 Aloha, I'm Tim Apachele, your host for What's On Your Mind, Hawaii. Today's show will highlight several interviews taken during the 125th anniversary of the U.S. government overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. For those who marched through the Iolani Palace, spoke with passion and dignity, and didn't mince any words as they spoke from their hearts and mind. Many may have arrived with different agendas, but it was quite clear to me they all spoke with one voice in great unity. For me, it was a deeply moving experience I shall never forget. This is Tim Apachele for What's On Your Mind, Hawaii for Think Tech, Hawaii. I'm here in front of the Iolani Palace. It's the 125th anniversary of the removal of the Hawaiian monarchy and government. What's your name? Hi. Aloha, my name is Misty Kela'i. Aloha, my name is Tiwila Tawa Ese. I'm anti-babi. Tell me why today is important and why you're here today. What do you want the message to go out to everyone in Hawaii of what's happening here today? Yes, this is the 125th anniversary observation of the illegal overthrow, the second illegal overthrow of Hawaii-ine. The first one being when Lord Paulette came at Thomas Square and lowered all the Hawaiian flags. We celebrate La Ho'i Ho'i Ea. This year will be the 175th of La Ho'i Ho'i Ea. Right now, this is three generations of Hawaiians. We were here on the 100th anniversary in 1993. My mama, who is 85, my daughter, who was three years old, and myself, who's still beautiful and almost 60. What do you think about your mom? I think my mom is just wonderful and I'm so thankful that my mom and my grandma are here today and that we can share this experience as one Ohana and as one La Ho'i and to just come together and see all of us as one Ohana, truly one Ohana. And this is Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians. It's all the La Ho'i. Everyone is welcome. We may go different ways, have different disagreements, but one thing is remain the same. We agree on the history. You cannot change the history. And that's why we are here. It's 125 years, people, world. We never forget illegal occupation, illegal heaven might. Let me ask you this one question before I do. You were here on the 100th anniversary, correct? How was that? It was beautiful. Anything the Hawaiians do is beautiful. I'm proud to be a Hawaiian and I think everyone on these grounds can tell you the same thing. We're all very proud to be a Hawaiian. I think we have another generation of my Ohana. Oh, my four generations. We have four generations now. This is wonderful. And my great grandson. Aloha. Aloha. Aloha. President Clinton actually did issue an apology. Was that helpful? It was a start, but you know, we don't want the donuts. We want the bakery. We want the whole thing. We want a total apology. If the Kepani people can get apology and get some reparations, it's long overdue for the Kanaka Maoli. We need a formal apology, every single one, and we need reparations and we need it now. Senator Akaka in the Akaka bill attempted to provide federal recognition for the Hawaiian people. That didn't happen. What would you like to see the federal government do moving forward? Recognize us. We're a people with our own language, our own religion, our own la hui. We had our own constitution for goodness sakes. King Kamehameha III wrote O'lello Hawaii Constitution. We're a very loving nation. How come everybody in the whole world respected us? France, Britain, Japan, but I don't know, America, not so much. Not so much. No treaty. What do you want the youngest generation, this generation here, this younger generation here in front of me, in front of you? First things first, if the educational system would recognize the true Hawaiian history, not the history written by Sereno Bishop, Thurston, that's the winners of the war writing the history. We need the true history. We are functioning on 6% of actual translation of the verbiage of our people. We are prolific writers. So once we can get that out of the vaults, back into our hands, recognize and restore Kala hui o Hawaii ii, then maybe we can move forward as all peoples. Well, what I find amazing here is four generations here today. That is a special, special thing for me to see. Four generations of Hawaiians and doing your best to bring the message forward. And I want to say God bless all of you. Sixth generation. One, two, three, four, five, six. I stand corrected. Sixth generations of Hawaiians standing in front of the Yelolani Palace. The name is Kupa. That means to stand. Kupa, to stand. Kupa amahope o ka'ina. Ever loyal to the land. I want to thank you all six generations of coming forward, speaking your mind. This is Tim Apachella on a special day on What's on Your Mind Hawaii for Think Tech Hawaii. Aloha. Aloha. This is Tim Apachella with What's on Your Mind Hawaii for Think Tech Hawaii. I'm here with Kyle and Kamoa. Please share to me what's important for you here today. Why are you here? I'm here to support Native Hawaiians. I'm not a native Hawaiian myself. I'm Japanese in Hawaii. But I feel it's important to recognize the importance of this day in history 125 years ago when the U.S. military participated in the overthrow of the Hawaiian kingdom. And what we see today is this tremendous showing of hope, of resilience, and a vision of a different future that Hawaiians want for these islands. Kamoa, this is an important day for you. Tell me why. Absolutely. I think one of the most important things is to remember this is that one of the tactics that was