Poka Laenui

Documented in this article is the anticolonial treatment modality developed by a community-based behavioral health center on the island of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i—situated in a predominately Native Hawaiian community reacting to and affected by American colonial control of the Hawaiian Islands since 1893. We tie Haraway’s concept of “situated knowledges” to the methodology of Clarke’s “situational analysis” as a conceptual framing and a methodological approach in engaging the work of decolonizing health concepts and treatment regimens commonly taken for granted. Enfolding within that process the conceptual mapping for an indigenously informed way of thinking that emphasizes the relationship between colonizing “systems of care”—which emerge out of a sociocultural context of cultural domination that has broken down communally embedded Indigenous identities through individualism and exclusion or othering (i.e., hereafter abbreviated DIE)—and the need for decolonizing social processes that are in greater harmony with the rise of Hawaiian national consciousness (‘Olu‘olu) through communalistic notions of care (Lokahi) and nurturing cultural identities in balance with secular and non-secular relations anchored in historical and contemporary contexts (Aloha; i.e., hereafter abbreviated OLA). By increasing the convergence of OLA with the cultural mainstream of DIE as a unifying reference point applied to other Hawaiian and indigenous groups in both theory and praxis, this article is both a contribution to the social science of treatment, and to the literature on decolonizing drugs and alcohol.

... The combination of all of these factors brought about a new consciousness of injustice-the denial of the Hawaiian nation. ... The Blount Report, President Cleveland's address to Congress, the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawai'i to the United States, and other ...

Professor D A VIES expressed the view that the topic of the panel concerned one of the most exciting and active areas of standards-setting in international human rights law at the time. The focus of discussion was devoted in particular to such core issues as land rights, issues of self-determination, and cultural integrity. She noted that the situation of indigenous peoples had been invisible in international law, but had become one of the driving forces in human rights developments.

Documented in this article is the anticolonial treatment modality developed by a community-based behavioral health center on the island of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i—situated in a predominately Native Hawaiian community reacting to and affected by American colonial control of the Hawaiian Islands since 1893. We tie Haraway’s concept of “situated knowledges” to the methodology of Clarke’s “situational analysis” as a conceptual framing and a methodological approach in engaging the work of decolonizing health concepts and treatment regimens commonly taken for granted. Enfolding within that process the conceptual mapping for an indigenously informed way of thinking that emphasizes the relationship between colonizing “systems of care”—which emerge out of a sociocultural context of cultural domination that has broken down communally embedded Indigenous identities through individualism and exclusion or othering (i.e., hereafter abbreviated DIE)—and the need for decolonizing social processes that are i...

I agree with all that have been said about those lousy, stinking, low-down, untrustworthy haoles, or poe ha`ole, those with no life-breath, no chant or ha, who act as soulless, who lie, cheat, steal and generally invoke the name of their God in doing so! I am so grateful to Haoles for they have given me the opportunity to understand that to err is human and to forgive divine, and to force me to distinguish when to exercise that part of my divinity judiciously and not to simply cast pearls among swine's. They have given me the opportunity to learn not to hate too much that I blind myself with the fault of generalization and broad condemnation, and to see good in the all bad and even bad in the "all good!", for reminding me of the Taichi symbol of the two fish spooned around each other, the black with the white eye and the white with the black eye, to show that there is yin and yang in all things, opposites-like there is the female traits in males and male traits in females-and all this is part of the reality of the world. I am so grateful to all of them who help me to practice and get better at learning to pierce the illusion of race and to distinguish, as my mentor, Pilahi Paki would say, between reality by agreement and reality in fact-and when I asked her to explain, she replied: What is a Hawaiian? The agreement is that it is a person who descends from a race of people who pre-existed residence in these islands of Hawai`i before that poe ha`ole James Cook arrived here. (DHHL approach) But isn't it the reality that a Hawaiian is a person who loves and hates, who thinks, who angers, who has dreams, who has all the traits of all other human beings? Which Hawaiian are we talking about-the illusion or the reality one? So I am forced to also ask myself in all fairness to myself, which haole am I talking about? Writing and sharing this with all of you also helps me to learn and cultivate another practice which comes from my and our ancestors, to Aloha fearlessly.

