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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 12:14 p.m., Wednesday, January 15, 2003

Hawaiians rally at Capitol for recognition

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

About 1,000 people ­ busloads of schoolchildren, elders in wheelchairs and groups carrying flags and placards ­ today braved gusty winds and a downpour for a march around the Capitol demanding control of ceded lands from the state and recognition of Hawaiian nationhood from the federal government.

The rally, sponsored by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, is part of Na 'Oiwi 'Olino, OHA's program aimed at educating Hawaiians and the general public about the nationhood campaign. It's also one of the events in this week's "Living Nation" observance marking the 110th anniversary of the Hawaiian monarchy overthrow.

The event began with a gathering at 'Iolani Palace, where the assembly ­ many of them delayed in this morning's weather-related traffic jams ­ donned T-shirts and arm bands. More than 800 shirts were distributed, organizers said, and people kept asking for more.

Some of them took the opportunity to enroll in OHA's Hawaiian Registry at a booth next to the bandstand, or fill out surveys on their views on sovereignty that were handed out.

Then the speeches began. Victoria Holt Takamine, president of the 'Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition of Hawaiian cultural and political groups, contrasted the Living Nation observance with the centennial of Korean immigration also being celebrated this week.

"We forget that we're celebrating 1,500 years of our people coming to this land," Takamine said. "Our people migrated here in 500 A.D., and the second wave came in 1000. Nobody has that history but us."

Myron Thompson, son of the late Myron "Pinky" Thompson, former Kamehameha Schools trustee, said Hawaiians today are enduring an assault comparable to the overthrow.

"The weapon is different, but the reasons are the same," Thompson said. "The primary weapon now is the courts, but the reasons are greed, power and control by a small group of people for their own personal gain."

Frenchy DeSoto, one of the original OHA trustees, expressed mixed emotions about the rally: pleasure in the company and frustration that such occasions still need to happen.

"Tears come to my eyes as we continually do this," DeSoto said. "We come together in a rally. We make half commitments to lokahi (work together).

"We're in a crisis," she added. "So many years, and still we are on our knees, begging for some kind of recognition, begging for what's rightfully ours, and always we turn the other cheek."

She told everyone to expand their involvement beyond the T-shirt and armband level if anything is to be accomplished.

"After 110 years, we're still marching," DeSoto said. "Is that what we want for our children's children?"

The group practiced a mele newly composed for the occasion, but the traditional protest favorite, "I Ku Mau Mau" ("Stand Together"), became the chant of choice on the march. The crowd circled the rotunda and chanted some more around the central mosaic before the heavens opened up and the rain threatened to scatter the crowd.

Most of them stayed.

"We stand in the rain, we stand in the sun, we will stand for 100 years," said Lilikala Kame'eleihiwa, director of the University of Hawai'i Center for Hawaiian Studies. "We want our land, we want our country, we want our government."