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Hawaiian Sovereignty (5 of 5)
I considered the judicial system but was quickly convinced that even that branch was dedicated more to the preservation of the status quo rather than searching for and bringing about the justice belonging to us. I was constantly returned to the fact that we never gave up our nation, we never chose to become Americans, and we never conceded absolute surrender to the United States. We were enslaved in a form different from the Africans but in essence the same. Our liberties as a free people were no longer practiced. Our harbors were blocked. Immigration and trade policies were determined by a foreign congress. Twenty-five percent of our lands were occupied by American military.
I eventually concluded that the United States' equation for justice was merely an economic and military one containing no consideration for the survival of the Hawaiian race and culture. The sooner they could eradicate the Hawaiian people and rewrite Hawaii's story, the safer these occupiers would be. Since then, I have been trying to rip this American mask branded upon me through these years of brainwashing.
The treasures that I and my children should inherit from all these cultures in Hawaii, indeed, which every child of any ancestry should inherit by the fact that they and their spirits have been ingrained in Hawaii, could not survive in this environment of repression.
We can no longer tolerate this situation for it is bringing certain death to our national life and our cultural birthrights.
The Sovereignty for Hawaii Committee is dedicated to fight with all our might for the survival of our nation, for our birthrights as a free and independent people, able to determine our own destiny. Nothing short of sovereignty is our only goal for to accept anything less is to succumb to their control over our destiny.
More and more often we hear the following prayer:
0 Ke Akua,
Return to us our face,
Give us the strength to rip this American mask from our flesh,
Give us the strength to reclaim what is ours, our Sovereignty,
Let us be Hawaiians in our own lands.
Amene
Poka Laenui August 16, 1982
Poka Laenui (Hayden Burgess) is an attorney and activist in the Sovereignty for Hawaii Committee.
