Historical links to be revitalised

Tu Tangata, Issue 5, 1 April 1982, Page 7

Historical links to be revitalised

George S. Kanahele

King David Kalakaua, the “Merrie Monarch” who ruled the sovereign Kingdom of Hawaii in the 1870 s and ’Bos, once proposed unifying the island kingdoms of Polynesia into a loose Pacific confederation. Although nothing came of the proposal, a century later the idea seems to have been revived in Hawaii among native Hawaiians and recently has been gaining momentum with the ‘‘Maori-Hawaiian Connection”.

The “Maori-Hawaiian Connection” has emerged in the past year in the form of a series of “high level” contacts involving private and public Hawaiian organisations and mainly the Department of Maori Affairs, and its Secretary, Kara Puketapu. Last year, for example, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a newly formed state agency with publicly elected trustees which has been described as “a government within a government,” sent a mission to New Zealand to study and collect data on a wide range of Maori social, economic and cultural problems. Walter Ritte, leader of the mission and an OHA Trustee, described the trip as “the first step towards a better and more fruitful relationship with our Pacific cousins.”

Tu Tangata After three weeks in “Aotearoa”, talking with many Maoris, including Minister of Maori Affairs, Ben Couch, and Kara Puketapu, Ritte returned home and reported that the effects of the trip upon Hawaii and the Hawaiians would

be “too vast to measure”. He was as good as his word. He convinced the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to change its top priorities from economic development to cultural development, taking a leaf from the Department of Maori Affairs’ heavy emphasis on its “Tu Tangata” (“Stand Tall”) programme. He also announced that OHA would lead the way in adapting the Maori marae system to Hawaii. Shortly after the OHA mission, a group of top Hawaiian business executives, headed by Kenneth F. Brown, a blue-blooded Hawaiian and former State Senator, went to New Zealand. “Our main purpose,” says Brown, “was to see whether successful Hawaiian businessmen could help their Polynesian cousins in things that we know well such as tourism.” Furthermore, the Hawaiians also felt that they could empathize with the Maoris in some of the obstacles they would meet in advancing in the Pakeha business world. Thus, making business deals was quite incidental.

Maori culture

Indeed, what impressed the Hawaiian businessmen the most was the vitality of Maori culture. George Henrickson said, ‘‘ln comparison to us Hawaiians, the Maoris seemed to have gotten their act together a little better.”

Mr Brown was so impressed that upon his return he immediately launched a project on Hawaiian values and practices, the chief goal of which is to help Hawaiians reinforce their cultural identity. The project, now known as Project WAIAHA, has since become an important part of the Hawaiian renaissance.

In addition, Brown also invited Kara Puketapu to visit Hawaii. Puketapu accepted and a month later (July) arrived in Honolulu for his first real visit.

It was a whirlwind one-week tour of the islands. He talked with the Governor of the State, local political leaders, business executives, Hawaiian leaders and many other makaainana (Hawaiian for ‘‘common people”). He also gave an off-the-cuff lecture at a well-attended meeting at the Bishop Museum, appeared before Hawaiian gatherings and on local TV, and was featured in several newspaper articles.

As Trustee Ritte commented, “Mr Puketapu’s arrival in Hawaii has created a wave of interest in the Maori of New Zealand.”

Hawaiian culture

Interestingly, one of Puketapu’s reactions to Hawaii was his surprise at the vitality of Hawaiian culture. “I had this idea that it was nearly dead,” he said. In his report to Brown and the Hawaiian businessmen who had hosted him, he observed that there was a need to build a unified Hawaiian leadership. When asked how he could help, he suggested doing a Maori-type hui or assembly of people to talk out their differences and come to mutual understanding and closer unity.

When Puketapu returned to New Zealand, he sent an invitation to OHA leaders, the director of the State's Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, and president of the Kamehameha Schools (established by a Hawaiian princess for children of Hawaiian ancestry) to participate in two important meetings in Wellington. One was the first international symposium bringing together representatives of government departments dealing in native affairs from Canada, Australia, the United States and Hawaii.

The other meeting was the second national Maori leader's conference which assembled more than 100 influentials from around the country to discuss and decide on the next year's goals for Maoridom in health, education, economic development and other fields.

It was the first time that state of Hawaii officials had been invited to New Zealand through the Department of Maori Affairs. Rude awakening As with the other two Hawaiian groups, the members of the delegation were deeply moved by the experience. As one of them remarked, after seeing the far greater amount of money and resources being poured into the Maori community as compared to Hawaii, “What a rude awakening this has been.” This was in late October and less than two months later, Puketapu was back in Hawaii, this time accompanied by his deputy, Dr Tamati Reedy and his accomplished wife Tilly, and John Rangihau, a lecturer in Maori Studies at the University of Waikato and consultant to the Department. The team had come at the invitation of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to conduct the leadership hui that Puketapu had suggested in July. “E Hawaii Au” The Hawaiians called the conference E Hawaii Au or “I am a Hawaiian.” More than a hundred leaders, representing a crossection of the community, had been specially invited. It was the first time in modern Hawaiian leadership history that an event of this nature had taken place. The general opinion among the Hawaiians was that it could not have happened without the presence of the Maori team.

There were conservative business executives, and outspoken young activists, monarchists and descendants of the ali’i or chiefly class, politicians and artists, and many others. Many had never met before; indeed, they would probably have never gone out of their way to meet each other under normal circumstances. But this was different a spiritual coming together with one thing in common: their Hawaiianness. Hawaiian leadership Whether Hawaiian leadership would ever be the same again is a question some Hawaiians are asking with the hope that it won’t be like before fragmented and huki huki (fighting among oneselves). In December last year the businessmen formed the Hawaiian-Maori Business Council to promote the mutual interests of Hawaiian and Maori businesspersons. The Hawaiian side of the Council is headed by Kenneth Brown and consists of Charles Heen, president of Heen & Associates, an outstanding interior design firm, George Henrickson, president, GAH Inc., a well-known developer, Herman Lemke, president of his own CPA firm, and Joe Kealoha, a real estate executive. Other members will be added to the Council. The group accepted an invitation by

the Department of Maori Affairs to attend the first national all-Maori Business Development Conference, held in Auckland, February 3-5, 1982. Polynesian businessmen Brown believes that this is the first time a bi-lateral business group has been organised between Polynesians. “We are businessmen but Polynesians as well. For far too long Polynesians have been regarded by others as not having the stuff to be good businessmen. That stereotype should be discarded. We have outstanding success models and there is no real reason why others could not do the same.” He also views his “modest” beginning as a possible model for other Polynesians such as the Tahitians and Samoams, or Tongans and Hawaiians, and so forth. “Commerce and trade,” he says, “have always been a basis for different nations and peoples to communicate and build mutual relationships. That’s what we’re doing but with a Polynesian connection.” While the Hawaiian-Maori Business Council seems to be the most visible part of the current exchange, other developments are looming in education, for both students and teachers, in sports and the arts, especially dance and music. The momentum is bound to pick up and Maoris and Hawaiians may yet find themselves united together in Hawai-iki, the homeland from whence they journeyed apart into the Pacific centuries ago.