1/ A disgusting banner: “everyone can vote OHA.” Across from Castle Hospital in Kailua, it signals how non-Kanaka Maoli can now vote in elections for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, an agency for the betterment of Kānaka Maoli. This sign celebrates colonial racism in Hawaiʻi. 
2/ OHA was established in 1978 through the State of Hawaii’s constitutional convention. After pressure from Hawaiian sovereignty activists, OHA was created as a state agency to fulfill one condition of the 1959 Admissions Act, which is to better conditions for Kānaka Maoli.
3/ OHA became institutionalized to manage part of the “ceded” lands public trust, which is constituted from national land stolen from the Hawaiian Kingdom, to administer programs and services for Kānaka Maoli. Initially, only Kānaka Maoli could vote for ʻŌiwi trustees on OHA.
4/ Let me emphasize. OHA was established to manage and administer a portion of revenue from the public trust, created from land STOLEN from Kānaka Maoli, by Kanaka Maoli trustees elected by Kānaka Maoli. This signifies self-determination and entitlements for Kānaka, not haole.
5/ It’s vital to note too that white Euro-American men seized Hawaiian national land from Kānaka Maoli, manufactured the “State of Hawaii,” and erected a US settler-state in Hawaiʻi. In 1978, OHA established as an agency to assuage material effects of colonialism on Kānaka Maoli.
6/ In 1996 a haole (white settler) farmer in Hawaiʻi sued governor Ben Cayetano and the State of Hawaii, claiming that Kanaka Maoli only elections for OHA violated his 14th and 15th amendment rights. Freddy Rice alleged his US voting rights in a state election were violated.
7/ Freddy Rice lost his lawsuit at first, but appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court and eventually won. In Rice v Cayetano (2000), the court ruled the State of Hawaii violated the 15th amendment, and unlawfully barred non-Kanaka Maoli from voting in OHA elections.
8/ The US Supreme Court’s majority opinion suggested that the State of Hawaii, through OHA, used “ancestry as a proxy for race.” This ruling, while very complicated, erased the political status of Hawaiian Indigeneity as a racial formation. It viewed “Native Hawaiian” as a race.
9/ The impact of Rice v Cayetano has been devastating. Now, non-Kanaka Maoli can vote in elections for OHA. This means that non-Kanaka Maoli dictate how OHA manages and administers entitlements for Kānaka Maoli. This is not self-determination. This is settler-state determination.
10/ Turning back to the banner, it celebrates non-Kanaka Maoli settlers voting on elections that govern programs and services for Kānaka Maoli. This is colonial racism in the settler-state of Hawaii. Haole claim “reverse racism” based on US law in sovereign, unceded Hawaiʻi.
11/ Make no mistake, this banner celebrates white supremacy and settler colonialism in Hawaiʻi. It represents US conservativism. It praises attacks on affirmative action. It encourages the degradation of Indigenous rights in Hawaiʻi. The sign is anti-Hawaiian and fucked up.
