Ventures into Downtown Honolulu

Wednesday night, Denise and her husband took me out to dinner at their favorite restaurant, Duke's. All the servers were in full costume and they were all great! The man that brought our food was 6 foot 7 easily and dressed in full police uniform with aviators, very intimidating. Our server's costume was probably the lamest, but since my food had been messed up by the kitchen and I had to wait longer, he brought out a free dessert for us, so I liked him despite his 'bloodstained guy' outfit. I had mahi mahi for the first time and it was delicious. However, I'm convinced the flavor of white fish will never compare to dark tuna, or especially salmon. The pineapple I had from the salad bar almost brought me to tears and convinced me finally that yes, I really am in Hawaii. After dinner, we roamed the main street of Waikiki and they were packed (even by 7pm!) with elaborately costumed people and flash-happy tourists. I was too dazzled to take any pictures of my own. My favorite costumes were the Addams Family (yes, the whole family, even Wednesday with braids) and the Ghostbusters, all three of them. The best part of the whole night was getting to ride Denise's moped around town. We turned in early, and I was glad because the crowds were oppressive, although fascinating.

Thursday morning, I hopped on the bus and cruised downtown to the Hawaii State Art Museum. It was free and small and featured a few Hawaiian artists, a lot of haole artists painting Hawaiians and many Japanese-Hawaiian painters and sculptors. Next, I walked down the street to the Iolani Palace, the seat of the Hawaiian Kingdom government until 1893. The present State of Hawaii capitol is just north of the palace. I was planning on catching a tour inside, but noticed a gathering of Hawaiians on the lawn, so I went to see what they were doing. Just as I arrived, the woman stopped speaking and the group walked over to some offices, and then over to the statue of Queen Liliuokalani. I asked someone what they were gathered for and a man named Kimo said that they were the Hawaiian Kingdom Government and were there to celebrate the State of Hawaii's formal recognition of their right to gather and hold business on the Palace grounds. At the Queen's statue, we sang a hymn that she wrote when the American plantation owners imprisoned her in the Palace during the illegal American takeover of the Islands in 1893. This is the English translation of the hymn:

Oh! Lord thy loving mercy,
Is high as the heavens,
It tells us thy truth,
And 'tis filled with holiness.

Whilst humbly meditating,
Within these walls imprisoned,
Thou art my light my haven,
Thy glory my support.

Oh! Look not on their failings,
Nor on the sins of men,
Forgive with loving kindness,
That we might be made pure.

For thy grace I beseech thee,
Bring us 'neath thy protection,
And peace will be our portion,
Now and forever more. Amen.

Then we stood at the steps of the Palace while they organized a tour for the members who had never been inside. One member walked up and offered to explain the event more in depth. He told me that the Hawaiian Kingdom Government's ultimate goal is to be an independent nation once again, under no US control. He said that the USA is actually a corporation, incorporated in London as of 18-something, and that the entire organization is designed to make a profit off the American people. That's why the offices are called President and Vice President and Secretary of so and so, etc. After our conversation finished, I sat down in the shade of the huge tree ( I wish in knew what kind!). I realized that the woman I saw speaking initially was the Head of State. While the groups were touring, the Head of Security introduced himself to me and asked me why I was there. I explained that I had done some research from home about Hawaii's history and I wanted to come to Hawaii to hear the story from the Hawaiians themselves. He was excited to tell me I had most certainly come to the right place and gave me his Hawaiian Kingdom Government card and invited me to visit the office sometime. He introduced me to another security official, Raymond. Raymond talked to me for a long time, espousing all the wisdom he felt was essential in the world, far beyond the topic of government. I learned that he was a minister to homeless people and was a passionate seeker of spiritual truth. One of the first things he told me was that BIBLE stands for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. I listened quietly the entire time and he eventually decided he needed to be more attentive to his duties. When he left, I found some lunch nearby and by the time I wandered back to the Palace, they had set out a luncheon for the group. The Head of Security insisted that I join them, but I declined and caught the next bus home. An out of date website for the Hawaiian Kingdom is here, if you're interested.

Friday, I headed back downtown to find the office of the Hawaiian Kingdom Government. As I walked up the hill, I noticed a couple people standing outside the office and one of them was the man who had talked to me first. He recognized me and waved. I met them at the door and we stood outside and talked. I wasn't invited in. When I expressed an interest in learning more about their organization, I was given a DVD. I asked how they differed from Mililani Trask's Ka Lahui Hawaii organization. He explained that their intent is to be an independent nation with its own Hawaiian citizens, while Ka Lahui is working on becoming a sovereign nation within a nation, like Native American reservations, and remaining US citizens. I asked what books he would recommend by Hawaiian authors about Hawaii's history and he told me to find To Steal a Kingdom. With that, he directed me to the nearest bookstore and I left. I caught a bus to the Ford Street mall, which is the center of Hawaii Pacific University's downtown campus. I had lunch, explored a farmer's market, and found avocados bigger than I had dared to imagine! I tried to shop the University bookstore, but they had all the books behind a desk, so I couldn't browse. I went to the next closest bookstore, and they didn't have anything I wanted. I did find a pamphlet written by a white man claiming that the Hawaiian nation was not stolen and US capitalism was a blessing for the Hawaiian people. I wanted to have it, but couldn't bring myself to spend $6.50 supporting someone so preposterous.

