“The work to heal the island will heal the soul of our people. Each time we pick up a stone to restore a cultural site… we pick up ourselves, as Hawaiians.”
Dr. Noa Aluli (no-ah -ah-loo-lee)
healer of land and people
IMAGE SOURCE: Matthew Thayer photo. “25 years hence, recovery work continues on the island of Kahoolawe.” The Maui News. 5 May 2019. | TEXT SOURCE: Mansel G. Blackford. Pathways to the Present: U.S. Development and its Consequences in the Pacific. University of Hawai'i Press. 2007.
QUOTE CONTEXT: Kaho’olawe Island (kah-hoe-oh-lah-vay)is the smallest of the Hawaiian Islands. It had been used as a target range by the U.S. military since the 1930s. “Beginning in the 1960s, ranchers, environmentalists and Native Hawaiians…sought to return Kaho’olawe to environmental circumstances before Western contact.”
QUOTE QUESTION: What cultural sites need protection where you live?
IMAGE CONTEXT: Dr. Noa Emmett Aluli (2nd from rt) waits his turn to sign the deeds, one in Hawaiian and the other in English, that formally ended the Navy’s 50-year control of the island.
IMAGE QUESTION: What cultural markers (like these ceremonial leis) accompany your formal interactions with other nations?
MEDIA LITERACY CONTEXT: The quote is from an academic book. The photo is from a local newspaper.
MEDIA LITERACY QUESTION: What media outlets help to tell the stories of your people’s sovereignty fights?
LEARN ABOUT DR. ALULI’S WORK TO RESTORE KAHO‘OLAWE: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/nativevoices/timeline/719.html
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