HI Sovereignty Speaker Lauded
BY ADRIAN LEUNG

Last Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. in King 306, Professor and activist Haunani-Kay Trask delivered a lecture entitled “From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i.” The room overflowed with more than 150 people, forcing some of the audience to stand in the back or sit on the lecture hall’s steps. 
Trask is a Professor of Hawaiian Studies at the University of Hawaii, Manoa and author of From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i.

(photo by Tom Shortliffe)

She will return to a faculty strike at the UH, Manoa. 
The lecture was part of the Indigenous Women’s Series and the Asian American Alliance Speaker Series.
Trask’s lecture focused on the native Hawaiian struggle for self-determination. She also spoke on the international historical context of this struggle, comparing Hawaii to other colonies, and comparing Hawaiians to other colonized indigenous groups.
Trask began by speaking on the status of modern Hawaii, claiming that the islands are a settler society. She likened this situation to other French, Dutch, British, Portugese and American colonies saying all colonies developed two main populations: settlers and natives. Trask argued that this attitude directly affected the way in which people view “civil rights.” “Civil rights is primarily an issue about how to protect settlers from each other and the state. Indigenous people are not part of that conversation,” she said. 
In the discussion of self-determination, Trask differentiated between minorities and indigenous peoples. She defined “minorities” as a “numerical and non-dominant group striving for survival and the achievement of equality with the majority.” She defined “indigenous” as “a group with a historical continuity with the contested land.” 
Trask argued that this difference was key in examination of Hawaii because according to international law, although minorities are not guaranteed the right to self-determination, that right is guaranteed to indigenous people under colonial domination. Regardless of this international law, Hawaii and Hawaiians have never historically been allowed to self-govern. According to the United Nations, Hawaii was never decolonized.
On the discussion of racism, Trask quoted author Franz Fanon, “The colony is always in a racist relationship with the colonizer.” 
Trask defined racism as “the historical relation between one group and another dominating group for the benefit of the dominating group.” She said that colonization represented this permanent domination.
Trask asked, “What is the essence of racism? Domination. Where are the effects of this domination felt? In culture, in school. What is the motivation of this domination? Power and the maintenance of power.” 
Trask claimed that the United States, like other colonial countries, is racist. She cited examples with the “genocide on the continent, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Philippines.” 
Asserting that racism was an institutional problem she said, “Racism is not a personal problem but a political and economic problem of subjugation.”
Before accepting questions, Trask closed by saying, “Self government is the only solution. Apologies, no matter how well written, can never substitute restitution/reparation. Since it is sovereignty that was mainly taken, it is sovereignty that must be restored.” After she finished, she was met by a standing ovation from the audience.
The question and answer session begin, with a protocol for natives to ask questions first, then people of color, and then everyone else. Trask then asked to see how many native students there were; when fewer than five students raised their hands, she said, “Oberlin needs to get an affirmative action program.”
Senior Amber Schulz first asked the question “What do we do?”
Trask answered, “Keep fighting. Committing your life to human rights is well worth it. From the point of view of personal development, people who’re engaged in struggle for justice, for human rights, for liberty, are always better human beings — if that matters to you.”
Junior Christine Anne Duque raised the issue of Trask’s call for autonomy away from the U.S.. From her personal experience with the Philippines, Duque noted there were a number of negative aspects from separation. “What about the consequences [of Hawaii’s autonomy]?” 
Trask said, “I cannot imagine being separate from the U.S. being worse than the way it is now.” 
She gave further evidence by describing the current status of Hawaiian prisons. Forty percent of the prison population is native Hawaiian, while only 19 percent of Hawaii’s total population is native. She said, “What’s the number one way of getting people of color in prison? Drugs. Why criminalize drugs? Alcohol isn’t criminalized. You know who consumes the most alcohol? White men. Hawaiians are growing and dealing marijuana. Three times and you’re out? You spend 20 years in prison for dealing marijuana? That’s a total race-class based sentence. But if you’re a white alcoholic lawyer and you kill three people, which happened two years ago, the guy got six years and was pardoned by the governor.”
Another student asked about how self-government would work. Trask explained that Hawaiians created a masterplan for autonomy. She included the plan in her book. She added that the plan deals with sub-surface minerals, waters, beaches, and everything else. “Everything’s accounted for. We did all the work for the Hawaiian government, already.”
Protesting statehood, Trask said, “We are part of the United States because American Marines, and American missionary descendants, and an American Congress and an American president decided to take our country. In Hawaii, the dominant culture is American. The dominant language is English. The dominant system is capitalism. It is American hegemony which determines the racial and economic and political hierarchy that all native Hawaiians suffer under each and every day.”