Reply #14: I think they do a stellar job of managing their lands too.

[ellisonz]

I wish the rest of the country could feel so connected to their land. It makes me sad, having lived in Hawaii for a number of years, to see how disconnected we are as a culture. I think a big part of repairing the social ills on the reservations is to restore respect for the original culture (edit: both within and without).

In Hawaii, there's been what's known as the "Hawaiian Renaissance" over the last 40 years and the Hawaiian community has made progress in re-uniting and standing up for what they believe in. Unfortunately, John McCain, Jon Kyl and other Republican Senators have put holds on the Akaka Bill to grant Hawaiians true self-government of their own lands under the Department of Hawaiian Homelands.

I really wish that part of the Bill would be ceding the State Park and nature reserve systems to a new Hawaiian government because the State of Hawaii has mismanaged them badly. The DHHL neighborhood I visited most often had a "bad reputation," but what I saw as a civil process server was a community that other neighborhoods should have been envious of how people looked after each other.

Some resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akaka_Bill

http://hawaii.gov/dhhl/applicants/appforms/applyhhl/

The Hawaiian Renaissance by George S. Kanahele
May 1979

But, first, let's not quibble about the use of the term "renaissance." Although it has become a popular term, used by the media and writers and ordinary people, a few people are upset. It is French meaning "rebirth" and because they take it literally, do not like the implication, I guess, that Hawaiian culture was ever dead. OThers, like Pierre Bowman, argue that if you are looking for something like the European Renaissance--that period from the 14th to the 16th centuries marked by the flowering of the arts, literature and the beginnings of modern science--then, it is too early to tell whether a Hawaiian renaissance is really taking place.

Writing in the Star Bulletin (Feb. 20, 1979), he says the term implies the "tangible creation of works of art and literature" and that there is "scant evidence of such work in a Hawaiian Renaissance." I don't know what he considers to be "scant evidence" in view of the prolific production of music, art and craft work, dances, and so on that Hawaiians have been responsible for during recent years. I would very much like to learn what he would consider to be "renaissance quality" work. If he is using standards comparable to Michelangelo, Van der Meer, Leonardo da Vinci, Bacon, Erasmus, Machiavelli, the luminaries of the European Renaissance, I think he is kidding himself. It is more realistic and sensible to use the standards of the culture in which the renaissance is happening. I say let the Hawaiians themselves decide collectively what is "scant" or non scant "evidence" of what is good or bad.

Besides, the renaissance encompasses more than the creation of works of art and literature. It also includes a revival of interest in the past, in the pursuit of knowledge or learning and in the the future. In short, it deals with the revitalization of the human spirit in all aspects of endeavor. And when we look very carefully at what is occurring among Hawaiians today economically, artistically, politically, socially, culturally, it is impossible to ignore the spirit of rebirth. I think the word "renaissance" fits.

In any even, if you're hung up on semantics, eh, hang loose, use whatever term suits you. What's important is the reality, not the rhetoric.

http://kapalama.ksbe.edu/archives/PVSA/primary%202/79%20kanahele/kanahele.htm

P.S. I hope this isn't too much to digest. :D