The Kauai Alliance of Peace and Social Justice, the Kauai Coalition, Ho‘okipa Network and Na Kupuna o Manokalanipo joined in solidarity Wednesday in this kahea to all kanaka maoli and their allies, a news release states. The kahea, or calling,
The Kauai Alliance of Peace and Social Justice, the Kauai Coalition, Ho‘okipa Network and Na Kupuna o Manokalanipo joined in solidarity Wednesday in this kahea to all kanaka maoli and their allies, a news release states.
The kahea, or calling, is to educate people who may be unaware that there is a threat of losing 1.2 million acres of kingdom lands that belong to the Hawaiians, their children and their future generations. The state, led by Gov. Linda Lingle, is claiming ownership of what people believe to be “ceded” lands.
In January 2008, the Hawai‘i Supreme Court ruled that the Native Hawaiians never relinquished the inherent sovereign lands of the Hawai‘i Kingdom, the release says. The judgment was based on a U.S. Congressional act, Public Law 103-150. It also stated that kingdom lands cannot be sold or transferred until Native Hawaiian claims to the lands are resolved.
Years of intensive research into Native Hawaiian political history — i.e. U.S. domestic laws and international laws by na kanaka scholars — have uncovered proof that these lands were never ceded and that the kingdom government and sovereignty can never be extinguished, the release states.
To this day, Native Hawaiians have native tenant rights to these lands. The state could not have clear title to the kingdom lands because the kingdom still exists today and never relinquished them, the release says.
Lingle and her government fraudulently claim the ownership of the lands was turned over to the state when statehood occurred, the release says. She pursued the overturn of the state Supreme Court ruling by petitioning the United States Supreme Court. Oral arguments were held Wednesday in Washington, D.C.
“We are here to send a clear message to Gov. Lingle,” the release states. “We demand that she stop the pretense and finally admit that Hawai‘i is being belligerently occupied by the U.S. military; that the state is an artificial entity and has no authority to make any laws or rules regarding any of our 1.2 million acres of kingdom lands.
“It is time for the truth to be told,” the release continues. “We are in the course of change and change we must!”
