A reflection of Hawaiian leadership
By Asaeli Matelau
Kau Moana
Despite the historic election of Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the United States, there is still an overwhelming lack of minority leaders in our communities at home.
Paying tribute to Hawaii is important for many reasons, but it is an appropriate time to reflect on these islands because they happen to be the birthplace of president-elect Barack Obama. Native Hawaiians once held sovereignty over their homeland, but due to the actions of missionaries and plantation owners, Hawaii is now in the occupation of the United States. The queen of Hawaii was overthrown from her position on January 17th, 1893, and since then Hawaiians have been in a struggle to emancipate themselves. The Native Hawaiians modern struggle has forged strategies for maintaining traditional cultural values and progressing in the modern world.
Hawaiians are oceanic people descended from those who had the courage to sail. Children of the beautiful, children of the strong; our fore bearers faced death and survived. They were the respected, the elegant, and the powerful. My story is one from the islands on the Pacific, but if you’re standing today, you have a story that matches in comparison.
Hawaiians are descended from those who had the courage to sail. They were the respected, the powerful. My story is one from the islands on the Pacific, but if you’re standing today, you have a story that matches in comparison.
Ancient Hawaiians and other traditional sea navigators are famous for knowing their position by looking to the stars. The stars are ancient beacons of position, just as knowing your ancestors and connection to your aina (land) is. To develop our position we will look at three concepts that compose critical, indigenous spiritual leaders like those of our past. These concepts include developing self-knowledge through land, developing self-knowledge through ancestors, as well as are reclaiming cultural values, which entails understanding the duality of values.
There are two types of self-knowledge that are important to acknowledge in your pursuit to identify who you are; there is knowledge of places and knowledge of ancestors. Your knowledge of places will give you a sense of permanence and proportion. Understanding this will connect you to where you come from. If you can identify places you associate with literally and spiritually you will reconnect yourself to your aina and to the issues that are most important to you. I challenge you to identify your mountain, that which is your foundation strong and prominent in your life, perhaps a backdrop for your daily pursuits. Identify your valley, the bed of your life, that which gives you heart. Perhaps, it will be a relationship that progresses your dreams. Identify your water, the mover of sustenance. What feeds your passions? Lastly, identify your wind, your voice and the way you are heard.
The other self-knowledge is your knowledge of your ancestors. The knowledge of your ancestors will build upon your identity by giving you a sense of relationships and continuance. Go back eight generations of your genealogy on both sides and acknowledge every person in this line. Identify what aina they connected to and what culture your ancestors identified with. After you understand yourself you will understand your invocation and your pursuit of something greater than personal interests.
We lead, live, love and learn by our value system, but our value systems have been tainted and are influenced by the outside leaving a half-truth story to our identities. Native Hawaiians are taught they value aloha or love and welcoming, respect, pono (being proper), humility, and a full list of sweet things, which is true, but rarely do you hear about the other side of human values? Values such as vigilance, pride, and power have been robbed from the repertoire of the Hawaiians. These valuses are villainized by the portrayals we are shown of courageous minority leaders. Take a look at the civil rights movement under Martin Luther King Jr., mainstream America listened to King because he was passive, caring, and persuasive where as Malcom X was feared because he was vigilant, powerful, and directly challenged the systems that are in place.
In Hawaii, values were categorized under masculine or feminine, Ku and Hina. The kinder list would fall under Hina and then there is Ku, the male representation of values. The criminalized Ku list contains Vigilance, Power, Courage, and industriousness. Yet, we as individuals are not allotted the right to wholeness in our pursuits. We must reclaim these universal values and apply them so others may follow proudly. Men and women should not feel as though they must act out to hold true to their cultural values or become passive to be successful. We must now harmonize our dualness and utilize our Ku to lead into tomorrow. Leadership is the destiny of those who want a new tomorrow.
