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A New Word and a New Cause

Kristen J

First a new word. Kama’aina. Pronounced like this. It means, essentially child of the land referring in this instance to residents of Hawaii.

I’m attempting to add this word to the social justice lexicon, because too often the residents of Hawaii are conflated with Hawaiians. This isn’t just a pet peeve on my part (although, yes, I find it highly annoying), its also a political problem.

Hawaiians are the indigenous people of Hawaii. Their culture was almost obliterated by disease brought by Captain Cook and his expedition, then by western exploitation and religious conversion, then by theft of their land, and more recently by poverty and neglect (pdf). Its a familiar story no doubt, but one that deserves your attention.

Today, a significant percentage of Hawaiians are homeless (pdf), living on beaches in temporary tent cities that are torn down from time to time to accommodate the tourist industry. Thousands more live in overcrowded conditions while thousands of acres set aside for their use are left empty because the U.S. government failed to provide the basic infrastructure necessary to access the land.*

But Hawaiians are seeking justice in their own ways. Some wanted a formal apology from the U.S. government which was given in 1993. Others seek a change in status similar to that provided to certain other indigenous people of the U.S. (the so called “Akaka Bill“). Still others seek the return of their lands and the recognition of the sovereign Nation of Hawaii.**

Since I am Kama’aina, but not Hawaiian, I express no opinion on what plan provides the best solution, but encourage you to listen to the stories of the Hawaiian people and respect their decisions about what is best.

Which brings me back to *why* this distinction between Kama’aina is so important. When the residents of Hawaii were asked whether they supported the Akaka Bill some percentage said yes and some percentage said no. But this was reported by some as a poll of Hawaiians and used as a rhetorical tool by some republicans to undermine the Akaka Bill.

This is unacceptable. To have your nation stolen. Your culture and language nearly decimated. And your people evicted from their makeshift homeless shelters. And then, as if that weren’t enough, to have people co-opt your voice for their political ends denying your very existence.

Fuck that.

What can you do? Well you listen to the voices of Hawaiians talking about the issues that are vital to them. You can support Sovereignty in whatever form the Hawaiians choose for themselves. And, you can remember that the people who currently occupy Hawaii are not Hawaiian. That name belongs to a people who have endured and deserve our continued respect.

*The history linked here is very much a white washed version of the truth. Its hard to find online sources of Hawaiian history that reflect the stories told in the islands about their history.
**Hawaiians are not a monolith and there are some who do not support the sovereignty movement at all.

16 thoughts on A New Word and a New Cause

  1. I can’t believe you’re actually trying to get people to use kamaaina. You are my favorite person.

  2. You have no idea how surprised I was to see Kama’aina brought up here. Hawai’i has so many issues that are so specific to the islands, people , and history that you rarely see it brought up for a larger audience. I am like you, where I am a Kama’aina but not Hawaiian, and I agree it is a very important distinction to make when talking about Hawaiian issues.

  3. As an ethnic Hawaiian now living in Seattle, who once had to roll my eyes at a white guy who claimed Hawaiian ancestry based solely on an equally white grandfather who was born in a navy base on Oahu, I applaud your push for adding Kama’aina to the lexicon.

  4. You are making an error. Kama’aina applies to those born in the islands, not to malihini newcomers such as yourselves. And we Hawaiians do not want the Akaka Bill.

  7. This is an interesting and important topic, and many outside the island or those who haven’t been here long don’t really appreciate the way words are used here.

    Kama’aina literally means “child land” or child of the land so it implies being born here, but sometimes it is used more loosely to mean resident, or maybe long-time resident. But means native-born.

    “Hawaiian” means indigenous Native Hawaiian to those who live here, which is often misunderstood and misused because it is not like other “states”. But in the Kingdom, it meant any Hawaiian subject, which included people of many races who had immigrated to Hawaii or were born here to immigrant parents. These were Hawaiian subjects/citizens with full political rights and protections. That’s what Hawaiian included when Hawaii was a fully recognized independent country. It was about nationality, not race.

    “Kanaka Maoli” today means anyone with Hawaiian ancestry, but in the Kingdom census it was used to refer to pure Hawaiians, as distinguished from “Hapa” or mixed Hawaiians.

