As part of ongoing efforts to support community-led organizations working to advance disaster housing recovery in Maui in the aftermath of recent catastrophic wildfires, the NLIHC-led Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition (DHRC) – a group of over 900 organizations working to ensure that all disaster survivors receive the assistance they need to fully recover – has released a cultural and sovereignty resource guide for organizations working or planning to work on Maui recovery. The guide, authored by members of the DHRC’s Hawaiʻi Fires Working Group, contains several resources to assist organizations in centering the historical and present understanding of Hawaiʻian sovereignty in the context of Native Hawaiʻian culture.
The Hawaiʻian sovereignty movement has existed since the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893, which ended the Royal Hawaiʻian Kingdom and established the territory, and later state, of Hawaiʻi. Since that time, numerous groups have pushed for a restoration of sovereignty, self-determination, and self-governance for Native Hawaiʻians. This effort began to achieve political and cultural traction in the 1980s thanks to the work of Native Hawaiʻi activists in the 1960s and 1970s, which coincided with the Indigenous activist movements in other Indigenous communities across the country. Like any social movement, different groups working to advance Native Hawaiʻian sovereignty may have different short-term objectives or focuses, but all point to the necessity of political self-determination of Native Hawaiʻians and view issues plaguing native communities, such as homelessness, poverty, and economic marginalization, as a result of the removal of sovereignty and an eradication of native traditions.
An understanding of a community’s culture, social norms, and its legacy of oppression, colonialism, imperialism, and systemic racism, is pivotal to any effort to achieve a just recovery for that community. The legacy of U.S. colonialism, imperialism, and disenfranchisement that has occurred on Maui from the point of western contact with Native Hawaiʻians through today is central to the story of recovery currently being written. Indeed, the catastrophic wildfires of 2023 were themselves a product of that legacy of plantation agriculture, deforestation, and eradication of cultural traditions.
This understanding is doubly important when outside organizations seek to support community-based organizations in achieving this goal. To that end, the new guidebook can serve as a jumping off point to ensure that outside organizations are respecting the historical and cultural traditions of the community they are assisting.
Read the guide at: https://bit.ly/3F7SzRo