super late hale

I have recently come to the understanding that knowing the Hawaiian Language is knowing a whole another perspective. I feel that within the Hawaiian Language there is a whole different outlook on life and what surrounds us. This language shows our relationship to our environment; something that the English language could never show us. I feel that it is crucial to learn the language because it allows us to see through this lens that our ancestors looked through, and give us a different understanding of the identity of people and place.

It is sad, but through out my life I was often discouraged from dedicating time and energy into learning Hawaiian. Even at Kamehameha we were pushed more to learn Japanese and Spanish because they would be "way more use full in this developing world around us". I am glad that it seems that this mentality is starting to shift. I feel that my parents generation were the ones that were raised with the heavy colonized mindset, however our current generation is beginning to change this. I have faith that our childrens' generation will share a better understanding of who they are, and their roles in this place.

We often get frustrated in the topic of Hawaiian Sovereignty and if it will ever be achieved. Sometimes people make it seem like it is unrealistic and it could never work. However I have also come to the understanding that there are ways that we can practice sovereignty right now (in a sense). One thing we can do is practice food sovereignty by growing food, and making an effort to understand that food is not only acquired through money through safeway. Besides food sovereignty I think one of the next important forms of sovereignty is Language Sovereignty. In a sense, us being able to speak our own language is a form of having independence from the colonizer language (in my opinion).

To tie this all to what is going down right now, last week was an international mural festival called the Pow Wow in Kakoako. Hence the one week late blog. I was privledged to kokua Solomon Enos, whos Hawaiian Art, can perhaps inspire its viewers to seek the path of understanding our people and culture. I see painting "Hawaiian Murals" as a way to reclaim this madly developed city we have been born in. However the trippiest part about this whole thing is that the only reason that we were given this opportunity to paint Kakoako, is because Kamehameha schools is planning to knock it all down to make skyscrapers, the rail, and fat tubes to steal the water from the ocean. Perhaps I am biased but I cannot understand how "Hawaiian organizations " (Kamehameha & OHA) feel that this will be the most beneficial thing for our people. Maybe I don't see the full picture but I feel that there are many other ways 200million can be used to benefit our people. Crazy stuff going down right now.