Inasmuch as spiritual development is the supreme end of human existence and the highest expression thereof, it is the duty of man to serve that end with all his strength and resources. Since culture is the highest social and historical expression of that spiritual development, it is the duty of man to preserve, practice and foster culture by every means within his power. (American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man. 9th International Conference of American States. 1959, Bogota, Columbia)

There are cultural codes in the collective subconscious of all societies which defines within that society what is right and wrong, what is moral and natural, what forms of behavior is appropriate in given circumstances. These codes derive from the myths and legends, from the deep national memories, from the environmental conditions, from the internal conflicts and from a multitude of other processes which have taken place over long periods of time in a society. These codes are generally unwritten. They do not form a constitutive document or are in some explicit statement. They are generally unspoken. But are so ingrained in a society that they become the driving force of the society. I call these codes the deep culture of a society.  One set of culture codes is identified as DIE and the other is ‘OLA.

Proposed UN General Assembly Resolution reviewing the history of misrepresentations and fraud made in the U.S. Report to the U.N. in 1959 which removed Hawaii from the list of places to be decolonized. The resolution calls upon the UN to use its various mechanisms to review the question of Hawaii's exercise of self-determination and to use its oversight responsibility to assure the people of this territory who had been deprived of the right to self-government to exercise their rights freely.  In its 1959 "exercise of self-determination" resulting in the removal of Hawaii from the list of places to be decolonized and declaring Hawaii as State of the U.S., a double fraud was committed - 1) the wrong people voted (US citizens including its Military forces in Hawaii and its many transmigrated population to Hawaii) and 2) the wrong ballot choices were given, limited to the option of Statehood or continued territorial (colonial) status.  Choices of independence and free association was never given.  Thus, it was an altered "Self" exercising no real "Determination."

... The combination of all of these factors brought about a new consciousness of injustice-the denial of the Hawaiian nation. ... The Blount Report, President Cleveland's address to Congress, the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawai'i to the United States, and other ...

An attempt to develop a new yet old economic model built upon a shift in deep culture from one of D.I.E. (Domination, Individualism, and Exclusion) to one of O.L.A. (`Olu`olu, Lokahi, and Aloha).  This calls for shifting one's perspective of resources from limited to plentiful, and that in sharing , there is always enough, etc.

A review of the process and product of Na`i Aupuni gathering to address the direction of Hawaiian self-determination.  This review draws a comparison with the earlier convention of elected delegates of Hawaiian Ancestry and its product for Hawaiian independence.

A potpourri of principles for working in local communities, especially in Hawaii, including considering three of the five Golden Rules for service providers, the perspectives from service provider and service recipient, sensitivity to various cultures, an explanation of the deep cultures of DIE and OLA in social services, a discussion of the analysis of the ABC Triangle of Peace & Violence and its application for social and health services.

Perspectives in this paper were contributed by many people, some through specific instructions on Hawaiian philosophy, others through their conduct, some through their writings and still others through kukakuka (discussions) over the years. Special mention should be made of some contributors. They are

Ano `ae me ke aloha e na hulumanu like `ole. `O wau no `o Pōkā Laenui, He Hawai`i au. Welcome to this beautiful valley of Lu`alu`alei. Notice how the mountains of Ka`ala surround this valley from what we know locally as Pu`ea or the Wai`anae valley all the way to the major part of Nanakuli. If one could lift the island of Kaho`olawe, one could place it in this valley, given the size of Lu`alu`alei. But perhaps we could discuss the geography of this place on some other occasion.

Compare with presentation) `Ano `ai me ke aloha `e na hulu manu like `ole. O wau no `o Pōkā Laenui. He Hawai`i au. (In the spirit of aloha, I great you, birds of many feathers. I am Pōkā Laenui. I am Hawai`i.) A nation never dies until its national consciousness dies. It dies not by a