A bill prohibiting genetically modified taro in Maui County received final approval Friday by the Maui County Council.

The taro bill prohibits anyone from testing, propagating, growing or introducing genetically engineered or modified taro, or kalo, within Maui County. Council members voted 9-0 to approve the ban, saying they believed taro's cultural and spiritual significance to Native Hawaiians was more important than any other factor.

Mayor Charmaine Tavares said after the vote that she would support the ban.

"I will be signing the bill into law and recognize that the passage of this new law will send a message of support for state Representative Mele Carroll's efforts to introduce and pass a bill at the state Legislature," she said in an e-mailed statement.

An award-winning documentary about the "occupation" of Hawai'i will be shown at 7 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Paliku Theatre at Windward Community College.

"Noho Hewa: The Wrongful Occupation of Hawai'i" is free and open to the public.

Winner of the Hawaii International Film Festival's 2008 award for best documentary film, the 82-minute film offers an analysis about the connections between militarism, desecration and homelessness, and how these issues are related to Hawaiian sovereignty.

The film will be followed by a Q&A session with filmmaker Anne Keala Kelly.

The screening is sponsored by Ku Pono and the Ko'olaupoko Hawaiian Civic Club.

Donations will be accepted and a DVD of the film will be available for purchase.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs will eliminate 28 of its 178 positions as part of a new strategic plan outlined yesterday.

The layoffs are expected to save OHA from $500,000 to $750,000 and are part of a shift to a more "results-based" strategy.

OHA plans to set specific goals, such as raising the level of Native Hawaiian incomes to meet or exceed non-Hawaiian incomes in the Islands.

The plan also calls for turning over OHA assets to a new Hawaiian government that could result from passage of the so-called Akaka bill in Congress, which would grant federal recognition to Native Hawaiians.

"That's fairly controversial," OHA administrator Clyde Namu'o said yesterday. OHA's trustees "see OHA as eventually going out of existence and being taken over, if you will, by this Native Hawaiian entity. ... That is a strong statement about how the trustees view the future for Native Hawaiians."

PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 03, 2009 – Othila Media Productions has announced that the documentary film "Hawaii A Voice For Sovereignty" is beginning a theatrical tour starting with special screenings at the Palace Theater in Hilo, on the Big Island Sat. Sept. 5th and Sun. Sept 6th. Following the screenings in Hilo the film will move to Waimea at the historic Waimea Theater, Kaua'i, Sept. 25th. More screenings will be announced throughout the Hawaiian Islands, the U.S., New Zealand, and Japan.

The documentary is an inspiring, and educational modern epic which takes us on a journey beginning with the takeover of Hawaii in 1893. The oral history, told by Native Hawaiians, reveals how Hawaiian culture, spirituality, and land rights continue to be threatened to this day.

Photojournalist and filmmaker Catherine Bauknight says “to be separated from their culture, land and spirituality could result in the extinction of a culture. These are extremely critical issues not only for the Hawaiians but for the entire global community as well. The Hawaiians want to get their message out to the world.”

In conjunction with Fat Ulu Productions, an organization dedicated to creating and strengthening communities through the literary arts (it recently produced a series of collaborative poetry performances), Kumu Kahua presents a collection of monologues, scenes and stories written by Hawaii playwrights, poets and storytellers. With the intention of presenting multiple perspectives on the issue of statehood in Hawaii – including political, historical and sociological – in early 2009 Kumu and Fat Ulu invited local writers to create short, personal expressions and reflections on any chosen aspect of statehood. These pieces were first read by the writers or actors to an audience, then revised by the writers and refined and organized by producers at Kumu. The result is a significant, and refreshingly different addition to both the commercial promotion and journalistic reportage that has been celebrating Hawaii's 50th anniversary of statehood.

Statehood for Hawaii was:

a) A tragedy.
b) A disaster.
c) An illegal act.
d) All of the above.

Those answers represent the range of perspectives found in "The Statehood Project," the Kumu Kahua/Fat Ulu Productions collaboration that opens the 2009-2010 season at Kumu Kahua. It consists of short works by 16 playwrights, authors and poets, and a 1974 vintage poem by the late Wayne Westlake.

The Westlake poem, written in response to the 15th anniversary of statehood, is performed several times in the show. The final lines sum up the show's general take on statehood: "It's raining/I feel like crying."

Sonny Kaniho was one of the giants in the modern Hawaiian rights movement who gained fame by quietly, and then not-so-quietly, protesting the failures of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to make land available to Native Hawaiians.

Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit Of The Perfect Wave: The Hawaiian Independence Movement Gains Momentum

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Hawaii's statehood, I went down to the beach at Waikiki and witnessed a lovely evening fireworks display. Only thing is, the fireworks didn't have anything to do with the anniversary -- it's something my hotel does every Friday night for the tourists. At least in Oahu, there wasn't much of anything else going on to commemorate the historic anniversary, either. A '50s nostalgia concert starring the Platters, the Coasters and the Drifters, or imitations thereof. A conference at the Hawaii Convention Center. A march and rally for Hawaiian independence.

Wait a minute, I said to myself as I read that last one in the Honolulu Advertiser. I thought Texas was the only state that wanted to secede from the Union. Why would Hawaii want out?
[...]
But the pieces started to fall into place when we went to 'Iolani Palace, built by King Kalakaua in 1882 when Hawaii -- the only state to have ever been a legitimate, globally recognized kingdom -- was still a sovereign nation. A decade later, his successor, Queen Lili'uokalani, was forced by an American-led faction to relinquish the monarchy and was placed under house arrest there. Restored to something approaching its 19th century glory in the late '70s, the palace is now a major tourist attraction -- and a gathering place for Hawaii's many independence groups. We weren't shocked by the unabashedly pro-royal tone of the palace's audio tour. After all, the royals are the place's big selling point. But the final audio segment, in which "Prince" David Kawananakoa (a descendant of the Hawaiian royal family) advocates Hawaiian sovereignty, made us prick up our ears.

It turns out that the independence movement isn't just a nutty gambit to avoid paying federal taxes, the way it is in Texas. The Hawaiians, especially those who can trace their ancestry back to the time when Captain James Cook "discovered" the islands, have some pretty legit grievances. ...