From a press release:
Savant Books and Publications of Honolulu, Hawaii, is pleased to announce the release of Mike Farris’s new Hawaiian thriller, Kanaka Blues.
When her mentor disappears in Hawaii while investigating native Hawaiian sovereignty claims for the U.S. Senate, law professor Erin Hanna goes to the islands to look for him. After his body is found near Molokini island, Erin realizes the only way to find his killer is to recreate his investigation. The police have focused on an outlaw sovereignty leader as the likeliest suspect, but Erin believes he is being set up by the real killers. Banding together with him, she finds herself running for her life across the islands with a direct descendant of Kamehameha the Great.
“Kanaka Blues is more than a murder-mystery,” says Farris, “just as Hawaiian sovereignty is more than merely an academic debate. It’s a flesh and blood struggle by Native Hawaiians to find and hold onto their history, their language, their land, and their identity. Even before President Clinton signed the Apology Resolution in 1993, apologizing for the role of the United States in the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy a century earlier, sovereignty was a hot-button issue in the islands. While I was writing this, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act (also known as the Akaka Bill), which is the model for the novel’s Hasegawa Bill, was working its way through the United States Senate. Kanaka Blues is a great introduction to Hawaii, sovereignty, and the inherently human question of who we really are in this increasingly complex, rapidly-blending world.”
Mahalo for the post about my novel “Kanaka Blues.” I hope the story will raise awareness of Hawaiian sovereignty on the mainland.
Once again (finally?), Hawaiian Sovereignty is about Hawaiian Nationals/Citizens who pledge allegiance to the Kingdom of Hawai’i. “Native” Hawaiians comprise just one such group of peoples. Independence is for all!
Aloha,
Yes, yes, yes! Ken Ng is right! How long do we have to live with muddy waters till it’s clear that what was overthrown in 1893 is an independent Nation, the Constitutional Monarchy the Kingdom of Hawai’i with international standing and treaties with England, France, Russia, USA, and many more. It was NOT an overthrow of a person, though her Majesty felt it most bitterly and she courageously and brilliantly protested the overthrow of her government. The doctrine of Estopple is now in place! I love a good read but lets get the issues straight. Hey, and here’s a thought, perverse one at that, why doesn’t the United States of America annex Iraq with a joint resolution of Congress??? They’d get the oil, depose whomever wins the election, setup a Provisional Government, ignore formal protests…they did it to the Kingdom of Hawai’i in the 19th century what’s stopping them from doing it again 115 years later? There’s an American war going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, just like there was the Spanish American war going on then…..why not?…then again I wonder why not. And, Mahalo hou to the HIB and Ken!
I appreciate these comments. Obviously I’m an outsider and not nearly as versed in the issues, but I’m learning and hope that you’ll read the novel, then let me hear from you. The novel makes no pretense of being an all-encompassing discussion of the issue — it’s a murder mystery, designed to be a so-called “beach read” — but I hope it will at least raise awareness on the mainland of the issues relating to sovereignty. As a lawyer, I can appreciate that the topic has more facets than one might imagine.
In the novel, there is a fictional Senate bill, called the Hasegawa Bill, that is loosely based on the Akaka Bill. At one point, our protagonist Erin Hanna discusses the bill with a sovereignty leader. When Erin asks if the leader supports the bill, she is told: “Let’s see, if we accept the bill, that means we acknowledge that the United States has authority over us. It means we give up our claims to full sovereignty and accept whatever the United States has to offer — a facade of sovereignty and a puppet government answerable to the Department of the Interior and the State of Hawaii. You’re a smart woman, Miss Hanna. You tell me: Am I for it or against it?”
Later, after completing the work of her murdered mentor, Erin Hanna testifies before the U.S. Senate’s Committee on Indian Affairs. She tells them in her opening statement: “Captain James Cook first stepped foot on Hawaiian soil on January 21, 1778. Less than one hundred years later, the population of native Hawaiians had been reduced by ninety percent, killed off by the white man’s diseases to which they had no immunities. But at least the Hawaiians had their land, their kingdom, and their identity as a people. Until, that is, in its frenzy of manifest destiny, the United States determined that Hawaii, with its strategic Pearl Harbor, should be American territory. And so, with the aid and support of United States troops, American revolutionaries overthrew the Kingdom of Hawaii, imprisoned her queen, and set up a provisional government.
“Five years later, in 1898, the United States annexed Hawaii as its own territory. President Grover Cleveland told a joint session of Congress, ‘Hawaii is ours. As I look back upon the first steps in this miserable business, and as I contemplate the means used to complete the outrage, I am ashamed of the whole affair.’
“Well, Senators, I’m ashamed too.”
Mahalo for the clarification and reminding me that you’re writing a murder mystery, it’s just difficult to separate many times the outrage I feel and intellectual grasp I have, so far, on the Overthrow that I can’t see it any other way than a travesty against a Nation. Sort of like writing a murder mystery set in France during the Nazi occupation…and that the Germans were still there! And, I’m French reading it. Nevertheless, I’ll certainly look for your book. And please don’t take offense if myself and others get our lavalava’s in a twist. Aloha to you….
Mahalo for your reply. I certainly don’t take offense. I don’t pretend to fully understand and appreciate the many facets of the issue, but I do appreciate your passion. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the book.