Aloha ʻĀina
link titleAloha ʻAina, which literally means "love of the land", is a central concept of Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian)thought, cosmology and cultural identity. The concept has also been adopted by many non-natives in Hawaiʻi as an ecological viewpoint and means of cultural participation.
Traditionally, the concept goes back to mythical times, and is illustrated extensively in creation chants such as the Kumulipo, which emphasize the connection between the land and the ancient Kanaka Maoli. In everyday practice, it embodies the deep passion that Kanaka Maoli are known to hold for the land, as is often demonstrated in songs, hula, stories, and regular lifestyle practices such as farming, which have many celebratory, and sometimes sensual, elements. As a political term, it came into wide use during the resistance to the U.S. overthrow and annexation of Hawaiʻi in the last decade of the 19th century.
During the "Hawaiian Rennaissance" of the 1970ʻs, the term again came into common use, and a strong social movement arose based upon it. Land struggles were the locus of this movement, which brought together ecological principles, native practices, historical interests, demilitarization/peace concepts, and Hawaiian Sovereignty claims.
The pinnacle of the 1970ʻs Aloha ʻAina movement came in 1976-77, with the occupation of the island of Kahoʻolawe, a traditional religious site which was being used as bombing target practice by the U.S. Navy. A group of activists, kupuna (Hawaiian elders) and cultural practitioners led by Kawaipuna Prejean and George Helm[1] reached the island by boat, but were later arrested. They returned, and two of the group, Walter Ritte and Richard Sawyer, were left behind on the waterless island when the others were again removed. George Helm, who had become the clear leader of the struggle and a hero to many Kanaka Maoli, paddled from Maui on a surfboard, along with MauiʻsKimo Mitchell in an attempt to reach them, and apparently made it to Kahoʻolawe just after the Navy took Sawyer and Ritte from the island. Helm, who was a lauded musician and speaker, disappeared along with Mitchell; there is some controversy over whether they drowned at sea or were killed on the island. One way or another, George Helm has become the Aloha ʻAina movementʻs strongest human symbol.
Today, the Aloha ʻAina movement largely focuses on the growing of kalo, or Hawaiian taro. Kalo is a sacred plant to Kanaka Maoli, held in traditional belief to be the elder sibling of the first human of Hawaiʻi, and the plant from which Hawaiiansʻ beloved poi is made. Kalo requires copious water and is very sensitive to pollutants (hence,urbanization); therefore, anti-development and water rights struggles are ubiquitous elements of traditional loʻi (kalo culture) in the present day. Because the alarming health statistics of Kanaka Maoli (who currentlysuffer from the highest rates of nearly every serious disease of any ethnic group in Hawaiʻi)have been repeatedly correlated with the loss of traditional dietary practices, the goals of Aloha ʻAina include the harmonization of human health with the health of the land, through the culturally pono, or righteous, protection and care of the natural resources that sustain it.
New issues, such as the hotly contested creation of a genetically modified "monster" taro variety, the proposed arrival of 240 Stryker tanks to Hawaiʻi, give rise to new definitions and concepts continuslly.