Policing the Borders of Racially Exclusive Policies within the Kanaka Maoli Community:
The Recognition of Racially Non-Hawaiian Hanai Persons in Hawaiian Families

-- MakalikaNaholowaa - 01 Apr 2008

---+ Discordance in Native Hawaiian Law:  Recognition of Adopted Children

    A Definition of Hanai: Hanai is the kanaka maoli word for
      adoption.  Under traditional hanai practices: 
        Ω No stigma attached to being adopted/hanai, no sense of
          inferior position within family due to hanai under this system
        Ω Normally conducted within the family, but if that was not
          possible then with some other family in the community. 
        Ω Differs from American adoption in that surviving biological
          children were still granted access to their hanai child and
          the hanai child was always aware of his biological birth
          roots.  
        Ω However, Children recognized as a part of the ohana they were
          hanai into, hanai family took full and permanent
          responsibility for their care.
        Ω Also noteworthy:  Hawaiian families lived communally and with
          extended members - the responsibility of a hanai child, like
          natural born children, was not only an undertaking by the
          parents primarily providing their care, but they are
          recognized as a member of the larger extended ohana and
          accepted by this wider community.  

      B Issue: The hanai tradition survives from Ancient Hawaiian
      tradition and was developed during a time when the Maoli were a
      racially homogenous community.  References to how hanai children
      were recognized (as full members of the family without lessened
      community recognition)  take place at a time when recognition
      questions involving transracial hanai did not significantly
      arise.   Result is that although we know the spirit of hanai to
      be one of full inclusion of our hanai keiki into the ohana, no
      record squarely addresses how a racially non-Hawaiian child
      adopted into a racially Hawaiian family should be recognized by
      the general Native Hawaiian community.   However the question has
      come up in modern times due to the rise in transracial adoption,
      and various Native Hawaiian organizations have decided to deny
      recognition, taking up a policy of strict exclusion without blood
      quantum.   By analyzing the results of the current policy by
      significant Maoli organizations, its my opinion that
        Ω 1. the decision not to recognize racially non-Hawaiian (RNH) 
          hanai persons as full members of the Maoli community is wrong
          in light of the spirit of hawaiian hanai custom and
          traditional Maoli ohana values.  
        Ω 2. And, the policy as it stands is so damaging to the
          individual RNH-hanai person, hanai ohana, and Maoli community
          as a whole that it can not stand and must be changed to allow
          for full participation in the community, and potentially in
          the self governing political body, of Maoli people to the
          same extent that their natural born brothers and sisters
          would.   

     C Problem Statement:  something that was not faced by traditional
      hanai parents , but a reality today in light of the significant
      upset of Native Hawaiian life over the last 100 years, is: 
        Ω 1. the Native Hawaiian community is responding to the need
          for cultural self preservation by creating and maintaining
          programs and organizations for its own benefit
            ≈ Kamehameha School: a premier private K-12 school that
              provides not only standard education courses but
              education on native hawaiian language and culture.  
            ≈ Kau Inoa: an organization that seeks to create an
              organization for Maoli self governance
            ≈ Various Halaus: social clubs usually named in honor of an
              ali'i 
        Ω 2. these programs and organizations generally restrict
          participation to those with some Native Hawaiian blood
          quantum 
        Ω 3. the hanai parents/family are able to participate in these
          programs
        Ω 4. the hanai keiki and his/her descendants are not granted
          entrance because no exception is made to recognize adopted
          persons similarly to natural born ohana members
        Ω 5. as a result hanai children and their descendants comprise
          a class of persons that are members of Native Hawaiian
          families per both Western conception (via adoption) and
          Native Hawaiian custom/tradition/law (via hanai) but not
          allowed participation in the Native Hawaiian community fully
          as natural born members could.

    D Illustration of Problem:  Monica-Cummings v. Kamehameha Schools
        Ω Brayton sought admission to Kamehameha Schools, a highly
          competitive private school that gives preferential admissions
          status to applicants with Native Hawaiian ancestry in order
          to meet the school's goals of preserving Native Hawaiian
          culture and being a resource to aid the Native Hawaiian
          people.  Brayton is the son of a RNH hanai woman, raised and
          legally adopted by a Native Hawaiian father, and is therefore
          a member of a Native Hawaiian family.  When the school
          realized that his Native Hawaiian family status was created
          by hanai, they upheld their plain meaning, literal
          interpretation of the criteria requiring ancestry and
          rescinded his admission to the school.  

