Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 7, 1 July 2007 — No surrender to those who twist the meoning of discrimination [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

No surrender to those who twist the meoning of discrimination

David Rosen, along with others of the same mind set - William Burgess, Ken Conklin, John Goemans, and Eric Grant, to name a few - refuse to admit that it is the Hawaiian people who have been discriminated against since the arrival of Captain James Cook in 1778, and this discrimination has continued for over 200 years! With colonization of the Western World, all indigenous people of those lands have suffered cultural, eeonomie, and population genocide. Indigenous people of larger continents were "relocated" to make way for the new arrivals; Native Hawaiians, however, had nowhere to go. With the arrival of eolonizers, our language was suppressed, our cultural practices went underground, and our population was nearly obliterated by foreign diseases. When Captain Cook arrived on our shores, our population numbered approximately one million Hawaiians, and when Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop died in 1884, our Hawaiian population had diminished to less than 50,000. Westerners, upon their arrival, oeeupied and confiscated lands that onee provided the Hawaiians with strong and healthy cultural and eeonomie eommunities for their people. Immediately thereafter, as they influenced the ali'i, the Native Hawaiian eeonomie structure, religion, language, and population were slowly dismantled and destroyed. The ali'i, recognizing the fate of their people, began to organize and will legacies for their people in an effort to provide for and, hopefully, save them. Today, we see the fruits of their work for their people: Queen Emma founded The Queen's Hospital; Queen Kapi'olani left her legacy for Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children, King Lunalilo willed his land for the elderly at Lunalilo Home; Queen Lili'uokalani created Lili'uokalani Trust for the Queen Lili'uokalani Children's Center that

serves orphaned and indigent Hawaiian children; and, finally, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop left her legacy of the Kamehameha Schools for the education of Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian children. History tells of the genocide of the Hawaiian people beginning with the arrival of Captain Cook; today, there are some whose ancestors are not the indigenous people of this land and who continue the battle to take what belongs to the Hawaiian people. As they continue to ehip away at what Hawaiians have left, they cry "race" so that they may justify their actions. They cry "race" as they try to take away Hawaiian programs and to divide these ali'i trusts amongst "all the people of Hawai'i." Mr. Rosen and those like him, along with their army of lawyers, continue to play the race card and encourage others "wronged" by the recipients of programs left for them - the Hawaiian people - to join them in their cause. Mr. Rosen and those like him continue to rewrite history so as to justify their actions. They speak about "sharing the culture" and wonder out loud about the "aloha spirit." What they fail to acknowledge is that the culture they want so badly to "share" is the culture of the indigenous people of this land, and they are merely spectators, for they will never really understand the culture like the Native Hawaiians understand it. What they fail to acknowledge is that the "aloha spirit" is the spirit of the Hawaiian people. Without Hawaiians, there would be no aloha spirit. Mr. Rosen and his colleagues, with their cry to "share the culture and traditions," may sound niee and inelusive, but in truth they really want to repeat historical events. Their continued onslaught of the ali'i trusts and the legacy left by our Hawaiian monarchy only proves that they are not satisfied to just "share"; they want to "take." Though their legal battles will eontinue, they will never destroy the spirit of our Hawaiian people, for we will never surrender to them or their sense of "justice." Note: Trustee Stender's commentary also appeared in the June 1 edition of the Honolulu Advertiser. S

ūz Stender TrustEE, At-largE