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8 Ariz. J. Int'l & Comp. L. 77 (1991)
Historical and Contemporary Hawaiian Self-Determination: A Native Hawaiian Perspective

handle is hein.journals/ajicl8 and id is 291 raw text is: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY HAWAIIAN SELF-DETERMINATION: A NATIVE HAWAIIAN PERSPECTIVE Mililani B. Trask* L INTRODUCTION I am a Native Hawaiian. For fifteen years I have been working for sovereignty and self-determination for my people. When I graduated from law school at the University of Santa Clara at the age of twenty-seven, my heart was full of desire to make change for my people. But when I returned to Hawai'i as a lawyer, I was shocked to learn that the Native Hawaiian people were one of three classes of Americans in the United States that were not permitted standing in a court of law. The other two groups without standing are children and retarded adults. We Hawaiians are neither children nor retarded adults. We are second-class citizens who are not able to protect our property or our trust rights. I am here to talk about historical and contemporary Hawaiian history, about sovereignty and self-determination. I have visited the United Nations and met with Erica-Irene Daes, the Chairman-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. Our nation has filed two interventions in United Nations indigenous peoples' projects: one for the Subcommission on Indigenous Treaties and the other on the Draft Universal Declaration on Indigenous Rights. But these interventions alone do not constitute sover- eignty or self-determination. Sovereignty is something that is manifested by the gestures of one's life. Native peoples and the attorneys who advocate for them need to understand that. H. AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF HAWAI'Il Polynesians migrated to Hawai'i Nei more than seventy-five generations ago from islands in the South Pacific. Prior to its discovery, as many as three to five million of our ancestors lived and died on the Hawaiian Islands, establishing and sustaining a viable and productive society. From the mountains to the sea, everyone had access to the islands' natural resources and shared in nature's generosity. Living on the most isolated *Mililani B. Trask is a Native Hawaiian attorney and is Governor of Ka Lahui Hawai'i, the Sovereign Nation of Hawai'i. 1. Historical material is taken from excerpts of the Position Statement of the Hawaiian Delegation to the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Conference held in Manila, 1987 (on file with author).

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