    E What Harm Is Caused: This is a harm for
        Ω The hanai ohana that is injured by a community that will not
          give full recognition to the child
        Ω The hanai keiki that culturally identifies with the Maoli
          community but is not allowed to participate fully within it
        Ω The Maoli community as a whole is harmed because
            ≈ 1. the weakening of cultural values related to hanai and
              the ohana, such as the open and full acceptance of family
              members and encouragement of adoption, is a sign of
              cultural decline.  It makes no sense to exclude people in
              an effort to preserve a culture when by virtue of
              excluding you undermine a cornerstone value of the
              culture.  
            ≈ 2. the preservation of the culture is possible through
              participation by members nurtured by the community, who
              understand the values of the culture in a meaningful way
              that those foreign to the group can not.  Alienating
              members with such cultural and familial ties is a loss of
              valuable membership for the community. 

     F Why This Is Wrong:
        Ω This effectively creates an inferior class of family members.
           To borrow a metaphor from property law, the NRH-hanai member
          has fewer sticks in his bundle when it comes to his right to
          participate in the Native Hawaiian community.  He gets the
          right to the same upbringing as his racially Hawaiian
          brothers and sisters, but may not be admitted to the school
          his siblings attend.  He may be taught to identify with
          Native Hawaiian values and way of life by his hanai family,
          but he may not participate in some Hawaiian organizations to
          help preserve his culture and the culture of his ohana. 
        Ω Hawaiian Family Values oppose this concept of devaluing a
          family member due to hanai.  As outlined above, hanai is
          encouraged in Hawaiian culture.  It is a demonstration of the
          love and care that hawaiians have for their ohana and their
          extended community ohana to make sure that every child have a
          loving home.  This tradition that encourages us to love and
          raise a child fully and permanently, as we would a natural
          born child, does not encourage us to exclude him later, treat
          him as a haole, an outsider. 
        Ω It is understandable for Native Hawaiians, like any
          indigenous people struggling for cultural survival, to be
          weary of persons without racial links when considering
          admittance to programs or organizations designed to benefit
          only community members.  Concerns over truly shared interests
          without a racial link to the group are common and arguably
          well grounded.  But adopted persons are the exception to the
          rule.  In Native Hawaiian families, to exclude these persons,
          to maintain vigilance against the threat of infiltration by
          foreigners, at the expense of sacrificing valued hanai family
          members in discordance with traditional Hawaiian family
          values is wrong, harmful, and should not continue.  

     G Why This Is A Legal Problem:  Since the demise of the Kingdom of
      Hawaii, Native Hawaiians have no self governance structure, and
      therefore the question of how to treat RNH-hanai is not
      technically a legal question but one being answered in the
      context of private organizations aligned with the interest of a
      racial people.  However, there are multiple organizations within
      the Native Hawaiian community working to achieve self governance
      (again reference Kau Inoa).  Should that goal be reached (and
      lets assume that that is possible within my lifetime), Native
      Hawaiians will presumably rebuild their legal system.  Then the
      question of how to recognize NRH-hanai family members will become
      not only one of social science, but again an issue in Native
      Hawaiian law.  At that time, it is likely that the interpretation
      of how to treat NRH persons under the hanai system used today
      will be adopted or at least heavily considered in deciding this
      question in a formal law-making context.   Therefore it is
      imperative that this question be treated by the Native Hawaiian
      community today with rigorous attention to its support in
      Hawaiian tradition and with consideration to both public policy
      concerns and of the long term negative, prejudicial effects it
      will have on the Maoli families involved.  By doing so, as
      discussed above, it is clear that NRH-Hanai persons should be
      granted the same recognition and rights of participation in the
      Native Hawaiian community as natural born Maoli people.  


- 2 Hawaiian  to English Dictionary
    A Kanaka Maoli, Maoli:   Native Hawaiians  (pronounced similarly as
      the Maori, the related indigenous peoples of New Zealand) 
    B hanai:  term referring to adoption.  Examples:  I am hanai. = I
      am adopted.  /  This is my hanai mother = This is my mother by
      adoption.   
    C keiki:  child.   Example: She is my hanai keiki.  = She is my
      adopted child.
    D ohana: family. 
    E halau: school or group. Normally when someone says they are a
      part of a halau, they are referring either to a hula school or
      social club. 
    F ali'i:  royalty, descendents of Wakea, a diety of Ancient Hawaii. 
    G haole:  outsider, foreigner.  Today most commonly used to refer
      to a white person.  


- 3 Links to Sources
    A Explanation of what Hanai means: 
        Ω www.uhh.hawaii.edu—writing.php
          

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