“Now we know”: resurgences of Hawaiian independence

Abstract

In this essay, I provide a brief overview of the Hawaiian independence movement and discuss resurgences of independence discourse among activists, artists and other grassroots Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian people). My focus is on articulations of Hawaiian national identity in official testimonies and in contemporary Hawaiian-produced music. Testimonies at a series of hearings on federal recognition, held by the U.S. Department of Interior in Hawaiʻi in 2014, are read alongside Kanaka hip hop music expressing identification with and support for the Hawaiian sovereignty. I am interested in the ways contemporary Hawaiian independentists hold a resurgence of the common people together with the assertion of ongoing Hawaiian Kingdom sovereignty, perhaps creating space for imagining more horizontal ways to practice independent Hawaiian governance. The article opens with a brief summary of Hawaiian political history from 1810 onward, to provide context for the ways that the contemporary political actors discussed are explicitly connecting to a recent history of internationally recognized Hawaiian national independence, and an even deeper legacy of ‘Ōiwi cultural practice, as means to asserting independent futures.

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