Notes From An R2W Pilgrimage to Hawai’i: Reconsidering Aloha

Essay by Michael James, PANA R2W Youth Programs Director

PANA perceives Hawai'i as a location of two social realities that have profound implications for both church and society: the struggle of Native Hawai'ians and Pacific Islanders (particularly young people) struggling in the post colonial conditions of Hawai'ian society; and the indigenous Hawai'ian social movement as part of the global struggle for democracy and environmental sustainability.

PHOTO: R2W returned to Hawai’i in August 2007 to honor nine Honolulu-based R2W alumni, recruit new young leaders, and continue PANA’s exploration of Hawai’i’s significance to API spirituality. Mark Hamamoto and band is performing “Ohio” and anthems of the social movements at R2Ws Le Afi Ua Mu (Sa'amoan: The fire is burning) at Church of the Crossroads, HonoluluLe Afi Ua Mu a new R2W program to assist working class leaders of faith, and PANA’s endowment campaign in Hawai’i, spearheaded by Rev. Wally Fukunaga.

The history and experience of the Polynesian archipelago offers insight to our collective theological and spiritual journey. Asian Pacific Islander Christians of color are compelled to reconcile the dark history of the church and Western imperialism in this region with the demands of our faith for love and justice. This visit challenged PANA to explore more deeply a principle of Hawai'ian culture that is easy to take for granted: the meaning of aloha.

The Prophetic Dimension of Aloha

PHOTO: Rev. Kaleo Patterson explaining the meaning of the heiau (sacred site) on the Waianea Coast to Rev Deborah Lee, Michael James, Crystal Talitonu and some keiki.

The Waianae Coast on the leeward side of the island of O'ahu is analogous to land ceded for Indian reservations in the US. Rocky, drier, and less economically lucrative for development than the windward side of O'ahu, US settlers created “homelands” for Native Hawai’ians who have been removed from their original homes on the island. And like reservations, the social and economic infrastructure of the Coast is underdeveloped. Unemployment, violence, drug traffic, houselessness, and youth alienation are pervasive among the predominantly Native and Polynesian working class population.

On the Waianae Coast is Makua Beach, a site militarized by the U.S. for combat and landing exercises. A non-violent resistance action against U.S. military training activities took place at Makua several years ago. Also along the coast are several encampments of houseless native Hawai'ians.

Yet the Waianae Coast is also the location of some of the most profound expressions of Hawai'ian spirituality, innovation, political activity and cultural coherence. There is an organic farm operated by local youth; a grassroots aquaculture project; and a cultural center with a terraced kalo garden. It has also been the location of dramatic and heroic resistance to US militarism and US government violation of Hawai'ian sovereignty.

Rev. Kaleo Patterson (UCC) took us to ancestral sites along the coast reclaimed by Native Hawai'ians. While other activist hosts have instructed us about the impact colonization and globalization, Rev Patterson focused more on expressions of the sacred that are indigenous to the aina. He explained the significance of a heiau, an ancestral sacred shrine, one which contained an altar constructed of volcanic rock and a wood tower. A heiau is a place through which the spirit of lives present and past converge, where the ocean and land mass and its inhabitants meet.

The Power of Aloha

There is indeed a welcoming and compassion that meets the visitor to Hawai'i, a disposition unique to the islands that transcends the industrial, military and commercial development. But the concept of aloha took on a deeper, and perhaps more profound significance for us at the heiau near the site of military landing exercises. It represents integration and harmony, worship of the spirit and substance of life. The contrast between force represented by the helicopter landing at Makua Beach and the power represented by the heiau seems to suggest that aloha is present and eternal, life-giving and forgiving. It is a way to transcend even the most aggressive transgression. It precedes us so that it can enable us. When the military and all other development is gone from the Waianae Cosast, the heiau will continue. This sacred site seemed to embody the eternal nature of aloha.

PHOTO: Public Housing Project in Waihewa, O'ahu

Rev. Patterson does not seem particularly preoccupied with the aggressive behavior of the U.S. Rather, he seems saddened and alarmed at its suicidal, nihilistic tendencies. His ministry, beyond the uplifting of Hawai'ian culture, also involves enabling colonizers to decolonize themselves, to discover and embrace their own humanity. He is clear that the humanization of indigenous peoples is intertwined with the humanization of their oppressors. But he also instructs that humanization is merely one dimension of malama aina (love of the land), that human beings are an expression of and not superior to nature. Aloha is expressed within the harmony that already exists for us, despite our aggression.

