Hanai Quotes

“On mountain tops, in green valleys
and all across the land
We sing new songs, create sharper visions
and we shout with pride
give us back what is left of what was ours
Our pride, our hopes.
And what about our lands?
They belong to us. Give them back.
We sleep no longer in compliance.
We have awakened with the beat
of ancient pahu,
the shark skin stretched tight,
and move determined to a new
rhythm, a new beat.
Aloha aina, aloha aina, E
Hawaii aloha e.

--from "Pono”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“Makaaina voices with fresh songs to sing
Speaking of new strengths
Mind and body strengths,
Strengthening the hope of change -- new joys
in this tiresome regimen of want and confusion.
Grand queen sleep the ageless
sleep in peace

Your people rise now,
and demand their share
of this sweet and wondrous place.
The populace from their sleep of compliance
Awake now to the beat of new
drums hewn from betrayal and delusion
urging the makaaina voice to
rise above the din of daily
trumpetings of man and machine
To be rid of confusion and fear
To stand equally with the new
rulers of this precious place
to be ruthless in demanding what is ours.

--from "Pono”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“Cruel and proud America
give us back our pride,
our dreams, our land.

Liliuokalani is long gone
but we are here
and you are here
and the ghosts of Kepookalani,
and Kamanawa.
The great Paiea, our ageless king,
will stalk you until the end
and we will be there

because Queen Liliuokalani is long gone
but she is also here to haunt you
and we are here
witnesses to your greed,
your stubborn clutching to what is ours.

We are here
and the ghosts of our makua
watch you from the shadows of their
island valleys and caves.
From the mountain tops of Kaala and Maunakea
Where old gods and the makua wait patiently.

--from "Enaʻena”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“Cruel and proud America
give us back our pride,
our dreams, our land.

--from "Enaʻena”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“Did you reflect on Cook's arrival
and rue the day we were discovered
and curse the coming of foreign sailors
with bodies soaked in the blights
of London sewers?

Giving this cruel treasure to our unblemished women?
Did you think of this and rage and want to kill?
Did you remember all the insults down
the years from
French, British and American alike
Did you remember the threat of their guns?
I was not there during those dark
days of anguish and confusion

when the palace shook
with intrigue and rumor
that the greedy determined men
downtown were plotting your
ruin and demise of our nation.
--from "Manawaʻino”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“We remember and in remembering there is
happiness.
Although dark times seeped in the hearts
of all of you who lived those days of
Commissioner Stevens and Captain Wiltse.
--from "Ka wa hauʻle”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“How the haunting music of this cry of hope
the words searching for encouragement
stabbed at your heart.
But this too of your creations made the days of incarceration more bearable.
--from "Ka wa hauʻlea”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani

“Do not grieve good Queen in your
place among the aumakua where maile
and the mosses grow.
Some of us are still here. We remember.
We feel.
We burn with the need to seek justice and rectification.
We do not forget the terrible theft of our lands
the destruction of our heritage
the empty eyed look of our children, the rape
of their understanding. Their hunger.
You stand in the center of our fury.
Your songs live on, heard everyday.
We take courage from their words and tunes.
Your love is a legacy to Hawaii's children.
Onipaʻa is the cry. Onipaʻa
You are a powerful symbol
Too strong to die
Too strong to kill the memory of theft
You give us courage
to continue to fight to regain what was ours.
--from "Manawaʻino”
― John Dominis Holt, Hanai: A Poem for Queen Liliuokalani