FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 24, 2008
Press Conference: December 26, 10:30am @ Hawaii State Capitol
Contact: Lynette Cruz, (808) 218-5357
HAWAIIANS PROTEST OBAMA AND GOVERNOR LINGLE TO NOT SELL NATIVE LANDS AND PASS AKAKA BILL FOR STATE BAILOUT
Organized to coincide with U.S. President elect Barack Obama’s visit to the Hawaiian Islands the Hawaiian Independence Alliance, a group comprised of over nine different Hawaiian groups, will gather Friday, Dec. 26th, in front of the State Capitol to protest:
(1) Republican Governor Linda Lingle’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling that barred the State of Hawaii from selling or transferring “ceded lands”—lands belonging to the once independent Hawaiian Kingdom seized at the time of the 1893 U.S. backed overthrow and currently held in trust by the State of Hawaii.
(2) The U.S. Congressional Akaka Bill would extinguish the international sovereignty never relinquished by the Native Hawaiian people. Hawaii, which was an internationally recognized sovereign state before the 1893 U.S. backed overthrow, has international claims to sovereignty, which U.S. domestic legislation seeks to obscure. Obama has officially endorsed the Akaka Bill.
Protestors are linking the economic recession taking hold of much of the U.S. and the State of Hawaii to the state’s attempts to sell ceded lands and resolve Native Hawaiian international rights to self-governance. As a means to make up for an over two-billion dollar deficit facing the State of Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle and Attorney General Mark Bennett are attempting to overturn a ruling by the Hawaii Supreme Court that barred them from selling “Ceded lands.” The court, citing the “Apology Bill” Public Law 103-150, ruled that the state must preserve these lands “until such time as the unrelinquished claims of the Native Hawaiians have been resolved.”
Dec 26 Program Schedule:
10:00am - Opening pu (trumpet) and chant to aumakua (ancestral gods) to cleanse and restore the stolen Native lands.
10:15am - Ceremony and prayer to Queen Liliuokalani for Independence and international recognition.
10:30am - Press Conference Kekuni Blaisdell, Andre Perez, Kaiopua Fyfe, and Dean Itsuji Saranillio will speak to the long history of the U.S. colonization of Hawaii. At Beretania and Richards Street.
Hawaiian Independence Alliance is comprised of Pro-Kanaka Maoli Independence Working Group, Ka Pakaukau, Komike Tribunal, Hui o Na Ike, Ka Lei Maile Alii Hawaiian Civic Club, Ohana Koa, NFIP - Hawaii, Koani Foundation, Spiritual Nation of Ku - Hui Ea Council of Sovereigns, Living Nation.