I finally headed home and fell asleep until sunset. When I woke, I wandered down to the beach, wondering what to do with myself on a Friday night. I was considering hanging out in Waikiki, but was wary of the tourists. While on the beach, I was approached by a tall, loud voiced man, Cole, who wanted to know if I was going to First Friday, a monthly event when all the art galleries kept their doors open late. He and his friends were headed downtown and would I like to come? I accepted gladly and he and I caught a cab. The first place he took me was to the Pacific Club to meet up with more of his friends. One of the other guys, Pat, Cole's closest friend, was excited to hear that I was interested in the history of Hawaii. He told me that the club we were in was the same that the American plantation owners met in to plot the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Also, that the club had only recently (20 years ago) allowed women and people of color to be members. He thought it very serendipitous that I happened to meet Cole and end up in that club within days of arriving in Hawaii. I agreed. He and Cole helped clarify some terms I was hearing. Haole is the Hawaiian word for 'without breath' and was initially used to describe the people who would not greet others in the traditional Hawaiian manner of touching foreheads and inhaling deeply. Eventually, it came to mean foreigner and more specifically, white person. The term 'local' is never applied to a white person, whether or not he or she is born and raised in Hawaii. I wasn't clear on whether people of other Polynesian descent besides Hawaiian would be called locals. Pat also mentioned that he dated a daughter of the Judd family (a family heavily involved in the overthrow), which he told me I'd learn about when I read To Steal a Kingdom. He had found a huge collection of records from a certain time period of Hawaii in this girl's garage and looked through them. They had been intentionally hidden by the family and had only recently been released to the State of Hawaii archives. I didn't get a clear picture from him why they were significant records, but I will when I read that book.

We caught a cab from there to downtown with the other four guys and met more of Cole's friends at a club called HotelThirtyNine. The art show part of the night was pretty much over by then. In that club, anyway, the pictures were on the walls, but all the lights but the disco ball had been turned off and the DJ was playing already. I met Aaron and Dana, both from Portland, who are flying to Kauai the same day as me to hike the Kalaha Trail on the north shore, a trail I want to hike, too. I also met a tall, conservatively dressed man named Blake from Bend, Oregon. We went to another club, called Next Door. There we stayed and danced for a while. Some creep came up and put his arms around me at one point. Blake was behind me and immediately asked, “Do you know this guy?” I shook my head no and stepped behind Blake while he told the creep to get away from me or else. I've never experienced anything threatening or offensive like that before, and I felt so grateful for the safety and protection of my new friend (although I bet I could have handled it just fine myself). Soon, we left for the next club, called Indigo. By then, it was just Blake, Cole and me and we sat at a table. After an absurd analysis of my personal grooming (read: shaving) practices (he pays someone to shave his back, and he thinks I'm confused!), Cole gave me a long talk about what he knew I could expect from my intended research project, which he considered a PhD level undertaking. His main points were these: I should be prepared to have a hard time defining Hawaiian culture and discerning between pre-contact and contemporary and everything in between. I should not expect to come away with any conclusions, especially in just 5 months. No matter my intentions, I'll find that I am incapable of having a lasting effect on the children I'll work with because of the short period of time and also because the Department of Education in Hawaii is so intolerably corrupt and inefficient that my capacities as a teacher, no matter how spectacular, will be undermined completely. Needless to say, it wasn't a very uplifting conversation, although I suppose it was a healthy dose of realism (if he turns out to be right, which my idealistic mind adamantly doubts). I took off and caught the last bus home as soon as he left the table to find more friends, thanking Blake again for his presence and kindness. Another interesting thing Cole mentioned was that the fact that since Hawaiian history is oral, their songs, which are so packed with meaning and power, are considered the most threatening aspect of the culture to the CIA, whose intent, in Cole's words, is to be able to crack and destroy foreign cultures. He said to pay close attention to Hawaiian music as I do my studies.

Today, I had a desire to see the North Shore everyone talks about, so I caught the bus to Ala Moana shopping center, where I would find the North Shore bus connection. I checked a bookstore there, and they didn't have what I wanted. I hopped on the bus thinking it would be a 90 minute ride, but decided to ask the driver just in case. He said on Saturdays it was usually more like a 3.5 hour ride, so I changed my mind, and caught a bus to the University of Hawaii, Moana campus instead. I hoped to check their bookstore for the books I wanted, but I got there just after it closed. The campus was practically deserted, so I rode the bus home and went swimming instead. There was a college volleyball tournament happening, so it wasn't peaceful in Waikiki, but it wasn't too crowded. After these last few days, I am so done with the city and Oahu and ready to retreat to my quiet garden island of Kauai. I can't wait to fly there tomorrow morning and go home!