Aloha, Alii Nui
p. 10 · Read in the full issue
Hawaii’s highest-ranking chief dies, aged 71.
By Ed Rampell
HAWAII’S highest ranking
chief, 71-year-old Helena Salazar Kalokuokamaile Elua, died on September 19, and her succes sor has been chosen as new leader of Ka Lahui Hawaii, the Hawaiian
Sovereign Nation.
Helena was a direct descendant of Queen Kaahumanu and King Kame hameha the Great, who unified the Hawaiian islands in the late 18th cen tury and who became the archipela go’s first monarch. Helena’s lineage also tied her to the rest of Hawaii’s royalty, which ruled until it was de posed in a United States-backed milit ary coup in 1893.
In March last year Ka Lahui held a Constitutional Convention that proc laimed the movement’s charter; according to these framed rules, the Hawaiian Nation’s governmental sys tem would become a sort of constitu tional monarchy led by the Alii Nui, who symbolises the Nation as a figure head with advisory powers concerning cultural and social traditions. The High Chief is also responsible for me appointment of an Alii Council, a Talking Chief . . . and a successor.
Helena Salazar was selected as Ka Lahui’s first Alii Nui, and in turn
chose her grandson Noa to succeed her. However, since Noa is only six years old, Helena’s 34-year-old daugh ter Owana Salazar will act as Kuhma Nui, or Prime Minister, until her son comes of age.
Ka Lahui claims a following of ab out 2000 members, but this self
proclaimed ‘shadow government’ is
not supported by all native Hawaiians: many consider the movement too radical, while Hayden Burgess, of the UN-affiliated World Council of In digenous Peoples, believes total inde pendence is the path to true Hawaiian
sovereignty.
On a more sensible level, Ka Lahui’s Kia Aina, or Governor, attorney Mili lani Trask, stresses that Hawaiians “must be realistic, given the fact that Hawaii is a State of the Union”. He points out that the United States has already fought one bloody civil war to suppress secession; and the existence of CINCPAC headquarters, a nuclear arsenal and a vast array of military installations in Hawaii have made the islands so strategically significant it is
simply impossible that Washington
would even consider restoring the monarchy and abandoning its mid- Pacific outpost. a