utilized to suppress Native Hawaiian culture was to make people forget. So I mean, this is a remembering that's important for us to continue moving forward. And for me, this is kind of an event you have to be at, to be a part of the continued moʻokuaʻu of Hawaii and of Hawaiians. And I want to be proud to see my ancestors and then my children and my children's children and their extended family to know that we were a part of this and help to continue to make this movement continue to grow and flourish. So that's why it's important to me. How important is this message to go out to people who aren't Hawaiian that live here in Hawaii? Yeah. I mean, I think it's extremely important, again, one of the main tactics that has caused not just misinformation in the Hawaiian community, but in the overall community. And all the people who live in Hawaii who have been here for generations or even who have come recently, it's important they know what the foundation is here. Native Hawaiians have been here for thousands of years. And we literally walk upon this aina that is imbued with our DNA, with our genetics as our ancestors have passed. So we have that connectivity that is important that anybody who wants to come participate in that is fine, but they need to understand that foundation. Well, Kyle, you're here and you've admitted that you're not Hawaiian. What message do you want people to hear that aren't Hawaiian about the importance of this day? We have Kuliana as settlers in Hawaii to honor and to support the self-determination of justice struggles of the indigenous people of the land. If we're not, if we don't support that, then we're kind of in the way, right? And we're making it more difficult for them to achieve justice. So I think coming out and showing support, but also getting involved in the kind of decision-making that's going on on issues that affect, that are most critical, whether it's land issues, sacred sites, control of political decision-making for Hawaiians. I just want to add one thing. It's 25 years ago I was here for the 100th anniversary and seeing this event today, I'm really hopeful because the growth of the young people that are here, this time I was on the sidelines cheering and sort of watching and I could enjoy and feel pride and hope that this whole new generations that are coming along and this movement is growing. Senator Akaka had a bill in Congress that didn't pass and the importance of that bill was federal recognition of the Hawaii peoples. Do you think it's time for that initiative to happen again or how do you feel about that particular bill Senator Akaka had put forward? I mean there are many complications with idea of federal recognition. Again, if you look at the history and the status of Native Hawaiians, I mean recognition from the federal government who participated in the original incident, it seems a little bit misplaced. And so I think again it's the learning the history and the collective will of the Hawaiian people and what direction they want to go. So I don't think it has anything to do necessarily with what happens on a federal level or on the state level, although those things could be positive or negative. There's all kinds of different facets to look at. But the most important thing is stuff like this. Remember the history, understand where we're at and continue to evolve collectively. And because the Hawaiian nation in many people's eyes is still there, it's always been there, hasn't gone anywhere. So getting outside recognition for that, I don't know necessarily is going to achieve the goal. When President Bill Clinton issued an apology to the Hawaiian people, did that have an impact on your community or to you personally? I think everything does again. I don't think necessarily his exact words had a specific impact on me, but it's another step, it's another space in this continued evolution. It's one thing that I've learned as a Hawaiian looking at Mokuawha genealogy. It is a secession of events that leads to another secession of events that's ongoing in perpetuity. So yeah, it has an impact, but its specific impact to me is still yet to be seen. Just from my perspective, I think a lot of us didn't really understand the history of Hawaii and the complicated layers here. So the federal recognition sort of made sense if you didn't understand the history. But if you look at it, Hawaii's case was very different. It was one of the first non-Western countries to gain recognition as a sovereign independent state within the family of nations. So this is where it raises international claims that are not addressed by a federal recognition case. And some scholars have argued that the federal recognition process might actually foreclose on some of those international channels. And so I think it's best that we hold open the greatest possible outcome of justice for the wrongs that have happened. And not try to foreclose on any particular option, but keep it open rather than shutting it down. And I'm here with Mokei. And Mokei, I'm going to ask you, what brings you down here? Hela nui ke iya, no kalahui, me ka hao wai wai ike kanaka. Today is a great day for our Hawaiian community. It represents the 125th anniversary of the overthrow and the interruption of our sovereign kingdom. And so we get together on this day every year to commemorate and to remind ourselves of the need to return the society we live in back to balance as it's kind of out of balance right now. And when you say balance, are we talking about how this government is treating the