The Hawaiian sovereignty movement (Hawaiian: ke ea Hawaiʻi), is a grassroots political and cultural campaign to re-establish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom of Hawaii due to desire for sovereignty, self-determination, and self-governance.
Some groups also advocate for some form of redress from the United States for the 1893 overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani, and for what is described as a prolonged military occupation beginning with the 1898 annexation. The movement generally views both the overthrow and annexation as illegal.
Sovereignty advocates have attributed problems plaguing native communities including homelessness, poverty, economic marginalization, and the erosion of native traditions to the lack of native governance and political self-determination.
They have pursued their agenda through educational initiatives and legislative actions. Along with protests throughout the islands, at the capital (Honolulu) itself as well as the places and locations held as sacred to Hawaiian culture, sovereignty activists have challenged United States forces and law.
The ancestors of Native Hawaiians may have arrived in the Hawaiian Islands around 350 CE, from other areas of Polynesia. By the time Captain Cook arrived, Hawaii had a well-established culture with a population estimated to be between 400,000 and 900,000 people. In the first one hundred years of contact with Western civilization, due to disease and war, the Hawaiian population dropped by ninety percent, to only 53,900 people in 1876. American missionaries would arrive in 1820 and assume great power and influence.
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I didn't know the Dole family intermarried with the Royal family, that's really interesting. I do know several people from very long-standing dynasties who are a tiny bit Hawaiian and mostly very white and share their last names with landmarks and major businesses.
EDIT: I even knew someone whose great great grandfather literally wrote the Bayonet Constitution and then overthrew the Kingdom - they were also very slightly Hawaiian but white as fuck, and pro-Hawaiian sovereignty lol.
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god it's so hard to get good information about Hawaii's history or even more current stuff on the internet. So poorly digitized
Yeah fuck a monarchy. Hawai'ians do like the monarchy because it was at least better than the current regime but yeah most of them certainly sold out. People really like Liliuokalani because she gave a shit. The Kingdom actually was somewhat democratic for a while, probably more than the US is. And they had low working hours and good healthcare.
Before it was overthrown it had been effectively using its geographical position to rapidly develop and had electric lights in Iolani Palace before the White House had them. If they had been able to stave off domination it would have been a little like Singapore or something.
The love of the monarchy is because of queen Liliuokalani. She was one of the few good monarchs. And the last. So many people think all of the monarchs where good. They weren't many where your average monarchs that cared only about themselves and looking good to other monarchs around the world.
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Yeah I think most people understand how bad and antiquated a monarchy is, but kind of see the still-existing lineage as an important part of the continuity of the Hawai'ian nation. I think a lot of people probably want a figurehead monarchy, others a real one, others no monarchy.
Yeah a Republic seems like the only way to go in this instance, the Kanaka Maoli are too few in number and too divided to base any sort of long term government on them. The idea of "Hawaiianess" has stretched far beyond the realm of just the indigenous inhabitants pre-Cook, and I can foresee a world in an independent Hawaii where that culture, primarily based on the one set up by the indigenous Hawaiians, is the basis of a new Hawaiian state while being inclusive of the various peoples who have moved to Hawaii since.