ʻYou gotta be responsibleʼ: How Kokua Hawaii fostered kuleana for the land and people of Hawaiʻi

Abstract

Recent scholarship has focused on the vital role of social movement organizations as key pathways into activism. Yet attention to how learning unfolds within social movement organizations has not been adequately studied. Informed by critical learning sciences, we investigated Kokua Hawaii, a social movement organization that catalyzed a near half century of grassroots activism throughout Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. We argue that Kokua Hawaii offered a space for activists to: (1) conceptualize eviction as a symptom of colonialism and capitalism, (2) open themselves to Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) epistemologies and lifeways, (3) participate in shared labor and collective care, and (4) author affirming and purposeful activist identities. Data includes 34 publicly available oral history interviews with members of Kokua Hawaii. We conclude by reflecting on our scholarly responsibilities to past, present, and future social movements.

Keywords:

• Organizations
• learning
• liberation
• colonialism
• capitalism

Acknowledgements

We want to acknowledge Merle Pak, Gary Pak, Gary Kubota, and George Lipsitz for their contributions to our collective analysis.

Notes

1 Readers may note that our use of spelling “Kokua Hawaii” is inconsistent with the formal diacritical markings of ‘Ōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language; in this case, “Kōkua Hawaiʻi”). Elders and co-researchers felt the original spelling of “Kokua Hawaii” better resonated with how they originally named and referenced the organization. We also chose not to italicize ‘Ōlelo Hawaiʻi words in ways that mark them as foreign (Reyes, 2019).

2 In fact, Kamakawiwoʻole was a close friend of Black Panther Party co-founder, Bobby Seale. Kamakawiwoʻole recalled Seale’s parting advice before returning to Hawaiʻi: “Bro Larry, I want you to go home and cause hell. I want you to turn that place upside down because your people are suffering like my people. There is no difference” (Pak, 2019a).

3 Naʻau stems from the root word for wisdom (naʻauao) and is “linked to a mind that literally means ‘viscera’ (na’au) and figuratively means feelings/emotions” (Meyer, 1998, p. 22).

4 Elders noted that activists like Joy Ahn, a former public-school teacher and aide to Congresswoman Patsy Mink, also lent credibility to this local struggle and broadened points of entry into the movement.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leiʻala Okuda

Leiʻala Okuda is a Hawaiian, Japanese, Okinawan woman, student, and activist-scholar. She is currently a graduate assistant at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in the Department of Educational Administration-Higher Education. Her ancestral lands are in Punaluʻu but she resides in Kapolei, Oʻahu. Through her research, she finds a deep sense of kuleana to “i ka wā ma mua, i ka wā ma hope”—that by looking to the past, she and her hui can better inform the present and future.

Alicia Nani Reyes

Alicia Nani Reyes is Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) and Mēxihcatl (Aztec) born and raised on the ancestral homelands of the Nuwu (Southern Paiute). She is a first-year PhD student and graduate research assistant in the Educational Administration Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Her research interests focus on equity and justice for Native and Indigenous students at Settler Institutions.

Ethan Chang

Ethan Chang is an Asian American man, educator, and activist scholar. He is currently an assistant professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in the Department of Educational Administration. His research extends Collaborative, Community-Based Research (CCBR): a methodology that aims to produce knowledge that is answerable to systemically marginalized communities.

Gwen Kim

Gwen Kim is a member of Kokua Hawaii, who helped with research and outreach to communities fighting evictions. Together with her late husband, Soli Niheu, Aunty Gwen fed and housed the movement. The Niheu-Kim hale became the center of dozens of Kokua Hawaii meetings. Aunty Gwen is also a retired social work administrator with Queen Liliʻuokalani Children’s Center and has been called the mother of ʻOnipaʻa Nā Hui Kalo.

Raymond Catania

Raymond Catania is a member of Kokua Hawaii and was one of the 32 people arrested in Kalama Valley. Uncle Ray was a leader in Kokua Hawaii in charge of education. He also operated Kokua Hawaii’s printing press on Pālama Street in Kalihi, where he published brochures and protest posters. He continues his political and creative work today in solidarity with working-class movements.