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Today I attended the Native Leadership Forum at the Hilton. Eleven of us from Patricia Zell's class, Building a Nation. We're very VERY fortunate to have been invited to the forum. The fee was $600 per person and we were complimentary guests of hers. She's awesome, a remarkable woman. Anyhow, there were a number of morning speakers: Haunani Apoliona, Richard Trudell, Senator Ed Case, Byron Mallot, Nainoa Thompson, Billy Frank Jr., John Echohawk, and a college student, Ben Young. My two favorite speakers were Byron Mallot and Nainoa Thompson. One thing Byron Mallot said that stuck with me was, "When we, as indigenous people, end up on the editorial pages as a cartoon, we have someting to think about." He said he saw a cartoon this morning when he opened this mornings newspaper. I thought he was talking about this cartoon. But, after looking at yesterday's cartoon, I think he was talking about this one, which was published yesterday. Another thing he said was, "We're living in dangerous times when our goal is to obtain wealth and keep it at the expense of others. [When we do this, we as indigenous people have] lost our way." Nainoa Thompson, as always was an awesome speaker. From the heart, no pre-written stuff, off-the-cuff and from the heart. His presention included slides. There were a number of things he said that resonated with me in my mind, heart and na'au. First, when he came into the room and came upon Iokona, myself and Donavan Kealoha, he greeted each of us individually with an "aloha" and a hug. I've noticed that he does this every time he is around Hawaiians. I went to his family's compound in Niu Valley a few times for some parties. We don't know each other on a personal basis, but he always greets people. Anyway, among the many stories he told, what I found profound was the story of his father, Myron "Pinky" Thompson, who in 1941, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and while a Junior in high school, falsified a birth certificate to fight in World War II. From what Nainoa shared, Myron Thompson's father told him, "if you want to go to war, go. But, don't bring shame to Hawai'i." Imagine that. It's the 1940's and your father tells you, "Don't bring shame to Hawai'i." Assuming that Myron Thompson's father was 40 years of age at the time he said this to his son, he would've been born in either 1900, 1901 or 1902 (depending on how soon after the Bombing of Pearl Harbor Myron Thompson sought to join the military), 7-8 years after the 1893 overthrow and 2-3 years after the purported annexation to the US. This to me, is Hawaiian patriotism. Hawaiian patriotism, not in the ethnic/ancestral sense, but in the national identity sense. He didn't say, "Don't bring shame to the Territory of Hawai'i." He didn't say, "Don't bring shame to the Thompson family." He said, "Don't bring shame to Hawai'i!" I wanted to cry. Mr. Myron Thompson eventually made his way to Washington State where he (if I recall correctly) enlisted in the Army with his falsified birth certificate and was thought to be a Native American. B/c he was thought to be Native American he was placed on the "front lines" as a first scout. Nainoa was careful to explain that first scouts never lasted more than a few seconds on the front lines. Unfortunately, as Nainoa shared, his father was shot by a sniper. Fortunately, he survived. He also talked about the earliest voyages of the Hokule'a. Before mentioning anything specific, I got the impression that he would mention Eddie Aikau. He did and I began to get "chicken-skin." I've heard people talk about Uncle Eddie before and I never got chicken skin. But this time was different. For the first time, I was hearing someone, Nainoa, taking full responsibility for the mis-hap with Eddie Aikau. The mis-hap being his death. It shared that's it's a guilt he's carried for almost 30 years and it's a guilt he'll take with him to his grave. He shared that, there was a number of things "they" did wrong, things they should've done, but didn't do in their preparation. I hope he doesn't keep this guilty for too long. I think he needs to let it go. In retrospect, it's always easy to say, "we should've done this, we should've done that." He talked about Uncle Eddie a little bit. He talked about what everyone knows Eddie for; surfing big waves, the biggest waves. Nainoa described him as the best surfer and lifeguard. THat he chose to be a lifeguard at Waimea because he was willing, to risk his life to save others' who could not hand the awesome strength of Waimea or who were just unfamiliar with it. What I really liked hearing was when he said, "Eddie didn't surf the biggest waves for himself. He surfed the biggest waves for the dignity of the Hawaiian people." wow. Nainoa also talked about how his grandparents saw poverty all around them and dealt with it. He said they would often feed children who weren't their own. I thought he was talking about his own parents and not his grandparents. Perhaps he did, I don't know. But, regardless, it's not who did it, but that it was done period. He said, it wasn't un-common for them to feed all the kids including their own, while they drank water for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Few people today care about children not their own and these guys exemplified what it is to have Hawaiian values and to share those values with others, not related to them. I also recall Nainoa suggesting that not all the children helped were Hawaiian. That's a story of aloha if I ever heard one.
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