Disappeared News

First, please read Murals and the hydraulic theory of oppression (9/18/13). This article was intended to bring some of the discussions of the 1980’s and 1990’s into 2014 Hawaii. Oppression, and its effects, are nothing new in either the academic or popular literature, but we seem to be in denial that anything like that applies here in the “aloha” state.

Perhaps state legislators, though, do understand a thing or two.

Next, gaze upon the front pages of yesterday’s and today’s Star-Advertiser:

The

Nearly three decades after signing 99-year leases with the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, several dozen homesteaders in this arid and isolated region of the Big Island still are waiting for the agency to deliver the one thing critical to their ranching and farming lots: water.

They're also waiting for DHHL to subdivide the land.

Without a completed subdivision, the 36 homesteaders do not have tax map keys showing the precise boundaries for their leasehold lots.

Without tax map keys, they have been unable to get county permits or general financing to build homes on the property, although a few have done so anyway.

[Star-Advertiser p. A1, Big Island homesteaders still waiting on DHHL, 3/2/2014]

Note that the state has failed its obligations for “nearly three decades after signing 99-year leases.”

From today’s article:

Big Island rancher Daryl Kaluau Sr. spends several hours each week filling his tanker truck and hauling 6,000 gallons of water to the hillside pasture he’s leasing from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Even though the lease was awarded more than a quarter-century ago, the department can’t say when it will get water service to Kaluau’s lot or to 23 other pastoral homesteads in South Point.

[Star-Advertiser p. A1, Land beneficiaries struggle in arid conditions, 3/3/2014]

Don’t miss the “quarter-century ago” part. It’s key to understanding that the State of Hawaii continues to deny state and federal obligations to Native Hawaiians on an ongoing basis even up to today.

These and other failures were front and center in the The Kalima v. State of Hawaii class action case that was filed in 1999 in Circuit Court. I wrote about the case in Hawaiian Homestead case scheduled to resume Friday in Circuit Court (8/30/2012). It was filed by public interest attorneys Thomas Grande and Carl M. Varady and argued all the way to the state Supreme Court and back. From the attorneys’ web page:

The trial for the liability portion of Subclass 1, Waiting List, started on August 4, 2009.  The trial ended on September 11, 2009.  Approximately three weeks later, on November 3, 2009, Judge Eden Hifo rendered her written decision and ruled that the State of Hawaii breached its trust obligations and was liable for the delays in receiving homesteads by the beneficiaries. …

Despite the decision in 2009, the case is still being argued—the state is doing anything in its power to avoid settling for damages. The newspapers largely ignored the case. Even in the Star-Advertiser’s excellent series on the problems with the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, there was no mention of the case. I did email the reporter, and some time later the paper ran a separate series on the Kalima trial. The trial exposed the stories of beneficiaries who waited decades to receive their land—in many, many cases, they were to old at that point to farm, or retired and so could not qualify to build a home on their lot. And many of the lots were unsuitable to have been given to beneficiaries in the first place, or they were not allowed to get to “their” land.

Irene Cordeiro-Vierra applied in 1984 and lived on the beach for much of her wait.

"Now I am 82 years old, I get letters from Hawaiian Homestead now saying I have homes you can apply for, I am not capable anymore," said Cordeiro-Vierra.

The points I would like to take away from Kalima are that not only is the oppression continuing, but the state legislature has not taken action to fix the problems. The waiting lists continue, people die before receiving their land, and when they get something, it is often no good, as these recent articles demonstrate.

The responsibility to fulfill trust obligations to Native Hawaiians was accepted at the time of statehood, and cannot be simply dismissed.

Returning for a moment to Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, the paper from which the opening pull-quote was taken,  it’s a question of privilege to be able to ignore the customs and experiences of those of a different race or culture.