Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 4, 1 April 2006 — Hijacking heritage [ARTICLE]

Hijacking heritage

In KWO' s Malaki 2006 issue, I read bruddah DeBolt's letter to the editor, "Made in Hawai'i." I totally agree with his point. Moreover, I am angered by the attitude of many non-Hawaiians whose position of inclusion has allowed them to tip-toe into other questionable grounds. I recently returned home to Maui for a wedding and observed a bumper sticker on a vehicle driven by a haole that said, "Maui Maoli." This sticker is being distributed by IHOP. On this same trip I saw another haole lady with personalized tags that read "Mauian." These are subliminal yet overt messages that attempt to validate or authenticate their plaee in our land. I was more deeply disturbed when I went swimming and saw a young haole boy flaunting a tātau niho manō in a full-on

armband. When will they know that our culture is not for sale, cannot be hijacked and that any derivative of it does not produce a magical blood quantum. I am Kanaka Maoli; it is unwise to consider me otherwise! Eric Konohia īemple Hills, Maryland