aina, or how this government is not giving the rights that the Hawaiians feel they deserve? I'm sure all of those arguments are included. I was thinking about the state model, Uomaukei okaena ikepono. And so the rightness or the correct path for our homeland is perpetuated by the correct balance and rightness of our society and community. So I think that any sort of eco-centric maneuvering to kind of interact with our governing body would naturally affect our community as well. I personally work for the Hawaiian language immersion schools. And it's been 30 years and we still have to fight for every penny we get. And you also touched upon- Why? Why? Why do you have to fight for every penny? Because we're still not seen as a viable option, even though a bilingual student is much more a stronger citizen altogether. But also, you know, we're not taking care of the land and perpetuating our resources like water or the fact that people who live here, their children and grandchildren won't be able to afford to buy homes here. So there's a perception that the sovereignty movement is actually splintered. Do you think- Is that true? I don't- I believe that there's a path that we're all on. We all have our own agendas because we live in a modern society. I think that when we can all focus on the aina and really understand in our hearts what balance looks like, then all of our agendas will line up. I also don't believe that we have to have one agenda. I think all of us are fighting for different important things as long as we make room for each other, which is really what we need to start interacting with the state because the state is intent on not making room for us. What barriers have you personally seen the state putting up to prevent what is important for here today? Well, I work for the Native Hawaiian League Corporation to look at Native Hawaiian gathering rights. And what I found was that although there are rights guaranteed us, every time we went to the court of law, the judge found against us. So that's a perfect example of how they don't want to support our attempts at maintaining our own kind of culture and society. The other thing is as a teacher, I've noticed that civics and the humanities, which are not supported in school, are not being supported at home. And our culture is a different Machiavelli kind of... If you can get away with it, did you really do anything wrong? So children are turning out a little bit different from other, I guess, local people. Isn't that true with every generation though? Well, yes, because we're following this path. But if we lived in a society that felt that cherishing your family or honoring your society was something important and that if we were telling those stories so that our children would know the narrative, then I think children would be different. Instead, we live in a society where it's entertainment and who knows what they're watching. Do you think that this younger generation will take this date and think of it if it's important and move forward with it? Well, that's exactly why we do this. And I don't think that any of us can think for anyone else. I just believe that if it's meant to be put right, as all things are, then we just got to be doing what we got to do and then other people are doing their thing like you. You're making news available from this small little lens. But I think that each of our individual voices will become much more important in the future when all of these institutions are less powerful. Well, I guess the last question is, where do you personally stand? I have some issues with the state, really. I'm OK with the feds. I don't really, so long as we just leave everything the way it is. You want federal recognition? I wake up in the morning, I look in the mirror, I can recognize myself. The problem with federal recognition is that the Ocaca Bill said that we would have to forfeit all of our resources and rights to them, as well as lands, and then we can negotiate over the crumbs they were going to give us back. That's not what I want. What I would like is to move more towards a bicultural society where they make room for us to exist. I don't want to take over anything. And so, like I said, I have a lot of issues with the state and their mismanagement of funding. You know, look at the rail. There's just so many things going wrong with our state. I think our counties are great because they're more accountable to each of our citizenry. But I think that if Hawaiians could interact better with the state and kind of help keep them in control, or maybe help people in the community, other ethnic groups who live here, feel like we ought to have a voice, then maybe we could reign in. You know what I mean? They're not even taking care of the branding. You know, this is anywhere USA. It doesn't look like Hawaii. So, you know, we have to ask ourselves, is this the time to make things right? Okay, well, I want to thank you so much for your time here this afternoon. And it's been a real pleasure. And I wish everyone here the most success and things moving forward. I'm Tim Apachella, and this is What's on Your Mind, Hawaii for Think Tech, Hawaii. Aloha. This is Tim Apachella with What's on Your Mind, Hawaii for Think Tech, Hawaii. I'm here in front of the Ilolani Palace, and I'm here with... Anishinael and Ashby, Kananika'el, Cheney Lopez, and Lia Lopez. Okay, everyone, we got a lot of street noise, so everyone speak up a little bit. Why are you here today? Tell me what's important to you. My ancestry, Hawaiian ancestry. That's