Queen Lili’uokalani (2019)

Melanie Cervantes
Digital graphic

Haunani Kay Trask on American colonialism and Hawai’i:

“The injury Hawaiians have suffered at the hands of the American government begins with those characteristic practices now commonplace in twentieth century international relations: invasion, occupation, and takeover. Although the United States gave many assurances of respect for Hawaiian sovereignty during the nineteenth century, the lure of empire was too great. The overthrow of the Hawaiian government with American military support in 1893, the subsequent diplomatic and military support given by America to the haole Provisional Government (1893-1894) and to the Republic of Hawai’i (1894-1898), and the eventual appropriation of Hawai’i by the United States through forced annexation in 1898 were the result of America’s imperial desire to control lands and peoples not her own. Far from exporting democracy, the United States committed, through these acts, undeniable violations of the right of self-determination. ” (excerpt from the book -From A Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i)