This week, our module was focused on the Birth of the Modern Hawaiian Movement. Haunani Kay Trask argues that this began with Kalama Oʻahu in 1971 and the peoples fight to protect the lands against urbanization and development. The collective effort to preserve the land rights of local people in a valley on Oʻahu’s east end would be remembered long after as the spark that ingrained the modern Hawaiian Movement.

Trask states that “land claims first appeared, as in Kalama Valley, as community-based assertions for the preservation of agriculture land against resort and subdivision use. By the mid 1970s, these claims had broadened to cover military-controlled lands and trust lands specifically set aside for Hawaiians by the U.S. Congress but used by non-beneficiaries.”
An ongoing series of land struggles throughout the decade of the seventies that was destined to change the consciousness of Hawaiʻi’s people, especially the native people. And the Hawaiian movement that began as a battle for land rights would evolve by 1980, into a larger struggle for native Hawaiian autonomy.
This renaissance was critical to the perpetuation of Hawaiian culture through various initiatives including the protection of sacred lands by the efforts of the Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana. The video Kaho’olawe Aloha ‘Āina focuses on the cultural, political and military significance of the little-known “target island” of Kaho’olawe in the Hawaiian archipelago. The Hawaiian term aloha ‘āina refers to love of the land, the basis of Hawaiian cultural belief and the force that animates the current movement to bring the island back to life. This video, produced by the Protect Kaho’olawe ‘Ohana, traces the history of the island, from ancient times through the years of ranching, U.S. military bombardment, and the modern-day struggle to stop the bombing and reclaim the island.
Our Questions are based on the reading and video in the module.
Who were the first supporters to come to the aid of the people and the cause of Kalama? And what are your thoughts on this?
As the first prolonged resistance effort in the post-Statehood era, Kalama Valley undercut the euphoric characterization of “the New Hawaiʻi” as an enlightened post-plantation society governed by consensus politics where pluralism rather than oligarchy reigned. Capitalism in the form of the tourist industry had not brought a more suitable share of at the pie but had, instead, resulted in rapid over development, a severe housing shortage, rising underemployment, increasing racial tensions, and the loss of prime agricultural land. The struggle at Kalama Valley gave eloquent voice to these issues and foretold a current of resistance for more than a decade to come.
After reading this article, what are your thoughts on development and how does this struggle mirror what you see today in Hawaiʻi.
What is one example of the concept of national defense given by the members of PKO (use names) and how are the different from the U.S. Military?
Identify two points of interest from the video:
One that added/reinforced a point of view that you already held…
One that changed/expanded your point of view, explain…
VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/0OpOm6m3SVU