Hawaiian Independence Action Alliance

[ more photos ]

  Kekuni Blaisdell is interviewed for public access tv regarding sign-holding demonstration in Kailua, near President-elect Barack Obama’s rented vacation home in Hawaii.

  Sign holders, members of Hawaiian Independence Alliance, demonstrate in opposition to federal recognition (known as the Akaka Bill) in Kailua.

  Sign holders block the road into and out of the back gate of the Marine Corps Base in Kailua calling attention to lands taken from the Hawaiian Kingdom at the time of the so-called annexation (1898) of Hawaii. For more information see www.hawaiiankingdom.org and www.hawaii-nation.org.

photos: Lynette Cruz

  Richard Kinney holds the Hawaiian national flag upside down, signaling the Hawaiian nation in distress

  Dean Saranillio leads a group of protestors holding signs that say “SEIZED NOT CEDED” in response to the state of Hawaii’s desire to sell lands that were supposedly ceded to the U.S. at the time of the so-called annexation of Hawaii in 1898.  Those lands were held by the U.S. until 1959, at the time that Hawaii was admitted into the union of the United States as the 50th state.  The use of the term “seized” is to remind the state of Hawaii and the United States that there was no legal annexation, rather a law internal to the U.S. was used to take Hawaii, to “seize” lands and people without their consent.  Thus, today, the issue is NOT the sale of “ceded” lands, as no cession ever took place, but the continued seizure of lands still under the jurisdiction of the Hawaiian Kingdom.  For more info, see www.hawaiiankingdom.org.   

  Richard Kinney’s flag frames sign holders protesting across from Washington Place, the home of Hawaii’s last reigning monarch, on Beretania St.

  Protestors gather in front of Kamehameha Statue on the grounds of the Judiciary Building on King St. to signal to passersby their displeasure with the U.S. government and the state of Hawaii’s attempts (via numerous versions of the Akaka Bill) to classify Hawaiians as “indigenous native people of the United States” and thus eligible for federal recognition.  What’s the message?  “NO TO AKAKA BILL”.

  In front of Iolani Palace protestors, flanked by red and black banners with the words HAWAIIAN INDEPENDENCE fluttering from tall poles, flash their “SEIZED NOT CEDED” signs, another reminder of an illegal overthrow in 1893 and the theft of a nation in 1898.  Demonstrators call for maluhia me ka pono, peace with justice, remembering Queen Liliuokalani’s stance on peaceful negotiation to resolve the wrongs done to her and to the nation. 

photos: David Ma