Do Not Use Aloha in Vain

by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu - (KUMU HINA) - Nov. 3, 2013:

Hawai‘i: the land of aloha, land of happy people and the melting pot of the Pacific, gateway to Paradise. These are misnomers delineating the misconceptions that helped to put a romanticized Hawai‘i on to the map of foreign control and domination.

Our own native people have now embraced foreign doctrines, principle and practice that they know not of their own, and if they do, they relegate it to an inferior position to that which was introduced.

Hawai‘i has undergone massive transformation at the hands of malihini (malihini - Stranger, foreigner, newcomer, tourist, guest, company; one unfamiliar with a place or custom; new, unfamiliar, unusual, rare, introduced, of foreign origin; for the first time) and now even our own kanaka maoli are in essence malihini in our homeland, our Mainland, our ancestral inheritance.

The po‘e haole (haole - White person, American, Englishman, Caucasian; American, English; formerly, any foreigner; foreign, introduced, of foreign origin, as plants, pigs, chickens; entirely white. ʻĀina haole, foreign land. ʻŌlelo haole, European language, especially English. Hoʻo haole To act like a white person, to ape the white people, or assume airs of superiority [often said disparagingly, especially of half-whites]. Hoʻohaole ʻia, Americanized, Europeanized; to have become like a white person or have adopted the ways of a white man) are not always the enemy. Both Kanaka Maoli and Haole lahui are of good and bad stocks of people.

Now in these modern times we the people of Hawai‘i are continuously subject to a disparagingly overwhelming amount of contradictions that inundates our homes, communities, place of business/employ, news and social media that inflicts our minds and hearts with hurt and confusion.

Pehea la e pono ai, how will all of this be reconciled and peace restored to paradise?

Our own system of Mō'ī, of ali'i nui and ali'i ʻaimoku, our concept of ali'i pi'o (product of a brother and sister of one set of parents and the highest ranking of chiefly status), ali'i naha (product of brothers and sisters that descended from either a different mother or a different father) and ali'i wohi (product of cousins of the same lineage) are now all relics of the past.

Kanaka maoli who have come out in support of traditional marriage as between one man and one woman are actually capitalizing on their cultural and ethnic heritage to promote the malihini religion and philosophy. These contradictions and inconsistencies grow even further as we see that in a democratic political system that to a certain degree now tries to avoid prosecution for favoring one religion over another is attacked, bombarded and plagued by zealots of Christian faith while in essence utilizing the very same political system that enables them to be free in their Christian practice and beliefs. This has no regard for a world of many nations, many faiths and beliefs, and many differing philosophies.

In a democratic context the ideal is that all benefit from the freedoms that enable one simultaneously protecting and benefitting another and vice versa.

How can those of us here in Hawai‘i, those of us who are māhū (the physical hermaphrodite, as well as the homosexual; also the male whom assimilates his manner and dress to that of a woman and likewise if a womanʻs perspective recorded history and its definitions then the woman whom assimilates her manner to that of a man; ex: Kauholanuiamāhū most prominent in historical reference as well as Kapaemāhū, Kahaloa, Kapuni, and Kinohi the famed healers acknowledged as māhū from the ancestral lands of Kahiki), those whom are in Noho Aikāne households (aikāne - An intimate friend of the same sex; a friend or companion of the same sex; To cohabit, as male with male, or female with female of whom there are countless examples such as Hi'iakaikapoliopele, Pā'ūopalai, Wahine'ōma'o, ‘Umialiloa, Kamehameha, Kamehameha II (Liholiho) and many others) how can we denounce the heritage of the stock of whom we descend while simultaneously trampling upon the legacy of a once highly civilized and intelligent people?

Hawaiian culture was not only advanced in thinking and philosphy, but highly sophisticated, replete with the technological advance to cultivate and maintain one of the largest land bases in the Pacific ocean with some of the highest crop yields, fish farming and subsequent healthy populations of people.

Hawai'i and its land tenure system, its religion and spiritual implementation, philosophical practices of its people, its political system of checks and balances provided for a society of sophistication and advance.

Upon the coming of foreigners, these same malihini now superimpose upon us the very ills of their own ethnic profiles and histories. Malihini claimed our people practiced infanticide yet cannot cite clear historical reference that this was acceptable and common, furthermore if something was so prevalent this should be indicated by a term for this specific practice.

The same methodology refuting the societal acceptance of māhū, aikāne and other currently deplorable concepts is made by foreigners against our native culture despite clear evidence from history and tradition prior to the imposition of Christian disciplines that degrades said concepts as despicable while it is clear fact that Māhū is a known and understood concept extending beyond Hawai‘i to include what we now know as Tahiti and the rest of the Society Islands, Nukuhiva and the rest of the Marquesas group to name a few.

The concepts that are articulated here do have their places or cognates in other Polynesian island groups yet the legacy of this widespread and great history and culture is spat upon by its own peoples.

The great historical names of Kanaloa/Tanaloa/Ta'aroa/Tangaloa/Tana'oa as well as Kū/Tū, Kāne/Tāne, and Lono along with Maui and Hina are all a part of the rich heritage and history of our people of the Moana Nui that malihini call the Pacific.

Nobody can dispute that all societies have elements of their communal fabric that are both favorable and not. Nobody can dispute that societies of the world require male and female unions to procreate. Nobody can dispute that Hawai‘i is now a place called home by many, both native and non-native.

Why, though, is it so difficult for our own native sons and daughters to reconcile the very elements of our culture, history and philosophy when they take such great pride in proclaiming their beliefs based not upon the integrity of their own culture, but on the conglomerated diaspora and inconsistencies contradictory to the very aloha they profess to uphold and honor?

I take great offense to those who use Aloha in vain, in the same way some Christians are offended by those who would use Godʻs name in vain.