why we're here. That's why I'm here today. I'm here to just represent the line of the Hawaiians and just to be proud of our queen and what she's done for our people. Same here, just to get in touch with our roots, understand where we come from as a people and support our queen. It's about remembering the history of Queen Lili'u'okalani and what happened to the overthrow, and now what are we gonna do as people to contribute to bringing back the Hawaiian culture? So in the last 40 years, since the early 1970s, there's been a lot of movement in that direction. Do you think it's enough, or how much more needs to be done, do you think? I think we still need to come together as a community to progress and get more people active in bringing back the legacy, maintaining it, and speaking up for the Hawaiian people. Thoughts? As a student at UH West O'ahu, it's my kuleana to give back to my community, and that's why I'm pursuing my education, to give back to the people and educate them. And from what you've heard today, what's the most inspiring thing that you've heard today? I think just educating our keiki because they're our next generation and for them to understand where they come from and why we do this and for them to carry on the bloodline of Hawaiians. And for you, what do you want people to remember from today? What one message do you think you want people to carry from this palace? Just remembrance of our Hawaiian culture. Any final thoughts? I think it's about coming together again. I've got to talk about that. Having people forget about what's happening around the world, we're one people, we're one ohana, and we need to move forward to ensure that we strive for righteousness in our country. What do you want to see from either the federal government or from the state of Hawaii? Recognizing the Hawaiian kingdom as the people and as the government. How about you? I have the same feeling. I just want to see more support for our people. I want to see support and education and health and community awareness. There's so much to be done, but that's why it's our kuleana to gather together as one, wherever you are in the world, and just know that we're fighting for each other so we can continue our legacy, which is aloha, spread the love. I love hearing that because it's so true. Your final thoughts? If you're Hawaiian and you don't know that you have Hawaiian blood, just understand your culture. Ask your kupuna who you are. And just spread the aloha, same thing, and live it. Yes. Your final thoughts? I agree with Cheney. I think as having Hawaiian ancestry, even if you don't know too much about it, get out there and educate yourself and get involved. Well, I want to thank one and all for coming together and spending time for Think Tech Hawaii. I'm Tim Appachaw. What's on your mind, Hawaii? Aloha. This is Tim Appachaw for What's On Your Mind Hawaii for Think Tech Hawaii. I'm hearing from the Alani Palace and I'm here with Liana and Liana. Tell me what's important for you today and why you're here. Oh, this is an amazing day, 125 years since the illegal overthrow of our kingdom, our queen. This is, her motto was to Onipa'a, to stand firm. And for my kids to get to see this, to witness this, to be around everybody here who loves Hawaii, who loves our land. We're here to remind everyone 125 years, we haven't forgotten, we're still here and in fact, we're stronger than ever. And so that's why we came. We wanted my kids to be a part of this and to be here today and it's so special to see the thousands of people here and everybody's doing it with Aloha. And that's important. We can be angry and all of that, but if we do things with Aloha, we do things right and we're so blessed and thankful to be here today with my family. What do you think the message is that you want people to walk away with here today? I think it's Onipa'a, let's stand firm. Let's stand firm. Let's stand together. We're much stronger together than when we are apart and to do things with Aloha. I hope that that's the message as well. We do things with Aloha. We remember our history. We learn our language, learn our culture. Those are all critical pieces to having a strong identity. And then when our identity is strong, we can build anything from that foundation. Do you think the federal government is on the right path or what would you recommend? What would you like to see from the federal government and the state government? I would love to see them do things right. The fact is the annexation happened under a joint resolution and the joint resolution doesn't have power outside of the borders of the U.S. So it's a very unique situation. I hope that they can do things right, acknowledging that the overthrow was illegal but the annexation also wasn't legal and that the kingdom of Hawaii still exists. We have our people here and we want to be a people who can show the world what Aloha really means. And it's scary. We just had that nuclear threat recently. We would not be getting nuclear threats if we were not occupied by the United States. The kingdom itself was a neutral nation from 1854. And so being a neutral nation would protect us from those types of things. But having the U.S. here and their military base is completely voided. So it's a scary thing for our people. But so we have to persevere. We have to stay strong and we have to do things with Aloha. Well, I don't think that could be any better message than that. So I want to thank you so much. And I'm Tim Apochella in front of the Ilolani Palace. And this is Think