For the Future

 History says, don’t hope

On this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

The longed-for tidal wave

Of Justice can rise up,

And hope and history rhyme.

—Seamus Heaney

These woodcut prints memorialize times in Hawai‘i, history when people used

their bodies to stop something bad from happening. Since 1893, a tradition of resistance

continues unbroken in these islands. The prints presented here reveal a genealogy of

struggle. In these actions, the participants were motivated by love. They said, “We are

doing this for the future,” as they stepped forward into the unknown. They did not know

if they would win. They did not know how much force the state would deploy. They were

willing to risk all for the dream of a pono future: the mountain undesecrated, the valleys

feeding us, the bombing stopped, the workers respected, the oceans teeming with life.

They set loose a vision of beautiful possibility as they faced danger, wrapped in a cloak

of protection called solidarity.

These prints use a composite of invented scene based on historical accounts,

and actual images captured by photographers and videographers who have

documented the history of collective action in Hawai‘i, including Ian Lind, Chris

Kahunahana, Mikey Inouye, Victoria Keith, Shigeto Wakida, and numerous anonymous

news camera operators.