"The Hawaiians, Reflecting Spirit" film


I watched the new Edgy Lee documentary "The Hawaiians, Reflecting Spirit" on channel 2 tonight. I thought it was well done. In an hour it managed to give a pretty good and touching summation of Hawaii's history and culture, with some good facts that I find so fascinating, like Hawaii having the highest literacy rate in the world only 20 years after acquiring the written language. Lee received major support from OHA, and Keiki noted in the comments of a previous entry that Lee supports the Akaka bill, and when she interviewed Sen. Akaka I was afraid the film was going to end up pushing the bill, but thankfully she avoided that and only made a brief mention of "self-governance." Anyone else see it? What did you think?

UPDATE: One thing that struck me when I was watching it was the information about Hawaiian homelands blood quantum. I had heard this before, how blood quantum came to be, but this time I made a connection with the Akaka bill today.

Kuhio went to Washington and tried to do something to help his people, but he never suggested a blood quantum. When it was suggested by others in Congress, he offered 1/32. And it ended up 1/2, intentionally because it was thought that Native Hawaiians would die off and soon there would be none left to qualify, and the land would transfer to private interests. And only the worst land was provided, and then even those who did qualify were not placed on the land.

Is there a parallel today? Akaka, like Kuhio a Native Hawaiian in Congress, tries to do something that he thinks will be positive for his people within the American system (giving him the benefit of the doubt about his intentions). But in the process it is amended in substantial ways (by people like the Federalist Society lawyers at the Department of Interior and now his colleagues in the Senate) that are contrary to the interest of the people supposed to benefit. Sound familiar?


Posted: Tue - March 15, 2005 at 11:00 PM    
   
 
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Published On: Dec 27, 2005 10:12 PM
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