    “Malihini” is another useful word. Stranger, foreigner, newcomer, tourist, guest, company; one unfamiliar with a place or custom.

    Me, I’m really none of the above. I’m not Hawaiian, by blood or nationality. Definitely not Kanaka Maoli. I’m not really Kama’aina because I wasn’t born here. But I’m not Malahini because I’ve been here too long to be a newcomer.

    So I call myself an immigrant.

  8. I first learned about this while living in Hawaii. It is nice to see it brought to the attention of people on the mainland. So many people are unaware of the issues affecting Hawaiian people. It’s as though Hawaii is out of sight, out of mind. I had never seen homelessness until I lived there, and I lived on the Gulf coast a year post Katrina.

  9. Scott Crawford: Me, I’m really none of the above. I’m not Hawaiian, by blood or nationality. Definitely not Kanaka Maoli. I’m not really Kama’aina because I wasn’t born here. But I’m not Malahini because I’ve been here too long to be a newcomer. So I call myself an immigrant.

    Your comment is interesting. You don’t call yourself “American even though you live in a stateof America, does that mean on some way Americans in Hawai’i admit it isn’t part of America?

    Doesn’t hapa man all mixed people, eg 1/2 white, 1/2 Fillipin@ etc? I don’t speak Hawaiian but hapa doesn’t mean 1/2 in any Polynesian language I know. In my language hapa means crooked, or to be omitted/passed over, that will be appropriate if the Akaka bill passes.

  10. JohnKSmith:
    And we Hawaiians do not want the Akaka Bill.

    John brings up a good point. In case I wasn’t a hundred percent clear above, Hawaiians are not monolith. Some Hawaiians support the Akaka Bill and believe it will help ease some of the problems facing Hawaiians. Others believe that the bill would undermine the effort to regain possession of the islands.

  11. You seem to have good intentions so I’m really suprised by your comments. The Akaka bill undermines Hawai’ian sovereignty and forces Kanaka Maoli to validate the illegal American coup. More than that it enforces the American “blood quantum” system which excludes Hawai’ians with “impure” blood in order to reduce their demographic, alienate them from native rights, including land rights, and accelearate assimilation. It is basically a scam to break Hawaiian culture and steal more land from people no longer catagorised as Indigenous. This is exactly what is done to Indigenous people in the USA. You say the bill provides “status similar to that provided to certain other indigenous people of the U.S.” that is exctly true, that’s the problem! The “status provided” to Indigenous people in America is not a good thing. The majority of Kanaka Maoli don’t support this bill.

    J Kehalani Kauanui and Keanu Sai have both written about this. I recommend them to anybody interested.

  12. Kristen J: John brings up a good point. In case I wasn’t a hundred percent clear above, Hawaiians are not monolith. Some Hawaiians support the Akaka Bill and believe it will help ease some of the problems facing Hawaiians. Others believe that the bill would undermine the effort to regain possession of the islands.

    Some believe the conditions are encouraged by the state in order to force Kanaka Maoli to accept the deal that best suits the colonisers.

    1. @heahahoki

      Absolutely. I wasn’t trying to represent the breadth of opinion but simply introduce the issue and direct people to Hawaiian voices.

      As you can see, a lot of people in this blogosphere did not know that Hawaiian referred to indigenous people of Hawaii.

  13. Jennifer:
    As an ethnic Hawaiian now living in Seattle, who once had to roll my eyes at a white guy who claimed Hawaiian ancestry based solely on an equally white grandfather who was born in a navy base on Oahu, I applaud your push for adding Kama’aina to the lexicon.

    I think we’ve probably run into the same dude and his clones. I hear something like that every time I mention being *from* Hawaii. Also, some stupid joke about leis…har, har. I hope the kharma fairy poops on all their heads.

  14. And to complete the serial commenting trend.

    If anyone has additional links/resources to share (other than history denying bullshit), please feel free to include them here. My connections to the Hawaiian Sovereignty movement are through family and friends rather than the internet and I’ve found it amazingly difficult to find blogs and other online resources that are not connected to the tourism industry.

  15. YES! I’m a transplant to O’ahu (studying social work!!!), but my boyfriend and his family are all kama’ainas, dating back to plantation and paniolo days. Thank you, thank you, thank you for writing about this here. Made my day to see it on Feministe.

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