It Was Never With Our Consent

Native Books at Arts and Letters, March 2025

Since the arrival of Empire in these islands

Not a day has passed without someone rising to say “ʻAʻole.”

What evil you laid down, you laid without our consent.

You, who stole land, blocked stream flow, smothered reefs,

Turned work into something for profit

Instead of something to meet human need.

Turned joy into something paid for

Instead of something shared.

You who made us a target of bombs,

Who poisoned our water with your bomb worship,

Who smashed our sacred with your bomb worship,

You who wanted to kill a culture and tear out

The tongue of a language,

You who poured concrete over graves

And asphalt over fertile abundance,

You were never welcome here.

We stood in resistance, over and again.

Our voices raised in song

Our bodies standing before your guns

Our tears flowing from deep wells of solidarity.

We know that your power is not eternal.

You have the guns.

You have the money.

We have each other.

We will dance here long after you leave.

The green mountains will hold us

Until the streams flow freely again on their way to the sea,

Until the sea once more vibrates with life,

Until life bursts forth from loʻi and garden,

Where, at dayʻs end,

we will gather, all fed, song rising, none lonely.

Oh, hearts will still break, from loved ones who leave,

But never from the death and pain inflicted by your greed machine.

We have learned, while you tried to kill us, how to

Reveal you and defeat you.

It was never with our consent,

And it will end because of our abiding love of this place.

He Hau No Kealakekua

charcoal on paper,

42 x 42”

Depicting 1779 – 1800s, pre-contact canoe plants with loko iʻa and loʻi; ʻanae – food of aliʻi; death of Cook; surveyor/Great Mahele; Bayonet Constitution; resistance through writings, petitions, political organizing and the steel-tipped pen. ʻAʻama crab = change is coming.

The title of this work is drawn from Kauwila Mahi who coined the phrase “He Hau No Kealakekua,” a reference to the skilled warriors depicted in this drawing, a warning to someone engaging in colonizer action.

Bye and Bye Ho’i Mai ’Oe

Depicting 1800s - early 1900s, Kalākaua Jubilee, return of hula; Queen Liliʻuokalani repeatedly protests the overthrow, composes songs while imprisoned; Emma Nāwahī and Abigail Kuaihelani Campbell travel to remote villages collecting signatures for kū’ē petitions; Royal Hawaiian Band members refuse to sign the paper of the enemy; prophetic run of the ‘Āweoweo; ʻAlalā, ʻIʻiwi

Until the Last Aloha ʻĀina

Depicting early 1900s, Large Circulation of anti-annexation Hawaiian language newspapers; Kuʻu Hae Aloha quilters; Wilcox Rebellion; Arrival of immigrants from Asia. Crown flower, a favorite of the Queen.

The Union Makes Us Strong

Depicting the first half of 20th century, contract laborers and luna with whip (there are recorded incidents of workers flogged to death on the plantations); Rise of ILWU -sugar, dock, and cannery stikes; Hilo Massacre; the custom of sleeping under canopies of Kuʻu Hae Aloha quilts. Victoria Ward: “I was born under the Hawaiian flag, and I will die under the Hawaiian flag”

Huli! Same Struggle Same Fight

Depicting 1950s – early 1970s, McCarthyism/Hawaiʻi Seven Smith Act trial; Harriet Bouslog and Helen Kanahele save Majors and Palakiku from the gallows under the old Kamani tree at Oahu prison, leading to the abolition of the death penalty in Hawaiʻi; Hawaiʻi delegation brings lei to march from Selma to Montgomery with Dr. King; Dock strikes; Save Our Surf and Kokua Hawaiʻi founded; occupation of Bachman Hall in solidarity with U.S. student strike to end the war in Vietnam; Demanding Ethnic Studies; fighting evictions – Chinatown, Kalama Valley, Ota Camp; Church of the Crossroads (joined by Unitarian Church and Friends Meeting House) gives shelter to draft resisters; first pride march/commemoration of Stonewall in Waikīkī; Manini – the small and common fish that survives even in a polluted reef.

Landback

Depicting 1970s – 1990s, Hawaiian renaissance; anti-eviction actions at Waiāhole Waikane (O’ahu), Niumalu and Nāwiliwili (Kauaʻi), Sand Island (Oʻahu); “CJ” William S. Richardson, first Hawaiian Chief Justice since the democratic revolution, who limited private property claims by reviving traditional Hawaiian concepts of water rights, beach access, and gathering rights; gathering rights further protected by all-night hula halau. protest at State Capitol (shown with ʻaʻaliʻi, palapalai, maile); Arrests at Nāwiliwili, Sand Island, and Nukoliʻi; Occupation of Hilo airport; Hawaiian Sovereignty movement marks 100th anniversary of the overthrow; Hui Ala Loa trail walks; Protect Kahoʻolawe ʻOhana/George Helm; Shanty occupation of Bachman lawn to force UH divestment from Apartheid South Africa; First Hōkūleʻa crossing.

You Know the Harmony

Depicting 2000s to the future, locking the doors to stop kalo patenting; ahu construction at Bachman lawn for Mauna Kea and at Pearl Harbor to shut down Red Hill; demilitarize/stop Rimpac; die-ins at UH Starbucks to stop killing of children in Gaza, at the Capitol to shut down Red Hill, at Honolulu Hale to stop police killings; Lanakila Mangauil carries kiʻi at Mauna Kea groundbreaking; Cattle grate, kūpuna line, arrests at Mauna Kea; victorious teens after suing the state to stop climate catastrophe; March for Palestine; Stopping the Super Ferry at Nāwiliwili Harbor; Aeʻo return to the loʻi.

Postscript to the exhibition:

These drawings are dedicated to the people portrayed, and to all who join them. You who fought for a future in which our respect for the ’āina, and aloha for each other, returns to us a life of abundance, have shown that nothing feels better than joining the struggle. I honor you. These drawings represent a chronology of forms of resistance that have occured since the arrival of empire. Apologies to the many actors and movements that were omitted – or incorrectly depicted - due to space constraints, or regrettable ignorance. Mahalo nui loa to the scholars who have illuminated this history. Gratitude to Maile Meyer for creating the gathering space. A special thanks to Dr. Noenoe Silva, my friend and history whisperer, for her encouragement. Deep respect to the photographers and videographers who recorded movement history, providing an invaluable reference for creating these drawings, including Ed Greavy, Ian Lind, Joan Lander/Nā Maka No ka ’Āina, Chris Kahunahana, Mikey Inouye, Malia Osorio. In 2025, as fascists rise, the image of ordinary people rising up to confront evil is imprinted in our memory. The ancestors are singing us into the future. You know the harmony.