Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 9, Number 7, 1 July 1992 — A Pacific lslander's perspective on "Land, Culture and Development" [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A Pacific lslander's perspective on "Land, Culture and Development"

OHA trustees, along with Facific Island leaders and other members of the Hawaiian eommunity attended a recent conference on the theme "Land, Culture and Development," at the Kapalua Pacific Center on Maui. An eloquent presentation of a Pacific Islander's perspective on the challenge Pacific cultures face was made by Ezekiel Alebua, former Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands. OHA Trustee Moanikeala Akaka, who attended Alebua's speech found many similarities with the challenges Native Hawaiians have faced and still face today. Alebua states: "For thousands of years, our ancestors lived out their inter-connectedness with the natural world. Throughout our lives we are nourished and sheltered by this world's goodness. We are born, grow and live within a complex of closely interrelated systems. Nature is our living home. Our existence and quality of life depend on nature and nature depends on people who with intelligence protect and improve it. "The earth is, together with its resources, the patrimony of humanity. It is a heritage that we received, that we must administer with justice and equity and that we must hand on to our heirs not destroyed but, on the contrary, replenished. "Our traditional values have emphasized a sacred interdependence within the natural order. It was recognized that land did not belong to the people, and that rather the people belong to the land. Our people's traditional totems and similar linkages to fish, birds, animals, trees, sacred mountains, lakes and rocks are but an expression of their profound and conscious relationships with the natural order. "To our ancestors, the whole world is within the horizon. They refer to themselves as "people of the land" and not land of the people. To

them, and also to us today, land occupies a complex social, cultural, religious and psychological role. "However, this view of nature and the relationship of humans within it, is challenged today by a spirit of utility whieh views the earth as property to be used, and so we face the future possibility of serious damage, and even the collapse of, our increasingly burdened environment. "We human beings are only beneficiaries, administrators, improvers and stewards of this eommon patrimony whieh is the earth with its resources. and we must Derform these roles

with unselfishness and intelligence. "I believe this summation of how people feel and regard their land would be equally true and the same throughout the Pacific islands..." OHA Trustee Akaka agreed with Alebua, saying "Here in Hawai'i our traditional philosophy of aloha 'aina also

makes us, as Hawaiians, stewards and protectors of the 'aina for the present and future generations. This is true of 'Native Peoples' everywhere." Alebua continues, "One ean predict that as land acquires increased eeonomie value as a source of ineome generation in the money economy, pressures for increased opportunities for acquisition and alienahon will mount. . ." OHA Trustee Akaka cited Hawaii's past as a "blatant example of that scenario." She said "The Mahele of 1848 made the 'aina private _ continued on page 8

Moanikeala Akaka

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Pacific lslander perspective

property, allowed foreigners to own land and began the mass alienation of our people from the 'aina. Today many Hawaiians struggle to pay high rents, mortgages and cost of living; 67 percent of the homeless are Hawaiians." Alehua addressed the impact of development on traditional culture, saying, "We have often referred to 'culture' as an issue of the past and not part of ourselves. We tend to discuss preservation of cultures as museum pieces or tourist attractions. It is worrying that many of these

rich values are disappearing quickly as we aggressively search for modernization. "While the world is constantly in the process of renewal, the present remains the road between the past and the future. We are undergoing revolutions at all levels of our being — eeonomie, technological and social, as well as intellectual, psychological and cultural. We are societies being forced into new dimensions of thought, perception and actjon by the pressures of new relationships, new tools and techniques and new awareness of eommunieahon. "The point to address here is that all these changes are material and intended to enhanee better living. These changes should not mean

discarding our more civilized and rich cultural values — values that enable us to live with and for eaeh other as humans, values not aimed at monetary gains and amassing wealth. How ean we preserve all these good values? "To us, 'development' carries a sense of greater well-being and wider ehoiee of way of life, higher standard of living, more evenly spread through society, more self-reliance in food production and capital investment, better health, education and access to eeonomie opportunities. "These are all positive, warm sounding meanings of 'development,' and they are the images that most politicians and planners want to put into our minds when they say the magic word. But we don't have to look very far to find a downside, a less comfortable aspect of development, i.e., the social impacts and eeonomie cost of the development process. "Environmental damage, and the social and financial costs of pollution, are high on the agenda in most South Pacific countries. The social downside of development includes the growth of open unemployment and malnutrition in urban areas, psychological enslavement to foreign aid, technology and inappropriate materials standards, the spread of corruption of officials and politicians and the divisive effect of say, controversial concessions on the rural eommunities it involves. "Historians tell us that the modern age began with the will to freedom of the individual. And the individual eame to believe that he has the rights with no corresponding obligations. The man who got ahead was the one who eommanded admiration. No questions were asked to the methods employed, or the price whieh others had had to pay. Industrial civilization has promoted the concept of the efficient man, he whose entire energies are concentrated on producing as mueh as possible in a given unit of time and from a given unit of manpower. Groups or individuals who are less competitive and, according to this test, less efficient, are regarded as lesser breeds — for example, the older civilizations, the black and brown peoples, women and certain professions. Obsolescence is built into productions, and efficiency is based on the creation of goods whieh are not really needed, and whieh cannot be disposed of when dis-

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Pacific lslander perspective

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carded. "All the 'isms' of the modern age — even those whieh in theory disown the private profit principle — assume that man's cardinal interest is in acquisition. The profit motive, individual or collective, seems to overshadow all else. We are supposed to belong to the same family, sharing eommon traits and impelled by the same basic desires, yet we inhabit a divided world. "How ean it be otherwise? There is still no recognition of the equality of man, or respect for him as an individual. In matter of color and race, religion and custom, society is governed by prejudice. Tensions arise because of man's aggressiveness and his notions of superiority. The power of the big stick prevails, and it is used not in favor of fair play or beauty, but to chase imaginary windmills — to assume the right to interfere in the affairs of others, and to abrogate authority for actions that would not normally be aIlowed. Many of the advanced countries of today have reached their present affluence through domination of other races and countries, and exploitation of their own masses and their own natural resources. Their sheer

ruthlessness, undisturbed by feelings of compassion or by abstract theories of freedom, equality or justice, gave them a head start. The first stirrings for poliheal rights for the citizen, and eeonomie rights for the toiler, eame after considerable advance had been made. The riches and the labour of the colonized countries played no smal^ part in the industrialization and prosperity of the West. "Today most of the island countries of the Pacific are being invaded by regiments of eonsultants on appropriate technologies, environmental conservations, sustainable development and women in development. There is always funding for the consultancy services, but unfortunately funds to cover the actual projects are not easy to eome by. We have had consultants who visited our country and said they wanted 50,000 cubic meters of timber from us, but they don't agree with our method of harvesting. When asked if they would be willing to help with the technology, their answer was, 'No, we want the timber harvested as we suggested.'" Alebua concludes, "This kind of attitude in itself is a new development to us — confusion." OHA's Akaka points out "We have mueh to leam from our Pacific Island brothers and sisters as they from us and our experiences of Hawai'i nei. Prime Minister Alebua fears for his land, we have experienced and to some degree survived. Our environment has been ravaged, our people shackled and alienated. As we search for acceptable solutions, let us not underrate the strength inherent in our ancestors, gods and Polynesian persp>ective. We must teach others how to live in an environment of harmony and peaee."