| Kingdom Of Hawaii Statement of the Kaleo Ohana Thursday, July 8, 2004 Mokuleia, Hawaii Aloha mai kakou A law has been adopted recently by the State of Hawaii which criminalizes ‘houseless squatting,’ as they call it. The law, Act 50 SLH 2000, says that living on state-controlled land is trespass in the second degree, with fines as high as $1,000, or one month in prison. This act is being used to punish my family for its twelve years of living on and caring for the land of Mokuleia, and for being steadfast in our rejection of attempts to remove us from this land. We are not homeless. Hawaii is our perpetual home, for thousands of generations. The land on which we are living as stewards belongs to the independent government of Hawaii, which was illegally deposed by the United States in 1893, and which remains under illegal military occupation to this day. The State of Hawaii does not have ownership, nor jurisdiction to this Aina; the state constitution itself says that the lands should be used for the benefit of Kanaka Maoli, as well as for educational and health needs. State court cases have also affirmed “hoa‘aina” rights of Kanaka Maoli to our native land. We are Kanaka Maoli, and we are citizens under duress of the independent country of Hawaii, exercising our rights to live on and care for our land. These facts have been affirmed in numerous ways: through the Blount Report; by former U.S. President Grover Cleveland; by Public Law 103-150, signed by President Clinton in 1993; by a a panel of international legal experts in the 1993 Kanaka Maoli Tribunal Komike; and by the continuing native resistance against imperialism, from the Hui Aloha Aina and Hui Kalai Aina in the 19th century to the modern movement and organizations for self-determination. The State of Hawaii has no just and righteous control of this homeland. The State, rather, is a houseless squatter, occupying our country’s lands and disturbing our national peace and tranquility. The illegality of this occupation has created a situation in which numerous people are ‘squatting’ on Hawaiian land: tourists which illegally trespass and squat on sovereign territory; American citizens who, lacking clear title to property following the illegal overthrow of 1893, are presently squatting on native land; and the U.S. military, which has maintained a century-long occupation of our homeland, and are wandering squatters in Hawaii, and which seek to expand their toxic and endangering colonial occupation. We call for these homeless squatters to immediately remove themselves from our native land. The U.S. must end its illegal occupation of our land, including the incarceration of our kupuna, makua, and opio in foreign jails, and the abuse of our lands through ignorance and arrogance. We are a free and sovereign people, and U.S. foreign intervention in our affairs and self-determination is unwelcome and an abrogation of international law. Our Ohana, through the perservarance of an indomitable spirit and the strength of Akua, shall maintain its peaceful and lawful stewardship on this ‘aina. Me ke aloha aina, Marie Beltran |