PHOTO: Houseless encampment on Waianae Coast

Stumbling into Aloha

There is a new awareness of Hawai'i’s Asian Pacific Islander spirituality by the West, expressed sometimes in clumsy appropriation of language and values. Non-native Hawai'ians learn about Queen Liliokalani; Hawai'ian words are common in the ‘local’ syntax; and schools and the tourism industry actually teach about U.S. aggression against Hawai'i and the apology of the U.S. government for its role in the overthrow of the monarchy in 1898.

Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindis, and agnostics in Hawai'i seem to be profoundly influenced by the power of aloha ( I can’t say “aloha spirit” because it seems to diminish the depth of the principle). The sacred seems to transcend the rudeness and ruthlessness of human activity that has occurred over the centuries. The spirit of aloha is predominant, even as it is trivialized in its commercial mass-culture manifestation. It is invoked, though sometimes superficially, by nearly everyone. In Hawai'i churches it is affirmed and expressed in most liturgies. Ministers, rabbis, imams and secular leaders acknowledge that the principle of aloha precedes the arrival of Abrahamic religions to the South Pacific. That they embrace it underscores the possibility that each of our religions have limitations and can be complimented or further articulated by a pre-existing principle. This embrace suggests that aloha is neither a theological idea nor cultural value but an overarching principle that precedes and transcends theology and culture.

Le Afi within Aloha

Some of our young Honolulu-based R2W participants reside in the "KPT" or other dangerous, police-patrolled housing projects. They are Polynesian by birth, lower-income/working class by economic stratification. They have lived on the social fringes of a society which has imposed itself upon their ancestral lands. The local jails are populated mostly by Sa'amoans, Tongans, Marshallese, and Native Hawai'ians who struggle to survive against discrimination and economic marginalization.

Where is aloha for them?

PHOTO: Siou Paogofie (right) of Honolulu and R2Ws Congregational Leaders Internship at the Arizona-Mexico border with Native American leaders discussing globalization, immigration, and indigenous values (CLI Immersion, August 2007)

Angelina Tuioti (R2W 2006) and Siou Paogofie (R2W 2004) are young leaders who have emerged from Honolulu housing projects to embrace a prophetic pilgrimage for justice, sustainability, and love. Both are concerned with women’s rights, social justice for Pacific Islanders and other peoples of color, and peace. Ms. Paogofie is active in UCC national committees and recently participated in PANA’s conference on Women For Genuine Security. R2W and PANA have become a ‘dojo’ for their continuing theological/political development. Over and against the legacy of colonial oppression, aloha is within them, expressed in their street wisdom, an unexplainable magnanimity and compassion, and gentle but relentless determination toward social change. We were blessed to celebrate their lives at Le Afi Ua Mu.

The walk with Kaleo Patterson in the pacific beauty of the Waianae Coast, contrasted with a stop at the rough, inner-Honolulu "KPT" housing project of R2W leader Angel Tuioti provided an insight into the resonance of Asian Pacific Islander spirituality with our larger sojourn as progressive people of faith.

Aloha is not something that can be taken away or given, a sentiment, an award. It is something present and powerful.

The political and cultural activities of the social movement in Hawai'i, from sovereignty to sustainable agriculture to anti-militarism, are indeed critical actions of resistance to globalization and militarization.

But the overarching nature of this activity is not reactive, but generative. The principle of aloha seems to guide it. This might make it distinct from social movement activity here in the mainland. Aloha is an aspect of an ancient culture, an acknowledgement and affirmation of all creation, including humanity. It precedes the birth of Christ and persists in the continuity of life in the Pacific. In Hawai'i, the prophetic work of Kaleo Patterson, the sustainable agriculture projects of Mark Hamamoto and the M'ao Youth Organic Farm cooperative, the sovereignty movement, and the peace and anti-militarism efforts of folks such as Kyle Kajihiro of AFSC, and the new energy of young leaders such as Siou Paogofie embody much more than the rejection of economic imperialism and environmental degradation and a desire for social equity.

They celebrate in the malama aina, made obvious by the power and beauty of the land and sea. They celebrate God’s love made obvious in the power of compassion, unity, and redemption. This celebration seems to proclaim aloha as a principle, perhaps a soulforce, for humankind.