Ke 'ahi i ke 'opu...the Fire in the belly...: Pele's Rage..."Dear Washington, DC"...

No matter who says what - HAWAIIAN IS HAWAIIAN !

People do not like to make sure that their facts are straight, and while I may not now nor ever have the entire truth about just how we got to this point in history, the fact of the matter is that no matter how many times you want to put us - the Hawai'ian People - into another subset of ethnicities or into another origin all together, you cannot. We will not allow it. We are Hawaiians.

We are Hawaiian, dammit, and proudly so! And how dare anyone in DC try to take that away from us, and the likelihood of it being over money, or even the idea in my head that the person who made the statement about our origins, being over someone's laziness or even someone's under-handed motives....Hawaiians, no matter what, will always be Hawaiians, and while we are not the warring bunch, I cannot sit here and write that there is truth to the idea that there will not be a whole lot of people on the planet of Hawaiian ancestry who are going to tell me that I am wrong. Not one of my fellow Kanaka Maoli will ever, ever tell you that they disagree with me.

For too long now, the folks who are in power have been choosing for us who we are, and for a long time we have, at least in the state of California, enjoyed having the box to check that reads "Pacific Islander," and "Native Hawaiian." For a long, long time, the only box that any one of us could check on a form was called "other," and for a long, long time, we have been pretty well put off at the idea that the whole world knows about Hawai'i, that the whole world knows where Hula comes from, that the whole world knows the song "Tiny Bubbles," but that it seems as though some folks in Washington, DC, even as they know better, for the good of their states finances, have chosen to try NOT to get the facts straight. And while it is that nothing is nothing without anything being in writing, we do not know that our status in one of the states in these here which are united has not been changed.

They can't do that. We are Hawaiians. Hawaiian is Hawaiian, dammit!

HAWAIIAN IS HAWAIIAN !!

Let me make one thing very clear to anyone who is not clear on this one thing yet - Hawaiians are Hawaiians. While we might be able to be called "Native Americans," the bottom line is that we are Hawaiians. We, at one point in history, were ruled by a Monarchy, and like our Native American Ohana, we also, to this day, are dealing with the idea that too many people want to turn us into something that we are not. You cannot turn a cat into a dog, and you cannot get mad at a fish because it is not able to climb a tree - we are Hawaiians, and for the life of me and a whole lot of other people like me, this is an issue for us.

We are all taught to be very proud of our roots, and we are all told that we have to respect other people and who they are and where they come from if we expect others to do that same thing for us, but when the rubber hits the road we find that we have only been being told that things are nice and have only been lied to, over and over again, so that someone in Washington DC can score points with whoever it is that they are trying to score points with.

Well, lemme tell you what - it ain't gonna happen. It ain't gonna happen because all of us combined will never let it happen. Those creeps did this back in the late 1800's, when they jailed the most rockinest royalty - and in fact the ONLY royalty that these United States has ever had the HONOR of being able to say she was a part of this entire nation's history. We are a stand alone people. We are unlike any other people on the planet, and there is not another combined group of people of other origin who would not also stand up for who they are and mostly, stand up for everyone else who is just like them. For a lot of years it was that Hawaiians were divided - it was us on the mainland separated from them on the 'aina, and there has always been a little piece of me that has believed that this was some sort of conspiracy created by the very same people who want to take away our identity, even if said identity is no where near being scratched onto a piece of paper in some politician's office in Washington DC.

There is no way that the whole of us will ever allow this...violation of our ancestry and the right to being who we are and more - our birthright to being called "Hawaiian."

NO one has the right to tell anyone else who they are, and no one in Washington DC either has the right to strip, again, an entire populace of people, of their rights to be who they are. In my global ohana, the energy is that we are mad and like Dee Snyder sings, "WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT - ANYMOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!"

We are SO not takin' it anymore...'auhea wale ana 'oe - PAY ATTENTION !

When you take away what is someone else's, you take away a piece of them, and in this case, in the case of my people, of my own Tribe, that of the Peoples of the Nation of Hawai'i, you are stripping me and many other people like me of who we are. Millions of people worldwide know who we are for the wrong reasons...because Dawg the Bounty Bonehead chose to show the world my island brethren and sisters in the ugliest of lights, and because the government has chosen to make sure that like our Native American Ohana, we, too, must struggle for the right to call ourselves "Hawaiian." We are tired of the battle, and we are tired of you folks not listening to us. There is a reason that ours was a warring people, long before we were a peaceful lot who only seek to maintain that which is still ours - the right to be who we are, and no matter what, as I have said, over and over again, you can change what you want to on your paperwork, but we are always going to be Hawaiians.

No matter what...HAWAIIAN IS HAWAIIAN and you cannot change that.

"Hawai'i Aloha"

(Rev. Lorenzo Lyons)

E Hawai`i e ku`u one hânau e
Ku`u home kulaîwi nei
'Oli nô au i nâ pono lani ou
E Hawai`i, aloha ê

E hau`oli nâ `ôpio o Hawai`i nei
`Oli ê! `Oli ê!
Mai nâ aheahe makani e pâ mai nei
Mau ke aloha, no Hawai`i

E ha`i mai kou mau kini lani e
Kou mau kupa aloha, e Hawai`i
Nâ mea `ôlino kamaha`o no luna mai
E Hawai`i aloha ê

Nâ ke Akua E mâlama mai iâ `oe
Kou mau kualona aloha nei
Kou mau kahawai `ôlinolino mau
Kou mau mâla pua nani ê

O Hawai`i, o sands of my birth
My native home
I rejoice in the blessings of heaven
O Hawai`i, aloha

Happy youth of Hawai`i
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Gentle breezes blow
Love always for Hawai`i

May your divine throngs speak
Your loving people, o Hawai`i
The holy light from above
O Hawa`i aloha

God protects you
Your beloved ridges
Your ever glistening streams
Your beautiful gardens

Hawaiian is Hawaiian...no matter what you say to me....we know who we are, and we are not about sit here and let anyone tell us who you think we should be.

There is a reason that the motto on the Hawai'ian Crest is what it is...and it reads, " 'Ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono o Hawai'i Nei..."

Simply stated, it means that the life of the land is preserved in righteousness, and if you have been reading anything that I have written over the years in regards to my beautiful and mysterious ancestry, it is that we are the land, that we must malama the aina, and take care of the land. We are Na Mamo, we are the chosen precious ones onto whose shoulder the burden is not too great to carry, because it is our Kuleana to care for and malama the culture, not just for this present generation, so that the future generations will not have to depend on reruns of "Lilo n Stitch" to find out about who we really are and where it was that they came from...

Hawaiian is Hawaiian...get it straight, yeah?

Aloha oukou....I Love You All !!

ROX

Rev. Roxanne K. Cottell is a book author, healer, Spiritual Consultant. She is a public speaker who advocates for victims and survivors of domestic violence and emotional abuse. She is the Co-founder of The Sisterhood of the Soul and the creator of the Na Hula O Ka Wahine 'Ui healing with hula program. To contact her regarding booking speaking engagements, to inquire about writing for you or for creative coaching sessions for business, "Corporate Soul Coaching" or for guidance to any of the Fires of Life issues, please contact her via email by clicking here
(c) 2013 Roxanne K. Cottell . All rights reserved