Wildfires devastate Native Hawaiian lands
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This week, wildfires are devastating Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) lands in U.S.-occupied Hawaiʻi. The largest fires have erupted on Hawaiʻi and Maui, Hawaiʻi’s two largest islands, burning over 2,000 acres. As of this article’s publication, 99 people are confirmed dead. At least 1,000 other people

The destruction caused by the fires has worsened an already dire housing shortage for many Kānaka Maoli, who lack access to the land and its resources due to theft by the U.S. settler colonial state. While Hawaiʻi’s capitalist government spends tens of millions of dollars every year helping to build luxury resorts and beach houses for predominantly white settlers, thousands of Kānaka Maoli remain unhoused on their own lands. A Stanford Medicine study found that on the island of O‘ahu alone, Kānaka Maoli make up over 50% of the unhoused population. (tinyurl.com/5n9bb23a)

After the fires, many more Kānaka Maoli lost their homes and now lack the assistance necessary to help them rebuild. As Kūhiō Lewis, CEO of the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, explained, “The one thing that gave [many Native Hawaiian residents] stability — a place to stay at night for some there —they don’t even have that anymore.”

While federal aid and relief has been slow in coming to Hawaiʻi, where fires continue to rage, the Biden Administration has asked for an additional $24 billion in military aid for the proxy war in Ukraine, exposing, once more, the priorities of the U.S. militarist, [neo]imperialist state.