The Past and Future of Hawaiians

The Past and Future of Hawaiians

Your in an airplane, your hot, tired, cramping from the plane ride; you try to peel yourself off the seat after spending hours listening to arguments, videos, babies crying, kids talking, and everything else, making the ride so long. You then step off of the plane into an unknown land of Aloha and are greeted with leis into what seems to be paradise. As you leave the airport and enter paradise, seeing the land with its beauty, a person on the street catches your eye. Someone is holding a sign that says, “I will work for food” or see tents on the beach, thinking that they are camping when in actuality they live there, but you pay no mind and go on with your time in Hawaii. There are lots of people especially in Hawaii who are homeless because of reasons such as jobs, economy, etc. Homelessness not only comes with those things but also not having poor health and not having any healthcare. With homelessness growing and Health/ Healthcare issues taking prominence in Hawai’i, we have seen the historical impacts of these issues and combined it with solutions found throughout our ‘aina’s history, the basis of change. These are two of the largest impacting issues in Hawaii and the Hawaiian community and we will work to finding a solution for all the kanaka with the valued knowledge passed down throughout history.

Homelessness being a big part of Hawaii in the issues that we have been facing for a while now wasn’t always seen in the past, for Hawaiians back in the day didn’t know what being homeless was. They didn’t even know what that meant because Hawaiians had a connection with the ‘aina and believed in ohana, sharing everything even living spaces. In the essay “Homelessness” by Trisha Watson, she talks about the past and present of homelessness. Unlike today were we have vehicles, back in the day Hawaiians would look to the sky at night, following Papahānaumoku (Earth Mother) and Wākea (Sky Father) who showed Hawaiians how...