reject the Burial Treatment Plan;

* supporting an end to the illegal construction supported by the state; and

* protesting Brescia’s lawsuit targeted at those who have served to prevent the further degradation of the bones of our kūpuna.

Signed,

Hokulani Aikau, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Political Science,
University of Hawai`i at Mānoa

Carlos Andrade, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa

Maile Arvin, M.A. candidate, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of California San Diego

J. Leilani Basham, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai`i at West O`ahu

Kamanamaikalani Beamer, Ph.D., Mellon-Hawai`i Postdoctoral Fellow, Kohala Center, Hawai`i

Kealani Robinson Cook, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, University of Michigan

Lani Cupchoy, Ph.D. Candidate, History, University of California, Irvine

Lisa Kahaleole Hall, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Women’s Studies, Wells College

Sydney Lehua Iaukea, Ph.D., Mellon-Hawai`i Postdoctoral Fellow, Kohala Center, Hawai`i

Lilikalā Kame`eleihiwa, Ph.D., Professor, Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa

J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Anthropology and American Studies, Wesleyan University

Kanani K. M. Lee, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Geology & Geophysics, Yale University

Jon Kamakawiwo`ole Osorio, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa

Lessa Kanani`opua Pelayo, M.L.I.S. Candidate, B.A., University of California, Los Angeles

Kekailoa Perry, J.D. Assistant Professor, Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa

Keanu Sai, Ph.D., Lecturer Kapiolani Community College

Noenoe K. Silva, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Political Science, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa

Stephanie Nohelani Teves, Ph.D. Candidate, Program in American Culture, University of Michigan

Ty Kāwika Tengan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Anthropology and Ethnic Studies, University of Hawai`i at Mānoa

Haunani-Kay Trask, Ph.D., Professor, Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawai`i, Mānoa

Liza Keanuenueokalani Williams, Ph.D. student, New York University

Erin Kahunawaika`ala Wright, Ph.D. Director of Native Hawaiian Student Services, Hawai’inuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge

——-
Contact: J. Kehaulani Kauanui
Ph: 860-638-1264
Email: jkauanui@wesleyan.edu
——–

TAKE ACTION

Please cc: all letters and emails to:  J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Center
for the Americas, Wesleyan University, 255 High Street, Middletown, CT
06459.
Email: jkauanui@wesleyan.edu

Write the Kaua`i Planning Commission, State Historic Preservation
Division Officials, Governor Linda Lingle, Joseph Brecia, and the Mayor of
Kaua`i.

See addresses below:

Ian Costa
Director of Planning
County of Kaua`i

4444 Rice Street, Suite 473

Lihue, HI 96766
icosta@kauai.gov

Laura Thielan, Chairperson
State of Hawaii, Department of Land and Natural Resources
State Historic Preservation Division
601 Kamokila Blvd., Room 555
Kapolei, HI 96707
dlnr@hawaii.gov

Pua Aiu, Administrator
State Historic Preservation Division
601 Kamokila Blvd., Room 555
Kapolei, HI 96707
pua.aiu@hawaii.gov

Nancy McMahon, Deputy Administrator
State Historic Preservation Division
601 Kamokila Blvd., Room 555
Kapolei, HI 96707
Nancy.A.McMahon@hawaii.gov

Governor Linda Lingle
State of Hawai`i
Executive Chambers
State Capitol
Honolulu, Hawai`i  96813
governor.lingle@hawaii.gov

Joseph Brescia, President
Architectural Glass & Aluminum
1151 Marina Village Parkway, Suite 101
Alameda, CA 94501
jbrescia@aga-ca.com

Bernard P. Carvalho, Jr.
Mayor, County of Kauai
4444 Rice St., Suite 235
Lihue, HI 96766
mayor@kauai.gov

today in settler colonialism

Today is the anniversary of Queen Lili’uokalani’s overthrow in 1893. There was a march in Waikiki that I would have loved to be at, in honor of her and in protest of the ceded lands appeal being pushed through to the US Supreme Court by our Governor Linda Lingle.

Today Israel also begins a ceasefire and occupation, after the death toll in Gaza is near 1,200 Palestinians.

I haven’t had much time or energy for writing here, but I did want to re-post the statement our department drafted in response to Israel’s destruction in Palestine.

—

UCSD Ethnic Studies Department Statement on the Racial Violence in the Gaza Strip

The faculty and graduate students in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California San Diego condemn the most recent actions by the State of Israel in the Gaza Strip, commencing with the air strikes that began on December 27, 2008 and the ground invasions, which started on January 4, 2009. Both have resulted in the death and mutilation of a large number of Palestinian civilians. While Israel argues that it is targeting Hamas militants, the astounding number of civilian deaths (exceeding 900 as of January 13, 2009) shows a blatant lack of concern for Palestinian lives. They result from Israel’s targeting of hospitals, mosques, schools, residential buildings and other civilian locations, a practice that cannot be supported by the self-defense argument reproduced by media outlets and endorsed by the US government.

As critical scholars in the field of racial and ethnic studies we interpret these violent actions as an indication of how, in the global order, people of color and the places they live are irrelevant to international legal instruments and moral principles. In short, the most recent deployment of the Israeli military arsenal constitutes nothing more nor less than another episode of racial violence. For this reason, we believe that the current military aggression cannot be divorced from Israel’s overall policy of violence against Palestinians, which includes the strategies deployed during periods of “cease fire” such as tactics that deny access to basic necessities including food, water and health care for the Palestinian residents of the Gaza strip. The recent aerial bombing and ground invasions further this systematic practice of racial violence preventing the Red Cross, the UN and other humanitarian organizations from providing urgently needed assistance to the people of Gaza.

