Grants and Apologies Are Not Enough: Student Activism, Hawaiian Sovereignty, and Settler State Recognition

• In Event: Kumu ’Ula’ula: Who Are We and Where Are We Heading?

Abstract

Research and social movement have made the history of the illegal seizure of Hawaiian Kingdom lands and governing power widely known and formally acknowledged in US legislation. However, grant programs, apologies and educational spaces within settler state frameworks have not remedied inequalities for Kanaka Maoli. I will argue that persistent educational inequalities can never be alleviated without land and sovereignty. Cultural and language-based education reform will not be enough. I address this problem at two levels: 1) through ethnographic research on how students at a Native Hawaiian charter school have made their knowledge matter by engaging in activism, and 2) through suggestions on how educator-researchers might engage settler state policies that limit Hawaiian sovereignty within recognition frameworks.

Author

• Jennifer Noelani Goodyear-Kaopua, University of Hawaii - Manoa