The devastating brushfires on the island of Maui Hawaii reach in such a way that ONLY still surviving Indigenous Peoples can understand! We Jews are so used to seeing our precious ancient artifacts destroyed by fire (bombings), a constant threat of worldwide antisemitism(!), that we know the kānaka ʻōiwi will survive this “climate” disaster. But, we Jews who are kama’āina o Hawai’i know that it is more than just this!
As we learn from the kumu amongst us, regardless what Indigenous tribe these teachers come from, it is OUR kuleana to maintain the land. OUR responsibility as “human beings” to ensure that we plant the land and protect the land in a sustainable way for the sake of our keiki! IT DOESN’T MATTER WHICH LAND. We humans of planet Earth are not listening to our naauao kanaka! Our chacham! Instead, we are appeasing our Colonizers for peace in an illusionary hoped for Colonial “democracy”, while they continue to rape the land for ideological and physical gains.
Our lands are stripped for profit, and they are needlessly and desperately vulnerable. Our peoples are oppressed by Colonial anti-Indigenous rationalists who now supersede us in governance of lands, waters, and peoples. Most of those living on the islands of Hawai’i will NEVER understand the impact of losing such cultural treasures! You have to be still Indigenous to not shy away from Indigenous ways and Indigenous mythology. The stories we tell ourselves as a people, that helps IF WE STILL HAVE ancestral artifacts to share, that are not being destroyed by human neglect and greed (comfort/disinterest) upon this planet Earth!
Hawai’i is no different than any other Arab-European colonized land for Colonial Allah-Christ-Marx governance and profit! We are a Christian occupied land, like Israel is a Muslim occupied land. Capitalism and Christian religious influence is what determines our people’s future. We have no opportunity to grow in our Indigenous ways as a people under this influence. I CAN GUARANTEE YOU that if still surviving Indigenous Peoples around this planet Earth were given a real voice in governance, we WOULD HAVE listened and responded attentively to the “teachings” of the 1950’s scientists to the USA government about our “climate” future!
We Indigenous Peoples of this planet Earth want to survive, despite all the Arab-European attempts to assimilate us into their “universal” human religious and social causes. We still maintain our relationship with the lands and waters of planet Earth, and know these lands and waters intimately. We ARE TRYING TO SHOUT OUT TO THE REST OF THIS WORLD, enough with your deafness! Colonial Arab-European ways are KILLING THIS PLANET EARTH, one religious or capitalistic profit at a time!
It is okay for humans to be different and to disagree, but if we humans CONTINUE to be indifferent to the teachings of these Earthly forces around us – thinking that we are so smart and so righteous in our ways – then not even “Allah”, “Christ”, and generic “God” is going to save us. It is OUR human kuleana to plant and to protect the land for our keiki future, l’dor v’dor (because Jews have to explain every word, “generation to generation”)! Not the deity/deities of the land, they are not in control of nature, rather only watching us human beings making our decisions.
Most of the world looks upon Hawai’i as a tourist attraction or a place to own real estate, if you can afford it. Just another “hot stop” destination site of the Arab-European colonized world. But, Hawai’i is way more than that! Hawai’i is the land of an Indigenous nation that wants its sovereignty back. Yet Hawai’i is treated by this world of humans in the very same way that Israel is treated. This ‘āina of islands is sacred ground for the Indigenous of the land! There is ancestral mana everywhere – in every rock, leaf, blade of grass, in the air, and in every splash of ocean.
Fortunately, the Puʻukoholā Heiau was spared. The brushfires did not enter this Temple’s grounds. Yet another story for the kumu to share in their chants about the ‘āina.
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META Description : Lahaina Heritage Museum, Maui Hawaii, formerly the center of the Kingdom of Hawaii, should never have been irresponsibly burnt to the ground!
UPDATE Comparative Thought: Judaism isn’t a religion. It is the ethno-religion of the Indigenous Jewish people of the land of Israel. We do not have a set religious theology.
Like Hawaii, like Israel. Only Israel has semi-autonomous sovereignty over its own land, and Hawaii does not. Both are sacred lands treated like tourist attractions and real estate investments by the historic USA Colonizer that has its own agenda for Indigenous Peoples’ lands. Let’s not forgot that Israel is dependent upon USA military hardware for her defense from fire, while the same USA funds the UNRWA militarized settler-occupation of Israeli land who keeps lighting fires!
There are only 15.2 million Jews in this entire 8-plus billion human world, and less than half of us resist successful colonization. It’s kind of hard to be heard in this world when you are socially erased/ignored from the discussion! It doesn’t matter whether you are Indigenous Jews, Kurds, Balochs, tribal Ethiopians, Navajo, Lakota, Wampanoag, Hawaiian, Māori, etc, etc, etc – the social erasure and stereotyping in worldwide Colonial media is the same!
As I reflect deeply upon the devastation in Indigenous Hawai’i, being an Indigenous Judean child of this diaspora land, I find myself screaming on my website into the internet: Will human beings LISTEN now to the loss we Indigenous Peoples face with their Colonial Arab-European religious and capitalistic indifference?!
UPDATE UPDATE ! :
THANK YOU for hearing *and* sharing what we asked of you! (You are a first for us, Alex Wagner Tonight !)
For every Indigenous People, this is what it means to lose parts of your heritage! Whether Hawaiian or Jewish or Kurdish or whichever Indigenous People! Listen to Ty Kawika Tengan, professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii about Lahaina Maui – closely! Watch this video!
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