Il Regno Hawaiano: la resilienza dei Kānaka Maoli dal suo passato al suo presente

The dissertation aims at a detailed analysis and understanding of the sovereignty’s issues that Kānaka Maoli daily experience since the Archipelago had been annexed to the United States in 1898, after the premeditated coup against Queen Lili’uokalani and consequent overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Several critical issues had brought to the present day discontent and the formation of Native Hawaiian movements, which are still fighting for representation, federal recognition, and their cultural rights as an indigenous population. The forced annexation has been the pivotal event that had caused to Kānaka Maoli far more than political issues in their own land; indeed, it caused a deep wound to the native communities, which also experienced a significant decrease in their population, since another culture was imposed on them too. Native Hawaiians, who rapidly found themselves at the very bottom of the socio-economic sphere of the archipelago, were also made to feel like they were actually occupying spaces on US land, rather than their own, and for years their culture and language were suppressed and not even acknowledged by the institutions. The native population was thus forced to adopt English as the only language taught at school, and the foreign language was used for institutional purposes too. Years of cultural repression brought to the 1970s cultural renaissance thereafter. In fact, Hawaiian political activists formed a movement seeking for awareness on the actual conditions of the Kānaka Maoli communities, the systematically socioeconomic injustice and unevenness, and the limited autonomy given to the Native Hawaiian population. The movements brought a renewed focus on Hawaiian tradition, and the rebirth of Indigenous Hawaiian’s grassroots resistance. Nowadays, indeed, the grassroots movement is still involved in the conservation of native traditions and of the future of the Hawaiian Archipelago, while at the same time fighting for Kānaka Maoli’s sovereignty. An example of the contemporary resistance is the Mauna Kea protests, which in the last decade had a renewed wave of resistance, though the Kānaka Maoli population has raised concerns since 1968, when the sacred site had been leased to the University of Hawaii for research. Moreover, the activists are not only protesting against another construction on the site, but their wider goal is to raise awareness on the fact that the State do not take into consideration Indigenous culture and knowledge when it has economic interests on the land. Thus the dissertation, firstly, analyses the history behind the forced annexation, till Hawaii became the 50th US state, and what it implied for Kānaka Maoli; then the research focuses upon the cultural renaissance of Hawaiian culture in the 1970s; and then on the 1990s cultural and independence movements, so to have a more or less exhaustive historical context. To conclude, the present situation is going to be further analysed; the analysis in fact covers the issue of federal recognition versus independence, since there are different views on Native Hawaiian’s sovereignty on their land, and the most recent renaissance of Kānaka Maoli’s resilience, after the event of Mauna Kea protests and the resurgence of the concept of Aloha ‘āina.