Native Hawaiian

Gov. David Ige’s most recent judicial appointment to the Hawaiʻi Intermediate Court of Appeals is prompting questions about the role of experience and diversity in decision making.

Any progress in fulfilling the promise of the 1921 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act has not been driven by the government, but by lawsuits—Native Hawaiian beneficiaries suing over breaches of trust, chronic underfunding, and use of lands without consent or compensation.

The 1921 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act created a land trust for those who can prove they’re at least half Native Hawaiian. But how do you prove it? And what happens if your kids don’t qualify?

Ceremonies commemorated the centennial of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, signed into law by President Warren Harding on July 9, 1921. The Act created a homesteading program for Native Hawaiians, whose population at the time was rapidly declining due to disease and displacement following the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

For some Native Hawaiians, surfing’s Olympic debut is both a celebration of a cultural touchstone invented by their ancestors, and an extension of the racial indignities seared into the history of the game and their homeland.

The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was passed 100 years ago Friday. To mark the anniversary, The Conversation hosted a call-in show with the director of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands William Aila, chairwoman of the Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations Robin Danner, and Honolulu attorney Tom Grande, who successfully sued the state over mismanagement of Hawaiian lands.

The Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was passed 100 years ago Friday. To mark the anniversary, The Conversation hosted a call-in show with the director of the Department of Hawaiian Homelands William Aila, chairwoman of the Sovereign Council of Hawaiian Homestead Associations Robin Danner, and Honolulu attorney Tom Grande, who successfully sued the state over mismanagement of Hawaiian lands.

Festivities are planned this month to mark the 100th anniversary of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. The law, passed my Congress in 1921, set aside 200,000 acres of land across the islands for Native Hawaiians. Over the past century, nearly 10,000 Native Hawaiians have been awarded homestead lots, and more than 28,000 are still waiting.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources was notified of serious vandalism on the Olowalu Petroglyphs on Maui last week.

The Hawaiian sovereignty movement has lost one of its most influential leaders. Haunani-Kay Trask, a longtime University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa educator and the first director of the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, died Saturday at the age of 71. UH Mānoa political science professor Noelani Goodyear-Kaʻōpua and former student of Trask discusses her impact.