In this unique historic moment, on the eve of the inauguration of the first African-American president, we expect the United States government and the American people to condemn such practices of racial violence in no uncertain terms. Unfortunately, we hear a repetition of the argument that Israel is exercising its right to self-defense. It is inconceivable that a society that prides itself on its respect for human rights, and now celebrates another milestone in the road towards racial justice, fails to recognize that Israel’s military objectives, the destruction of Hamas, cannot justify the indiscriminate killing of men and women, young and old, just because they live in the Gaza Strip, because they are Palestinians. This generalized construction of the enemy is at the core of racial violence. It criminalizes a whole population. It aliments existing representations of Arabs, Muslims, and Brown people in general as ‘criminal/terrorists.’ In sum, it justifies otherwise morally untenable acts of total violence.

We hope that the Obama administration will remain consistent with its call for change, that it will issue a forceful condemnation of Israel’s killing of Palestinians, and will review long-held US policies, cutting the military, economic, and political support that provide implicit and explicit backing of Israel’s practices of racial terror.  We are convinced that only such a stance will reflect a true commitment to peace in the Middle East. More importantly, it will signal the seriousness of the call for change that is the hallmark of the incoming Obama administration.  Any policy that accepts Israel’s right to self-defense as a justification for racial massacre, in this case the systematic extermination of Palestinians, favors complicity over change.

the post-election podcast

We did a Voicing Indigeneity podcast last night, about Obama’s win and what it does and doesn’t mean to us personally and as Ethnic Studies scholars. Rashne Limke shared her experiences working for the Obama campaign in Las Vegas for the last two weeks. Kit Myers brought up Bill Bennett’s disgusting assertion that people of color “have no excuse anymore.”  Ma Vang told us about how this was her dad’s first time voting in an American presidential election. Angie Morrill talked about hope and hopelessness especially for indigenous folks in America now. And I rambled on some about the Akaka bill, and how terrifying it is that it is better poised than ever to pass (as recognition, in the same way perhaps that Obama represents some kind of recognition of African-Americans, is not necessarily all bad but it is dangerous in new ways).

You probably have been having similar conversations all week, but did you sing Wilson-Phillips “Hold on” at the end of them? I didn’t think so. Go to Voicing Indigeneity or here to listen.

We are the ones we have been waiting for

(Or, why I refuse to spend another election night crying.)

So, we’re still doing this fall back, spring forward daylight savings thing, huh? Does anyone know why?

And we finally going to vote this week, in an election that you’ve either gotten very tired of a long while back (possibly with the exception of Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin) or you’re very zealously pinning your hopes on one candidate. I started the election season impressed by Obama and his popularity; now I am more worried. What are we all going to do after Tuesday, Obama or no Obama? This is not to engage in a debate about how much ‘hope’ and ‘change’ Obama is going to bring. In our more vulnerable moments, I think most of us understand that national presidential politics is not a system built to change the terrain of any of the political issues that are most important to us. Obama has said as much, retooling that June Jordan quote- “We are the ones we have been waiting for”- to ask us to believe in our potential to change, not just his. Of course, he would like us to believe in ourselves but maybe after we believe in him enough to get him into office.

So, will it be after Nov. 4th that we can recognize how this election about race and gender also included the first black female candidate Cynthia McKinney? And how in California, the proposition system allows out-of-state funding to propel discriminatory constitutional amendments (Prop 8 ) AND dramatic restrictions of abortion rights (Prop 4) AND drastic increases to the prison-industrial complex (Props 6 and 9)?

I love all my friends who are passionately against Prop 8 and I agree. But surely we can argue against it without using the same rhetoric that the conservative Right is using (protect our families). The fight for marriage equality is important but it cannot be framed as the civil rights struggle of our generation- because that presumes civil rights struggles of the 50s and 60s have been totally successful. It also presumes that no one fought for gay rights before us- will this change after we all see the new Harvey Milk movie? Voting no on prop 8 should be a starting place to change the way the state recognizes all of our relationships, and to open up legal and financial protections between people who need it whether they are married or not.

In Hawai’i, voters are deciding on a new mayor (an incumbent bent on pushing through an expensive and convoluted rail project) and on whether or not to hold a Constitutional Convention, which (due to shifts in power in the state) could significantly scale back Native Hawaiian rights that were gained at a Con-Con in the 1970s. At this year CNHA’s, I listened to a speaker tell us to believe in the people and trust that a Con-Con would go well for Native Hawaiians. Believing in ourselves is not the same as believing in electoral politics. And that is not a nihilistic stance: that radical change has never come about that way does not mean that radical change has never happened. It does mean that progress can be lost, and we have to be willing to re-articulate our struggles over and over again.

None of this is to say voting is useless. If you can vote, of course, do. But it is to say: don’t just vote. And don’t believe that electoral politics is totalizing. Especially for those of us who are privileged enough to be enjoying a certain level of material wealth whoever is in the Oval Office- we can and should do more.

I’m so ready to start talking about after Nov. 4th.