Hawai'i, A Voice for Sovereignty

The Maui Weekly
June 24, 2009

Catherine Bauknight's film invokes Native Hawaiian voices to tell the story of Hawai'i.

Paul Janes-Brown

We all know the story of the annexation of Hawai'i and the arguments for and against sovereignty. We've heard and read about it ad infinitum. However, Catherine Bauknight's film, Hawai'i, A Voice for Sovereignty, which had its world premiere at the Maui Film Festival this past Sunday, brings new insight.

Bauknight, who is also a world-renowned photographer, has produced a documentary that looks at the story with a fresh view and brings bright-eyed enthusiasm to the telling that makes the entire issue completely comprehensible and compelling.

Four years in the making, Bauknight's film has followed the path to its conclusion; however convoluted it became. For example, it took her one-and-a-half years to reach Charles Ka'upu. When she set out to tell the story, she was greeted with skepticism and silence. The Hawaiians were wary of this blue-eyed blonde from Pasadena. They wondered how she might distort their story.

They had nothing to fear. "My goal as a photographer is to enhance the awareness of cultures by enabling them a voice to tell their own story. I research and visually document tradition and ethnology to contribute greater knowledge of the family of man," said Bauknight. She lets the Hawaiians tell their story in their own words, masterfully editing the interviews into a lucid narrative that should be required viewing in every school in the state and on every flight to the islands.

Her telling of the imprisonment of Queen Lili'uokalani and of the attempt by the plantation owners to exterminate the Hawaiians is heartbreaking. The photograph of the murderers imported by the plantation owners to hunt down the Hawaiians is chilling.

She said that the whole process was well worth it, but she was severely tested along the way. "I know there were times when the ancestors were present," she said.

Without indicting anyone speci-fically, she elucidates the land issue, revealing that the Hawaiians loaned land to the plantation owners to grow cane and pineapple, who then stole it. Now that all of the plantations are closed, except here on Maui, it is time for all of that land to revert to its rightful owners, the film boldly declares.

The land issue is central to the film: Who owns the land; what, if any lands should be returned to the Hawaiians; who is a Hawaiian? These questions and others, right up to the Superferry, are all discussed in depth by the various speakers, including Clifford and Iokepa Nae'ole, Charles Kaulu-wehi Maxwell, Sen. J. Kalani English and Attorney Richard McCartyÑall from Maui.

Dennis "Bumpy" Pu'uhonua Kanahele, the Hawaiian nationalist leader and titular head of state of the group, Nation of Hawai'i, and Dr. Haunani-Kay Trask also make statements in the film.

This film presents the issue in all of its complexity, but does not get bogged down in minutiae. It speaks from the heart about the issue of what to do. The music in the film is as sensitive and authentic as the film itself. Featured musicians include Richard Ho'opi'i, George Kahumoku Jr., Willie K and Wilmont Kahaiali'i, among others.

The consequence of the illegal annexation, according to Bauknight's film, is the subjugation and attempted eradication of the Hawaiian culture. A culture defined by the ahupua'a system, which was destroyed when Queen Lili'uokalani was overthrown. Since that time, the film says, Hawai'i has been an occupied colony.

A contingent of U.S. Marines arrived to protect the criminal acts of the euphemistically named "Committee of Safety," which engineered and carried out the overthrow in 1893. To date, the U.S. military has occupied the Hawaiian IslandsÑsome would say, illegally.

The negative consequences of that crime, according to the film, have been reverberating ever since. The film documents the arrests of Hawaiian sovereignty activists and shows how the police are used by the-powers-that-be to subjugate the Hawaiians who choose to assert their rights.

The film also shows that Native Hawaiians "won" their battles on Kaua'i, when the Superferry was effectively prevented from docking, and on Moloka'i, where development is unwanted and has been blocked by the people.

Some of the most heartbreaking images are of homeless Hawaiians forced to live on the beach because "affordable housing" is a myth. These are people with jobs, but housing is too expensive.

The film is a superb compilation of historical facts coupled with Native Hawaiians "talking story." Guy Aina, a Hna fisherman, pointed out that the Hawaiians are very independent people. "They grow their own food and fish. If you give the Hawaiian people back their land, they're going to be able to survive, basically on their own," said Aina. "When you're landless, you're basically nothing, but with land you can do a lot with that. You have more power. You can do what you want.

"You can generate money off your land. So kind of in a big way, that's one of the big reasons why they don't want to give back the land. Because if they do, the Hawaiians are going to say we don't need you; we don't want you here."

For more information, visit www.CatherineBauknight.com.

© Maui Weekly 2007

Original article URL: http://www.mauiweekly.com/2009/06/25/news/Features/hawai_i_a_voice_for_sovereignty/

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