Tech Hawaii, Aloha. Aloha. This is Tim Apochella for What's On Your Mind Hawaii for Think Tech Hawaii. And I'm here with Kavika. And Kavika, tell me what's important. What are the issues important to you on this very special day? One of the issues that's important to me and all of us is to get the message out that we're still here. Us Hawaiians are still here and we're still thriving and we've never left. So we're just trying to get the message out that we are not American. We are Hawaiian and we deserve to have our own independent kingdom and nation state. Do you feel the federal government will ever grant you that? I'm not sure if they'll actually grant us that but it's something that we need to push for and we need to strive for as a la hui kanaka. Now you came together here today with all sorts of other Hawaiians that have maybe different ways of how they feel sovereignty should look like and feel like. What about those other Hawaiians that are here today? Well, you know, as any other people, we are a diverse group of people and we all have different viewpoints, you know, but we're all coming together to celebrate this day and remember that we're still here and it's, you know, celebrate the legal occupation of our country and to always continue to fight and be kupua behind our queen, Liliu Okalan. If many years from now, and Hawaii is still part of the United States, part of the federal United States, what other things might you wanna see if that doesn't happen? What other things are important to you? Well, I mean, as soon as we can find a treaty of annexation, that's when I'll claim to be American, you know, but if anybody out there can find a treaty, I'm still, you know, we're all still looking for it. So, until that day, we're just gonna continually fight for what's right. And how do you feel the state of Hawaii is engaged or not engaged with what you think's important? Well, I think they're trying to, right now, I mean, there's a lot of things going on, you know, so they're trying to divert people's attention from the real situation. And so, I don't really think they're really trying to engage it. I mean, they have state-run organizations supposed to be representing the Hawaiian people, supposedly representing the Hawaiian people, but still being under the state. So, it's a lot of diversion and people just need to keep their eye on the prize and stay strong and kupa behind what's right and what's justice for our people, you know? So this is the 125th anniversary of the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarch. What message do you want everyone to leave here with today? The message, I mean, I hope that everybody gets is that, you know, we, I mean, we did this march and we all came together behind our queen and our Laohui as a kingdom and, you know, as a nation state, so we're continually fighting and, you know, just keep fighting and kupa amau. Well, thank you very much for speaking your mind and spending your time here in front of the camera. And I'm Tim Apachele for What's on Your Mind Hawaii, aloha. This is Tim Apachele from Think Tech Hawaii, What's on Your Mind Hawaii? I'm here in front of the Illalani Palace on the 125th anniversary of the Bayonet Constitution and I'm here with Haunani and share with us why you're here today. Aloha, my name is Haunani Chandler and I am so proud to be a Hawaiian, especially today. I am a kupuna now, which means I have to take the leadership to educate our young people about who we are. We can never forget that we are a kingdom and it makes me so proud and my only wish today is that everyone will realize and come together. It should be about unity and everyone should be thinking and doing, you know, what we must to teach and educate our children. And my organization, alohahawaiionipa.org, has done that from three years ago. We decided what can we do? We're very little, we're not large, we can't give out a whole bunch of money, but we can help to support those that are gonna further their education and learn about the process, the legal processes. And so that's all I have to say. Well, I'm gonna ask you a couple of questions. So this is a very emotional day for you? Yes, it is. And my son flew over from Maui, he's very excited also and especially that I really haven't participated in anything like this until about maybe a couple years ago it kind of resurged my pride in being Hawaiian. So I just enrolled myself in classes at the UH, the Kalei Papahi Hawaiian classes so that I can understand, I can speak and I will teach my grandchildren what it was to live in my time but what I heard in my grandmother's time it was probably far worse. So today we have that obligation to teach our children, to educate ourselves and to be right with all people, not just Hawaiians, but all people. What do you want the younger generation to know about what's important for Hawaiians? What do you wanna pass on to them? Well I want them to know that we're still here as kupunas, as the older people. Take care of us, cause we took care of you and also you're gonna have people coming behind you. So look to them, you may be a senior in high school but look to the children in the preschool and guide them and lead them too cause I still need guidance and I would welcome any high school students, anyone who could teach me I welcome you and thank you so much for being here today, we love all of you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us for What's on Your Mind Hawaii. I'm Tim Apachele, your host and we'll see you in a couple weeks. Aloha.