Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Daniel Inouye and Honolulu-born Hiram Fong - helped secure the passage of America's
landmark civil rights legislation.
Statehood had an immediate economic impact and Hawaii's timing was remarkably
fortuitous. The decline of sugar and pineapple plantations in the 1960s - due in part to
the labor concessions won by Hawaii's unions - left the state scrambling economically.
But the advent of the jet airplane meant tourists could become Hawaii's next staple crop.
Tourism exploded, which led to a decades-long cycle of building booms. By 1970, over
one million tourists each year were generating $1 billion annually for the state, surpass-
ing both agriculture and federal military spending.
For a history of Hawaii you can finish on the flight over,
A Concise History of the Hawaii-
an Islands
by Phil Barnes captures a surprising amount of nuance in fewer than 90
pages.
Hawaiian Renaissance & Sovereignty Movement
By the 1970s, Hawaii's rapid growth meant new residents (mostly mainland 'trans-
plants') and tourists were crowding island beaches and roads. Runaway construction was
rapidly transforming resorts like Waikiki almost beyond recognition, and the relentless
peddling of 'aloha' got some island-born and raised
kamaʻaina
wondering: what did it
mean to be Hawaiian? Some Native Hawaiians turned to
kapuna
(elders) and the past to
recover their heritage, and by doing so became more politically assertive.
In 1976, a group of activists illegally occupied Kahoʻolawe, aka 'Target Island,' which
the US government had taken during WWII and used for bombing practice ever since.
During another protest occupation attempt in 1977, two activist members of the Protect
Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana (PKO) - George Helm and Kimo Mitchell - disappeared at sea, in-
stantly becoming martyrs. Saving Kahoʻolawe became a rallying cry, and it radicalized a
nascent Native Hawaiian rights movement that continues today.
When the state held its landmark Constitutional Convention in 1978, it passed a num-
ber of important amendments of special importance to Native Hawaiians. For example, it
made Hawaiian the official state language (along with English) and mandated that
Hawaiian culture be taught in public schools. At the grassroots level, the islands were ex-
periencing a revival of Hawaiian culture, with a surge in residents - of all ethnicities -
joining hula
halau
(schools), learning to play Hawaiian music and rediscovering tradi-
tional crafts like feather lei-making.
Today asking the US federal government to recognize Native Hawaiians as an indigen-
ous people, which would give them similar legal status as Native American tribes, is
